HW:Lord of the Hornets

[M Holmes]

Patrick Cordiner writes:

> BTW what is the deal with reading Moorcock and Hawkwind, I mean did they
> put stuff in his books that made you go out and buy Hawkwind or what? It
> just seemed like as soon as I read Moorcock all of a sudden you find
> yourself listening to incredible amounts of Space Rock.

That's how I got into Hawkwind. I was an 18 year old student and reading
all the Moorcock I could lay my hands on (an excellent way of
procrastinating as regards doing actual studying) and my roommate kept
playing these tapes that sounded like Deep Purple had gotten hold of all
Tangerine Dream's equipment and started a drunken party. He played these
two tapes day in and day out intil finally I was moved to take a peek at
the cover: "Hall of the Mountain Grill"? Hmmmm catchy title. Isn't
there a Mike Oldfield track called something like that? What's the other
one? "Warrior on the Edge of Time"??????? Huh? Weird, that's almost
what Erekose is called in the book I'm reading. Let's have a look inside
then. Fuckin' 'ell Moorcock is *in* this band!!!!! Right then, let's
crank this up to eleven and give 'em a serious listen.

So within two days I'd been round all the 57 guys in Hepburn Hall and
nailed tapes of Space Ritual, X In Search of Space, Roadhawks, Masters
of the Universe and Hawkwind. It took a little while longer to nail
Astounding Sounds Amazing Music.

My roommate wasn't quite so enthusiastic at this point, describing
Seeing It As You Really Are as "like a cow giving birth" (he was a
farmer). Within a month he'd sold his Warrior and Grill tapes to me and
a lifetime of Hawkwind Kollecting was born. Within a few months I'd
nailed all the vinyl except the Kings of Speed and Hassan I Sabha
singles and the Greasy Truckers LP and had organised a minibus trip to
my first Hawkwind gig, which was coincidentally my first ever rock gig
(the perils of growing up in a small town in the middle of nowhere).

FoFP