Ptolemaic Terrascope 27 Dave Brock Interview Part II

[cosmos]

>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

hello andrew
you are doing a great job here.
thanks for your time for typing this and i look forward to see more ;<)


andre