HW: tour

[Henderson Keith]

Subject: HW: H For Hawkwind

OK...

(Hmmm...this message was rejected due to the subject heading, that
the LISTSERV thought was some sort of admin. message...Odd.  Anyway
the subject header is now here at the top, and I put something more
innocuous in the true subject line.)

>Damn Straight. If I had to choose 3 stone circles to visit. Callanish,
>Avebury, and Castlerigg would be my choice.  Callanish is fantastic I would
>recommend anyone to take the time and go there.  And the missing trees are
>weird, the Orkneys are the same, it takes a while to figure out what's
wrong
>with the picture.

So, where are all these?  Sounds like islands in the north (Scotland),
unless I'm mistaken.

Anyway, I'm looking at the early few dates for December touring, and
thinking about a flight over to the UK.  Because Basel now has service
on EasyJet to both Liverpool and Luton, I can think about a 'triangular'
trip from Liverpool, catching the two shows at:
Dec 9th - Telford, Oakengates Theatre
Dec 10th - Swindon, Oasis
which would lead me to the London area without much problem.  And then
the prog band iQ plays at the Mean Fiddler on Dec. 11th, so I would
plan to catch that show (OK, so I like sappy progrock, sue me) before
heading home.

I just wanted to know if these two places (Oakengates and Oasis) were
good venues to see a show.  Anybody know?  Acoustics, stage size/height
(for visuals), beer quality/price, venue size (cramped or spacious).
That sort of thing.

Dave Brock said at Herzberg that the "Christmas show" was probably
going to be at Exeter this year, and so that last date (the 18th) fits
with what he told us.  So maybe that would be a slightly more special
gig (?), but this plan seems to work better all things considered.
And if any one of these stone circles was in the region between
Liverpool and London, that would be cool as well.  (Of course, I had
thought to stop at Stonehenge if I were to go to Exeter.)

But I'd like to know about the venues ahead of time if I could.

BTW, he mentioned that *perhaps* Arthur Brown would be back to do
some of these late 2004 shows, but when we asked about Simon House
he said pretty much 'No chance.'  Can't remember, but I think Tim
Blake was a 'maybe'.  But anyway, I think I'd like to see Cap'n Black
turn up again (hint), based on a recent discussion here that seemed
to suggest that he has some of Tim's old equipment.  And so that
explains my experience (as I remember it) at Hawkfest '03 and how
impressed I was by the return of the Blake synth sound to HW (which
I attributed then to Blake, who was there on stage).  Whereas it now
seems to be the case that the other guy over there crammed onto the
stage left area (who I wasn't paying much attention to, 'cause I didn't
know who he was then), was the *real* Blake sound, aka our own Keith
Kniveton.  Since then, I haven't seen him play with HW, and now I
would like to see that rectified on this next trip to the UK.  Any
word from the horse's mouth?  Are you going to play on this tour,
Cap'n Black?

And any Litmus (or similar-types) gigs planned for mid-December around
this time?  Will they be with Hawkwind on any of these?

Grakkl* (FFA)

*Quiscalus Quiscula (sadly, non-existent here in CH from what I can tell)

ObCD: Pothead - Tuf Luv (I picked this up at the Swamp Room Happening
in Muenchen this past weekend, where I saw ColourHaze, Hypnos69, and
Liquid Visions, and it's a damn good CD!  Kinda short, but the riffs
are everything I remembered from seeing them live at Herzberg after HW.)

P.S.  Did anyone else note that Marillion (to keep up the sappy progrock
theme) was on that same plane with the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens
that got diverted to Bangor, Maine?  As if it weren't already hard for
bands to get permission to enter the US...now they're even thwarted as
innocent bystanders!

P.P.S.  Who's seen Nektar/Caravan in the US?  Any interesting set changes
since Nearfest?  Anything from Journey yet?  Any of the new album?  Did
anyone buy it at the shows?  (I think it's available, yeah?)