HW:Sonic Assassins book

[Alan Taylor]

I've read the book 2 and a bit times now and I think it's fabulous.  It's a real fan's book.

A theme of the book is the way that Ian Abrahams has been fair to all concerned and has interviewed as many people as he could and has let them all have their say.  He's made a genuine attempt to tell it like it is/was, without sensationalisation.  There was information on each and every page that was new to me.  There were so many things, from Jello Biafra's comments through to Richard Chadwick's studio drum technique (yes I found that interesting!),  that were revelatory.  He put the free festival movement and it's demise into context - also in terms of the Hawkfests he highlighted the achievement behind these and their importance.

It was a joy to dive into and now, having read it, it's great just to pick it up and re-read choice pieces.  Another thing - Mr Abrahams wasn't tempted to skip over any period in their history (it's one of my bug-bears that people tend to dismiss post-70's Hawkwind), and even gives a page or 2 to 1998 and the Strange Daze fiasco - not that I was desperate to read about it but it happened so it's in the book.  

I was intrigued about the Brock/Turner thing going on in the book - It was almost inevitable that one of them would say "black" and the other would say "white".  The way that the characters come across in print is true to form, i.e. Brock as the captain with so much invested in Hawkwind, Turner as the joker who over the years has (unwittingly perhaps) diluted Hawkwind's power, Davey and Chadwick as the increasingly important and solid rhythm section and backbone.  Harvey comes across as a lovely bloke and Ron Tree as very candid.  Although Ian quoted them from press articles etc, the 2 Simons were conspicuous by their absence as interviewees.

As ever, with all matters to do with Hawkwind, I always feel like I've been into them too long to be objective, so I think it'd be really interesting to see what non-fans or just critics in general think of it and what impression they get from it.  (I ain't been able to get my wife to read it- she knows it all by osmosis anyway!)

A final point- am I the only person who liked the Hawkestra?  

Anyhow, I'm glad to see the book is starting to filter through to all you good folks - you're in for a treat.

Cheers
Alan