HW: Brighton

[M Holmes]

Krishne writes:

> Line-up was DB/Alan/Rich/Tim, plus Arthur Brown. No Huw, no
> Simon- dunno what the story is. Anyway they didn't *sound* short-
> staffed and Tim did a great job, playing synth as more of a lead
> instrument than usual. I still don't like his solo stuff but he's playing well
> in HW. Arthur Brown is a born entertainer, excellent singer, and even
> seems to have learnt the words now. The 2 Arthur Brown numbers were
> OK, but didn't really sound at home in the set IMHO. But interesting to
> see HW try something completely different, although it does seem an odd
> move. Even more surprising was the new mid-section in Hassan I
> Sabbah, with all manner of programmed drum wizardry taking it into
> trance techno territory- maybe not everyone's taste but I loved it. When
> you see the same old songs appearing on the setlists, you tend to forget
> how much these old faves can mutate from tour to tour.
>
> It took a while for them to completely hit their stride, but things seem to
> take off with Lighthouse (not normally one of my favourites but hypnotic
> and cool tonight), then a blinding rendition of  The Watcher, which really
> slinks along evilly these days. The absolute highlight: You Shouldn't Do
> That, with the Seeing It As You Really Are coda and a snatch of what
> might just be a (gasp) new song to round it off. You Shouldn't Do That is
> one of the ultimate HW songs, but the only time I've heard it live before
> now was at the Brixton Hawkestra. It was just brutal tonight, astonishing,
> and mixed with the barrage of strobes to truly mind-altering effect.

Yep, It'd be great to see more of that techno sound they brought in
after Space Is Their Palestine. Tim certainly seemed more alive playing
that than his solo set. An album of that style certainly wouldn't go
amiss, particularly if Simon's violin accompanied it.

> So- overall a very good gig, perhaps not one of the very greatest

I thought Brighton was one of the best Hawkwind gigs I've seen.
Certainly up there with the best of the last tour.

> certainly there were some serious highlights in there. Enjoy
> Walthamstow, those who are going.

I did, very much.

So we seem to be getting new numbers from putting together an old poem
with an old instrumental. We've had Sonic Attack and Spacebrock, which
doesn't work for me with Arthur's vocals. I've always been sold on
Calvert's version for poetry and the Sonic Attack version for music.
However the Earth Calling and Seeing It As You Really Are combo really
rocks. I really hope we see a longer version of that soon.

So what other combinations would work? What would go with Spiral Galaxy
or Wind of Change?

FoFP