HW: Ron and Jerry

[IAN ABRAHAMS]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kirsten Procter" <kprocter at CHIARK.GREENEND.ORG.UK>
> > Well, <shrug> also...but I wasn't playing fantasy line-ups. I was
talking
>  True. Sorry, that was just my pushing things a bit to provoke
> thought. It doesn;t always work. Even with me.
>
> > about DB's pulling together the best line-up he possibly could. IMHO,
and of
> > course only IMHO, this was pretty much achieved on the winter tour: the
two
> > longest serving members aside from Brock and, arguably, the two best
> > musicians (SH, H-LL) that have played in Hawkwind.
>  <nod> I don;t even want to think abotu a Hawkwind without Simon
> House. It feels, to me, as ridiculous as a Hawkwind without Dave
> Brock. It's doable, but it's not good. I realise that I am alnmost
> certainly alone in this feeling.

I certainly don't think you're alone in that feeling! It was *so* good to
see Simon on the Winter Tour. I'd have to add, AT LAST also as I saw the
only gig on the 89 Winter Tour he didn't play on (flu apparently) and the
only mini-tour 1999 show he didn't guest at (Cornwall too far away?!?). It
was a real thrill to hear him, and I certainly don't want to imagine HW
without him again ;-)

With SH & HLL in the band, this line-up could do a really fabulous version
of Dreaming City with Simon's violin adding to the mournful atmosphere of
the song.

> > I don't really go for Dave's solo stuff either. But he's in a great
position
> > of being able to gather around him a great support team and after
30+years
> > of  *being*  Hawkwind sort of pick and choose who he works with. I
thought
> > the winter tour was pretty special (I have a hunch that I enjoyed Space
> > Bandits 1990 a bit more but that might have been circumstances) and the
> > line-up near perfect...I really treasure that night in Swindon. I
realise
> > that's just my opinion but it seems to be shared around quite a bit.
>
>  I didn't see the Swindon gig. I'd been planning on going to Brighton,
> but confusion over that and lack of babysitters meant that I missed
> that and only saw Croydon (and the RFH and Christmas party). I do take
> your point, but it seems to me that if Hawkwind really is Dave 'with a
> great support team', well, I'm going to get tired fairly quickly. This
> isn't happening, I hasten to add. I do think that it'd be nice to see
> new stuff, and that the person who was supplying the new stuff I'd like
> to see being missing is, well, sub-optimal, but, as I said, if the
> line-ups staying reasonably steady, then maybe we'll get that. Would be
> nice, no?

Would be great and if this line-up can run for a while then I would think it
a safe bet that there's new stuff to come (didn't Dave suggest that Huw has
some stuff worked out a while back?) and also more re-introductions of stuff
not played for a while. In terms of Hawkwind being DB with a great support
team, really I was just trying to make the point that he seems to be in the
nice (deserved) position of being able to pick and choose who he works with.
For the tour, to my ears, he assembled a line up that might look unlikely on
paper (ie SH & HLL playing lead instruments together) but really worked on
stage.

>
>  <shrug> I realise tide of opinion is against me, but that's why I
> spoke up in the first place - I'm sure it's been pointed out before
> that the best way to get an answer is to say something controversial,
> or even wrong, well, I don't have many of the answers, but I did want
> to add my 2p here.

I think general consensus is that people are pretty chuffed with the live
output this year, which is really nice to read after the somewhat
disappointing reactions to the 1999 minitour (nice gigs but not enough
musical discipline and too much Ron & Nik  trying to out-do each other as I
recall). But the band's history is such that not everybody is going to be
happy with a particular direction..but hey, thinking that things were always
better "in the past" is part of the qualification of being a fan :-)

Ian