Hawkwind Tour in Trouble

[John Majka]

I really don't understand how such a problem could strike our heroes, but I
saw the evidence myself on the 97 US tour.  The previous US tour had an
amazing turnout.  They played Park West in Chicago and there must have been
perhaps 2000-3000 people.  Of course this gig was well advertised on the
marquee outside the venue, and in the papers.  This year at the Cubby Bear
in Chicago there were maybe 300 people max.  The marquee outside mentioned
about fifty upcoming events, one of them hawkwind (meaning their name was up
for about 2 seconds every few minutes).  There was NO ADVERTISEMENT
whatsoever for this show.  In fact, the internet Chicago Shows List which is
the most complete and reliable source for info about shows, didn't even list
it until a few days beforehand.  Cubby Bear's answering machine message
about upcoming shows failed to mention it.  Tickets were not available in
advance through tickmaster.  Who's the moron who made these awful
arrangements?  Besides which, Cubby Bear is a venue that sucks compared to
the other places Hawkwind has played in Chicago.  Let's have some promotion,
some advertisement, advance ticket sales in the future, huh?  It's pretty
obvious that this tour was way under-promoted.  I don't know who's in charge
of this stuff--the notorious Doug Smith?--but things need to be brought back
in order.  While on Griffin, the 95 US tour was well promoted and well
received and I honestly thought that Hawkwind was on the way up in terms of
US popularity, but after this most recent tour, I could see the band being
driven to the verge of bankruptcy.  And yes, what's with the delays for the
"Love in Space" EP and the "Live74" CD?  I'm just venting...
John Majka
flossbac at wcic.org