HW: SD 98

[Doug Pearson]

Hi all,

I'm back in grey & overcast California (hey, this is San Francisco!) after
a GREAT weekend at Strange Daze 98.  It was great to meet the various
listmembers who were there (Keith H was in the tent next to mine!), along
with many other very nice folks.  I don't have time for a full review at
the moment, but at the very least, on Mon, 17 Aug 1998 00:03:39 -0500, Dan
Witt <hawkwind1 at EARTHLINK.NET> made some statements that invite further
detail (and I'll throw in some further commentary, too):

>Biggest news: Dave Brock and Ron were not allowed in the country(good
>ol' USA for ya), I'm sure more news on that will get posted.

Ron was turned back (apparently as "undesirable") when trying to enter
Canada from the UK ... I heard some rumors over the cause, which seems to
be related to previous drug conviction(s) - does anyone know the true
story?  However, if what I heard about Dave is true, I feel reason to be a
bit pissed off.  As my information comes from conversations with Jim Lascko
and Jerry Richards, I feel like the information is valid enough to post
(but if I'm incorrect, please flame me!).  The reason that Dave was not
admitted into the USA (even though he had no trouble getting into Canada)
is because he didn't have a visa.  All he needed to do was fill out a form
and send it to a US consulate to get permission to enter the country.  Just
a rubber stamp, that's all.  If this is true, it bugs me that Dave didn't
have his sh*&%t together enough to get one stinkin' rubber stamp.  If
someone can confirm this, I'd like to hear, but no more negativity from me
on this, I promise!

>Jerry, Richard, and Captain Rizz(I think) played with a couple stand-ins.
>They played about six songs with some extended jams. From memory they
>played Time WE Left, Warrior at the Edge of Time, Space is Deep, Golden
>Void, Brainstorm. It was about 65 minutes. I'm sure they did their best,
>but it wasn't quite for me.

I would definitely vote that it was not a "real" Hawkwind gig (I prefer the
moniker RizzWind, personally), but I still enjoyed it immensely.  The intro
was very cool and reminiscent of Calvert's "Over the Top" rap, with Capt.
Rizz explaining how Dave & Ron weren't going to be there, but we were still
gonna rock.  Overall, the substitute Scotts from Sun Machine did an
adequate-to-good job of filling in - nothing fancy, but still commendable
for only having one rehearsal, in Jerry's tent, earlier that afternoon!
Other than the lame & disappointing version of "Space is Deep" (one of my
fave HW songs, *sigh*), I thought that the set was very good, both the old
songs ("Time We Left"!), the new ones ("Wheels"), and the semi-informal
jamming that we got to hear more of than in most Hawkwind concerts.
Someone mentioned that Richard deserves mucho credit for holding the whole
thing together, and I must second that opinion.  He is an undeniably great
drummer, and even more importantly, really understands and lives what
Hawkwind is all about.  And Jerry did just fine, singing both Dave's and
Ron's parts (and hey, sometimes my mouth has trouble finding the
microphone, too!).

>Arc Met, who I was looking forward to seeing, was unable to play Friday
>as scheduled because of a theft that had taken place the day before.
>They were however rescheduled for Sunday at noon, but I had to leave
>early Sunday for the 12 hour drive home.

Arc Met and Born to G0 were both quite good on sunday; I'm glad I stuck
around for them (well, OK, I left mid-way through BtG 'cause I was feeling
kinda burnt).

>F/i put on a great show, I'd have to say it was my favorite of the
>weekend.  Something really seemed to irritate Brian(the guitarist) after
>a few songs, he just about threw his guitar down and was pointing at the
>speakers, anybody know what happened?

It was hard to tell, 'cause at first it just sounded like Grant's synths
were going crazy (I've had this happen to me - where one knob is in a weird
position, making the analog synth sound like Jimi's guitar feeding back),
but once the band stopped playing (kinda ruining the version of "From Poppy
With Love" :^( ... ), it was obvious that a CD or tape of some other band
was being played over the PA at the same time F/i were trying to play!  I'd
be pissed, too!  It took the soundman what seemed like 3 or 4 minutes after
the band to figure out what was going on (hence the complaints many folks
have made about the sound, which, while not great, was not that bad IMO,
considering...).  But after that SNAFU, the band made a great recovery and
finished up with one of the best sets at the festival.  They had a smaller
(4 vs. 6) lineup than last year, with the previous bassist and keyboardist
MIA, and cellist Jeff Chase playing some wild rockin' bass.

>Pressure Head put on a good show too, vocals were a little too buriedthough.

That always seems to happen with their vocals ... I suspect that Tommy just
likes them mixed that way.  Theirs was also one of the best sets, and they
played some really amazingly obscure covers.

>Hope it happens again next year, it was well worth the long drive.

Or, in my case, the long flight :^)

        -Doug
         ceres at sirius.com