HW: Rock City (here we go).

[Doug Pearson]

On Fri, 19 Oct 2001 14:33:05 +0100, J D <Jeremy at DACOMBE.FSNET.CO.UK> wrote:
>Difficult to define "what was missing" .....
>Just playing some old classics doesn't necessarily make it a great
>gig for me.  You gotta play 'em right.

This is a very important point!  Well said!  (Although what's "right" for
one fan may not be right for another.)

BTW I haven't heard the Rock City gig, but I do have a recording of the
Croydon gig from the same tour, which I think is a superb show.

>Take Kings Of Speed in '89(?) ... what was the point in that?
>You'd Better Believe It was dire, I thought, despite it being a
>personal fav from 74.

I didn't like the first half of "Space Is Deep" on the spring tour &
Astoria - the keyboard-driven intro just doesn't do it for me (I thought
the Hawkestra rendition was much, much better), but the "rocking" second
half was great.  And I thought the rendition of "Flying Doctor" was really
good, too ... my only criticism would be that it was too close to the
original recording, but that may actually be a *good* thing.

>Thought the 2 news songs were appalling.

... and they seem to have been dropped from the setlist already?

>Didn't think Ron was on form.

I don't think that was the case at Croydon (IMO), he was pretty hot there;
like I said, "Flying Doctor" was really good, and "Hippie" was outstanding -
 there's an amazing guitar break in that one.  I'm quite disappointed to
hear that song is being left off the 'Yule Ritual' album (since it's easily
my favorite new Hawkwind song in at least five years) ... fixing technical
issues is NOT A PROBLEM when something exists on a 24-track multitrack
(bass & vocals too loud? Turn the channels down, duh!  And with a digital
multitrack, it's SIMPLE to synch up another digital recorder, and add
tracks on the new machine to comp into the rough spots if need be ... there
are even digital plug-ins that will "sample" the "ambience" of a recording
and simulate it on another track, so that re-recorded fixes can be dropped
in seamlessly without compromising the "live" sound).

>Came away, disappointed, that's all I can really say.
>I'd love to hear a decent tape from the tour to try and check what I'm
>saying.  Can anybody help?

The Croydon gig I have a recording of seems to have been fairly-widely
distributed ...

    -Doug
     jasret at mindspring.com