Ptolemaic Terrascope 27 Dave Brock Interview Part II

[andrew]

some more...

PT: Where were you living at the time?

DB: I lived near Ladbroke Grove, West London, in various places around
there. It was the era of psychedelia, loads of people smoking dope,
taking LSD, loads of parties, lots of psychedelic music everywhere,
clubs, strobes in all the clubs. Luke, a harmonica player, Francis and
me got invited to Marc Bolan's party, well, not invited - we
gatecrashed really [laughs]. Luke was a wonderful harmonica player,
played like Sonny Boy Williamson, and I played guitar. We were at the
party and heard Marc Bolan clanking around on his guitar. Luke said to
Marc [thick Geordie accent] "Ee mon, give im yer geetar!" So I had
this guitar and played some blues and of course Marc Bolan didn't like
that 'cos we were good [laughs]. We were asked to leave. Consequently
that's why I didn't turn up on his TV show in Manchester that time - I
carried resentment for many a year! I gave the excuse my car broke
down! I didn't fancy travelling all that way just to mime the show for
our latest single 'Quark, Strangeness and Charm' anyway.

What do you remember of Hawkwind's first album?

It was recorded at Trident Studios, just off Wardour Street. Dick
Taylor was asked to come and produce it. He was like the caretaker to
keep us in order and used to play in the Pretty Things. A wonderful
musician and a nice man too, a great character. Yeah, he played twelve
string on it.

Hawkwind were the first band to headline on their first tour of
America, what springs to mind?

We were lucky boys, we had records in the charts and everything was
jolly wonderful. We flew everywhere, so we lived a luxurious
lifestyle, we were always having parties. I remember in Detroit we
were in the same hotel as the Eagles, Man and who else..? I can't
remember but it was a famous band. Total lunacy. There were loads of
girls running around all over the place, those were the days when
groupies used to run around. Oh yes, and the Timothy Leary benefit
gig. We got met at San Fransisco airport by Joanna Leary in a
cavalcade of 1950s or 40s cars, it looked like a cavalcade of old
gangster cars, these big old Buick saloons. It looked fantastic. They
asked us who could do this gig and make a phone call to Leary, who in
fact could make phone calls out and connect the telephone to the PA's
so it could be broadcats to the audience.OK. We did the gig and
halfway through said we would make contact with Leary and we got into
big trouble with the police 'cos they found out about it. There were
bad scenes and we were naughty boys for allowing it to happen which
added to our reputation of course. So there you go, that was the Leary
benefit gig. We were well received in the States, it was good fun and
I've still got a lot of friends there from those days.

How did the Strange Daze festival, the first space rock festival, go
in America? Wasn't Lemmy supposed to play with you?

Well, he wasn't in the line up. He said he had flu [laughs] at the
time. It cost too much money cos Lemmy wanted to fly from L.A. to
Cleveland and then be picked up by limousine to be taken to this
camp-ground where we were. When we checked ou the cost it would have
been about £800-£900 just for his air fares. We weren't getting
nothing so it was totally out of the question. Maybe next year, I mean
the people that run the Space Rock festival are fantastic characters,
they've been Hawkwind fans for years and years back to the early days
when we used to tour. You've got to give respect to these people. The
festival went well, it was all videoed with a knockout light show. It
was on for three days and we were there for 2 days. It was in a
wonderful area, you would have loved it; beautiful spot. People all
had their luxury campers parked up in a long line [laughs] not far
from the stage. We didn't make any money, Jim the guy who ran it lost
about £2000. It was quite well attended but with a lot of bands there
the overheads were large. But it was a wonderful show and everyone who
was there had a really good time. Anyone who missed out should try to
get there.

How did the Live in Chicago 1974 CD come about?

Well I dunno, EMI found the tapes I think. They had the tapes stashed
away for many a year. Nigel Reeves is responsible for it all. He's the
guy who has packaged all the new stuff that has come out on EMI, so
all the credit must go to Nigel. We mixed it in 3 weeks I think, I
enjoyed it but some of it was horrendous because it does meander about
a bit. But overall we sung alright, it was exciting. Obviously, you've
got to imagine we had a wonderful light-show going on when you listen
this double CD. A beautiful stage show, dancing around with a lot of
action on stage. The band were full of real over the top characters so
it was very visual and it's hard to understand the band going off onto
one and wondering why all the cheering's going on. It was the terrific
light-show

okay, that's it for now. there's about the same again, so i might as
well finish typing this in, but not now. RSI beckons! Hope some of you
are enjoying this

andrew