HW: Cambridge this night

[Jon Jarrett]

        Dear All,
                  just back from the Junction, after well, one of the more
variable Hawkwind gigs I remember seeing :-) Got there just in time for
Spacehead, who opened with `Dark Star' and were not at all bad. But after
a while the drummer got a bit tedious--Carl Anderson reckoned a machine
would be a lot most cost effective and I agreed with him. Dibs's singing
has improved a bit, I never caught him flat. They alternated fast and slow
numbers, ending with what must have been a new one because of having
lyrics damning Bush for starting the next world war, but which confused me
by borrowing a chrous tune from `Astroman' so I wasn't sure I hadn't heard
it before. Nonetheless, fantastic space-scape guitar noises especially
from Keef, the third number really being little more than guitar
soundscaping slowly kept moving by the bass which suited me just fine, and
all in all pretty good bar the drummer. Dibs's vocals did seem to be
producing too much feedback in places, and I assumed at the time he was
too close to the mike, but this was my mistake. I should have remembered
seeing this happen at the Junction before... But read on.

        Hawkwind were not long in waiting, and transpired to be the
following people tonight, stage right to left: Dave Brock (keys, synths,
gtr, vox), Arthur Brown (vox, costume), Richard Chadwick (drums, beats,
vox), Ali Davey (bass, vox), Simon House (keys, violin). No dancers
(though Kris was on the merchandise stall).

        First impressions: Ali has two Rickenbackers in stands
on stage, I can't tell what the difference is other than paintwork (black
with swirls). And damn! Dave's gear is loud, we're standing right next to
the relevant bit of the stage and can only hear guitar, and just about
pick out Arthur Brown. At full stage left we can get it just about
balanced but the feedback problem is there with a vengeance: the high mid-
range is disappearing into white noise really quite painfully. Not the
band's fault either I fear, I've seen this happen at this venue before and
of course it never gets sorted out because if, like the soundman, you have
earplugs, you can't hear a problem... I wished I'd brought mine. I think
much of what I didn't enjoy would have been fine if I could have heard the
lead playing properly. So what I say below, take the sound into account,
It wasn't the band's fault and I felt very sorry for them, though I didn't
know if they could hear it: Simon did seem at points to be experimenting
with manipulating the effect, but I wasn't sure. Simon, by the way, looked
a quite unwell man (and Doug, I mean every word of that): I hope the bags
under his eyes and general worn-out look are convalescence from whatever's
been troubling him and not an indication that it still is. At first I
wasn't sure he'd survive the set and he came back on for the encore with
an unfinished cigarette which he sucked away on whilst fiddling as if his
life depended on it, though Dave taking the mickey as usual got a few
smiles from him and I was able to stop worrying after a while. All the
same, if anyone able to would like to send my and Kirsten's best wishes,
that would be very good of you...

        Anyway, the set-list! For look, it's interesting!

Time Captives

        Much better than last time I saw it at Walthamstow. Dave's guitar
is very edgy tonight, though it's difficult to tell what's deliberate and
what isn't; the whole sound is quite Hawklords, if rather heavier for the
presence of Ali, and Simon's input takes a long time to become anything
other than fizz. Definitely a nastier more `argh' sound than I'm used to,
takes me a while to wear into it. The song is however fabulously sung and
even if its simplicity becomes obvious quite quickly it's a fine way to
open.

Master of the Universe

        Average. Arthur has to be cued for the first line of each verse,
first time by consulting with Dave before the off and second time by Ali
actually singing it for him and he following on, which is quite sloppy
really, it's not a hard song to pick up is it? Anyway. OK. Goes straight
into:

Gremlin Pt. 2

        Arthur immediately redeems himself with a top-notch version and
there is nothing wrong with this at all.

Time

        The Crazy World number as on last tour, now that I know it I enjoy
it more and this too is OK. Not great but OK. Dave is on keys for this
one. Goes unexpectedly into:

Prelude

        Two Crazy World numbers! I honestly thought we'd get the rest of
the `Fire' suite and was quite disappointed when this very riffy version
of the track ended, very soon after it had begun. But my disappointment
was short-lived because we got:

The Watcher

        Which was just fine :-) Aliens visuals as per.

Out of the Shadows

        Took a minute or two to get sorted out and then off as if there'd
been no problem, I swear Richard gave them one crack of a drum-rim and
they were off in perfect time, quite impressive. Lots of Dave's guitar, as
throughout really, whatever Dave does is still right out the front. But he
doesn't take the lead, Simon does and as we can barely hear him... I've
seen better, but Alan Linsley assured me afterwards that this arrangement
can work so I suppose I'm just sorry about the sound again... There is, oh
dear, a techno mid-section. It is not only very poor but started off by
Dave on a dirt-simple and not terribly pretty two-chord pattern on the
keyboard, and he starts it off-beat and the rest of the band take several
bars to adjust, points to Richard for making it sound flawless but the
glitch was pretty blatant all the same. I was terribly glad when we got
back to the song, though it was developed away from its initial jarring
out-of-kilterness it still wasn't very good. The last few bars of real
song were thus very welcome indeed.

Chronoglide Skyway

        This was *awful*. All percussion programmed, Richard working his
drum synth or whatever it is he uses, Dave on keys, Simon on violin, Ali
barely touching the bass because a bassline was already coming off Dave's
keys which was louder than he was... Now, to my mind this is a song that
is made by the leads alone, but it was a while before we got that, and so
we just had a boring techno-ised chord sequence for two minutes then some
violin we couldn't hear and eventually a bit of lead guitar from Dave
which unlike everything else he'd done was also near-inaudible. Really
pretty terrible, but again, again, I don't know what it sounded like from
there, maybe Simon was flying higher than ever, though it was my
impression he wasn't on form when I could hear him. Given the way he
looked I don't blame him, but anyway. I think this song was a Mistake.

Steppenwolf

        Arthur emerges again with the frock-coat and hat--Bob must be
turning in his grave to see his props being used again! Arthur manages to
make the sheet of paper he's reading the lyrics from into a prop ("I made
a note of it in my log" and so on), but is still winging it. On the other
hand lots of howling and some of the song delivered on all fours, so
points for effort. Lots of guitar. Good. Still no real progress with
making the violin audible though.

Seven By Seven

        I recognised the intro, then thought it was something new when the
riff started, I was so unprepared for how it would sound with this
line-up. By now I'm about adjusted to the sound when the white noise isn't
showing through and I managed to lean back on this one and enjoy it
thoroughly. More or less played as a three-piece, with Arthur again
strding on still in frock-coat to read Bob's part from paper again, this
gets less impressive. But otherwise really quite good.

Spirit of the Age

        Pretty good! Dave took the vocals. Here, and I haven't mentioned
them till now because they were nothing special, the visuals are worth a
note. We started with the Metropolis robot and some stills from that film
and then went into a long sequence of what started with spirals of tubing
over a sort of moonscape and turned out to be either CGI-animated or
endoscope footage of a sperm's-eye view of the journey up the Fallopian
tubes! Good play with the ideas here, quite the spaciest gynaecology I've
ever seen and so on. With the ovum pierced we were back to the DNA strands
twirling over the moonscape and then more Metropolis stills, I liked this.
The song was not bad either...

?

        New song! Really honestly new song! Slow techno thing which I
rather liked, simple beats to it and based on another simple pattern from
Dave's keys but still quite organic and nicely developed, with a fabulous
minimalist moment in the middle where the beats stopped and all the treble
parts slowly moved round each other. Vocals were shared, first verse by
Dave (general apocalyptic forecasting on a monotone but not his usual
spoken pitch) and rest by Richard, who sang really quite well, far better
than much of the Star Nation stuff, though I couldn't make out the words.
But this is because he was high enough to catch the white-noise effect,
and... But this seems good, I don't mind Hawkwind techno if it's going to
be like this. As long as there's *some* rock, and lo and behold...

?

        Another new one led off by Ali and voiced by Arthur, who takes
the stage with a golden Phoebus mask which he discards halfway through
before it can leave of its own accord. The song is an upbeat rocker with a
proper tune and everything, I liked this one too. Quite pleased with both
of these tracks, this bodes well!

Assassins of Allah/Space is Their Palestine/Assassins of Allah

        As per regulation, good. The `Space... ' was suprisingly
effective given how few people there were playing. Only now does Simon's
violin really find a place in the mix, which place is shatteringly loud so
as to be heard over Dave, and therefore distorted and generally sub-
optimal but at least we can now sort of hear him. Fairly straight-ahead
`Assassins' section and this seems to be the first time Ali's managed to
enjoy himself all set.

Assault and Battery/ The Golden Void

        I'd forgotten how good this was live. it's been such a while
since I've seen it. Very good, is the answer. Simon is not the leading
feature I'd like him to be but definitely there and the way they do it
fits with the way this band sounds. Fine. Visuals worth mentioning here
too, nice play with flower petals whose colours and shapes were then
reassembled into butterfly wings, new flowers, faces, and so on, very
pretty and lots of streaming space-scapes and Milky-Way-running dimly
visible beyond. And as the wander towards the Void's End opens out,
instead of the techno outtro we get:

Where Are They Now?

        At least I assume that's what it was because I've *never heard
this before* but they sang that line a lot (Ali and Dave) and the tune was
basically `P. X. R. 5'. Cor! When did they last do that? And with it
closed they leave the stage.

        They seem to be gone a while and at one point a roadie dives out
to talk to Dibs, who has been watching out for Richard's kit all set, and
nearly gets the crowd demanding he play `Silver Machine'... Eventually
Dibs goes in and returns with the band, and Ali says "Anybody suffering
from paranoia? Heh--join the club!" And, sure enough:

Paranoia Pt. 2

        Short and to the point! Never seen this before. Basically a
three-piece job, Simon can't be heard *again*. Richard did a few of
the moans but soon lost interest, no other vocals. Simon's inaudibility
continues when a familiar guitar part starts and we are off into:

Silver Machine

        Arthur arrives on stage well after the song is underway wearing
his silver jumpsuit and a proper flying helmet a la Bob, as well as an
oxygen mask hung round his neck which he has looped a flexible glowstick
round. His first line can't be heard and he seems to be having troubles
remembering the others. White noise all over the shop, it seems to be
coming from whatever effects are being applied to his vocals but it's very
hard to tell. A good version marred by Arthur being vague and the house
sound at its absolute worst.

        And with that the show is ended. I go to buy a t-shirt from Kris
because they're lovely (though the only CDs on sale are Dr Hasbeen and
Spacehead CD-Rs), and go home with no hearing in my left ear but otherwise
pretty satisfied with the night's entertainment. See people in Nottingham
maybe, if there's a meeting plan, or otherwise at the gig... Yours,
                                                                    Jon

--
          "If you are rich, throw away your documents.
        If you are poor, do so also." (Byzantine proverb)
               Jonathan Jarrett, Birkbeck College