HW: Huw/Widowmaker/etc.

[LN1GJT]

I heard one of the Widowmaker albums (I don't remember which one) some years
back and thought it was some of the most godawful crap I'd ever heard, and
Huw's guitar wasn't very audible.  You might try getting Steve Swindell's
album "Fresh Blood" on which Huw plays all the guitars (including the
original version of Shot Down in the Night), and Simon King plays drums.  I
haven't listened to it in a long time, but it wasn't terrible.... it's the
sort of thing you would hear a lot in the early eighties, with those stoopid
sort of "city life is tough"- type lyrics that were so chic then.  It's a
fairly mainstream, new wavish album, but Huw's guitar is loud and clear on
both rhythm and lead, and he does, by the way, play some cool lead stuff.
I'm a big fan of Huw's playing.  I truly think he's one of the unrecognized
greats, and he really has a recognizable style quite unlike anyone else.  I
read somewhere that he had written a regular column for a UK guitar magazine
in the 80s.... Does anyone have those magazines?  Or does anyone even know
what magazine that would be?  Perhaps I could contact the magazine, if I
only knew which one, and try to find those ancient issues.  I'd be curious
what he has to say about guitar playing.  Does anyone know what he's up to
now?  Any recent releases?  I never could find a copy of River Run.  Does
anyone know where I might be able to get one and for how much?  Also, I'd be
interested in getting bootleg tapes of any of Huw's shows, such as his batch
of acoustic shows he's been doing.
Thanks,
John Majka
flossbac at wcic.org


I used to have a copy of Steve Swindel's 'Fresh Blood' and I really think that
it wasn't all that good at all, EXCEPT for two tracks. The first is obviosly
'Shot Down in the Night' and the other track worth listening to is called
'Figures of Authority'. The single of 'Shot Down' was a different mix to the
album, and it would have been great if the B-side was 'Figures of Authority',
instead of the dire track that was pulled from the album. Huw's playing was
superb as ever.

 Huw last appeared with Hawkind at a benefit gig in Blackheath (UK) last
summer. He did the three tracks of the encore,  but unfortunately, one of the
roadies had the wrong mike against his amp for the first of those tracks, (my
mate Raymond was doing the sound-desk and was really pissed-off) but he last
two tracks saw Huw's guitar with crystal clarity for the benefit of all.

Changing the subject completely, the tracks that were credited as being from an
undisclosed 1989 gig on the 'Undisclosed Files' LP and CD were actually from
the Hammersmith Odeon gig, 8th Dec 1988. (Huw's penultimate performance with HW
before quitting.) The first two tracks of the concert are only on the LP
version (Masters of the Universe & Coded Languages) and then the CD takes the
tracks from there up to the end of Angels of Death. (The LP version fades out
in the middle of Angels)

Guy Thomas