HW: Hawkwind - Holmfirth Magna and beyond

[Jill Strobridge]

There is something in this universe called Hawkwind phase space - a series of actions that makes up one finite event but those actions do not happen coherently or in the same order as in the normal world and sometimes have most unexpected consequences....   Usually this only occurs during a Hawkwind gig but something strange was already happening the instant I discovered my Holmfirth ticket was in Edinburgh rather than in Yorkshire and that the venue was sold out and I couldn't get another.    Panic!    But my enormous gratitude to Dave Kris and Marie who trusted me.  Thank you all!    

Holmirth's is a curious venue - reasonable size with the back area given over to bar, a middle section laid out as cinema-type seating and an open area in front of the stage that was soon mobbed.   The stage is high and although not wide enough for dancers there was a surprisingly good sound and not too loud.   Lots of hilarity on stage - with what seemed to be a certain amount of missed-cues but it was relaxed and just as powerful as previous shows.  A mixed crowd with reactions, interestingly, that seemed to differ according to the last occasion they had heard a live Hawkwind gig - clearly a problem of far too many interacting timelines!   One (young) group near me hated Robot (which in honesty seemed to have lost the sense of menace I heard at earlier gigs) but were mesmerised by Hassan I Sahba "Awesome!" and delighted with Motorhead.     Did I miss the "Midsummer Night's Dream" rendition here?  I honestly don't remember hearing it!   But it was a splendid show and after an excellent late night real ale (good Yorkshire venue) a strange walk back along a dark steep-sided valley to my B&B and a 4-poster bed.    

And the strangeness continued with a rickety train journey to Rotherham through fog so dense the landscape vanished into grey timeless haze - an ethereal drift through endless vagueness with dark stations looming into view and receding again.   And in this uncertainty I forgot Instructional Rule No.1 - in any Hawkwind travel experience if you have a choice between what it says on your train ticket and what the internet tells you ALWAYS TRUST THE INTERNET.    Change at Doncaster indeed!   There are undoubtedly many places you can get to from Doncaster but Rotherham is not (easily) one of them and an age was wasted on this floating ambiguous between-worlds environment drifting from one platform to another according to the whims of whoever I asked advice from while endless streams of trains came and went - none of them of any use!   Eventually I jumped onto some random train that emerged somewhere more useful - but by now...  

you know how it is.   You're late for the gig - you can hear Hawkwind playing - sound pouring out of the front door and you know you are even worse than late.   Magna is Vast - Enormous beyond belief - its Immensity dwarfing the small group of silver space-suited figures gathered smoking by the front entrance - the sound of Hawkwind echoing everywhere throughout the whole place.    I rush in anxious not to miss anything more - collect official things from someone in authority at the desk - completely fail to realise that Kris is also standing there (sorry!) - wander vaguely down a huge corridor drawn onwards by the Hawkwind sound clutching costume I haven't even put on yet - emerge into a dark immensely cavernous hall with far overhead a gigantic steel hook that once swung moulten foundry metal across the vast high spaces above me.   Someone else in authority waves me across and "gives" me something - the noise is overwhelming - friends appear in silver swirling hooded gowns beckoning me deeper in among strange robots, silver clones, grey faced aliens, elegant space ladies and an occasional human being - while on stage Hawkwind are playing - normal Humans but dressed even more bizarrely in thick sweaters, green Burberry coats and woolly hats.     The whole thing is just too strange to cope with.   There is a short break - I rush to change (dirty white overalls and grey painted mask are ok!).   Hawkwind are playing again so I rush back - I cannot for the life of me remember what the track was but the quality of sound is astonishing.     There's another break for food and I travel with some friends down through normal spacetime into a local Weatherspoons pub** .  The timeline slows - an air of tranquil ordinariness returns and someone explains - gently - that the second item I was "given" actually needs to be paid for!     Ooops.   Sorry Nick.   Truly, I was utterly bemused and not anywhere in the real world at that point.   Completely sober though.   Honest!    But that may have been the problem 8-)       

Going back its easier - chat to Bernhard and some others and be amazed by the creativity of the costumes - the best of which are duly rewarded by prizes and then Hawkwind start their set.    Superb sound but oh so strange - to stand close right up against the stage where I can never normally be - surrounded by dancing robots and wierd life forms with a light display that swirls around the ceiling and the walls echoing (if that makes sense) the vision of flames and seething metal.   Stunning.   

And then it ends and there's just darkness and the rattling of extractor fans and figures drifting around slowing returning to human form and getting into taxis and going home.    Hawk phase space is closed again and the time gear returns to normal.  

Goodnight all - and thanks!

jill

** the story I heard of how J.K. Weatherspoon got its name is truly entertaining.
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Jill Strobridge <jill.strobridge at blueyonder.co.uk>
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