Nik Q&A

[ANDREW GARIBALDI]

I spoke with Chris at Ozit following the Greasy Truckers event at whihc,
following an audience figure of around 800-900 quoted to me it seemed that
the whole camp was quite upbeat about it. 'What next' I enquired. 'Oh, I
think we'll get out the replacement version of the '2001' CD', he replied.
'Far be it form me to try and influence you in any way', I said,'but if you
think you are a couple of steps ahead of the game right now, then issuin g
this would take you ten steps backwards. In all honesty, you have to
remember that most of the people and retailers who bought the CD did it
without knowing the quality of the sound contained therein, which is why so
many sold, but if yuo repeat the process, I will certainly be advising
people simply not to buy it, and I imagine your sales will be a tenth of
what they were first time around, if that'. It was then suggested that the
decision was not Ozit's but Nik's so I said that, knowing they had decent
quality recordings of the Blackpool and Crewe gigs, the best thing they
could do is release a single CD of the best of those gigs and that it would
be the best backwards step known to man, to try and relaunch the '2001' CD,
so it will be extremely interesting seeing what happens next and whether the
Turner camp chooses ritual hari-kari over common sense.
Speaking of which I would imagine the Brock camp is fair to exploding
tonight if they've seen the advert in the new edition of Classic Rock for
The Limelight Club gig that is smack next to the advert for the Hawkwind
tour dates, in which one Limelight concert is billed as "XHawkwind" and
nothing else - methinks someone somewhere has boobed well and truly there -
more fuel on the fire anyone?
Andy G.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Colin Allen" <colin at CALLEN18.FREESERVE.CO.UK>
To: <BOC-L at LISTSERV.SPC.EDU>
Sent: Friday, November 02, 2001 1:26 PM
Subject: Re: Nik Q&A


> >Yes, but I seem to remember those _Spacebrock_ mispresses didn't go to
> >waste---Voiceprint used them as the "special free gift" for those who
> >collected enough of the Kollector release tokens.  At the time there
> >were a LOT of fans who thought that was the nadir of Hawkwind fan
> >exploitation...
>
> Myself included.  That certainly was a low point; however, we did not pay
> for them and I feel that the situation is rather different from that of
> 2001 where people paid money for a faulty recording which was touted as
> a "rarity" when, in fact, it should have been binned.
>
> Ultimately, all bands "exploit" the loyalty of fans; that is how the
> business works.  However, there are degrees of exploitation and I feel
that
> Nik has crossed into an area of exploitation of both fans and the name of
> Hawkwind/Hawkestra that is unacceptable to me at least.  We are all free
to
> make our own decisions and I do not think that I will be going to see
> Nik's "Hawkestra" again or buying any of their recordings.  If he was to
> reform ICU and tour and record with them, that would be a different matter
> entirely for me.
>
> Regards,
>
> COLIN