HW:Lyrics Question

[Nick Medford]

In message <005701c1ae93$3b6a91f0$bf170150 at yourpnqspyopyu>,
Nick Lee <nick.lee2 at VIRGIN.NET> writes
>I seem to remember reading a report about a free festival in Brighton in
>around '90 when the band were attacked on stage and some of their gear and
>van turned over by a gang of crusties. Given HW's dedication to the free
>festival scene over the years that may go some way to explaining the lyrics.
>Anyone else remember this, or even have the clipping?

Don't have a clipping but I read about it some 'zine at the time. In the late
80s a new phenomenon emerged at the festivals, the so-called "Brew
Crew",  nihilistic malevolent "fuck everything" crusties whose drugs of
choice were Special Brew and heroin and whose entertainment of choice
was often violent. For some reason some friction developed between
this mob and HW. Whether this was because they perceived HW as
boring old hippies or whatever, or whether there was a more direct
reason, I don't know. Nor can I recall which festival the trouble was at.
However the account I read said death threats had been made against the
members of HW and when they went onstage to play Brock had a
monkey wrench about his person in case trouble flared. Someone in the
crowd threw an egg and a melee ensued. Some of HW's gear was
damaged , as was their bus, and the Hawks had to be hidden away in
friends' vans around the festival site for protection from marauding Brew
Crew types.

At least that's what I read, possibly it was a sensationalised account,
although I did once find something on the web about this, on a
traveller/festival site, which was broadly in agreement with the above.

Footnote to Doug- the song Festivals is not about the "Battle of the
Beanfield", although "Confrontation" on Out and Intake and ICU's
"Stonehenge Who Knows" both relate to that infamous episode. But
"Festivals" is about being attacked by your "own side" as it were, it may
be connected to the incident described above but in a broader way it's
about the loss of innocence of the festival scene, its burgeoning dark side
of hard drugs and violence and the loss of community spirit. But thanks
for digging up all those links nonetheless, and I think the 'Festivals'
incident may be mentioned at at least one of those sites if you look hard
enough.

Oh and the lyrics were originally printed on the cover of Palace Springs.

--
Nick Medford