was Roswell

[Keith A Henderson]

Steve Swann sayz...
>
> Yeah, I think they know it well enough.  Most of them just don't care.
> Why make $10,000 when you can make $100,000?  It's a business, and
> unfortunately, we're merely what's known as a vocal minority.
>
> But, oh hell, I can't get THAT cynical about it - I feel unbelievably
> fortunate in some ways.  I never in my *wildest* dreams imagined that
> practically every Hawkwind album worth noting would someday be
> available on CD, and that the first several would be brilliantly
> remastered.  Never.  It's like, that's the kind of thing that we used
> to make jokes about when BOC-L first started.  We all laughed about
> it.  Who thought it would happen?

Not me.  HW has been my favourite group from 1980 - present, and I was kind of
a 'tweener'.  Those in the UK won't understand I don't think, but HW following
the disasterous NA tour of 1978 (?) when House left, Calvert was off the wall,
and Brock said 'the hell with it', and sold his guitar (in Chicago?), they
completely neglected No. America for the next 9 years.  And unlike the 'old'
folks like Bill S. (sorry, man) who was fortunate enough to be around when they
did tours here in the mid-70's, I was just a little pipsqueak listening to my
brother's Deep Purple and Uriah Heep albums.

Maybe only a small part of the 80's neglect was because the band had bad vibes
about this place...most of it was probably financial (as it is now) & lack of
any label interest here.  So sometime around 1986 when they were doing
semi-extravagent things in the UK like the Black Sword tour, US folks like me
were thinking, we'll *never* see this band in the US.

But then, the miracle of Xenon Codex showing up on GWR happened, and I even
began to see (once or twice) an actual album or maybe even one of those
plastic dividers with 'Hawkwind' on it in one of the 'cooler' stores!!

And then Griffin was a God(win)send!!  But the final straw was the day I opened
the Cleveland Scene magazine and saw Hawkwind in big letters under the
'upcoming shows' at the Phantasy Theatre.  I nearly fainted in the store.  Of
course, it was postponed four months (or so), but eventually it *did* happen,
and I'll never *really* complain again.  (Especially because of the three
subsequent tours).

Keith H.  (FAA)

PS.  I'm *still* not getting over the retirement of Kirby Puckett though. :(
This has me similarly stunned.  (Another thing our UK friends won't
understand.)