Original Hawkwind: Birkenhead 15th July 2000

[M Holmes]

The gig was at the Stairways Rock Club in downtown Birkenhead. We
arrived at a nearby pub around 10pm and saw Trev Hughes and Thomas
Crimble there. We had a brief chat. Thomas was a likeable chap and was
looking forward to the gig, which we found out wasn't to start until
midnight. I also had a little chat to Huw.

The hall was full, though not very large.  The band put on a very good
show, with the crowd clearly enjoying it.  Nik came onto the set in his
Spiky Alien kit, and I have no idea how he could stand it in all that
latex given the heat.  Thomas Crimble was very solid on bass, with
Ollis absolutely excellent on drums - matching Simon King or Richard
Chadwick at their best.  As most will know, DikMik didn't make it, and
they had a young guy (from the backing band?) making whooshy noises on
synth.

They opened with Sonic Attack and closed with Silver Machine (Nik's
alternative lyrics, washing machine and all) with Shouldn't Do That for
the encore. I wasn't taking notes on the order, but other tracks played
were Be Yourself, Psychedelic Warlords, Paranoia, Hurry On Sundown,
Seeing It As You Really Are, Master of the Universe, Brainstorm (without
the key change at the end). I'd have to check my tape to complete the
list. Most songs involved a fair amount of jamming, and for me they were
at their best doing this because of Nik and Huw's problems with the
lyrics. Others said they'd have preferred a more structured gig, but I
suspect that there wasn't sufficient rehearsal time to make that happen.

It seemed to me later in the gig that Nik was perhaps a little out of
it, often singing words to other songs, or singing the same song, but
out of time.  It's hard to tell, since sometimes this is merely part of
his "rock circus" act.  Huw appeared to be trying to cover for him at
times, but was a bit hoarse himself.  Thomas Crimble was excellent at
this point in continuing to sing songs straight and in a melodic voice.
At one point during Hurry On Sundown, Huw was clearly failing to bring
Nik back into line on the lyrics and did a deal with Thomas where
whenever Nik sang a line, they'd each sing a different one, like a canon
but with Nik's randomness - the effect was actually pretty good with
that song and I'd really like to see this done more deliberately.

For me, the best track of the evening was easily Seeing It As You Really
Are, a favourite of mine anyway, with Be Yourself a close second. The
stars of the evening were without doubt Crimble and Ollis. Nik was just
a little too out of it and only shone jamming his sax, with even the
flute on Hurry On Sundown not really working very well. But as someone
said, if one of the band is too gone to play, that's pretty authentic
early Hawkwind too.

If any of you get the chance to catch them in Wales on Friday, do it.
You won't regret it, I wish I was going myself.

Neil: sorry for being vague. Not only can't I hear much when there's a
lot of noise, I was fairly out of it myself.

Anyone: My tape break was during Seeing It As You Really Are, which was
a bummer. If anyone gets a tape of this gig without that, I'd be very
very interested in a trade. I also reckon my tape has suffered from
being too close to the speakers.

FoFP