Getting heady with Dave Anderson

[David Howard & Kim Pieters]

Here in New Zealand it is easy to be complacent; we are of zero strategic
significance (unless the Japanese decide that penguins are a restaurant
delicacy), have a modest and dignified Islamic population, a long-standing
and popular non-nuclear policy, and the worst that can be said of us is that
we excel in the mediocre.

We're temperamentally laid-back, however my own easy-go attitude was tested
by Dave Anderson's re-release policy. Before locating the reference sites on
the web which trace the origin of DemiMonde releases, I squandered money on
no less than seven CDs (including two multiple sets) only to find that I
already possessed the material - material which should, in any case, never
have been released. Now I am more suspicious of purchasing 'new' Hawkwind
releases than I am of a politician's statements on terrorism.

The recent squabble between Dave Brock and Nick Turner might have caused a
mild sense of regret but beyond this sentiemntal response it cost me
nothing, nor was my regard for the parties permanently undermined. Not so
with Dave Anderson's operation: the thought that Nick will stand on the same
stage as this freeloader makes me shake my head; if either Nick or Dave
Brock provided his sonic circus with material shame on them. The reputation
of Hawkwind has suffered far more from the availability of this substandard
material than the odd performance by Space Ritual.com-nee X-Hawkwind.

Perhaps, now they're talking courteously to one another, Hawkwind and Space
Ritual might join forces to legally prevent the circulation of this material
or, as this course is probably impossible, they might like to publicly
disown Dave Anderson's family of mutant albums in press releases and on
their respective websites? After all, as the painter Robert Motherwell
noted, 'the artist's medium is his conscience and his collaborator.'

 David Howard