Hawkwind Tour in Trouble

[Christian Mumford]

At 09:22 16.09.97 -0000, you wrote:
>On 16-Sep-97, Max Wilcox wrote:
>>        1. A film clip. This would be one of the best types of promotion, at
>>least to get new fans etc. By a clip, I don't mean just some concert footage
>from
>>Love In Space, I mean something that is actually directed by someone, with
>>a plot, perhaps. I can see some great stuff in my mind, with regards to a
>>film clip from Alien4.

I can't agree more! I think the band should have done something cool like
that years ago, and now with all the cheap technology and the current sci-fi
/X-Files/whatever craze... When I asked Brock the question about videos on
the web-interview, he replied with giving me an address where I could get
concert videos! Argh... it's an attitude problem "We can't do it"... look at
these underground bands, 0 budget videos - there's an old Spacemen 3 video
done with a handheld in a tiny apartment, with just psychedelic lights all
over the damn place and people just lazying about, doing nothing - it worked!
Lesse... toss together LOTS OF CHEAP RUSSIAN CLIPS OF ROCKETLAUNCHES AND
COSMONAUTS AND PICTURES OF THE SIBERIAN BLAST IN 1908,   AND....
well, I think the most expensive ingredient would just be an idea...
Look at friggin GWAR - they've made full length movies! C'mon, Hawkwind,
get your friends together, take some of your silly stagedancers and put
them to some real use... make a video!


> The talk of the new album sounds like an even better
>>chance to get a clip out there. I think a well done clip would be one of
>>the best ways to pull new fans.

Definitly. Sad but true fact. Hawkwind, get with it...

>It's a reasonable idea but I'm afraid that in the UK a video is unlikely
to do
>anything. Simply because vertually no one would play it.

Why? Just because it's Hawkwind? They might be somewhat "unhip" in the UK,
but they definetly seem to have some warped UG cred... With all the psychey
rock/drone/techno/whatever out there you never know, there is most likely an
audience... bands like Verve or Spiritualized definetly owe a certain
debt of influence to the hawks and their ilk... Just a namedrop at the
right time from the right person in the right rag could do it!

But even, so what if they are dismissed in the UK at first? Why not do like
Turner - but WITH Turner, or at least with a better budget than Turner -
this kind of music is pretty cutting edge/influental in the US, and success
gatherings like Terrastock and Strange Daze definetly proved that. Get an
UG hit in the US maybe, and then see what happens? THERE IS A HUGE CULTURAL
VOID OVER THERE THAT NEEDS TO BE FILLED WITH NO GRATEFUL DEAD TO LATCH ON TO
ANYMORE :) Let the psychedelic feeding frenzy commence....


> I mean, Hawkwind have
>only been seen on TV in the UK a handful of times in the last 20 years. And
>unfortunatly I can't see that changing in a hurry.

Why? If they don't bother, thinking "oh, it ain't gonna work y'see", then
you are right. Too bad. No wonder they never get on TV.

Christian

BTW, my earlier stream of (un)conciousness actually touched on the whole
subject... look at what DAVID BOWIE just recently did - aside from his
BUDGET - what did he do? Who did what for him? How did he turn "good" again
(in the public eye and acclaimed and IMHO :) since last in the early '80s?
What was the process there? Reinvention? Innovation? Creativity? Energy?
sounds familiar....