Trip to the Melkweg

[Alan Linsley]

Hi All

In case you can't be bothered to read all this waffle, what it boils
down to is - HW played an absolute blinder of a gig last night.

For me the evening's entertainment began with a few of us trying and
failing to get in to the soundcheck.  From outside we could hear a very
strong run through of The Right Stuff, which just whetted my appetite
for the gig.  However, the word on the street was that neither Simon or
Arthur were with them, so Keith Barton would be filling in on guitar
again.  A HW gig without Simon House?  A worrying prospect, especially
given how far I'd travelled to see this one.  Would it come up to
scratch without that violin sound?  This was definitely a situation
that needed some thoughtful preparation.  So we went to the pub.

The meet at The Bulldog went well, so it's a big "Hi" to all the
various people I sat and drank over-priced Heineken with over the 2
evenings that we congregated there - Filip "I have 246 versions of
Silver Machine" Vanhuyse and his long-suffering wife, Alisa, Tommy and
his other half, Rob Dreamworker (you again), mango Steve, Michael
Blackman and (let's not forget the sizeable German contingent that
included...) Andreas, Rainer & Christos.  A few hours of chatting about
HW, watching the Amsterdam nightlife and eagerly anticipating take-off
;-)

The Melkweg doors opened about 9pm, and we all had to pay an extra
e2.50 "membership" fee before we could get in.  The place soon filled
out nicely (it's only a small club), there was no support, and the band
hit the stage around 9:35/9:40.

Line-up was Dave, Alan and Richard, with Keith Barton on guitar (he
played throughout, not just here and there).  Dibs did the vocals on
Abducted as he did at Hawkfest.  Set list was (I *think*) -

Arrival In Utopia
The Watcher
Master Of The Universe
Wings
Brainbox Pollution
The Right Stuff
Green Finned Demon
Abducted
Angela Android
Assault & Battery
The Golden Void
Where Are They Now?
Assassins Of Allah

And it was stunning, or at least it was from where I was standing
(right in front of Brock's gear!).  The sound was very good, made me
realise just how much difference a decent pa makes.  One woman sat on
the stage next to the right hand speaker-stack for the entire gig, must
have been bliss.  The band played the tightest, heaviest, dirtiest HW
set I think I've ever heard.  There was just no stopping them, they
just belted out one rocker after another, very intense, totally
absorbing, a brutal sonic assault.  There was some faffing around
before G F Demon but it didn't seem to matter - by the time they got to
The Right Stuff I was already convinced I'd never heard them play
better, but then maybe that was just the, er, "Amsterdam factor".  I
didn't think they would carry Where... without the violin but it worked
fine.  Assassins was the encore, and with all the hollering that
followed they could easily have come back and done another (I felt sure
they would come back on to do Silver Machine but it didn't happen).  It
was just after 11pm by then so maybe there was a curfew.

Now we all know that HW these days is *really* just Dave, Alan &
Richard, plus whoever else they can drag along, but it was still
astounding to see just how good those 3 chaps are when they really want
to be.  Having said that, a big round of applause goes to Keith Barton
for adding some very nice sounds throughout.  I'm reminded of the "trio
years" a decade or so ago when I always felt they needed another
musician to help fill out the sound, and then Jerry Richards stepped in
at Pentrich 1995 for just a couple of numbers and I thought "that's
it!".  Well Keith B is kind of doing the same job only much better in
my view.  "Icing on the cake" is a cliche but an apt one here.  This
really does blow the whole line-up issue wide open - how do YOU want
your Hawkwind power-trio topped off in future?  House? Barton? Capt
Black? Arthur? Harvey??! ...the debate starts here.   Let's face it,
they can't afford to drag 'em ALL along can they?

Not much of a track-by-track review but there ya go.  This was a very
special HW gig for me.  It was unique, a real one-off under-pressure
occasion that went incredibly well.  Completely different to Hawkfest
only a week before - how many bands could pull off both?  Thanks to the
band and the crew for going ahead with this date even though the
Cornberg Fest was cancelled, nice one folks.  Roll on that autumn tour.

:-)))))))

AL

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