NIK (was HW: Do Not Panic documentary)

[Jonathan Jarrett]

On Mon, Apr 02, 2007 at 07:34:23PM -0400, Stephen Swann typed out:
> You know, I see this Turner that you describe showing up on
> videos and such, but when my wife and I saw him some years
> ago touring in the States, he was downright gentlemanly -
> gracious, even.  At the end, he bowed and thanked the
> audience for attending and all!  It was the second time my
> wife had seen him, and she loved both shows that she's seen.
> Adn the guys backing him (on that tour at least) were
> anything but pub comedians...

	I think that, although obviously I've not been and seen and am 
going only from recordings, that Nik in the USA is a very different deal 
to Nik in the UK. Mainly it's that the band he tows around is different. 
Be it Pressurehed, Farflung, Five Fifteen, Anubian Lights or Spaceseed, 
they're almost always a coherent band in their own right, because he 
can't, save one or two people with very portable or already-
transatlantic instruments, afford to truck over any of the old HW crew. 
So the show you get is far better-rehearsed and worked out already.

	But I also think the crowds must be different. Various people 
have made the point that what with the rarity that HW tours the USA, 
Nik's been more or less the figurehead of UK spacerock over there. Easy 
enough for him; he only has to put a sax and a flute in the baggage and 
hook up with a band, but the fact that he does this is obviously good 
for the US audience who wants to see the full act. In the UK however, a 
lot of people--as we've seen--are aware that Nik can deliver an 
outrageously bad show, with under- or unrehearsed backing band pulled 
together at the last moment, ex-HW members recruited for their 
connection to the band rather than their actual ability (Space Ritual's 
rhythm section please look away) and so on. So the people who come out 
are the people who either don't mind seeing an average party band doing 
HW standards, or else who are righteously convinced that Nik has `the 
spirit of Hawkwind' and so on. And neither of these groups will slag Nik 
off for being sub-par, so he can get away with it, but in the USA he has 
to perform for the audience that's expecting it. (The fact that I 
assume those tours have to pay for themselves whereas he can do UK gigs 
on goodwill and hopes may also be something to do with it...)

	I will say that I have never seen Nik be anything less than a 
gentleman from the stage, or off it when I've briefly met him, he seemed 
a lovely guy even when he and everyone else knew the performance was 
terrible (Inner Cuty Pompadours being the prime example). The only 
exception might be the second Hawkestra, where he did seem a little bit 
prima donna bandleader, but then he was only just in command of a huge 
juggernaut of musicians, and he had Ade Shaw and Jerry Richards as more 
amenable lieutenants. But that doesn't mean that he performs well. If I 
had a Hawkwind album for every time I've seen Nik come in an odd number 
of bars out of time (even I could understand more, but he's often one or 
three bars out, which is just weird) or forget his words (*his* words, 
that he's been doing for twenty-five to thirty years) I'd have a 
Komplete Kollection and then some to trade... Now Dave may be a 
grumpy control freak who no longer cares about much but his farm and his 
royalties (*may* be :-) ) but I can't remember when I saw him miss a cue 
or fluff a part. But for a UK audience `Nik Turner' is kind of a label 
for "we didn't really bother working on this gig because we're all 
friends here anyway right?" and that only works for some people. So it 
seems to me, anyway, yours,
			    Jon

-- 
"When fortune wanes, of what assistance are quantities of elephants?"
	    (Juvaini, Afghan Muslim chronicler, c. 1206)
 Jon Jarrett, Fitzwilliam Museum, jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk