HW: Blackheath

[Jon Jarrett]

        Dear All,
                  well, Andy is expecting me to post a set-list, and since
big Mike hasn't done it yet, I shall undertake this mighty oeuvre... my
first ever BOC-L review. I feel so humble...

        Well, let's make one thing clear before I go into details. They
rocked. No, that's not enough. They ROCKED. Nearly. But you get the idea.
Hawkwind is *not*dead*.
        We assembled in the Fairway and Firkin and found the beer and the
presence of Huw somewhere in the bar much more attractive than seeing
Captain Rizz, and when we got there and found he was still on we decided
we were right - but it could just have been their kit, which did not do
them justice. Lousy sound. After a while they stopped, and eventually Huw
came on, mumbled that this was an acoustic set and played several "little
ditties" - they were OK, and he did a couple of bits that indicated that
he can indeed play, but basically it was nothing much, I thought. Maybe if
I'd known the songs: Mike W has a set-list for it.
        He did on the other hand get the crwod's attention when, after
asking the permission of "Mr. Brock back there", he played Hurry on
Sundown. He got so much reaction in fact that he turned the end of `All
Along the Watchtower', which followed it and was also quite good, back
into `Hurry on Sundown', and then put down the guitar, prepared to go off
and then cahnged his mind and played it _again_...
        Anyway, he went off soon after, and some woman (his wife? some
attachment of his? I don't know, she'd been dancing on stage) asked us to
yell to get Hawkwind on. Which of course we did. And while we were there
Richard came and tested the drums, and then a shadowy long-haired figure
crept behind the synths and started setting up. So of course we yelled "We
can see you Dave!" and so on, and he sort of looked over the edge ,
grinning(!) and went off again, and then, and then, the band came on!
        First impressions: Jerry is tall, thin, and does look a bit like
Iommi I suppose - I'd say more like a young, stretched, Zappa. Ron was
relatively restrained, black drainpipe jeans, no top, and yellow and black
face-paint. Richard was well-hidden but seemed happy enough, and Dave
like was looking over the edge of the synths and seemed genuinele pleased
to be there. And had his guitar.
        The setlist, with comments, was as follows:
ASSAULT & BATTERY
THE GOLDEN VOID (both not bad, and pleasant to hear them, but they are not
my favourite tracks; accompanied with a very thin dancer who didn't do
very much).
BLUE SKIN (good stuff - no Dave guitar, and Ron's bass, as for the first
two, was very faint - but Jerry made up for Dave's synthing and showed
commendable attention to feedback and fucked-up-ness. Fire-eaters came
on at last).
STEPPENWOLF (in no way bad, but not great. Ron still too quiet, but doing
the wolf-man stuff well as ever. The chunky belly-dancer was not as
scarey as usual).
        My impression was that they relaxed a bit after that. I was
yelling for more bass, and Ron maybe heard me, I don't know, because then
they turned him *up* - he seemed to be the one most in need of
reassurance, but Dave also seemed relieved, and, like, happy and stuff!
[A NEW SONG] - REPTILE VISION (or at least, that's what Mike W reckoned it
shoudl be called. The mark of Ron all over it, raving about being a
reptile. Rocks. Fast. Loud. Good. Abominably twisted feed-back noise from
Jerry, the bass audible - and Ron can play. Not Alan, but definitely not
Harvey, which I think we all had feared. Fear no longer. Reptile Vision.
We like.)
ASSASSINS OF ALLAH/SPACE IS THEIR PALESTINE/ASSASSINS OF ALLAH (immediate
wallop into the riff, and a highly acceptable couple of minutes of blanga
before wandering into Space is... which Dave's synths could not really
make heard. More feedback, Jerry and Ron both reaching Syd Barrett-like
screechiness levels, before winding it back up for crowd to yell "It is
written!" as loud as we could.
        Much, _much_ better than the LiS version.)
        About this point something, which seems to have been one of Dave's
synths, started producing a really horrible noise whenever he went for
some routine or other. This may have been why the synths were so low in
the mix - I suspect bits of programme weren't happening.
        Something started up now which sounded like the synths for LiS,
but suddenly Richard was off with a fast drum-beat, and the rest of them
suddenly picked it up, and weeeEOOOOWWWW blanga blanga it's ANOTHER NEW
SONG folks.... Andy reckoned this to be a new intro to LiS, but I think it
was a new track - also bearing the mark of the Bastard unless Dave has
suddenly gone speed-metal - *very* loud, *very* fast. No very obvious
tune, but who cares? The ship is in good hands.
LOVE IN SPACE followed along nicely, the synths defintely acting up by
now, but still cool, and complete with the obligatory Ron-Goes-Mad bit in
the middle. Good stuff. The bass riff seemed to be Alan on tape, because
Ron didn't play lots of it, but when he did he was OK. He picked it up
big-time for
AEROSPACEAGE INFERNO (I was too busy screaming with Ron to really notice
if this was as good as it felt to me - could someone mail me and conform
that it was damn good and that Ron can, in fact, Play Bass?)
SONIC ATTACK (not too good, but then this is an excellent way for Ron to
try to be Calvert and fail - they all had fun, as Carl says, and it was
fun for the novelty value and the *atrocious* feedback that Jerry and Ron
were generating)
[ANOTHER NEW SONG](about which I can remember *absolutely nothing* except
that Dave had a poem in it, "whispering words I could not hear.. ")
BRAINSTORM/THE CAMERA THAT COULD LIE/BRAINSTORM (Ron can play bass. Jerry
and Dave played loads of guitar. Richard was there. It knocked the
California Brainstorm version dead. This was the high point of the gig,
and it was EXCELLENT! As Andy and Mike, who were in the mosh, will tell
you. I didn't see Jerry's monitor catch fire, but I guess if I put in the
review here no-one will be any the wiser).
        Then they went off, and so we shouted and stomped, and when they
came back on there was a well-known short Welshman with them, none other
than HLL himself! We got a Hawkwind with three (count them, 3) guitars!

EJECTION was first, with Dave on synths mostly, not that you could hear
them. Excellent, and followed by...
NEEDLE GUN (yeah! Bloody great, all three guitars going over-time, vocals
totally shot, couldn't hear a word but we were all singing ourselves
anyway so it didn't matter, loadsanoise, Huw and Jerry all over the place,
mostly Huw. Way cool).
        In sum, lords and ladies, gentlemen and gentlewomen, or other
non-gender-cultural specification of your choice, Hawkwind have not so
much lost a damn-good bass player with ideas about synths, as gained an
opportunity for a not-at-all-bad punk bass player to take over even more
of the show than he already had, and backed by what look like suspicious
speed-metal leanings from Jerry (it's Richards, Carl, OK?) are rapidly
heading towards heavy metal madness. This may of coursde change slightly
if Dave can fix his synths, but even so I think we are in for a season of
highest-quality blanga. Watch the skies...
        Jazza
        /---------------------------------------------------\
        |   Spooky peanut terror bringing pain and death!   |
        |===================================================|
        | Jon Jarrett, Pembroke College, Cambridge CB2 1RF  |
        |               jaj20 at hermes.cam.ac.uk              |
        +___________________________________________________+