HW/NIK: Nikestra

[Jonathan Jarrett]

On Mon, Oct 22, 2001 at 07:28:38AM -0400, Gesticulates Very Expressively wrote:
> If you mean at the Greasy Truckers Party last night - give us a break, it
> was only last night... The bit of paper with all the info on set-lists and
> line-ups is still roaming round London.
>
> The Headline News: It wasn't as bad as expected.
> (But then four simultaneous bass players was always going to amuse me.)
>
>
> On Mon, 22 Oct 2001 11:45:54 +0100, Daniel Jackson
> <Djsatan.23 at BTINTERNET.COM> wrote:
>
> >Does anyone know whicjh rebels were performing at this, not seen one
> mention
> >of the gig, so was it as bad as exprcted?????


        I am indeed, still in London. However, I have a set-list here (Tim
and Andy were going to take the piss whether I made one or no) and here
therefore is some kind of review.

        I got there for the last few numbers of The Theory, who had
previously been known as Whitegate Drive and had therefore comitted the
public relations disaster of changing their name after the old name had
gone on the oublicity for what will probably be their biggest ever
gig. This band are not going anywhere. They reminded me of Ocean Colour
Scene and my comrade and mayhap-convert the above-cited Sherman of Pearl
Jam. After a while I thought of the Lucky Bishops too. All these bands do
it much better. Nothing to see here.

        They were followed on by Magic Michael. I don't care if he's Nik's
friend, he's awful. We got hacked-around versions of `The Lady is a Tramp'
and three other things. He can just about sing, he can just about strum a
guitar but it was still awful. Carl couldn't think of anything he'd ever
paid to see which was worse and that's perfectly fair in my regard. What's
even more annoying is that the running order later over-run so that Man
had to be cut short but we got this guy in full. Utterly execrable.

        Then, we got ICU. I can't explain fully how ICU were without
comparison to the Hawkestra but I will say this. They were lots of
fun. They didn't quite get it together; in particular the drummer (Dino
Ferrari) gave every impression of no longer Having It, and the bass player
(Naz) was following him. They just about met up with Steve Pond every now
and then but Trev (didn't play enough guitar) and Nik and Babyface Welch
(who was great) and a woman on keyboards and vox whose name I didn't get
were not really where they were for a lot of the time. Steve seemed to
veer uneasily between one and the other. Though he did, as he pointed out,
also bring the average age under fifty. Nik paid no attention to anyone
but on the other hand he actually got all the words right and in the right
place bar one glitch. My overall impression was that with two or three
more rehearsals and a different drummer they'd be something quite close to
as good as the records suggest they were. And it was great fun. Andy
Gilham was in hog heaven so I guess they must have been quite like they
used to be.

        Set-list (yes Tim) was (constructed with Andy's help as I knew
very few of these):

Bones of Elvis (sounded too much like the _Prophets of Time_ version to
        me)
Virgin Love
Solitary Astrid (very silly, words inaudible through Nik's painful
        falsetto)
Short Sharp Shock (does what it says on the tin; introduced by Trev with
        "We haven't had many rehearsals, you know, so ONE TWO THREE
        FOUR!" RIFF RIFF RIFF...)
?(didn't get a name for this one)
Space Invaders (truly and awesomely fucked-up midsection, Nik's attempts
        at imitating all the samples and effects of the original very
        creditable if unsuccessful)
?
Little Black Hen (I like this one, didn't know it before)
Fungus Among Us (was *great*)
(Something that might have been called `No. 1', not half bad)
Cybernetic Love (Nik finally in command and right where he was supposed to
        be, this was one of the ones that came together)
`Gas Money' (if that's the title)
        There were two things here that seemed to be `The Crusher'
        (which I don't know) from the words but I think only the latter
        actually was (death-metal Nik!) so I don't know what the previous
        one was...
(Encore)
Raj Neesh (bang on. Great)
World of LSD (lack of drumming (and indeed Fred Reeves and an
        organ) really showed up here but it was also awesomely fucked-up)
Watching the Grass Grow (not quite on, but still damn energetic)
(Second Encore)
Pennsylvania 65000 (no vocals, and sped up with increased riffing every
        time through--by the end anyone dancing would have broken both
        legs ((C) and (R) Lemmy 1996))

        As I say, given more time it would probably have been electrically
good; what there was was good enough to leave the crowd very
happy. However, they did over-run horribly. So Man only got twenty minutes
or so, which was a pity as I've never seen them so good. Deke is looking
much better this year, he seemed well and happy. Martin said nothing, a
new occurrence for rock surely. Micky was great. The keyboardist was I
think a guest, it certainly wasn't Phil Ryan, it may even have been the
boy who was with them at Canterbury in 2000. He could have been dispensed
with and cost them nothing. His one break was not very good. Especially
compared to Mickey and Deke. Set-list (brutally foreshortened) was:
Slide Guitar Intro To... (only a minute or so; for shame!)
The Ride and the View (which was marvellous, converted Sherman
        straightaway)
Romaine (pretty good)
(Encore)
Daughter of the Fireplace (bloody good)

        They rocked and kicked arse and things of that nature. What they
didn't do was address a word to the crowd, I suspect because of being
mightily pissed off at having their time cut so brutally.

        Then, then, the Hawkestra. Firstly, the line-up was (left to
right):
Del Dettmar (wood-axe VCS3 synthi)
Commander Jim Hawkman (who was on with ICU too, couldn't see what he was
doing but I suspect it was switch doctory in which case given what I was
saying of the RFH gig there's a lesson for the real band there; nor do I
know who this is unless it's Jim Lascko but isn't he kind of busy just
now?)
Steve Swindells (oh dear lord no. He *cannot* play; keyboards, vocals)
Jerry Richards (1st lead guitar, backing vocals
Martin Griffin (drums on some numbers)
Jon Moss (drums on the other numbers)
Babyface Welch (trumpet on some numbers)
Adrian Shaw (bass)
Dave Anderson (bass)
Nik Turner (sax, flute, vocals, ridiculous latex costume)
Thomas Crimble (bass - not sure I got this right, the guy I thought was
Dave Anderson was big and fat, this one thin and small)
Ron Tree (bass, backing vocals)
Terry Ollis (drums)
Mick Slattery (2nd lead guitar)
also
Nick Calvert (poetry)

        Thus the sound was very heavy. Four bass players. They really
could have got one of them on rhythm guitar and it would have helped. Mick
wasn't up to holding down a rhythm part and Jerry understandably didn't
much want to because he was very good. Steve Swindells really shouldn't
have. Otherwise I can't complain, they were all damn good. Especially, I
should say, Ron, who was perfectly profeessional all night and did his job
like a good 'un. So, what happened?

        Well, they took the stage less Messrs Welch, Moss and Calvert and
started off into something that slowly emerged as `Ghost Dance'. It was,
um, not terribly good, but its sheer rhythmic force couldn't be
gainsaid. Then, after a moment or two sorting out, `Born To Go'!

        This is a good point to attempt a simile. `Born To Go' has to me
always sounded like a Saturn Five taking off should do. Now, the old Space
Ritual era HW is that sort of spaceflight. Huge, almost mindless power to
lift something that would now be done in one or two Shuttle launches. The
Shuttle is by contrast more like the current HW. It's shiny and
technological, gets the job done in half the speed and with much less
energy expended, and runs on something like a profit-loss basis. And if
you want into space quickly there's no better way. And yet it's not half
so impressive as the sheer weight of metal and wasted energy with which
America actually put man on the moon. Now, last night we were flying
old-style. But with this difference, that Saturn 5s were put into orbit
with great care and precision, and here again you can draw a simile with
the Space Ritual sound, it was directed to an end and had shapes. This was
mostly force. The guidance was at best rudimentary. But if you were there
that really didn't matter because the important thing was that force with
which it went. Much close, I imagine to the Space Ritual than even last
year's bit with Lemmy was, making up for loss of finesse with extra bass
and drums. I don't think recordings will convey this at all. It was
incredible in a different way to the real band's current
incredibleness. And for that uniqueness, very special indeed. `Born To Go'
was, as they say, all of that last night. One of the bass-payers was all
over it too; I thought it was Dave Anderson (as I thought) as he was the
only one I could see doing anything to account for it, but I wasn't able
to see Ron and he was playing well enough that it could have been
him. Sherman thought it was Adrian being subtle which is also possible.

        Then, heaven only knows why, Steve read a very bad poem which was
probably called `Rock of Ages' given how many times that phrase cropped
up. ABAB rhyme scheme, cod content, bad imagery, F-, see me. But
anyway. It was soon over and Del made some noise during it. Then came
`Spirit of the Age'. This was Ron's turn at the front and he led the crowd
through the sing-along bit he's been doing lately but the song itself was
bludgeoned through at us and he couldn't get much of a reaction. Nik was
trying to get people on stage at points but he didn't succeed--we were
standing open-mouthed mostly, or moshing. As the aftermath settled Jon
Moss was introduced and took over from Martin Griffin (who looks exactly
as he did in 1981. Scary).

        Now Nik asked the crowd for requests and heard Carl shouting for
`D-Rider' and so that's what we got. At least, we got the verses of
`D-Rider'--almost everything between them was actually `Golden Void' but
you understand I'm not complaining. Nik had just said how they weren't
doing any of Dave's songs as he wasn't there and they wanted to do the
songs of the people who were so I found it slightly ironic. But also very
heavy. This was the only point at which I could actually hear Mick
Slattery and he was soloing OK. Not great but not bad. Whether he did
anything else of note I don't know. Jerry was really all the guitar there
was and he consistently played a blinder.

        I didn't manage to get my shout for `Orgone Accumulator' heard but
someone else did and they did that! I was dumbfounded, not only a band
actually playing requests from the floor but this band actually being
rehearsed enough to get away with it! It was, well, pretty good really
:-) It was followed by Nick Calvert being brought on, very nervously, to
read one of Bob's poems; I ddn't recognise it but it was about his and his
wife's domestic routine and how they fitted together and it was in no way
a candidate for maximum space noise backing such as it got. Mr Calvert
looked completely out of place, poor kid. Ah well. As he finished Martin
Griffin must have returned to the stand, as he was back there when I next
looked.

        So they did `Masters of the Universe' and pretty much defined
blanga. That's all you can say about that. It was. It went on for ages too
and it was still too short. Bayface was in on the last bit of it too.

        Then there was `You Shouldn't Do That', also called from the
crowd, and that was similar. You know, we were there by now, this was the
stuff, destination was unimportant, it was as locked down as it needed to
be and we were being steadily blangad to bits. It was followed by `Hassan
i Sabha' which was heavy and unsubtle but very effective, and wound up in
a mini-`Welcome to the Future'-style ending. Then, at last, there was
`Brainstorm' and that's easily the best version I ever saw and is likely
to remain so. It was everything it should ever be with the lack only of
Brock guitar but Jerry can imitate it well enough for what was
required. Nik did a verse of `Sonic Attack' in a lapse in the middle and
then it went on some more. And as the chaos settled and everyone wound up
he played `Happy Birthday' to the Hawkestra on his sax.

        It was, I think we can safely say, the genuine article. The
politics of it were right to the fore, Nik made sure we knew whom had
refused to do it and so forth (and said Lemmy would have if he could which
has got to be a fib) and that it was being done in a cooperative
style. That said, the dynamics of it were really interesting. Nik was in
command; he was calling changes, albeit fairly basic ones like slow down,
quite, speed up, noise, with hand gestures but he never really looked the
the band. It was the duty of Lieutenant Richards to put it into practice
on one side of the stage and Lieutenant Tree on the other. Jerry was
looking directions to Adrian, and Dave and Thomas were pikcing up off
him. Ron was picking up off Jerry and Adrian and Mikc and sometimes Thomas
were keeping in place by watching Ron. Del was on his own beacuse that's
how it works; Steve was panicky all through and mostly watching Nik for
guidance which was hopeless. The drummers were I assume taking their leads
from Adrian (who was looking all about and at point playing like a demon
possessed, never seen him at that pace before) and Ron. It all worked,
just about, it shook but it held together. This was what was missing from
ICU where Nik and Trev were both uncertain who was leading, Naz and Dino
were with each other but no-one else and Steve trying to bring the two
factions together from a bad position on stage. They didn't have it
together; the Hawkestra, amazingly, did. All credit to them I say; Nik's
proved at least some of his points. Yours,
                                           Jon

P.S. The merchandise stall also had a (one) copy of Harvey's _Red Shift_
which no-one else bought. So I did, ner. I also wound up in Brighton
for the night for unclear reasons and before I'd left it had managed to
acquire _Family Tree_ for eight quid and a Man LP. But that's all right
because for the third week running Birkbeck assure me the administrative
difficulties which have stopped my funding arriving are solved so the
money will be there to pay for it all imminently. Oh yeah :-)



Politics
Bass-playing styles
Communications


--
Jonathan Jarrett, part-time bookseller's assistant & medieval historian
Pembroke Cambridge   "I flatter myself that we are almost the only people
Birkbeck London       who understand and relish _nonsense_." (Hazlitt)