++++ HW: Covers All Final Call/ Studio album

[Jon Jarrett]

        Oh, the iron is still hot, let's have another crack with it...

On Mon, 14 Apr 2003, Colin J Allen wrote:

> As ever, responses are in the text.

        Thanks for the indents this time, it helps.

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jon Jarrett" <jjarrett at CHIARK.GREENEND.ORG.UK>
> To: <BOC-L at LISTSERV.SPC.EDU>
> Sent: Monday, April 14, 2003 8:24 PM
> Subject: Re: ++++ HW: Covers All Final Call/ Studio album
>
> > On Wed, 12 Feb 2003, Colin J Allen wrote:
> >
> > > I think that this particular line of discussion should probably end
> here.

        <snip>

> >         I'd love to know why Colin felt that he should say
> > what he did to that. Perhaps it's a joke I'm not getting. It's certainly
> > not his call to make. Along similar lines...
>
> Sorry, I did not realise that I need your permission to make a comment!

        Are you being deliberately ironic, or do I really need to make
clear that I was questioning your right not to post what the hell you
like, but to try and shut down others' discussion?

> > On Thu, 13 Feb 2003, Colin J Allen wrote:
> > >
> > > Hawkethos was not believeable:).  Harvey is doing solo work at the
> moment (I
> > > spoke to him a couple of days ago and he is working on new material).
> > > Simon's absence from the tour was for real and valid reasons; he will be
> on
> > > the album and, all being well, back on stage soon.  I do not think that
> > > anything on the scale of Hawkwestra will happen but there may well be a
> few
> > > surprises.
> >
> >         So are you saying that there was no suit and that Nik and Chris
> > Hewitt were making the whole thing up? If you aren't, what are you saying?
>
> Strangely, we have not heard anything more of this suit and neither have
> most of the people listed in the Hawkethos post.  Draw your own conclusions.

        Thanks for this. A little unclear as to whom "we" is in this
case. Does it include Dave, whom Nik was claimed by hawkethos to have met
about this?

        And, um, what about Dave's suing of Nik?

> >         Normally I'd preface something like this with a phrase along the
> > lines of `I hope you'll forgive me for saying' or some such, but actually
> > I won't pretend to care. `This album' has been in the works for five
> > years, in the course of which at least one other notionally `new' Hawkwind
> > album (_Spacebrock_) has come out thus using up a precious third of the,
> > what, six at most new tracks we've seen the band play in that time. In
> > *five years*.
> >
> >         Furthermore, in that time we've seen, um, at least five people
> with
> > previous writing credits leave the band (though none of them were on the
> > last studio album billed as Hawkwind anyway), and Moorcock at least once
> > publicly disavow any further involvement with Hawkwind. This bloody album
> > could hardly get more unexpected. *If* it finally emerges, which I no
> > longer believe anyone saying, I'm sure some people will think it's good,
> > but one of the people Brock pays to lie to the fan-base about this is
> > not going to be the person whose opinion I trust on this. You can safely
> > let me make up my own mind thanks. Yours,
>
> Jon, when making comments it is rather useful to get one's facts correct,
> rather than allowing your own delusions free rein.  I am sure that you can
> make up your own mind (you seem already to have done so).  As usual, your
> logic is so flawed as to be amusing.

        That wasn't logic (because you know what logic is, right?), it was
an opinion, but it did contain facts, which you imply, without saying as
usual, that I've got wrong. Challenging me on facts can sometimes be a
highly effective strategy but not, I think, this time. Let's gather them
in.

        "This album has been in the works" since it was announced that the
next project would be on the Death Generator theme, on the old
hawkwind.com.  That's where I remember it anyway, but in case I was wrong
I searched the archives of this list and you'll find it was being talked
of as early as August 1998, by Dave Brock, to the US press. See
<http://listserv.spc.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9808C&L=BOC-L&P=R2451>. You'd
prefer "four years eight months" instead of "five years" would you? Fine.

        Last Hawkwind studio album was _Distant Horizons_. My copy says it
was recorded 1997, what does yours say? Since then, we've had, from
current line-ups, _Hawkwind 1997_ (live and limited), _Hawkwind In Your
Area_ (half live, and most studio tracks not with the whole band), _Family
Tree_ (not a Hawkwind album), _Spacebrock_ (mostly recycled and with only
two current Hawkwind members on it, one of those only on a few tracks) and
_Yule Ritual_ and  _Canterbury 2001_ (both live). Tell me I missed a
studio album in the last nearly *six* years, go on.

        New tracks, leaving aside stuff released on _In Your Area_: `Anna
Seed', `Spacebrock' & `Money Tree', whatever the name of Ron's rework of
`The Owl and the Pussycat' was, `Earth Calling' in two different versions
and I *think* there was another Ron one about aliens in 1999. That would
be seven maximum, and two of those alternative versions of another
two. Oh, and `Strange Fruit', sorry, six or eight. I counted six, and one
third of those have been issued, `Spacebrock' (and indeed `Money Tree'
though in this case the tracks are the same) and `Earth Calling'.

        People with previous writing credits leaving: Ron Tree, Jerry
Richards, Captain Rizz, Simon House, Harvey Bainbridge, Keith Kniveton. Do
I need to point out the songs as well? I expect you'll quarrel with the
word "leaving" as none of them officially have, indeed the website still
thought the line-up was Brock-Chadwick-Tree-Richards when it last had such
information, but none of them bar Rizz and possibly Keith will be
appearing with the band any time soon I suspect, and that's something one
might expect from a band member, really.

        I'm not going to hunt through <http://www.multiverse.org> for
Moorcock's public post supporting Nik and refusing to work with Dave any
more, because they don't have searchable archives yet, and there are
enough people on this list who did see it at the time. Not the first time
he's said he'll never work with Hawkwind before of course and I imagine it
won't be the last. But say it he did.

        In fact, the only fact I'm not sure of here is whether or not Dave
pays you. I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't, though. Feel free to
correct me on that. Not sure which other of my facts you think are deluded
though.

        I have indeed already made up my mind. I've made it up, as I said,
to believe only my own eyes and ears about this album. If it finally does
emerge and I get it and think it's good you'll see me here saying so,
access permitting. If I think otherwise you'll see me saying that too. If
my expectations are too high, well, I don't think that's my fault. But
currently I don't *expect* to have to test them. Yours again,
                                                              Jon

ObCD: The Heads - _Relaxing With... _
--
"I recognise that I have transgressed many of the precepts of the divine
law, and that I am subjected by various vices and iniquities, disobedient
to the words of the divine mystery brought unto me and a worshipper of the
delights of this military age." Marquis Borrell of Barcelona, 955 A.D.

             (Jonathan Jarrett, Birkbeck College London)