HW: Tour thoughts from afar...

[Keith Henderson]

Hey Folks...
   
  Thanks to all who have done reviewing here of the first shows of the tour.  Sadly, I am going to miss the entire thing, including the first Xmas show that will be done without me.
   
  So, I am quite encouraged by the continuation of the band to 'dredge' up more and more half-forgotten tracks from the past.  "Infinity" and "Images" were certainly worthy of that treatment, and nice too is the return of older classics like MH and Orgone.  Makes me especially sad not to hear them live, though I imagine I'll be seeing/hearing them on DVD in fairly short order, given that the passport event is just for this purpose.
   
  After the rousing success of last year's vote-for-one-of-four-but-get-all-four-anyway (!) classic-track-resurrection, I must say that I couldn't have asked for such continual revamping of the setlist (well, apart from the obligatory AoA/Palestine bit, which must have been formally put into law by parliament or some such) over the past three-four years!  Now maybe I can even start to hope for such peculiarities as "Nuclear Drive" or "Sweet Mistress of Pain."
   
  The one odd thing is that the band had just gone and done this new version of USoM, which I have yet to hear since I just haven't crossed paths with the Kids to Space book (but intend to at some point), and it's not even in the set!  Perhaps it just didn't transfer to stage or something?
   
  As has already been noted, it is something of a puzzle why exactly the long-held tradition of formulating the show as one continual ambient-linked entity has gradually gone by the wayside over the years, in favor of this 'here's a song, here's another' format.  But I think that's a small price to pay for the wonderful variety and quality of new and various versions of favorites from (nearly) the whole history of the band.  Perhaps it just got to be too much of a bother to 'program,' and since some of the tours have been just six-seven dates, maybe not worth the effort to rehearse.  On the bright side, perhaps it's one reason that Carl (?) thinks that the use of rigid MIDI-linked sequencing and the like isn't as entrenched as it was in the late 90s?  Certainly, the guitar-playing in recent tours has been a whole order of magnitude more prominent than a decade ago, hopefully because of our constant nagging here.  :)
   
  One other thing that has made recent tours a real joy for me has also been the multi-media aspect, with various dancers, the great theme-oriented lightshows from the Chaos folks, and even the silly lab coats.  In the "old" '89-'95 US tours I "participated" in, we never got anything like that, given the venues and travel limitations.  However, unless the reviewers to date have been terribly remiss in making mention of them, it appears there are no dancers this tour.  Though perhaps at London/DVD events?  I especially liked the pair that were being employed in '04-'05 up to the Lorelei event, as they were always doing new things creatively each and every night.  But even the fairy girl and her companion were fun, although less seasoned in the 'fine arts.'
   
  Anyway, I hope you all continue to enjoy all the upcoming shows, and please continue with the show reviews, at least as far as anything new or different that happens along the road.  Anecdotal remarks about surfers and the like are allowed, of course, as to say otherwise (in my case) would be hypocritical, if any of you are familiar with my writing.  And any case, it helps me to take myself mentally out of central Ohio for the next week, which is important because it is impossible to notice anything here other than the election next week and/or the OSU football (the non-round kind) game on Saturday.
   
  I checked out the Lastwind page at myspace.com, and thought Paul (Hayles)'s tracks were half-decent and worth a listen.  A bit too much 'urban' influence mixed amongst the spacey-electronic stuff, and they were obviously homemade sorts of things with drum machine, as opposed to the live band that appeared at the first show(s).  Nice to know what he's up to at least.  Hey, does anybody have some sort of updated list/chart of what all the ex-HWders are doing these days?  The Starfarer guy(s) or Age (is he still in business on the web?) or anybody?  Now I wonder what Keith Hale (sp?) is doing these days?  Of course, he was the one (IIRC...plz correct me if I'm wrong) who ran off with Ginger Baker c. 1981 and toured as GB's Hawkwind, so I'm guessing he's persona non-grata in the HW universe these days (& rightly so).  (On that note...anybody know who sang & played guitar for that bogus band?  There's an interesting trivia question.  Bernhard's probably got tapes....maybe he
 could tell us.)  :)  (nur ein Witz.)
   
  I've been listening to a lot of tunes on the web...finally!  I didn't think I'd like being physically attached, by wires/headphones, to a computer terminal, but it's nice to surf/email and listen to cool music at once.  And if the connection is good, and the site is up-to-speed (sometimes, and esp. with certain bands, myspace.com can be very spotty...lots of pauses and stops), it's really quite a wonder.  Anyway, I have had fun listening to all the recent A-I.com shows Jerry and Kozmik Ken have put up, and found a couple really good ones there.  This Puerto Rican band (Astrid Kröll, or something) is quite cool, and the very first song of Ken's new show blew me away.  I forget their name, but they were English and haven't put out a CD (IIRC), so we'll have to be patient for that anyway.
   
  As far as the whole Rock n Roll Hall of Fame discussion that went on...
  Really folks, you have to be serious for a moment.  First, the institution is purely American, so no British "cult" band that has virtually ZERO name recognition on this side of the pond, would ever ever get any serious consideration.  Beyond that, let's look at all the perfectly-eligible legendary bands that are STILL NOT in the RnRHoF.  Um, we can start with Deep F*cking Purple, go on to BOC and Motorhead and Judas Priest and...
   
  So now, the list of this year's final nominees are out, with Van Halen being the most prominent name.  The other ones I can't remember at the moment.  Last year, the five bands inducted were (for the first time) actually quite reasonable.  I think it was Black Sabbath, Blondie, Sex Pistols, and two more that were not-at-all offensive (like the Bee Gees for instance).   But really, the institution is such a joke, equal to, if not more offensive than, say, the United States government and the corporate media.
   
  BTW, here's my estimates...
  Name recognition in the US (all adults over the age of 18):
  Deep Purple:  50.0%
  BOC: 25.0%
  Hawkwind: 0.2%
  Enough said?
   
  Ciao zäme...Grakkl
   
  ObCD:  Rodrigo y Gabriela: S/T (2006) - Hmmm...former heavy metal guitar duo now doing semi-traditional flamenco ac. guitar songs, with the occasional Led Zeppelin and Metallica cover...sounds gimmicky?  Yeah, but you need to hear them...quite amazing.
   
  AnotherObCD: Dr. Didg (older discs on RykoDisc): either one - also a potential gimmicky thing, with didg-samples/loops used as rhythm tracks for pseudo-trancey world music/danceable rock.  But it's damn good stuff too.  Nice guitar work.
   
  P.S.  Nice to see the inevitable return of ChrMum to the list.  Must be time for El Niño to come back too.
   
  P.P.S.  Where the hell did Doug Pearson go?  This side of the Atlantic has been far too quiet in recent months.  I know, I'm partly responsible for that (though I'm not responsible for being on the wrong side of the Atlantic), but I just haven't been seeing too many shows here in Cowtown/Buckeyeland.  Ozrics and Comets on Fire, but they were months ago.

 
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