HW: 4 new re-issues

[Stephan Forstner]

Well, the outside of these at least came as a pleasant surprise. Some of the
music has to be considered second-string Hawkwind, for various reasons, and
there are no new bonus tracks or anything (with a very minor exception on
F&R), but I don't think you can look at these as just another rip-off by a
company out to make a fast buck. Cleopatra/Purple Pyramid have clearly taken
some trouble with the presentation here, and the result is releases that may
be of interest to more people than just kollectors - now if they'd only
taken some trouble with the actual disc contents as well...

First off, the card covers are not just a sleeve, at the minimum they are
well-constructed mini LP cases, with a spine that has legible lettering, and
some are more elaborate. If you don't yet have any of these releases, it's
unlikely that there are going to be any nicer ones coming along in the
future so you might want to pick these up. If you already have previous
releases of this material, then its going to depend on how much you like
nice packaging. Here's a breakdown, anything pertaining to how the discs
sound is subjective.

Zones
-----
Comes in a mini-LP sleeve. The full front and back cover artwork from the
original LP is reproduced, and is nice and crisp, looking a whole lot
sharper than on the previous CD reissues I've seen, very nice. They've then
done the original one better by listing the dates and venues for all the
tracks. Inside, the CD is in a cardboard inner sleeve, and there is also a
one-sided fold-out 15" x 10" color mini-poster. The poster is a nice
additon, but the picture itself is nothing special (silhouette of Dave
playing guitar in front of the hawkhead graphic from the cover) and I don't
think you'll want this just for the poster. The original Zones LP didn't
have especially good sound, but the CD reissue (Anagram) improved it - this
new version doesn't sound exactly the same as the Anagram version but I
don't think it sounds better (or worse), just slightly different.

This is Hawkwind, Do Not Panic
------------------------------
Comes in a gatefold mini-LP sleeve, the outer cover art has gold lettering
and is a reproduction of the original vinyl art, the inner gatefold photos
are of the band on stage at Stonehenge (at least one of them is, I think the
others are too). My LP/12" copy has red lettering on a single sleeve, so I
can't be sure, but I'm guessing the new reissue reproduces the original
Flicknife inner gatefold art. Once again track dates/venues have been added,
but it looks like they goofed slightly and were too late to print it
properly, so the extra info is on a tastefully applied small gold sticker.
Once again the CD is in a cardboard inner sleeve and there is a fold-out
mini-poster, this time a color shot of the band on stage at (presumably)
Stonehenge. The original vinyl had pretty good sound, the Anagram CD reissue
had better sound, and again, the sound here doesn't seem to be quite the
same as the Anagram CD.

Friends and Relations
---------------------
Just like Zones, comes in a mini-LP sleeve reproducing the original
Flicknife LP artwork, disc in carboard inner sleeve, mini-poster this time
features a b/w photo of the '76 lineup in a garden, same photo-shoot that
provided some of the pics in the Thrilling Hawkwind Adventures and Atomhenge
76 booklets. Actual disc content is not so straightforward this time though,
so I'll break it down by track.
1) Who's Gonna Win the War? - here we've got the full-length version of this
track, with the crashing-chords-intro that's been chopped off on all the
other CD reissues I've heard (I haven't heard the first Flicknife CD comp).
In fact AFAIK there is no other officially available version of this song
that has this intro, they all start in with Harvey's bass line. Correct me
if I'm wrong please. Good good good.
2) Golden Void - available on previous F&R CD reissues/compilations.
3) Robot - they used the butchered version. Aargh! Losers. No excuse, they
could have taken the Weird 77 version and re-constructed this track, I think
they're the same except that the F&R edit has Bob saying 'We're all going to
end up like Robots' added over the intro. Bad bad bad.
4) Raj Neesh (ICU) - available on previous F&R CD reissues/compilations.
5) Good Girl, Bad Girl (Mike Moorcock's Deep Fix) - not available on
previous F&R CD reissues/compilation AFAIK. I wonder where they got this
from? I doubt they actually did any real work to get this particular track
as opposed to the others so it must be available somewhere. I'm happy to
have this on CD, probably most people won't care. Good girl.
6) Valium Ten (HW) - available on previous F&R CD reissues/compilations.
7) Human Beings (ICU) - every place I've heard this track on CD it's sounded
speeded up, like they were playing a 33 at 45. This is the same. What the?
If you don't have F&R on vinyl, the only way you're going to hear how this
is supposed to sound is if you go to doremi.co.uk. Bad.
8) Time Centre (MMDF) - the CD version of this track on previous F&R
reissues/compilations was actually longer than the original version on vinyl
(the track continues past where it ends on the LP). The long version is on
here.

So this is the only disc with material that is possibly new to/hard to find
on CD. Mixed bag regardless.

Space Ritual Vol 2
------------------
This is a beautiful package, it rivals the EMI SR remaster (I think it's
actually even nicer). An accordion style gatefold opens out into 4 pages,
with nice graphics and band pictures including some of Stacia in full
body-painted glory. A 20 page booklet has more band photos, the band's
equipment list, a tour schedule, a reproduction of the original vinyl
gatefold art (outer & inner), plus an article including a story about DikMik
and Del using the sub-sonics on their synths to thoroughly freak out some
drug-sniffing police dogs, thereby saving the day and ensuring that the tour
could continue. You don't have to feel sorry for the dogs either because
Stacia comforted them right after. Then there's also a mini-poster repro of
the tour programme. All the text has appeared before in the EMI SR remaster
second booklet, but here it is presented in the original format. All the
photos can be seen at www.angel.dk, and the programme at
www.jonsattic.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/pages/ritualprog.html, but this is still
a really really nice package. The disc itself seems to be pretty much the
same as the countless previous SRv2 re-issues, but again the sound here
seems slightly different. If they had only done what they claimed and given
us a recording of the full gig, this would have been an out-and-out classic.

So to summarize, pretty packaging, discs nothing special. You probably
already know if you want to shell out for nice packaging, except that I
really recommend the SRv2, its one of the nicest HW CD issues I've ever seen.

Stephan