Real Festival Music - gig - Nik Turner's Space Unit

[Tom Clark]

Well, I'd be pretty easy to pick out...the red faced idiot who recently
babbled drunkenly about T-shirts and other assorted ramblings.  That is
a nice t-shirt, by the way.  I must've have been in a pissy mood that
night because I didn't laid or something....therefore, my sincere
apologies if I had offended anyone.

Anyway, ctually, meeting some of the folks here pre-show at Hawkestra a
few years ago was quite a treat.

Not sure about the chances of an ICU visit to the States, but that would
also be a treat!

Back to lurking..........



-----Original Message-----
From: BOC/Hawkwind Discussion List [mailto:BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET]
On Behalf Of trev
Sent: Monday, April 26, 2004 9:42 AM
To: BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET
Subject: Re: Real Festival Music - gig - Nik Turner's Space Unit


Aw shucks John...

It's wierd about people you know on the internet - when you meet them in
the flesh. There are loads from boc and yahoo who i would like to put
faces to.

Pretty accurate review as well, i think.

Trev


----- Original Message -----
From: "Jon Jarrett" <jjarrett at CHIARK.GREENEND.ORG.UK>
To: <BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET>
Sent: Monday, April 26, 2004 1:09 PM
Subject: NIK: Re: Real Festival Music - gig - Nik Turner's Space Unit


> On Mon, 1 Mar 2004, trev wrote:
>
> > NIK TURNER'S SPACE UNIT
> >
> > Will be performing at the Underworld
> > http://www.theunderworldcamden.co.uk , Camden Town, London on
> > Thursday the11th of March 1994, on stage at 10.30 approx, open til
> > late.
> >
> > The participants in this "Spacerock Supergroup Frenzy" will include
> > The Mighty Thunder Rider himself, Judge Trev, Commander Jim Hawkman,

> > David Anderson, The Fabulous Angie, Jackie Windmill, Myreg, Ola, and

> > introducing Gordy Everitt - new bass boy, and other "special guests"

> > to be announced.
> >
> > The musicians will be careful to ensure that there are absolutely no

> > rehearsals prior to the gig in order to recreate the original "vibe"

> > of the great days of Acid Rock in old Camden Town - the heart of
> > Inner City Unit's stomping ground.
>
>         I didn't see anyone else I knew at this gig, which I only went

> to on the fly, so I thought some kind of review of what the Other Half

> are up to might be interesting while I'm unable to get to any of the
> current HW gigs...
>
>         I was teaching that evening, so I missed all but one number by

> the support, Landmarq, and I didn't quite know what to make of them
> from that; I didn't like it exactly, but more, I didn't even know what

> they were. Some kind of twin-lead-vocals prog with one female singer
> was all I really got out of it. They reminded me vaguely of a
> Cambridge band called Skelliga who are also trying to be many things
> and on a good day get away with it. Landmarq might get away with it
> more often, but really, I didn't see enough to tell.
>
>         It took me some while, even once our own Judge Trev had taken
> the stage with a towel around his head shouting "death to the
> infidel!" several times (that might even be as punk as you can
> currently be I guess), to be sure what was going on with Nik's lot as
> well. As we started, the line-up was, left to right:
>
> Gordy Everitt (second bass, young bloke, possibly from the All Stars?)

> Dave Anderson (still with head attached, and playing bass) Milo
> Griffiths (the All Stars drummer, playing drums here too) The Mighty
> Thunder Rider, Nicholas Turner Esq. (sax, flute, vocals, weird
>         percussive things on a string)
> Judge Trev (extremely loud guitar for the discerning) Commander Jim
> Hawkman (synth, extra howling) Jacqui Windmill (umimportant djembe,
> off-tone screeching)
>
>         And mention must as ever be made of the fabulous Angie, who
> really can dance, and who unfortunately had to deal with some idiot
> trying to paw her for altogether too much of the set.
>
>         The setlist was, as far as I knew it all:
>
> Watching the Grass Grow
>
>          I scribbled some notes down but I can't read half of them;
> there was a lot of Trev all over it, but it wasn't quite together,
> either the bassists' fault or someone else's I wasn't sure, but it was

> a little uncertain, until they all got to break when it just turned
> into an extreme freakout and damned pleased I was to see it; If that
> was the shape of the evening, I decided, that would do me fine;
>
> Solitary Astrid
>
>         Good version, good enough, anyway, but took the wind out of
> the band's sails rather I thought;
>
> Space Invaders
>
>         Ragged, but still a lot of fun; and the freakout break was
> everything you could have demanded (expect perhaps coherent);
>
> The Bones of Elvis
>
>         Points for Trev here also, who a few seconds after the drum
> part had started began shouting "NO, no no stop! It doesn't start like

> THAT! It starts like THIS" and then stepped up to the microphone and
> gave us a verse of his best Elvis impression before letting the band
> carry on. Nik forgot some of the words (hey, it was going to happen at

> some point), mostly the long list of ethnonyms at the end, but it was
> still good. It always is, let's face it;
>
> ?
>
>         All Stars number, and therefore interesting to see; everyone
> played their bits, it was a jazz number and pleasant enough, good to
> see Nik playing in time as if it was natural to him, but I was still
> waiting to see what happened next rather;
>
> World of LSD
>
>         I have to say, this one was a bit all over the place. I mean,
> I suspect I'll never like a version of this I see live as much I like
> the LP version because of the huge drums that has, but this was one
> where people not knowing the song (especially either of the bass
> players) did tell.
>
> Skinheads in Leningrad
>
>         I have now seen this live four times and this was the second
> best version. Hurrah! Oddly, the best and worst versions I've seen
> have both been ICU, same line-up even. But I do love the song.
>
> Remember (Margate Beach)
>
>         I'm stupidly vulnerable to this song, but the backing vocals
> weren't quite good enough to get the full Phil Spector tear-jerk
> effect. I think everyone was having too good a time to make it as
> faux-tragic as it could be. I still enjoyed it though.
>
> Little Black Egg
>
>         Including Nik jangling a big string of various buits of clangy

> metal looped round his neck, decidedly odd, even more so than usual in

> fact, especially as Jim didn't seem to do much of the usual tweeting
> and instead went for weirder noises. Not as far-out as the studio
> version yet but still a good shot.
>
> ?
>
>         Another All Stars number, and I found this one much more
> convincing, it had a definite Latin swing to it which made the album
> title seem slightly more relevant. Points to Trev for playing as if he

> knew the song backwards after a few bars working it out.
>
> Gas Money
>
>         I may be wrong about where this was in the set-list; my notes
> were scribbled in the dark and I think I couldn't see this when I
> wrote the next one down, but anyway. I do remember Angie saying during

> the spoken exchange at the beginning (which was fluffed by Nik) how
> they really did need the gas money, it was no joke. It was a good
> version, but not surprisingly so, and I did think they could have made

> it more together on such a basic song, but though the bass was
> uncertain the rest was OK.
>
> Bucket Song
>
>         I think I always expect too much of this; it was only all
> right. *Very* quick to do though :-)
>
> Fungus Among Us
>
>         This was odd, as it's probably the closest to big band jazz in

> an ICU setlist save only `In the Nood' (which was not played unless my

> notes and memory have both erased it), but it didn't seem to go off
> very comfortably. Nik seemed very uncertain of the words and I think
> it was infectious. If it wasn't this number it was another, where Nik
> came in about a bar early with the third verse and Trev and Dave
> Anderson just looked at each other as if they'd been waiting for that
> to happen and fairly seamlessly bent the song back round the vocals
> without losing their grins in the process; that was the sort of thing
> that was making it all work.
>
> ?
>
>         I don't know if this was an All Stars number or not, but the
> band was now joined by a tall slim Japanese girl bearing a treble
> saxophone, and she was fabulous; not just in a jazz virtuosity kind of

> way, though she could, and did quite literally, play with one arm
> behind her back, but also in actually having something to say with her

> instrument, which was the bit that made it clear how she and Nik had
> wound up playing together as it was a surprisingly brash and atonal
> (controlledly so but all the
> same) style for someone so apparently part of the `classy jazz' thing.
I
> suspect me listening to more Monk would explain this a bit. She was
good,
> anyway, and Nik wasn't bad, and I enjoyed this. Nik did give her full
name
> once, but I didn't catch it, and Nik referred to her thereafter, as
does
> Trev above, as Ola, so that's who she is from now on.
>
> D-Rider
>
>         The stage was already full, but Nik signed to Ola not to leave

> as Mick Slattery came on to add more guitar (really hardly needed!),
> and this `D-Rider' became something quite mellow as a result, four
> jazz players and four punkspace-rockers trying to find something they
> could all do with a prog number; the saxophones worked quite well. Ola

> stopped playing after a while, which was a shame I thought. Good, all
> the same. And lastly:
>
> Master of the Universe
>
>         Everyone on stage, including the original bass part obviously,

> and Trev's guitar perfect for it too, all the good points of the ICU
> and HW first versions together, plus two saxophonists (Nik managed to
> badger Ola into taking another solo between his two) and while the
> best version of this I ever saw will probably always be the second
> Hawkestra one with four bass players, whatever band Nik's doing it
> with always seem to deliver the goods. Left the crowd very cheerful
> when it finally stopped I think.
>
>         So overall for a scrathc performance, it was very good. It
> would be nice if some day a Nik gig *wasn't* a scratch performance
> maybe, but I at least know what I'm expecting and am always pleasantly

> surprised. Trev was anxious as ever to assure us that not only had the

> band not rehearsed, but never actually played together before, and at
> one point he felt it necessary to apologise to the Camden faithful for

> the performance not being up to standard "because we've got some
> people from Hawkwind along this evening, you see, letting the side
> down", but actually it was surprisingly good. I guess I'm always
> surprised when a Nik gig comes together, though they don't generally
> seem to collapse horribly, but given the lack of rehearsal you know
> there will have been, and the rather variable attitude of some of the
> participants, it always seems intellectually much more likely that the

> whole thing will fall on its face like the Inner City Pompadours one
> did.
>
>         The reason this one didn't, and I was more surprised by this
> than I should have been, was the ability of the musicians. Mr Everitt
> was a bit uncertain, and Ms Windmill should just STOP--PLEASE--but the

> drummer was, well, a jazz drummer, and well able to carry on with
> pretty much everything solidly and interestingly even if it was new to

> him. Dave Anderson always could play, but he was doing so well
> tonight, notes that didn't have to be there but it was nice to hear
> stuck in anyway, and most importantly he seemed to be having loads of
> fun even if he didn't know very many of the parts well. If only we
> weren't all sworn to kill him. But anyway. Jim Hawkman, I remember
> saying last time I saw him which was I think the lamentable ICP gig
> suddenly seems to have come into his own as synth player, and he stuck

> with that this night, lots of well-placed swoosh, I'd never hope to do

> any better than that myself. Nik, even, can actually play, though we
> do tend to forget this when he turns up for HW and just makes farting
> noises to piss off Dave. Perhaps the people he was playing with
> compelled him to wear a mental jazz hat and play as he actually can
> rather than messing about.
>
>         Star prize, right from the start, however, must go to Judge
> Trev. I'm a sucker for his punk attack at the best of times, and one
> of the things about the few ICU reunion gigs I saw were that there
> really wasn't enough of it, the songs don't even have room, but here
> everything was being done so loose that he and Nik both got breaks in
> most of the songs and he played out like a trooper, made my ears very
> happy. Not just the raucous punk end of things either, there were the
> All Stars numbers in the setlist too, and Trev took about eight bars
> of each to get the shape of each and then joined in as if he'd been
> playing electric trad jazz all his life. Perhaps he has, but anyway, I

> was personally wowed not just by his actual playing but the way he
> fell into every different style they went through with no real bother
> and made his parts shine even though he was just making them up. I
> should have had this much respect for him as a player all along,
> perhaps, but I hadn't seen it before.
>
>         Sherman and I keep passing Trev when I'm in Brighton; so far
> I've not mustered the courage to speak up and do the gushing fan bit,
> but if, Trev, you've noticed a six foot two woman with hair to halfway

> down her back and/or a smaller ponytailed bloke in shirt and jeans
> looking at you funny in Sainsbury's or wherever, I assure you it's
> fandom rather than thinking you look strange or whatever. Well, in my
> case it is, in Sherman's case it's that she's got her punk band
> covering `Skinheads in Leningrad' and doesn't know whether you'd
> approve or not. But anyway. Thanks for posting about that gig, I had a

> good time and I'd never have known otherwise, yours,
>                              Jon
>
> --
>                 Jonathan Jarrett, Birkbeck College, London
>     jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk/ejarr01 at students.bbk.ac.uk
>   "As much as the vision of the blind man improves with the rising
sun,
>        So too does the intelligence of the fool after good advice."
>        (Bishop Theodulf of Orleans, late-eight/early-ninth century)
>