HW: Blackheath

[Mark Edmonds]

In article <199706111148.MAA18240 at teak.shu.ac.uk>, Chris Bates
<C.D.Bates at SHU.AC.UK> writes

>IMO AD completely revitalised HW. In the early '80s they were
>in danger of disappearing up their own arses, the music was
>becoming too mellow, too simple.

This early 80s phenomina you refer to was indeed most puzzling and I
never knew what the cause of it was. I felt that round about '83, they
completely lost direction and for some reason couldn't get a major
contract signed. I was dreading the fact that they might throw in the
towel. I wouldn't necessarily say that it was a reflection of technology
but clearly something went AWOL from the HW drive. This wasn't helped
with releases like Zones or This is Hawkwind - not that they are bad
albums but they didn't seem to have much new creativity in them (most of
it was recycled of course). Then after that long lean period, finally
COTBS came out and was a real bona fida new studio album. I rushed home
to play it only to be disappointed by its "home studio" sound but
quickly found that the heart of the music was really good. Now, if Davey
was responsible for injecting this new energy then I'm really grateful
to him because COTBS is a real HW achievement in my view. After COTBS,
if memory serves correct, the next studio album was Xenon Codex and it
was here that I started to feel what I considered an uneasy quality of
the sound which I earlier refered to as being "lumpy". The Davey penned
tracks in this album are the best example of what I mean - they sound
convoluted almost as if someone was trying to write songs in a Hawkwind
style. Unfortunately, Xenon Codex was a major let down and the only
decent track which I still listen to is Wastelands of Sleep (although
the beginning to the first track is really exciting). Then came Space
Bandits and no Hugh! Bandits I thought was a really terrible album and I
can't even remember any track names off it. We also had to put up with
Bridgit Whotsit (Wiseheart?) who had a terribly weak voice and seemed
totally out of place. I was beginning to get disenchanted and things
only got worse with Palace Springs! Three duffers in a row - what the
hell was going on? Maybe unfairly or maybe through predujice, I
attributed this decline to Davey. I don't want to malign the guy
unfairly or be grossly inaccurate in my comments but I didn't enjoy the
one of the best groups of all time doing the stuff we got on those three
GWR releases. One thing I will praise Davey for though was his obvious
total commitment, work rate and sense of enjoyment. I never got that
feeling from Bainbridge but then I never felt he was a real bassist
anyway.

>Or that HW had a bass player who played slap-funk on a fretless 5-string?

Well, actually a friend of mine played slap/funk/rock style bass, we
both enjoyed jamming along to HW riffs and the resultant sound was
really good fun! I have some old tapes of us doing Space is Deep with
slap bass bits in it somewhere - could be an interesting combination for
Hawkwind to try!