HW: Poll results

[M Holmes]

david hall writes:

> >> FWIW Stonehenge '84 was *my* best ever gig, and is in with a shout at
> >> "Best Time I Ever Had In My Life Ever".
> >
> >I thought the sound was too low volume and pretty messed up. I remember
> >lots of folk complaining about it at that gig. In the end I ended up
> >spending a lot of that gig trying to help a girl find a lost contacyt
> >lens in the grass during darkness (unsuccessful despite a loan of a real
> >big halogen light from one of the roadies).
> >
> >Not as bad as the one with the Nik/Dave onstage fight at Stonehenge 82
> >(or 83?) which is the only Hawkwind gig I ever walked away from.

> Nik/ Dave on-stage fight, tell me more.

They did a mid-evening gig up at a pyramid tent right at the back of the
Stonehenge fields up towards the army base at Devizes. Dave, Nik, and
Huw were there and also I think Harvey was. I'm not sure who was on
drums. It was a sunny summer evening. A couple of girls had been dancing
nude up the front to the band on beforehand. By the time Hawkwind came
on everyone was sat on the grass and the whole scene was very mellow.

Once they took the stage, lots of folks at the front stood up and there
was a bit of good natured shouting from folks sitting further back for
them to sit down again so that everyone could relax and watch the band.
Nik and Dave took the part of the folks sitting and suggested everyone
sit down before they got going, though that never really happened.

A few songs into the gig, Nik went off during USoM into his "Get off my
mummy Uncles Sam" and "Uncle Sam's on heroin" rock circus act. A couple
of comments between tracks suggested that dave and Huw were getting
irritated. The gig was also getting very untogether. Then at one point
Dave and Nik had an argument about what to play next. Dave started one
song and Nik attempted to sing the lyrics of another. Then there
followed a tussle between the two on stage. By that point I'd just
gotten fed up of being dragged from mellow to irritated by the argument
in the crowd, the haphazard and later unprofessional quality of the gig
and the argument and onstage fight just finished it for me and I
wandered off to see what else was happening. After a long, eventful, and
very interesting night, I was down in the Stones watching the Sun come
up over the haze and could hear the band playing very well. I believe
they'd moved to the other stage which was around where they played in
1984 and were clearly playing a stonker of a gig.

Still can't quite remember whether it was '82 or '83 though. I suppose
'83 fits in terms of the timeline re Nik getting kicked out again but I
thought I'd heard a tape of the early '83 gig and none of this stuff was
on it, so maybe it was '82.

I suppose we could ask Dave, but he'll probably tell me that I'd been
drinking that funny cider again...

FoFP