HW: Rock City (here we go).

[Nick Medford]

In message <200110191904.PAA00521 at listserv.spc.edu>, Doug Pearson
<jasret at MINDSPRING.COM> writes
>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.

It was indeed a top night- loads of atmosphere and energy, and whatever
happened at Nottingham I don't know, but You Better Believe It at
Croydon was a peak experience!

>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)

Strongly agree with this!

>
>>Didn't think Ron was on form.
>
>I don't think that was the case at Croydon (IMO), he was pretty hot there

Have to disagree with this though. He was all over the place. He was OK
when he just had to belt it out  (Flying Doctor, Hippy), but the rest of the
time he was clearly struggling. Having said that, I've also got a copy of the
recording and I was surprised how good he sounds on it. But it wasn't
convincing on the night. I think I posted something to this effect at the
time- seemed to me that Ron was becoming increasingly erratic: I didn't see
the Alien tour but lots of people said he was the best thing to happen to
HW for years, so my impression is that he was contributing much more
when he first joined. I'm not really surprised he's gone.  I hope he gets it
together 'cos I think there is some talent lurking there somewhere, but it's
depressing to see that the first thing he's done is take part in a live album
(Bajina) which is mostly old HW songs.... (Caveat: I haven't heard it,
maybe it is startlingly original, but I doubt it *very* much).

--
Nick Medford