HW: Hawkwind in New Zealand

[Doug Pearson]

Hi,

Thought you might like to see another firsthand account of one of the
Hawkwind shows down under.  This one comes from Brother Love, solo artist
and guitarist for New Zealand psych rockers Space Dust.  A couple of
(semi-)inside references are annotated at the bottom (since this was
originally a personal Email).

At 10:10 PM 01/04/1980 +1300, Martin Henderson <brolove at xtra.co.nz> wrote:
>Hawkwind - James Cabaret, Wellington, NZ, 12/2/2000
>
>Well, I thought the world was bound for maybe another bout of fooling
>with psychedelia - Monster Magnet selling big, Madonna embracing the
>doof, and Hawkwind making a world tour! Well, was I wrong.
>       The James Cabaret is a cavernous place made for thug rock highschool
>bands and built to accomodate over 500 people, about a tenth of that
>number braved the cold night and 35 dollar cover charge to get to this
>show. A crime! What the lazy bastards who didn't bother missed out on
>was one of the most effortless displays of mind-bending psychedelic
>mastery this country has yet seen - (probably since the last Space Dust
>tour anyway - HaHa!:)
>        One after another they tumbled out, all well over ten minutes and
>seemingly fresh as daisies - this has got to be one of those bands who
>never play anything quite the same way twice. Shouldn't Do That,
>Brainstorm, Love In Space, Master Of The Universe, Psychedelic Warlords
>- Dave Brock anchoring the rest with his ceaseless tinkerings and
>arresting voice, Richard Chadwick rolling over the drum kit like a
>hundred Dwayne Zarakovs [1], around which the violin and keyboard kept a
>continual maelstrom afloat, always touching the sky and buried in the
>earth at the same time. By the encore, all I had to do was shut my eyes
>and I WAS flying through space, the ritual had me airborne - or perhaps
>it was the half a ticket to the late show at downstage that I can't find
>now - either way. I can now say that one of the things I always wanted
>to be able to say I had done I now have - Hawkwind as they are meant to
>be seen. As the band chanted between themselves for a while - between
>cryptic requests for hashish afficionados to make themselves known - you
>gotta get out of it to get into it, and you gotta get into it to get out
>of it.
>       Afterwards, after the last of the several dozen people who were
>watching ecstatically were filtering out, I shook Mr Brock's hand,
>unable to find any words to express my thanks, or my shame at what a
>terribly underpromoted and underattended deal the whole thing had been.
>(Honestly, I kid you not, we got more people at some of the states shows
>we did in 96 [2] than were in Wellington interested enough to see this one.
>I guess that means that we are more popular in the states than Hawkwind
>are in New Zealand, and that is one sad state of affairs. These are the
>elder statesmen of the future, they really were there first.  I gotta
>get out of this town. Rock 'n' Roll just don't matter enough to these
>people. I wanna go where the wild things are!
>Instead I went to a sleazy late night bar and ended up singing a karaoke
>version of the eagles' Desperado. Strange days indeed.
>
>Brother Russia
>Harbour City Scribe

[1] Dwayne Zarakov is the (Great, IMHO) drummer for Space Dust & the
Brother Love band.  The kind of drummer who plays more *around* the beat
than with it or on top of it ... sort of a non-maniacal Keith Moon.

[2] The US tour on which I guested with these Kiwis.  Bardo Pond were the
tour headliners.

        -Doug
         ceres at sirius.com