Brixton 2000: The Morning After - vocalists

[Jon Jarrett]

On Sun, 22 Oct 2000, Kevin Perry wrote:

> My favourite *live* vocalists are Alan (before he decided to try to sing so
> much like Lemmy), Dave and Bridgett.  I think Ron has been a complete
> disaster: he can't sing, he can't play bass (he beats Harvey for the 'worst
> bass player' accolade hands down) and he has no charisma - he comes across
> to me as being a complete and utter tw*t on stage.  If you're playing for
> free, fine, but if you're charging good money for tickets, then I don't thin
> kit's right to see members of the band dicking around like that.  If it
> wasn't for losing the bassist, I think Dave should fire him straight away.

        I'll defend some of those accusations. First off, Ron plays much
better bass than Harvey. Though Harvey not only plays but has composed
some quite complex basslines he never ever leaves them on record - you
might as well have a robot playing them. Ron, once he gets warmed up,
plays around a bit and can manage a flourish or two to raise the
eyebrows. He can't sing but he understands dynamics and effect, or at
leats I've seen him when he did. These last two years he hasn't put as
much into his performance as he did when he was front-man proper, and of
course he's also stopped writing somgs, at least as far as we get to
see. No problem with that as far as I'm concerned, his songs had stopped
having anything new in them and in any case he wrote something new since
any other member of Hawkwind did, Tim Blake excepted. Even so, I agree
that he does pratt about, especially when he's competing for stage
attention, which is just immature, albeit understandable. He has had to
try and fill Lemmy's and Calvert's shoes every time he's stepped onto
stage and who wants to do that, who has their own ideas? Also, he was on
lousy form at Brixton. Tired possibly? The photos make him look it, and I
gather he's got domestic problems at the moment. Also, he may have been
trying to do the solemn Calvert from _Space Ritual_ (as opposed to the
manic one from Hawklords) and thus seemed more restrained.

        I don't know. He's lost what he had that made him interesting, I
think, but he did a lot of good stuff and might do some more.

> Do Hawkwind need a frontman (frontperson I guess)?  I don't know: on the one
> hand, I don't think they do - tyhe Chronicles tour is a great example of
> great no-frontman live performance in my opinion -  but on the other hand,
> if they do want a frontperson then I think that Sam Fox would do a better
> job than Ron ever did.  The way that the Space Bandits and following tour
> with Bridgett worked was great: some tracks benefitted from the female
> vocals and a focus, whereas others worked well with Dave and Alan singing
> (Harvey's BVs work OK, and his rantings on things like Back In The Box are
> just so over the top that they're great).

        I think there is a place for a dedicated frontman. Nik and Ron
have both shown that they can do it and of course there was Calvert. It's
just like another instrument though. You know, it's a bonus if there's a
violin, but you can have a good gig without it, same for lead guitar, same
for a proper frontman. Nik has the advantage that he can play and front at
the same time because of playing something large and shiny that you can
fling from side to side. I do think Sam Fox knows how to play to a crowd
(stop sniggering at the back there) and it was interesting seeing her do
so for Hawkwind. I'm not sure how many times it'd bear seeing if she were
a regular though. Good that she was willing to do it at all, even
so. Yours,
           Jon Jarrett

--
     Jon Jarrett (01223 514989)       jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk
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        "There's nothin' more dangerous than a wounded mosquito."