Launch event...

Thu Sep 1 12:04:28 EDT 2005

Thanks for this great review Keith !!!

Bernhard

-----Original Message-----
From: BOC/Hawkwind Discussion List [mailto:BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET] On
Behalf Of Keith Henderson
Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2005 4:20 PM
To: BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET
Subject: HW: Launch event...

Hi Folx...

This is almost blogging, 'cause I'm just 100 m down the street from the
Borderline in Soho where the Launch Party is just gradually wrapping up.
Wow...lots of fun.  I didn't even know I could get in until yesterday when
Kris emailed me personally to say she would put me on the list.  Thanks
Kris!

I thought it would just be a lowkey affair with a few dozen people in a
quiet cafe atmosphere with the new album playing over the PA.  That last
part was right, for the first 90 minutes, but there were about 150 people in
there or so. Thank GOD it wasn't held yesterday, when the temps here in
London were 32C (90F)...because it's underground, the air circulation is a
bit restricted you might say.  Anyway, the stage was set up with gear and
lighting and all, which was a bit of a surprise, so I thought that HW were
really going to play live.  But then the bass was obviously not a Ricky, and
the guitar was a black Epiphone, so it turned out to be Spacehead's gear.
That was cool enough, 'cause I didn't expect any live music at 2 in the
afternoon!  Anyway, they gave out free complimentary drinks at the bar for
the first 45 minutes or so (which was extra nice), but then eventually hit
some sort of pre-arranged limit and those who wanted another one (or three)
then had to shell out!
  a couple
 quid per.  They also had some champagne and sandwiches and Horse Doovers.
Plus free posters to have signed by the band.  Pete Pracowiak (sp?) was
there (I think) and was signing stuff as well.  And Matthew Wright too.

So Spacehead came on and played a few very nice spacey numbers, the first of
which was apparently improv.  Then Richard came up and took over on drums
and the Keef-Dibsy-Richard Trio launched into an excellent version of "You
Shouldn't Do That."  But I think that was just done as an excuse to coerce
Dave, Alan, and Jason to also participate, and begrudgingly they relented
and the full Hawkwind came aboard the ship.  Mr. Wright jumped up to do a
nice intro and then HW proper did a sizzling "Brainbox Pollution" and then
(after some deliberation...and amazingly seeming to go with my personal
suggestion of "Paradox"...I happened to be standing directly in front of
Keef during Spacehead's set, so I ended up by default directly in front of
Dave...he nearly hit me in the face with the end of the guitar at one point)
a wonderful extended version of "Paradox" (double guitar solos from Dave).
Funniest thing was that Dave kept asking Keef what the hell each of the
pedals and switches !
 on his
 guitar were supposed to do.

On the way to the show, I stopped in the Oxford Street HWV and bought two
copies each (a set also for my brother in the states) of the two singles
(two quid apiece), and managed to get them signed by all four members and
Mr. Wright as well (who was very nice to me, even though I had to tell him
that I really didn't know who he was, not being a UK resident or anything).
I walked into the Borders and Virgin stores on the same street just to see
if they had them in stock as well, but sadly neither did.  Oh, well,
Voiceprint is hardly a major label.  HMV had six or seven copies each
prominently displayed in the singles bins, though not yet up on the big wall
of Hit New Releases (maybe next week?!).  So that seemed pretty good at
least.

Oh, last night, I made it up to Hampstead to see the Robert Calvert play
about Jimi Hendrix experience in the military.  That was quite interesting.
The play was actually pretty interesting, and the acting (just two actors,
Jimi himself and his commanding sergeant) was impressive.  Only about an
hour long, but that was about the right length for the material.  It was
really interesting to see how many familiar Calvert-isms from earlier/later
Hawkwind songs there were.  Obviously, since Hendrix was a paratrooper,
there were moments quite similar to Free Fall/Over the top, but then also a
little bit about Icarus, and a mention of the "vermillion deserts of Mars"
(for some reason that I now forget), and then also some of the things in
Uncle Sam's on Mars were in there as well (insights about American culture,
like drum majorettes in white ankle socks, and two cars in the garage).  The
woman who produced the play back in 1976 was the one responsible for it
again, and we (Jon J.!
 , Chris
 from Wales, and I etc.) talked to her for a bit after the show.  I asked if
she remembered if Calvert himself had ever gone skydiving (since he seemed
to be so strongly attracted to it in his art), and she seemed to think that
he had a number of times.  I wondered also if he had ever done (or planned
to do) a stage version of Cap'n Lockheed, and she didn't remember him ever
planning that.  Sad...I think that would be a great live event.  HW should
even consider doing it now, IMHO.  But then the best opportunity to have
done it would have been 2002 when Arthur was with them in a big way.

Anyway, enough rambling.  I'm on my way to Nottingham/Donnington tomorrow
for Off the Tracks...hope to see some of you there.  I thought about going
to the Nukli/Invisible Opera Co. of Tibet show in Glastonbury instead, but
the "45 Real Ales" advertised at Donnington was too strong a draw!  :)  Oh,
by the way, there's a 2004 book about the history of Glasters out that I saw
today, and there's a lot of reminiscing in the book done by both NikT and
Tom Crimble.  I didn't even know (until today) that he (Crimble) was one of
the original organizers of Glasters.  He also played there with his post-HW
band called the Windfuckers or something.  Weird.

Well, tonight I'm off to Brixton to see Litmus, and then up north in the
morning.

Ciao zame...Grakkl (FAA)

P.S.  Andy G....can you put me on the list to receive one of the special DVD
releases of TMTYL?  I'll send you an address as soon as I have one again.
They were playing the DVD part (no sound) on a screen at the Borderline
today, and it looked like something to have for sure.

P.P.S.  Apparently (?), the Heads are playing at Camden Underworld on Sunday
night (the 4th) here in the London area, if anyone's interested.  I wish I
could come back down for it myself.

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