how we got into hawkwind

[Nick Medford]

'83 or '84, was listening to 60s/70s stuff like Hendrix, Doors, Floyd, Led
Zep... had the vague idea that HW were in a similar area. Heard Silver
Machine on some cheesy 'rock hits' type compilation, bought the UA single,
blown away by Seven By Seven on the B-side. A couple of weeks later I saw
Choose Your Masques in a bargain bin (for shame), snaffled it up and played
it over and over and over again for months. I knew it absolutely off-by-
heart and thought it was the most extraordinary music I'd heard up to that
point in my life. Which is strange 'cos now I wouldn't rate it as one of
the better HW albums... Fahrenheit 451 still does it for me though.

Next album was Do Not Panic which I bought the week it came out in '84,
soon after got PXR5 where I discovered the mighty Bob Calvert who swiftly
became my all-time favourite musicnaut. Saw him live only once, wish I'd
seen him with the Hawks but there you go.

First HW show: Black Sword, Hammersmith '85. I remember the excitement my
16 year-old self and my mates had about going to this gig. Difficult (and
perhaps not desirable) to retain that sense of awe and excitement as you
get older but ever since I knew the Hawkestra was definitely happening I
felt like I was 16 again! And it actually lived up to my wholly
unreasonable expectations!