HW:Don't buy Brocks solo CD let him know how we feel

[Jon Jarrett]

On Fri, 12 Oct 2001, Steve Johnson wrote:

> In a message dated 10/8/01 3:05:25 AM GMT Daylight Time, blyoung at BIGFOOT.COM
> writes:
> > If Nik's Nikwind wants to be accepted as a bonafide musical entity, then
> > will they be doing some new music at the upcoming gig?  Will they release a
> > studio album sometime in the future?  Or are they only planning to rehash
> > out old songs in live gigs henceforth?
>
>    And release godawful quality live albums.

        Te last Nikwind that released any new material was the
Pressurehed/Anubian Lights nexus, and Nik didn't contribute very much to
that really. Even where he might have done it's hard to say whether the
credits are correct given all the stuff came out on Cleopatra, and none of
them are lone credits so how much he contributed is anybody's guess.

        Nowadays there's the problem of what Nikwind is: the Hawkestra
going into the studio and turning out an hour or so jamming could be great
but is more likely to be thoroughly painful, and in any case you'd never
get all of them there (which might help). On the other hand the crew
currently more or less functioning as The Space Odyssey (next appearing
20th December, advertised as XHawkwind but on the actual stuff from them
as 2001 a Space Odyssey, being on that flyer Turner, Crimble, Slattery,
Ollis and Bainbridge) might, potentially, if you crammed them into a
studio for a week, come up with something not only releasable but quite
good. The real questions there would be, firstly, which of them has songs
left (both Crimble and Slattery long out of music before this I believe,
but might have ages-old things unrecorded, Nik's claimed before now to
write new songs all the time but we never see evidence of this, Ollis
never known to write anything top-class drummer though he be, and
Bainbridge has made only synth music for some time though he has a few
excellent little songs in is canon (`Free Fall', `Eons'). And, secondly,
would OzIT pay for it? Because if they *would* they really really
should; a genuinely new Nik album would be the best thing they've released
under his name so far, would make Hawkwind look decidedly shabby which I
doubt Nik would mind a bit, and would probably even make them money.

        I think if they rope in Adrian Shaw and Jerry Richards too they
have a project that could potentially flip most wigs. Ron too? Whether
anyone can be bothered to make this happen, well... After all, te current
HW lineup should by all rights be such a project and yes, great live. And
that's it, really, isn't it? I suspect that of the two Nikwind is
currently more likely to get into a studio and record simply because it's
seemingly more likely just to get together and jam for fun.

>    > If so, then is this going to benefit the name Hawkwind, and bring more
> > fans to
>    Hawkwind music?
>
> Absolutely not. As someone has already pointed out, it would more than likely
> turn them away.

        I forget who was saying Nik should just tour as Nikwind, but they
were right; he doesn't have the ability to be Hawkwind no matter who he
gathers round him and moreover he isn't legally allowed to. But he could
damn well do something if someone could kick the relevant
backsides. Yours,
                  Jon

n/p nothing! Crikey! Must fix that! and lo, Hawkwind, _Xenon Codex_
--
"I recognise that I have transgressed many of the precepts of the divine
law, and that I am subjected by various vices and iniquities, disobedient
to the words of the divine mystery brought unto me and a worshipper of the
delights of this military age." Marquis Borrell of Barcelona, 955 A.D.

             (Jonathan Jarrett, Birkbeck College London)