HW: Sonic Assassins 77 memories by PAUL HAYLES

[Bernhard Pospiech]

Hi folke!!

Here is what he wrote to me:
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(...)snipp
AS far as the Sonic Assasins gig was concerned - it's a memory stretcher but
I think it was on the 23rd Dec - I remember it as a Christmas gig. We were
supported by a band called Osmosis or something like that who were led by a
couple of guys who had been in Ark (the band that myself, Harvey and Martin
had played in previously). They also had our old dancer, Lois, who went on to
work with the Rocky Horror Show. Harry Williamson, their guitarist, was the
son of the well known English writer, Henry Williamson (Tarka the Otter etc)
and he went on to design stages for the Rolling Stones and now lives in
Australia. Alistair Merry who played percussion and sang lives quite near me
in France although I haven't seen him for a few years - he went a bit mad and
tried to kill himself by crashing his car.
We played for about an hour - the tape I have is just a 1 and a half sides of
a C 90 and corresponds pretty much to the one you sent me although yours is
definitely s different mix from mine. The line up of the band was Bob Calvert
on vocals - totally in a state - he had also recently had a car crash whilst
trying out a car he was thinking of buying, breaking the neck of a girl we
all new (origin of the song Death trap). He was very much in two minds about
the future of Hawkwind and was concerned about whether Sonic Assasins were
rehearsed enough - it was true we had not rehearsed very much except for the
new songs - Two I think, Death Trap and Free Fall plus the one hundred
percent improvised Over the Top which came out of Dave and myself getting a
synth pattern going and Bob thinking it was going into Master of the
Universe. When it didn't and the others joined in, he then started his very
good vocal ad lib (someone told me he used a poem he had already written), in
any case it was all totally unrehearsed or even planned.
Dave Brock - guitars and oscillators - he had lots of fun as usual in his
white doctors coat and had lots of confidence in us new boys, Martin Griffin
- drums, he had been Arks last drummer and had a share in a studio down in
Cornwall. We all went down there shortly after Xmas to record a few overdubs
onto the live tape. It was this over dubbed version that was used for the
Sonic Assasins EP. Harvey Bainbridge, bass Harvey was a good mate although
we've rather lost touch over the years. He's now living with his parents
someone in the north of England and occasionally putting out some keyboard
stuff. And myself on keyboards I was using my Wurlitzer electric piano
through echo wahwah and distortion pedals, a string maching and a Roland
SH100 synth and a second synth whose name escapes me, both of course were
mono.
The concert in the Queens Hall Barnstaple was a sell out (700 fire regulation
capacity) and was a good party. This hall had been Ark's home ground and we
could fill the place almost by ourselves so the added hawks was a big bonus.
Ovef the next couple of years i got lots of correspondance and face to face
comments suggesting that Sonic Assasins was the direction tHawkwind should
have gone in but.......... When I joined the hawks regular line up for the US
tour, it was apparent to me why Dave wanted to change - the vibes were really
bad between al the different members. In fact I think i was the only one who
was on talking terms with all the others - I ihadn't been around long enough
to fall out with anyone. And Dave tried to get me into a lot of the radio
interviews and made sure we talked about Sonic Assasins every time. But then,
the tour came to an end and things were obviously falling apart quite
seriously.
We didn't play Quark as, although I think it was part written, it wasn't a
complete item at that time.
Well, that's all for this time.

snipp(...)
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Thats it folks


cheers
Bernhard