HW: Cambridge this night

[Bernhard Pospiech]

Hi Jon

Many thanks for this very informative gig review


Bernhard





At 00:40 19.05.2003 +0100, you wrote:
>        Dear All,
>                  just back from the Junction, after well, one of the more
>variable Hawkwind gigs I remember seeing :-) Got there just in time for
>Spacehead, who opened with `Dark Star' and were not at all bad. But after
>a while the drummer got a bit tedious--Carl Anderson reckoned a machine
>would be a lot most cost effective and I agreed with him. Dibs's singing
>has improved a bit, I never caught him flat. They alternated fast and slow
>numbers, ending with what must have been a new one because of having
>lyrics damning Bush for starting the next world war, but which confused me
>by borrowing a chrous tune from `Astroman' so I wasn't sure I hadn't heard
>it before. Nonetheless, fantastic space-scape guitar noises especially
>from Keef, the third number really being little more than guitar
>soundscaping slowly kept moving by the bass which suited me just fine, and
>all in all pretty good bar the drummer. Dibs's vocals did seem to be
>producing too much feedback in places, and I assumed at the time he was
>too close to the mike, but this was my mistake. I should have remembered
>seeing this happen at the Junction before... But read on.
>
>        Hawkwind were not long in waiting, and transpired to be the
>following people tonight, stage right to left: Dave Brock (keys, synths,
>gtr, vox), Arthur Brown (vox, costume), Richard Chadwick (drums, beats,
>vox), Ali Davey (bass, vox), Simon House (keys, violin). No dancers
>(though Kris was on the merchandise stall).
>
>        First impressions: Ali has two Rickenbackers in stands
>on stage, I can't tell what the difference is other than paintwork (black
>with swirls). And damn! Dave's gear is loud, we're standing right next to
>the relevant bit of the stage and can only hear guitar, and just about
>pick out Arthur Brown. At full stage left we can get it just about
>balanced but the feedback problem is there with a vengeance: the high mid-
>range is disappearing into white noise really quite painfully. Not the
>band's fault either I fear, I've seen this happen at this venue before and
>of course it never gets sorted out because if, like the soundman, you have
>earplugs, you can't hear a problem... I wished I'd brought mine. I think
>much of what I didn't enjoy would have been fine if I could have heard the
>lead playing properly. So what I say below, take the sound into account,
>It wasn't the band's fault and I felt very sorry for them, though I didn't
>know if they could hear it: Simon did seem at points to be experimenting
>with manipulating the effect, but I wasn't sure. Simon, by the way, looked
>a quite unwell man (and Doug, I mean every word of that): I hope the bags
>under his eyes and general worn-out look are convalescence from whatever's
>been troubling him and not an indication that it still is. At first I
>wasn't sure he'd survive the set and he came back on for the encore with
>an unfinished cigarette which he sucked away on whilst fiddling as if his
>life depended on it, though Dave taking the mickey as usual got a few
>smiles from him and I was able to stop worrying after a while. All the

>same, if anyone able to would like to send my and Kirsten's best wishes,
>that would be very good of you...
>
>        Anyway, the set-list! For look, it's interesting!
>
>Time Captives
>
>        Much better than last time I saw it at Walthamstow. Dave's guitar
>is very edgy tonight, though it's difficult to tell what's deliberate and
>what isn't; the whole sound is quite Hawklords, if rather heavier for the
>presence of Ali, and Simon's input takes a long time to become anything
>other than fizz. Definitely a nastier more `argh' sound than I'm used to,
>takes me a while to wear into it. The song is however fabulously sung and
>even if its simplicity becomes obvious quite quickly it's a fine way to
>open.
>
>Master of the Universe
>
>        Average. Arthur has to be cued for the first line of each verse,
>first time by consulting with Dave before the off and second time by Ali
>actually singing it for him and he following on, which is quite sloppy
>really, it's not a hard song to pick up is it? Anyway. OK. Goes straight
>into:
>
>Gremlin Pt. 2
>
>        Arthur immediately redeems himself with a top-notch version and
>there is nothing wrong with this at all.
>
>Time
>
>        The Crazy World number as on last tour, now that I know it I enjoy
>it more and this too is OK. Not great but OK. Dave is on keys for this
>one. Goes unexpectedly into:
>
>Prelude
>
>        Two Crazy World numbers! I honestly thought we'd get the rest of
>the `Fire' suite and was quite disappointed when this very riffy version
>of the track ended, very soon after it had begun. But my disappointment
>was short-lived because we got:
>
>The Watcher
>
>        Which was just fine :-) Aliens visuals as per.
>
>Out of the Shadows
>
>        Took a minute or two to get sorted out and then off as if there'd
>been no problem, I swear Richard gave them one crack of a drum-rim and
>they were off in perfect time, quite impressive. Lots of Dave's guitar, as
>throughout really, whatever Dave does is still right out the front. But he
>doesn't take the lead, Simon does and as we can barely hear him... I've
>seen better, but Alan Linsley assured me afterwards that this arrangement
>can work so I suppose I'm just sorry about the sound again... There is, oh
>dear, a techno mid-section. It is not only very poor but started off by
>Dave on a dirt-simple and not terribly pretty two-chord pattern on the
>keyboard, and he starts it off-beat and the rest of the band take several
>bars to adjust, points to Richard for making it sound flawless but the
>glitch was pretty blatant all the same. I was terribly glad when we got
>back to the song, though it was developed away from its initial jarring
>out-of-kilterness it still wasn't very good. The last few bars of real
>song were thus very welcome indeed.
>
>Chronoglide Skyway
>
>        This was *awful*. All percussion programmed, Richard working his
>drum synth or whatever it is he uses, Dave on keys, Simon on violin, Ali
>barely touching the bass because a bassline was already coming off Dave's
>keys which was louder than he was... Now, to my mind this is a song that
>is made by the leads alone, but it was a while before we got that, and so

>we just had a boring techno-ised chord sequence for two minutes then some
>violin we couldn't hear and eventually a bit of lead guitar from Dave
>which unlike everything else he'd done was also near-inaudible. Really
>pretty terrible, but again, again, I don't know what it sounded like from
>there, maybe Simon was flying higher than ever, though it was my
>impression he wasn't on form when I could hear him. Given the way he
>looked I don't blame him, but anyway. I think this song was a Mistake.
>
>Steppenwolf
>
>        Arthur emerges again with the frock-coat and hat--Bob must be
>turning in his grave to see his props being used again! Arthur manages to
>make the sheet of paper he's reading the lyrics from into a prop ("I made
>a note of it in my log" and so on), but is still winging it. On the other
>hand lots of howling and some of the song delivered on all fours, so
>points for effort. Lots of guitar. Good. Still no real progress with
>making the violin audible though.
>
>Seven By Seven
>
>        I recognised the intro, then thought it was something new when the
>riff started, I was so unprepared for how it would sound with this
>line-up. By now I'm about adjusted to the sound when the white noise isn't
>showing through and I managed to lean back on this one and enjoy it
>thoroughly. More or less played as a three-piece, with Arthur again
>strding on still in frock-coat to read Bob's part from paper again, this
>gets less impressive. But otherwise really quite good.
>
>Spirit of the Age
>
>        Pretty good! Dave took the vocals. Here, and I haven't mentioned
>them till now because they were nothing special, the visuals are worth a
>note. We started with the Metropolis robot and some stills from that film
>and then went into a long sequence of what started with spirals of tubing
>over a sort of moonscape and turned out to be either CGI-animated or
>endoscope footage of a sperm's-eye view of the journey up the Fallopian
>tubes! Good play with the ideas here, quite the spaciest gynaecology I've
>ever seen and so on. With the ovum pierced we were back to the DNA strands
>twirling over the moonscape and then more Metropolis stills, I liked this.
>The song was not bad either...
>
>?
>
>        New song! Really honestly new song! Slow techno thing which I
>rather liked, simple beats to it and based on another simple pattern from
>Dave's keys but still quite organic and nicely developed, with a fabulous
>minimalist moment in the middle where the beats stopped and all the treble
>parts slowly moved round each other. Vocals were shared, first verse by
>Dave (general apocalyptic forecasting on a monotone but not his usual
>spoken pitch) and rest by Richard, who sang really quite well, far better
>than much of the Star Nation stuff, though I couldn't make out the words.
>But this is because he was high enough to catch the white-noise effect,
>and... But this seems good, I don't mind Hawkwind techno if it's going to
>be like this. As long as there's *some* rock, and lo and behold...
>
>?
>
>        Another new one led off by Ali and voiced by Arthur, who takes
>the stage with a golden Phoebus mask which he discards halfway through

>before it can leave of its own accord. The song is an upbeat rocker with a
>proper tune and everything, I liked this one too. Quite pleased with both
>of these tracks, this bodes well!
>
>Assassins of Allah/Space is Their Palestine/Assassins of Allah
>
>        As per regulation, good. The `Space... ' was suprisingly
>effective given how few people there were playing. Only now does Simon's
>violin really find a place in the mix, which place is shatteringly loud so
>as to be heard over Dave, and therefore distorted and generally sub-
>optimal but at least we can now sort of hear him. Fairly straight-ahead
>`Assassins' section and this seems to be the first time Ali's managed to
>enjoy himself all set.
>
>Assault and Battery/ The Golden Void
>
>        I'd forgotten how good this was live. it's been such a while
>since I've seen it. Very good, is the answer. Simon is not the leading
>feature I'd like him to be but definitely there and the way they do it
>fits with the way this band sounds. Fine. Visuals worth mentioning here
>too, nice play with flower petals whose colours and shapes were then
>reassembled into butterfly wings, new flowers, faces, and so on, very
>pretty and lots of streaming space-scapes and Milky-Way-running dimly
>visible beyond. And as the wander towards the Void's End opens out,
>instead of the techno outtro we get:
>
>Where Are They Now?
>
>        At least I assume that's what it was because I've *never heard
>this before* but they sang that line a lot (Ali and Dave) and the tune was
>basically `P. X. R. 5'. Cor! When did they last do that? And with it
>closed they leave the stage.
>
>        They seem to be gone a while and at one point a roadie dives out
>to talk to Dibs, who has been watching out for Richard's kit all set, and
>nearly gets the crowd demanding he play `Silver Machine'... Eventually
>Dibs goes in and returns with the band, and Ali says "Anybody suffering
>from paranoia? Heh--join the club!" And, sure enough:
>
>Paranoia Pt. 2
>
>        Short and to the point! Never seen this before. Basically a
>three-piece job, Simon can't be heard *again*. Richard did a few of
>the moans but soon lost interest, no other vocals. Simon's inaudibility
>continues when a familiar guitar part starts and we are off into:
>
>Silver Machine
>
>        Arthur arrives on stage well after the song is underway wearing
>his silver jumpsuit and a proper flying helmet a la Bob, as well as an
>oxygen mask hung round his neck which he has looped a flexible glowstick
>round. His first line can't be heard and he seems to be having troubles
>remembering the others. White noise all over the shop, it seems to be
>coming from whatever effects are being applied to his vocals but it's very
>hard to tell. A good version marred by Arthur being vague and the house
>sound at its absolute worst.
>
>        And with that the show is ended. I go to buy a t-shirt from Kris
>because they're lovely (though the only CDs on sale are Dr Hasbeen and
>Spacehead CD-Rs), and go home with no hearing in my left ear but otherwise
>pretty satisfied with the night's entertainment. See people in Nottingham
>maybe, if there's a meeting plan, or otherwise at the gig... Yours,

>                                                                    Jon
>
>--
>          "If you are rich, throw away your documents.
>        If you are poor, do so also." (Byzantine proverb)
>               Jonathan Jarrett, Birkbeck College
>