HW: Walthamstow Review

[dplaw]

nice review, pretty much agree with all sentiments, just a couple of other
points -

1 - was i the only person who thought that the public transport links to the
venue were rubish!, seeing as this was the bands "big" london gig i feel
that it should have been held in a more central location.

2 - the band should invest in a bigger p.a for a venue of this size.
although i thought the sound was good for the most part, it did'nt really
leap out and hit you + on that note if ever there was a band that should
employ a "quadrophonic" sound system then it must be hawkwind (before
anybody points out the obvious, i know that this would be very expensive +
hawkwind are not very rich)

anyway thats my 10p worth
dave

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ian Abrahams" <mail at ABRAHAMSI.FREESERVE.CO.UK>
To: <BOC-L at LISTSERV.SPC.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, December 15, 2002 8:41 AM
Subject: HW: Walthamstow Review


The usual five hour train journey from Cornwall to London and Stuart &
myself make it into town on Friday afternoon for a quick whiz around the
usual shops: Forbidden Planet, HMV, Borders and then its down to Walthamstow
to find the hotel before the four o'clock deadline when its going to be
cancelled...gosh, its a longer walk than it looks on the map (and going in
the opposite direction for ten minutes to start with doesn't help!)...3.55pm
and we are on the roundabout just before the hotel...but which way to
go??????

We make it with about three minutes to spare and say "Hi" to Arin in
reception and get ourselves booked in...theres a *great* bunch of people
hanging around and we get our introductions: Rich, Merrick & Julie French,
Alan Taylor, Keith Henderson, Denis Regenbrecht....Brock arrives with a
cherry "hello everybody" and a complaint that it took three and a half hours
to drive up from Brighton (the vintage car rally does it quicker than that
surely??).

We get ourselves settled in our room and time for a rest before heading down
to The Bell pub...next time we need to pick an establishment where they do
food...where we meet Mike Holmes, Jill Strobridge (no, Jill, despite what
you advised when we nearly met at St Austell in 1999...you don't look like
my Gran!!!), Bernhard Pospiech (a great pleasure to meet the guy who got me
onto the discussion lists in the first place - a highlight of the weekend
really) and others...spend some time chatting "children-talk" with Julie:
hope I don't embrass myself or the Frenchs by saying here what a smashing
lady, we came away feeling like we'd known her all our lives..and then off
to the gig in the company of our German friends.

Catch up at the gig with Alan Taylor and then meet Alan Linsley for the
first time and have a great chat. Litmus rather wash over us, but they
generally went down very well. No Tim Blake solo performance which was a
little disappointing (though from comments on earlier shows, not too
disappointing). Great Hawkwind performance - a pity that Simon didn't show
and very sad that Huw's membership seems to be slipping away again (it
shouldn't end like this, but the impression is that he was "tired and
emotional" once too often). Arthur Brown was a real revelation - a whirlling
dynamo of energy - lets hope that he sticks around as he's certainly
freshened up the format.

Set List a bit uninspired compared to last year. Great to hear Out of the
Shadows (how did the horse of the same name do in the 12.10 at Haydock
yesterday..we liked the co-incidence bet), Aerospaceage *very* good,
Assassins of Allah very tired but at least not quite as uncomfortable to
listen to as last year. In keeping with what we read about the rest of the
tour, Tim Blake very hard to pick out for most of the set, but he made the
most of an extended intro for Lighthouse...

Very sinister Sonic Attack..the first time I've enjoyed this
one...marvellous Spirit of the Age. Very much a tight performance from the
power trio but I enjoyed the fuller range of sound on last years tour that
bit more.  Lets hope Simon surfaces again for next year.

We have a great time after the show in the party that Arin so kindly pulled
together, catch up with Ben Fagin (yeah - we saw the steam train at
Paddington station, Ben!) and finally head off to the hotel at 1.30am!

Very leisurely breakfast the following morning, chatting again with Alan T,
Bernhard, Rich & Arin and we meet Nick Lee as well. Finally, we head back to
our room to gather our stuff and encounter Dave Brock coming the opposite
way.

Dave gives us a very cherpy "Morning!"   Twenty years I've been going to his
gigs and at last have said hello...I *knew* if I held out long enough he'd
have to speak first :-)))    A thrill!

A great event, made Very special by meeting so many wonderful people from
the discussion lists. Big thank you to Arin for her sterling work in
organising the hotel (thanks also due to Rik I believe) and the after the
gig party..and yes, Arin, I did buy "Chimes of Midnight" in Forbidden Planet
yesterday!

Ian