HW: About last night..

[Carl E. Anderson]

> Mornin' all!

        Jon wins the prize for first post, but at least I get a second! :)

> Aren't you up yet! I got back from Brixton about 6 this morning (left
> the gig about 5.30a.m.) , kissed the kids and went straight to work.

        Gee, I lost track of nearly everyone during the Ozrics and
just about everyone else after the Minty set when Jazza and I staggered
away into the London dawn.
        By the time the tube opened we had staggered as far as Vauxhall--
I was significantly fuelled by finding a 7-Eleven (when did _those_ hop
the Atlantic!?) with *Ben & Jerry's*!  Exit one carton of Choclate Fudge
Brownie :)  Probably the last I'll see of that kind of thing before I next
make it back to the States.
        Caught the 6:38 to Cambridge from Liverpool St., made it into
Cambridge just after 8, cycled home, keeled over, and lurched back into
life shortly before noon.  And here I sit now.

> It
> was really terrific meeting you guys, I really had a great time. It's
> been a year or two since I drank a whole gallon of beer <grin>, I hope I
> wasn't too over-friendly. I know I spent most of the Ozrics shouting in
> Bill's ear, (sorry, Bill ;))

        Yes, it was indeed excellent to meet up with people I've seen
before--with special honors (with American spelling :) to my fellow
Yanks whom I haven't seen since the Limelight and New Haven gigs last
year.  The next people to bump into them, do send my extra greatings since
I lost track of Bill & Co. as the Ozrics were firing up!
        Plus, it was very cool to meet all the list-ers whom I hadn't
seen before :)  "We'll meet again, who knows when ...." :)

> The Hawks were pretty good too! I'm _starting_ to get used to Ron a bit,
> and it was good to see them do PSI Power and Steppenwolf. To be honest,
> I can't remember half the songs they did, erm, wonder why? Anyone taking
> notes?

        "Woah!", boys and girls: Woah!
        Can we say "Aerospaceage Inferno"?  I knew we could!  That was a
big surprise.  Gig started with "Psi Power" (rather a surprise as well!),
ended with "Elfin/Silver Machine/Welcome".  Encore was "Secret Agent"(!!)
followed by "Abducted".  That was interesting, though to similar to the
"Welcome" ending.  Since they've been doing the SM/Welcome ending for
a while, I think they might have ditched that, used "Abducted" there
and ended the encore on a more rockin' note.  The last song of the set
and the encore were a little to similar in feel to be most effective, I
thought.  Not a big deal though.

        What came in between?  Well in no particular order, I remember
"Steppenwolf" (far out!), Blue Skin, Photo Encounter, Assassins/Space Is
Their Palestine, Kapal, Love in Space, Sputnik Stan, Xenomorph ... mmm,
memory is failing.  I got a tape of it, I think--slight glitch when someone
bumped into me in Psi Power and stopped it for a moment, and I had to
flip the tape right after the bass solo in Sputnick.  For the benefit
of our StarRat link back to HW, don't worry--no extra-legal commerical
thing will come outta the tape.  For archival purposes only and that
sort of thing, copies on request to list members once I get the tape
sorted out.
        That's assuming it _did_ come out worth a damn--potential recorder
malfunctions aside, the mix at the show was rather muddy.  Often difficult
to pick out Alan's bass, in particular.  We'll have to see how this
affects the tape.

        Overall, the show was _really_ impressive.  Not only did the Hawks
trot out some keep surprising selections, but the BLANGA quotient was quite
high and the canned sequencer instrumentals were kept at a relative minimum.
Though you could still watch them wandering about poking into the backs
of things with torches while the instumentals were playing sometimes ;)
Gotta get some more humans on that stage Dave!
        Being on before the Ozrics and in front of some of their equipment
had the unexpected bonus of forcing them closer to the front of the
stage as well, so you could see them much better than during the last
Brixton gig in the autumn.  Even so, Dave spends too much time hiding
behind his gear--there was general cheering whenever he emerged during
a song, but he always went back in, eventually.  Still, he actually looked
like he was having a good time quite a lot, as did Alan and Richard (who
_knows_ what Ron may have been thinking!? :) which is a good sign.
Not enough guitar solos--someone please tell Dave we *like* his guitar
playing.  Get 'im out in front of the audience and hammering away in
tandem with Alan :)  Very few vocals from Dave as well ...

        A brief note on the Ozrics:  They were very good as well! Some
great stuff.  I remember being surprised to hear "Eternal Wheel".  They
might have had better sound than HW, though their bass was too low and
their drums too high, IMHO.
        I fear their light show blew Hawkwind's away!  And Minty had
more naked people on stage.  Clearly Hawkwind needs to address these
issues ...

        And a brief word on Minty--less said the better, and I can't
really think of an adequate description.  I can't say it was _bad_
since that implies the possibility it could have been _good_ and I
don't think those are relevant terms here.  Seemed like some kind of
fearsome nightmare born of the sensibilities of Nik Turner and a
wildly perverted kind of technoid-Gong, with the jazz replaced with
a touch of Pantera?  I would say it was odd.

        But to finish off on a Hawkish note, looks like a good tour
coming up!  Wish I had the cash to make it to more shows.  Oh, no
new material that I noticed--wonder if they've got anything in the
works ...?  Right, check it out if you can!

Cheers,
Carl

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Carl Edlund Anderson                           "So that's Terra.  Oohwee,
cea20 at cus.cam.ac.uk                             look out wenchlings, here
http://wjh-www.harvard.edu/~canders/hem.html    come the Hawklords."
cea20 at cus.cam.ac.uk                                -Lord Lemmy (Hawkwind)
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