FRIDAY 13TH

[Cerberus]

Well perhaps its unlucky for some, but certainly not for us! .  Walthamstow
was an EVENT that certainly should not have been missed.

With a really nice hotel (thanks Arin!) right opposite Walthamstow dog
track,  London transport performed the impossible and conveyed us right to
the door!.  Nice to be back home in London once again.

Plenty of pre-gig time to obtain ones " Visionary Heads", led to us missing
the meeting at the Bell pub.  Actually we did get there, but by that time
everything was melting and rather scary (laugh).

The Assembly Hall looks a great deal like last years Salisbury venue, thus
adding Deja Vu to the Melt.

Litmus are support, and they really are rather good.  There are of course
the inevitable Hawkwind comparisons, but there are enough differences to set
them apart.  Just turn on the liquid wheel and off  they go!.......born to
go!.

The Band will shortly take the stage and we acquire a mean position right in
front of the speaker stack to feel as well as hear, and without any delay it
is happening right in front of our subversive eyes. " Aerospaceage Inferno",
with Arthur resplendent in a boilersuit illuminated by L.e.d .lighting and
neon coils.  Echoes of Bob Calvert come flooding in....Outrageous
live!....this is how it oughtta be people.....pure essence of classic
Hawkwind..not seen since the likes of Ron Tree.

Credit to Arthur, the man is a living miracle, its like he has always been a
band member....NO question at all.  His vocals just gel right in to the
Anarchistic drone that is emanating from the stage.....feeding our (by now)
Exceedingly Visionary Heads.

"Out of the shadows" was like a blackwind swirling around the
speakers....Dave's bloody good tonight, considering all the stress involved
with the trip from Brighton.

Love the way the band are re-interpreting their classics. Take for example "
Sonic Attack".  We have Arthur dressed as a bastardised version of Darkman
complete with miners lamp strapped to his head.  He is reading "Attack" to
the backing of "Spacebrock".......and it works!  Innovative Masters of
Reality!!!!!!!!!

With the reprise of "Earth calling", Alan and Richard get into a drum & bass
frenzy that goes way beyond the call of duty...sealing this as a real
classic performance for us and hopefully for you to.  To say that they
explored the Nexus of the Crisis and came clean the other side is an
understatement.  BOC folk should get the drift.

Encores are welcome, but by now the band have already proved that absolutely
nothing else will ever come close to Hawkwind on a good night.

The after gig party gave us a chance to chill out and return to some
semblance of reality?......there are some really wonderful people attending
this bash......so here we go.

Kris Tait, we love you as always.
Dave and all the band members, to this day we are not worthy but a thousand
thanks for everything including the "Canterbury" CD autographs.

Arin & Rich, a big thanks for all your hard work in organising us - much
appreciated and good to meet you at long last!  (Hope you found what you
were looking for in Cornwall).  Everyone at the aftershow party had a blast,
thanks very much to the both of you.

Jill, good to see you were able to make this gig!, and to meet you too and
for sharing your stories with us.  Your retention of a sense of humour over
adversity is a lesson to us all.  Sorry we didn't get over to say hi to Mike
Holmes, whom you pointed out to us, but here it is now "Hello Mike", and
hopefully will get it together to say it in the flesh next time.

ADH appeared courtesy of Mike/Billwind.

It was especially rewarding for us to  to meet up with our "first list
friend" Bernhard, and have the opportunity to speak at length for once. And
of course to Rainer and Andreas too, it was like we had known you for ages,
thank you for that.  As for  trusting us with the night bus arrangements, we
can tell you now that we were not 100% convinced that we knew where or what
we were doing at the time, but it worked out fine, with no long cold walk
back, thankfully.

Hi to all the folk we didn't actually speak with, it takes a while to come
back down to earth, but hope to be able to say hello next time.

All in all, we had a lot of fun, the general sense of cameraderie was
apparent.  We also got quite a giggle when at the end of the gig some kind
soul asked us to sign his copy of Yule Ritual - fame at last!!!!!    Thanks
everyone for making this what it was, a night to remember - the red orb was
well and truly glowing!

Gary &  Anna