HW: NikWar Spam (warning: really really long)

[Jonathan Jarrett]

On Fri, Aug 09, 2002 at 07:40:11AM -0400, King of Comedy typed out:
> THIS SMELLS LIKE THE WORK OF CHRIS HEWITT AT OZIT-MORPHEOUS, AND THESE EX-
> MEMBERS SHOULD BE ARGUING WITH THE RECORD LABELS, NOT DAVE.
> WHERE IS THIS POST FROM?
>  I CAN'T FIND ANYTHING RELATED TO IT AT ANY NIK RELATED SITES, COULD IT BE
> A WIND-UP?
> VERY UNWISE EITHER WAY.
> I THOUGHT NIK WOULD STOP ALL THIS, AND JUST ACCEPT THE NAME CHANGE.
> NOW WHOSE THE MONEY GRABBER?
> LEAVE THIS STUPID COURSE, AND GET ON WITH THE FAKIN MUSIC GUYS!

        I agree with all of this except the capitalisation, the
misspellings and the punctuation. Of course if you're on Nik's side then
this is a Hawkwind-camp mailing from arch-lackey Dibs, isn't it, so it
must be Eevil, but in fact you're quite right.

        I no longer really know what to do about this loyalty
situation. It does look like Chris Hewitt a lot, but Nik's been known to
say similar things in interviews when riled enough; and Dave's equally
rude at much lesser length on IRC sometimes, cleaner-worded of course
which counts for something.

        The way through this used to be to buy what you wanted from either
camp, and damn their attempts to get you "on-side" or whatever. I was
quite looking forward to the Greasy Truckers do as the last one was lots
of fun and maybe it would force ICU to be in the same place for long
enough to come up with new songs. Now I'm having to choose between going
because it'll be fun, or cutting off my nose to spite Nik's court case. I
mean, if nothing had ever been said about where the money was going I'd
have gone quite happily. And if it's a GTP do shouldn't the proceeds be
going to charity anyway? I don't consider lawyers a charity.

        Can we talk in terms of right and wrong here? Maybe. Nik's
undoubtedly deliberately causing trouble with the name XHawkwind. Partly
for all the confusion reasons adduced on-list but also because, if I
remember wrongly, in either 1992 or 1993 Dave sued him over the use of the
name Hawkwind, because he'd done a US tour a fortnight in advance of the
real band (I have no problem over which band is the "real" Hawkwind) going
through several of the same places, as "Nik Turner's Hawkwind" and a good
few people thought it was the real deal and got a shaky early Nikwind
instead. At which point, as I understand it, Dave was awarded full
ownership of the name Hawkwind and Nik was barred from using it. So if he
uses it at all he's putting a red flag up, however justified he may feel
in doing so.

        Nik Turner's Space Ritual is a good name, describes something of
what you're going to get, has worked for him before and will surely reach
any real fans anyway. But Nik thinks he has a claim on the old name. I
think that whether or not he has, when it went to law before that right
was taken off him and sorry but that's how it stands. Now I want him to
stop causing trouble because it stops either band doing as much to get new
material out or touring, and feeds lawyers not the bands which I hate
contributing to.

        Not that Dave is like, irreproachable or anything, because he has
gone to some fairly petty efforts to stop Nik making any money just
because he's Nik. Nobody expected or believed a real Hawkwind to be at the
last GTP do and all of the advertising I saw for it made it clear who was
going to be there because every extra name was a selling point, but Dave
was still telling BOC-L to get their money back and not to support
it. Then there was the whole domain-name war and that all looks equally
petty and I wish they wouldn't also.

        As I say I have no problem telling which is the real band. No
matter how many ex-members Nik gets under his banner (and again, I wish it
wasn't a propaganda exercise) they still represent a retread act, and all
they have to sell is awful-quality live stuff on Oz-IT that even
Voiceprint would maybe check before putting out. Hawkwind proper has been
active all those years Nik hasn't and though they're doing not much that's
obvious just now other than sailing on past glories themselves they have a
lot more of those laid up than does Nik. That said, they threaten new
material at Canterbury and if they actually get an album out before
Hawkwind do I shall be highly amused, and I will buy it and doubtless be
horribly disappointed but hey, that will happen when I buy the next
Hawkwind too. Maybe we can rate them by how many new songs each gets into
the setlist in the gap between releases. Hawkwind's current total isn't
bad, what, `Money Tree', `Anna Seed', those two new Ron pieces we got on
the last tour with him on board, and now `Strange Fruit' or whatever it
is, plus optional Dave solo material that might be relabelled in the event
of shortage. But only one of those can be put down in the studio with
current line-up so Nik doesn't have to do much to take the lead...

        But anyway, let's just do some sums a minute. Space Ritual (I
refuse to use the damn .net and I hope Nik will drop it) currently numbers
Nik, Thomas Crimble, Mick Slattery, count Dave Anderson in since he's on
current advertising, Terry Ollis, and "other guests" which I think means
Calvert's son again, he should stay well out of this poor fish. And the
last spam I got from "hawkethos" mentions no other names. No Dik Mik or Del,
so let me dig up that Hawktime file I put together months back. Nik has
two founder members and his line-up between them as of last calculation
some eight months back had a total of 13 years and four months' time in
Hawkwind between them. If Ron turns up that jumps to nearer 20 which tells
you something about their longevity as Hawks; if Dik Mik does too then
24. Wow. Long time to be in Hawkwind, but still seven years less than Dave
alone has been.

        Dave only has one founder member unless you count Huw, which I
might well do actually. But his line-up (I assume Brock-Chadwick-Davey-
House-Thompson-Lloyd Langton-Blake so as to keep it to the same minimum
we've kept Space Ritual to, no Keith or Rizz or Harvey (not that I'd
expect Harvey, see in a minute)) have a combined time of *81 years* in
Hawkwind, and four of them are the longest-serving members the band's ever
had. Dave and Alan both have more time in the band than the whole of
Nik's basic line-up do all combined. And if you measured it on writing
credits, well, um, let me put it this way as far as I can tell Nik's
band have 4 solo and 14 assist credits between them, and most of the
assists are for the eight band-credited numbers on the first two albums
(as the remasters have the credits) or material written by Brock-Turner.
As against, ooh, how many songs have Hawkwind recorded? So no real
problems over which band is "Hawkwind" for me I'm afraid. Nik, settle for
Space Ritual and get down to some actual hard work in a studio with them
and indeed ICU, write some damn songs. Dave, let Nik settle for Space
Ritual, and get down to some actul hard work in a studio with Hawkwind,
write some damn songs. If you must compete, do it with what you can do,
not what the other side can't. And make sure Nik tells his promoters they
can't use the word Hawkwind or they'll get a cease-and-desist. It probably
does actually need that but that's all it should need.

        Enough? Nearly. There is the matter of royalties not paid. Now, a
lot of the Hawkethos spam seemed very fishy to me in that respect. Let me
pick some holes. Brock's issued CDs with early members of Hawkwind has
he? Well, yes, some of the Weird stuff has Slattery on, and _Atomhenge_
has Nik on at least, and I suppose some of the festivals stuff has some
others on. Only, thing is, when the Weird CDs came out I asked Adrian Shaw
(at a gig at the Standard soon after) if he'd got his money off them, and
he had indeed been paid, so if anyone wasn't they must have been picked on
deliberately. Wonder who? Doesn't seem that likely to me but maybe I
underestimate the Brock-Ayling axis as much as I maybe overestimate the
Turner-Hewitt one. It's certainly a matter to take up with the record
label, anyway, not Dave. And it would hardly be the only reason to have a
go at Voiceprint though if Hewitt tries he'll be laughed out of court
given his merchandise, I imagine. (The latest flyer was actually
printed! There weren't even any scrawled corrections or photocopied-to-
oblivion photoes!) But off the cuff, something looks wrong with that
because we know that Voiceprint were paying at least some of the royalties
on the Weird Tapes, and to members like Adrian who'd probably have
shrugged and carried on if they'd not got anything.

        The stuff about the injunction at Guildford is also
misleading. Nik has *already* been banned from using the name Hawkwind
(though possibly not in this country?) and he had, whether he knew it or
not, been so advertised as we've confirmed. Granted that presenting it at
the actual festival is very petty and doesn't do anything to stop the
publicity but maybe it's the only way they could find Nik...

        Good story I heard about that actually, apparently Nik did an
All-Stars set on the Sunday too, and announced the entire band as Dave
Brock. "I'm Dave Brock, that's Dave Brock on drums--on bass, Dave
Brock." And someone else apparently piped up, "I'm Dave Brock and so is my
wife". I hope this story is true :-)

        But anyway, back to the chase. We also know from Arin that
Hawkethos's claim that no-one asked for a refund is bogus, although
hawkethos may not know this because the festival organisers may just
have filed all such requests in the band. But it's still demonstrably
false.

        The list of the "70s stalwarts of Hawkwind" is also worth a
play. Here they are: "Lemmy, Michael Moorcock, Nik Turner, the estate of
the Late Barney Bubbles, the estate of the late Robert Calvert, Terry
Ollis, Steve Swindells, Harvey Bainbridge, Paul Rudolph, Alan Powell,
Adrian Shaw, Dave Anderson, Thomas Crimble, Mick Slattery, Dik Mik and Del
Dettmar." Time to count again, I make that a total of 50 years and 2
months, still noticeably less than the current HW line-up of about half as
many people. How stalwart exactly?

        But look yet more closely. Look very carefully indeed. Lemmy. Is
he in fact on any of the Weird stuff? One track on _Weird 106_ isn't
it? So okay maybe they didn't pay him, but it would be really stupid not
to given how small an amount it must be and the size of Lemmy's legal
clout. Moorcock has been unpaid for the Live Chronicles tour for a very
long time indeed, as he has often made clear, but up until just recently
he was willing to work with a Doug-Smith-less Hawkwind and that means the
only thing *he* could be griping about would be the phone-ins on _Yule
Ritual_, again not a huge amount no? Some writing credits there too but
still not much. Rudolph and Powell (they managed to reach Paul Rudolph?
Good effort!) might be upset about _Atomhenge_ I suppose. Harvey would
have to be _Yule Ritual_. Steve Swindells is on two tracks on the Weird
stuff.

        But you know what? Del isn't on *any* of it. The only person who's
been releasing stuff he's on without paying is Dave bloody Anderson, who
*also* isn't on any of the released stuff, but appears here cheerfully in
their company. And Adrian Shaw is on some of it but as I at least know
he's been paid. So this smells extremely bogus to me. Not only do we have,
in several cases, to assume that Voiceprint didn't bother sending out tiny
amounts of money when we know they paid Adrian, but, we know they paid
Adrian so he's got nothing to sue about. And anyone who's met him, can you
really see him taking Hawkwind to court? I can't. Or, it might just be
that EMI didn't pay people for the remasters but I don't personally find
it very likely and Adrian isn't on those *either*.

        I did think that this might be a mistake and what was actually at
issue was tour wages, because of course *no-one* got paid for Hawkestra I,
and I remember hearing (though I fully admit not through a source I can
any longer check) that Harvey wasn't going to perform with HW any more
after the first Xmas Party because he was still waiting for wages for the
New Zealand tour even then and was just very quietly not having any more
to do with it till he was paid. Simon was also supposedly unpaid at that
point but wasn't as broke as Harvey so didn't mind. So my source told me,
but this was the same source that told Jerry Richards was sueing for being
wiped off _Yule Ritual_ and that seems to have been rubbish so I don't
know how trustworthy it is. But in fact it can't be the Hawkestra I wages,
or even tour wages, because look, Adrian wasn't at Hawkestra I anyway and
there's absolutely no way the estates of Bubbles and Calvert could be
concerned. So this is at least partially complete fabrication I think, and
of course if part of it's lying you can hardly tell what *isn't*.

        We also, just to wind up, know that Dave didn't pull the War of
the Worlds gig and so does anyone who had tickets booked because the
promoters did a mail-out, no? So that's obviously rubbish to anyone who
knows what it's talking about. And the stuff using Moorcock's
correspondance is pretty despicable and others have talked about it
better than I can.

        So, if there *really* is a court case in the offing, there might
be grounds for it from a few people (certainly Moorcock; maybe Harvey) but
Moorcock would need to sue Doug Smith and Harvey would need to sue
Voiceprint. It's not going to be Dave's fault, or even if it is, somehow,
by evil counsels to the man Ayling, it's Ayling's responsibility to
actually pay.

        All this makes me think that I can't trust any of this and I'd
love to talk to Nik and find out what he actually thinks is going on, as
well as telling him how many fans this whole shebang is costing him. And
since I can't do that at Canterbury because I can't afford it I'll assume
the spam is lying about what the GTP revenues are going to (because as I
say if it's a GTP proper proceeds will go to charity anyway so that looks
wrong too) and damn well ask him there.

        But what we need is for someone who knows the people and what the
situation really is to spend some time on talking to people and arranging
things equitably so that no lawyers get involved. And there's only one
person who can do that, and it's... <ominous pause>

                                DOUG SMITH.

        Someone has to get Doug Smith back on board. And since Doug is I
gather (same dodgy source though) not on good terms with Dave it may have
to be Nik. But I think the only way ths gets sorted is if, Hawklords-like,
Actonium Doug can be awoken from his disinterest and told, "only you can
save the Hawkwind family from internal collapse, oh, and while you're at
it please get EBS on its feet again, please please please."

        I mean, I'd love to be the person who speaks reason to all
involved and gets a compromise sorted out that lasts, but I don't know the
people, none of them have any reason to trust me and the situation is
probably very different to what I think it is. And besides I have a
doctorate to finish and a toddler who's just fallen asleep behind me to
Captain Beefheart. And any other fan who feels the same way can
probably say similar things. The only person who can really approach all
these people (with the exception maybe of Moorcock so Nik will have to be
on-side too) with the relevant knowledge is Doug. Only trouble is making
him want to do so and it's such a mess I can't see why he should want to.

        That's the way I see it all anyway. Somebody is playing silly
buggers and I think it must be Hewitt. I really hope it's not Nik. And the
only help for it all is going to be Doug, or lawyers and complete band
stagnation and ill-will all round. Pfeh. I know which I'd rather
see. Yours all,
                Jon (at great length...)

ObCD: Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band - _The Mirror Man Sessions_
--
        Jonathan Jarrett                Birkbeck College, London
                 jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk
        --------------------------------------------------------
  "The large print giveth and the small print taketh away." (Tom Waits)