HW: back from the UK

[Arin Komins]

Well,  we finally made it back Monday.

Whew.  One day, we will actually take an actual vacation, and not spend
all of our time following the band around on tour ;-)

We were lightweights this time...only caught 5 of the shows (well,
slightly less for me) at Telford, Swindon, Cambridge, Exeter and London.

..and now, the too lengthy tour report:

1) Arrive in Manchester on the 7th, head off to Birmingham, where we are
staying with Rich's sister for a bit.

2) Off to Telford via the first of many trains.  Attempt to figure out how
to get to venue from station, fail, grab cab.

Look for people.  Find Nick Lee and the Chaos Illuminations guys (hi
Neil!).  Hang about for a bit, chatting.

Wander about, listen to the sound check.  Say hello to roadies (Keith and
Dibs!)  Get very impressed by venue elevator for setup.  Get confused by dancers
practicing.  Get informed by venue staff that someone came in from
Australia for the gig....wonder who that was.

Then, gig proper.  Wow, it was a blinder.  New stuff (greenback massacre,
digital nation, to love a machine, angela android, letter to robert/ode to
a timeflower) sounds good.  Really like To Love a Machine, and Ode to a
Timeflower.  Most old stuff was fab (psychedelic warlords!  uncle sam's on
mars!), but could have done without assasins of allah and sword of the
east.  Really like the dancers, oddly.  The eye costumes were very very
trippy, and I quite liked the sheer *aggression* the male dancer was
exuding for sword of the east.

Plus, it's kind of nice to see dancers who can keep time and rhythm!

Buy fleeces (mmmm, fleeces), tour shirts, and cds.  Chanukah present!

Nick gave us a lift back to birmingham that night.  (yay!).  Spend time
convincing Nick to come to Exeter and stay over in London.

Succeed!  sort him out for hotel (well, kind of), then we are off to:

3) Swindon.  Most evil roundabout in world here.  5 in form of a
pentagram.  coincidence?  I think not.

Find our awful b'n'b for the night.  (well, it was close to the station
and the venue...).

Venue is just dreadful.  The kind of place that makes you really admire
the roadies so much more.  Venue staff totally useless.  Am totally amazed
that they managed to pull it off.

Gig proper: eh!  become victim of delayed jetlag.  Fall asleep halfway
through, wake up, but very out of sorts.

Back to b'n'b, then off far too early in morning back to birmingham.

4) side quest down to hereford (I think) to meet my father-in-law for the
first time.

5) Then back to birmingham, followed by up to sheffield to go chill with
merrick and julie for a day.  Good stuff.

6) up to carlisle to visit with rich's mum, and misc friends.

7) down to cambridge from carlisle (via london) for the next phase.  Train
too long.  See Keith H. outside venue, chat very briefly before heading
inside to catch soundcheck.

Interesting venue.  I decided I quite liked it! (standing and seated,
depending on your preference, which suits me fine.) No dancers on this one
(boo hoo).  Gig quite good, although technical problems with sound
throughout. Quite a good vibe, though, in the audience.

Catch up to FoFP, who I spied on the top floor, and only see Jon Jarrett
when he is leaving gig :-(.  Catch up to Rik.

Catch ride and crash at Nick Lee's place in Milton Keynes.  Get up at too
frickin early in the morning to catch yet another train (sigh, what's
sleep?)

8) Off to Exeter next (yet another long train journey).  Find ye olde
b'n'b, then head off for venue.  Get caught out in great deluge as the
skies open up.  Verify at first hand that Hawkwind fleeces are damn near
waterproof (yay!)

Venue very small (still bigger than some of the venues I've seen them at
here in the US), and is *packed*.  See Keith K. and Tone, and catch up to
Jill.

Good gig, but just seemingly cannot get into it.  Shame, because the vibe
is good.

Walk back in deluge.  Fleeces still held up.  good stuff.

9) Off to London in the morning and good thing, as hotel has messed up
group booking.  Sort off poor Nick who was waiting in lobby, and then
Bernhard + the german crowd, and then the band.  Get everything sorted,
attempt to get party arrangements sorted.  Manage it, but very stressed.

(side note: nice hotel this time out.  very posh.)

Off to the Astoria.

Security at the astoria total bitch as expected.  Venue itself *stinks*
(literally!, as in reeks!  of cigarettes.)

Gig totally packed.  Catch misc folks (Chris Warburton, Alan Taylor,
Alan Linsley, Dave Law, etc.) End up getting very very sick (running high
fever), had to leave gig just after uncle sam's on mars.

Shame, as by all reports, it was a complete blinder of a set.  Just
couldn't handle it.

Back off to the hotel for final party arrangements.

Party.  Seemed to go off ok.  Was very dazed and ill, so really wasn't at
my best.  Caught briefly up to the gang of folks staying in hotel, and saw
misc people.  Hopefully folks enjoyed it.

10) Spent most of the rest of my time in the UK being ill (next day in
london, slept all day, then up to carlisle to be ill there ;-) ).


General tour comments:

Backdrop was just astounding.  Light show was dead on (and Neil, I want an
mpeg of that mouse falling over!  It made me laugh for the entire tour.)
Reefer Madness pics.  Very fun!

...and Dave out front!  Woo hoo!  Not hiding by synths anymore!  Radio
pickups for his guitar and alan's bass.

Richard singing (and singing well!)

Being mesmerized by the various video game footage in digital nation.

Other misc comments: I seem to have picked up a fear of crowds at some
point, so kept trying to find places to hide in the venues.  Really really
a bummer.  Hopefully is just a temporary thing ('cause if it isn't, I'm in
for trouble!).

Not enough time to catch up to people as usual.  sigh.

One year I swear I'm going to go across and just visit people.

Next stop: Worldcon in Glasgow this summer at the beginning of August.
Now if Hawkfest 2005 manages to get scheduled for one of the wraparound
weekends (last weekend of July or Aug 12-15), then I'll be a happy
camper....

Arin
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Arin Komins                                   akomins at uchicago.edu
Assistant Director/ENSS
University of Chicago/NSIT/ENSS                 tel: (773)834-4087
1155 E. 60th St. #418    Chicago, IL 60637      fax: (773)702-0559
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