HW: gig review

[M Holmes]

This is kind of hard to do in a gig review format since it's a wedding
of people I admire and care about and a private party involving a bunch
of people I really like to be around but I'd find it hard to do it
another way.  I can't plausibly claim the talent to describe just how
much fun it was and so I hope you folks will indulge me:


We arrived at Newquay in the early afternoon and after a quick trip back
into town for suntan lotion lest radiation burns strip our skin from our
bones and destroy the mood. Courtesy of Nick Lee's savage approach to
road sense, we made it to Boots, or some facsimile thereof. This guy
really doesn't deserve to be in the dungeon, but he's readheaded, and we
can't make exceptions.

We got changed for the wedding.  I have to say that I never really
expected to see Hawkwind wearing a kilt (and I still haven't, but I wore
one) but there was a certain atavistic aura on the day and this
Solstice was always destined to be different.

Slightly late to the ceremony we discovered that the man in the cassock
marrying the clearly preternaturally happy couple was none other than a
certain Mr. Brown.  After a savage indictment of modern mores (well,
OK, in fact a very amusing speech) Rich and Arin took turns to make
their own declarations to each other with the exchange of rings, and it
was very moving.

It was good to see some of the other hardcore again, although their foul
flesh-eating habits became all too apparent during the main course when
whole herds of buffalo had apparently been slaughtered for their
slightest whim. The beef and Yorkshire pudding was rather nice too.

Only a swim with the sharks (and Chris W.) in the pools of the Hotel
California managed to ease the pull of gravity after Cornish ice cream,
the production of which undoubtedly required cows to be tortured for weeks.

We then gathered downstairs.  Things were very relaxed and laidback and
ably assisted by Merrick and Julie's Rocket Ship, a wine fermented
apparently for special occasions.  A bottle seemed to be under every
table, or certainly the ones I fell under.

I guess I'd better try to remember the setlist for Bernhard's archives
though so over to Gig Report Mode:

Nope, failed, but with a bit of prompting from Colin and a memory
reboot, the lights start flashing once more:

At the special request of the Bride and Groom they opened with Love in
Space with Rich and Arin trying out an, errrr, new dance for this out
there on the floor.

This was followed by You Shouldn't do That which sounded much more like
the Roadhawks version than the one from Tiz the Biz days and this was
confirmed by the Seeing It As You Really Are encore, right down to the
whooshy seque that marks the intro to Silver Machine on that album.

Lighthouse came next, a Timless version, this time sung by Richard and
it worked just fine without Tim, though I hope we'll see him back there
soon.

The venerable Mr.Brown then entered to much cheering and the band
launched into the beat for Time Captains. The drumbeat was held for at
least the length of time on Arthur's album and probably longer, allowing
for the usual time/space distortion on the M&J Rocketship. An excellent
rendering of the song followed with folks edging up towards the dance floor.

Take Me To Your Leader mellowed things out again and was followed by
Assassins of Allah. The timorous encroachment onto the dancefloor became
a full scale invasion at this point with the dancefloor covered (well,
OK, the band already had half of it) by the time the Space Is Their
Palestine techno riff got into its stride. There were a few variations
and some playing with the toys during this which kept it going. Rich's
relatives were up for a bop and his mother confided to me that she
"thought they'd be much noisier". Then back into the Hassan riff. By
this point the dancers were melting and the band had gone into the red
on the heat down there, so everyone took a break for a drink and some
cool.

When they came back, Arthur was in full Steppenwolf regalia and they
proceeded to do an amazing rendering of the song. If Calvert's ghost was
there he'd see that his work goes on. I'd never quite got the German "I
don't know what it is that I'm saying" lyric in the middle but Arthur's
acting of a drunk German finally closed the connection for me. Some
impressive wolf-howling got in there too. If there is a tape, then
I guess it'll sound like the Glastonbury dogs were at it again. No
seagulls made it past the door though.

Then into Angela's Android.  The start of this reminds me a little of a
much older song (Rock and Roll Disgrace I keep thinking) and it does
sound a little like a speeded up 50's riff.  This was an awesomely
blanga version though and the dancefloor took another pounding, and a
little beer spillage.  We were cheering the end when the band looked
around and saw the vibe took off again into an impromptu jam based on
the riff from the song, with Simon, Alan and Dave taking turns playing
around with it.  The blanga level went up to eleven and a half and it
let Alan let rip the way he does on LSD from Business Trip only more so.
If the new album has anything like this on it, some of us are going to
wear out our CD players.

Assault and Battery and Golden void were next with the latest variation
on Void's End segued on. Always great to hear these.

Finally, one I'd waited a long long time to see live: Where Are They
Now? Well OK, I was at the Astoria, but it's been a long time. I've run
out of superlatives but you get the picture.  I hope this one gets
extended too and an appearance on the album certainly wouldn't go amiss
from where I was standing.

Truly a great day and night and something I'll remember when I'm down to my
final brain cell.  Everyone I saw or spoke to was having a great time.
Thanks Arin and Rich for putting it all together.  Best wishes for that
joint timetrip into the future.

As for the rest of you: if you haven't seen and heard the latest lineup
and setlist then you'd be better cutting off your own heads with a
buzzsaw than missing the Hawkwind Festival this year (don't try this at
home) - book your tickets now or we skewer the seagull.


Hunter.S.Timpson (Shoe providers to the Royal Family since at least last week)


P.S Bernhard: the lineup was Barton, Brock, Brown, Chadwick, Davey,
House, in no particular order except alphabetical.  Personally, I think
the new guy shows promise.