HW: Did I really say that...?

[Tim Gadd]

I just forced myself to sit through a very humbling and cringe-making
experience; a bout with the 21-year-old me and my big mouth.

Back in 1984/85, I co-edited 3 issues of a zine called the Hawkwind Bazooka,
with a guy in Holland. It was a really strange concept; partly written in
Tasmania, sent to Holland, stapled together there with new bits added (often
without my knowing what they were going to be - which was really tremendous
when the bloke in Holland took it into his head to publish a private letter
I'd sent him in which I admitted to taking various drugs, while at the same
time discussing the draconian new Tasmanian drug laws). Anyway it was, in my
view at the time, a load of rubbish, but apparently it circulatd around and
people read it. But I've just read it for the first time in nearly 15 years,
and the things I wrote in it - eek!  :(

I was speculating as to why I might have dropped out of circulation around
1985, and mentioned that I was a bit disappointed in the quality of the HW
releases in the early to mid 80's. Apparently I must have been more than a
bit disappointed. The 3rd edition of this zine starts with an editorial
lambaste of Flicknife, in which I call Friends and Relations 2 "a disaster",
Zones a thrown-together, opportunistic, mish-mash, and stated that Flicknife
had a cheek charging full-price for something as abysmally recorded as the
live Huw-Lloyd Langton group album. Then this Dutch guy takes up the theme,
with even less restraint or diplomacy, accusing Flicknife of being rip-off
merchants. Then to cap it off, an article by Ande Tucker, where he calls
Flicknife "Flickshit", and describes their releases as 'crap'.  That appears
to have been the bomb I set off under myself to mark my departure from the
Hawkwind fold. In retrospect, whereas I still can't admit to being any
fonder of Zones and Friends and Relations 2, I think I might have been a bit
more supportive of the band. 15 years down the track I confess myself in awe
of Brock's ability to keep the thing rolling,  and hope the hawkwind crowd
of the time can forgive that younger me for his total lack of appreciation
of the trials and tribulations of keeping a rock band on the road through
lost record deals, personal tragedies and god knows what else.   It's a
shame I wasn't around to congratulate them on their return to vinyl form
over the following 5 years, but would anyone have wanted my opinion anyway,
after that outburst?  Ah well. At least I didn't get sued by Frenchy. Geez,
me and my big mouth :(  If anyone still has any of those things, would you
burn them?

--
Tim Gadd
Hobart, Tasmania