HW RE: US tour 1978

[Jerome Kekatos]

>Chicago Riviera Theater 12.03.1978      Sun
>Belleville (NY) Ricos Place     14.03.1978      Tue

Chicago native, was at the Riviera show - There is a Belleville Illinois,
but I'm fairly certain there was no Rico's Place club for the band to play
at in '78. Anybody else out there with deep memories of the NY or IL scene
in '78.

That Riv show was memorable for a number of reasons.

Early in the day a appearance of the some of the band at a local record
store, my buddies and I hurrying over to this place to catch them and
finding we're the only ones there to see the band. Only Robert Calvert,
Simon House and Simon King in attendance - we're told that Dave is feeling
ill, and that Nik isn't with the band anymore. At least I get my inner
sleeve to Capt. Lockheed signed.

The night of the show was freezing cold, raining, and there was a impatient
and rowdy "heavy mental" crowd. A crowd surge pushed people through glass
doors earning them a few bandages and comp'd admission, and then when they
finally let us in the house has freaking festival seating. There was some
awful non-psychedelic band (chiliwack?) that opened the shows and was booed
into submission, and then when the Hawks took the stage they got a not much
better reception by most of the audience. Calvert fronted the show. Robot
and Reefer Madness were played - with Bob's delivery  both tunes seemed to
be plain indictments of the crowd...

Perhaps we would have loved it more if we knew that Hawkwind would not
return stateside again till '89.