HW: T/shirts and general merchandise

[M Holmes]

J Strobridge writes:

> XXX writes:
>
> > Hello!
> >
> > Would anyone be interested in me reissuing back Hawkwind tour shirts going
> > back to about 1984. If so which ones would be worth doing......any
> > requests????
>
> I've got a few but don't have a Sonic Attack if there was any such
> thing

There was. I have a rather worn and scabby version of it somewhere. It
has the Hawk logo from the front of the album on it. What'd also be neat
would be a rerelease of the tatsy die cast badge of the Hawk released
around then.

> and that's certainly one I'd like to have.   There's a recent
> one with a Buddha on it I think deserves a re-issue and a wonderful
> tie-dye long sleeve shirt with a Hawk type mandala design that
> fluoresces - or did once.   But mebbe that's a tad too hippy for these
> days  8-)

I dunno, there was a stall selling very flourescent clothing for the
dance tent at Glasters this year so it might even be fashionable.

obGlasto:

The Glastonbury programme has a summary of Glasters lore in it. There's
an old pic of Hawkwind from the In the Beginning CD (I think) in there
and also the story of the "1981 Hawkwind riot".

The story has it that New Order were on before Hawkwind and that
Hawkfans on their motorbikes surrounded the gig and revved in order to
encourage them off the stage to let Hawkwind on after which it is
claimed that they played a twenty minute version of Silver Machine.

Assuming that the statute of limitations is up, I could admit the truth.

It was our first Glastonbury and we'd cycled there from Stonehenge where
Hawkwind had played the night before to a rather small audience and had
chatted to us after the gig.

We bought a large flagon of cider from the back of a farmer's wagon and
this turned out to be rather lethal. Hawkwind were in fact on before New
Order and we made our way down to the front of the metal Pyramid Stage.
Early in the gig Brock promised Silver Machine for the encore with some
lasers and fireworks.

Unfortunately at the end of the set the organisers announced that there
was a midnight curfew and New Order would have to begin setting up
immediately and therefore there'd be no Hawkwind encore.

Unsurprisingly most fans believed that sufficient chanting of "Hawkwind"
would disabuse them of this outrageous notion and a goodly amount of
this can be heard at the end of the audience tape of the gig. Perhaps
unfortunately I banged the now almost empty cider flagon on the sheet
metal of the Pyramid Stage to punctuate the chant. This produced rather
a tasty booming noise which wasn't lost on the rest of the fans at the
front and they started banging their bottles onto the metal by way of
percussional accompaniment to the chant. This made an even more tasty
booming noise. It was all pretty good natured.

The problem probably arose because the band, organisers and perhaps even
security were inside the pyramid and this must have been similar to
lying in a biscuit tin with someone banging on the lid.

By the time around 20 security types had congregated to discourage this,
we'd reached a vantage point up the hill a ways, attracted by someone
playing "Blake's New Jerusalem" from a speaker powered by a small truck.
As far as we could see, the "riot" amounted to the security types
rushing the front of the stage and pushing folks back so that they
couldn't bang on it. I daresay it's possible that some punches were
thrown in the melee but I doubt it could reasonably be classed a "riot".

Of course they never did play Silver Machine, never mind a twenty minute
version of it.

In the end New Order did a very good set and the lasers did look quite
good once it was dark. I remember them playing off a large electricity
pylon a little ways off from the campfire we'd adopted at the invitation
of the Tim Blake fan.

The most trouble I remember that year was someone throwing something at
Ginger Baker which drew blood from his nose, and some idiots who trashed
and set fire to the only semi-reasonable toilets on the site.

FoFP

P.S: I think the Glastonbury Programme is still available from the
organisers. See www.glastonbury-festival.co.uk