HW: Hall of Fame

[Jonathan Jarrett]

On Thu, Oct 12, 2006 at 05:13:34PM +0100, Michael Crook typed out:
> "Artists become eligible for induction 25 years after
> the release of their first record. Criteria include
> the influence and significance of the artist’s
> contributions to the development and perpetuation of
> rock and roll."
> I would say Dave meets those criteria.

	I wonder, actually. Especially compared to someone like Alice 
Cooper, after whom dozens of metal bands have modelled themselves, and 
some got quite big. Motley Crue sadly possibly the best example. But I'm 
not sure you could point to a similar kind of `perpetuation' from 
Hawkwind. There've been a lot of bands trying to be Hawkwind, sure--but 
they're all tiny. A good few stoner bands probably cite Hawkwind as an 
influence, but you can't usually hear it for the Sabbath, and anyway 
stoner bands, Monster Magnet perhaps aside, don't really make it on the 
big stage. In fact Monster Magnet are probably Hawkwind's biggest 
follower in publicity terms. But really, I don't think there's a huge 
rock footprint, because Hawkwind have mainly been a band that other 
people love, but don't imitate themselves, and those that do are pretty 
marginal. Obviously we love them! but we are few.

	What I think *might* be interesting is if there was an 
Electronic Music Hall of Fame. I bet there you'd get a whole bunch of 
big names saying "but I'd never have wound up doing this if not for 
Hawkwind". (The only problem being that patch in the nineties where 
Hawkwind started trying to imitate them back... )

	Just a few pence worth, yours,
					Jon

-- 
"When fortune wanes, of what assistance are quantities of elephants?"
	    (Juvaini, Afghan Muslim chronicler, c. 1206)
 Jon Jarrett, Fitzwilliam Museum, jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk