Hawkwind Exeter - the foyer review

[bernhard.pospiech]

Thanks very much for this interesting review Jill


Are you sure that they did FAHRENHEIT 451 ???


Cheers
Bernhard





 

-----Original Message-----
From: BOC/Hawkwind Discussion List [mailto:BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET] On
Behalf Of Jill Strobridge
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 2:19 AM
To: BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET
Subject: Hawkwind Exeter - the foyer review

ohmigod Exeter was a strange venue - it took an hour to find the place
(Tim's comment that someone was trying to keep it a secret seemed all too
true) and once through the door you came into a hall with a large bar and
seating on one side while the other side comprised a sort of hotel reception
area with a stage tucked away at the back - indeed as was pointed out to me
- the bar area was larger than the stage area!   It is therefore a huge
tribute to the band and a credit to their professionalism, as well as the
quality of their playing and the strength of the set that despite this they
not only managed to fit everyone on stage, but had a full lightshow and
played a very creditable set - though it can't have been easy - the dancers
even had to perform on boxes laid out across the front of the stage! 

Set list was as Glasgow: Intro, Master of the Universe, Time We Left,
Lighthouse (I'm entirely in favour of someone helping Tim with the vocals on
this - it's a lovely track and works well with two vocalists), then an Alien
intro - <errm didn't identify this>, then Orgone Acumulator / Only Dreaming,
<then a gentle pensive piano intro> Whose Gonna Win The War (this is awesome
and has been given a strong contemporary relevance with the dancers
portraying soldiers - not dancing - just standing there with guns.  The last
time I saw something similar was Marrillion doing "Forgotten Heroes" but let
us pass swiftly onwards!  The audience reaction to this track is
interestingly varied - there was silence at Newcastle, I'm not sure people
quite knew what to make of it), swiftly followed by (and it's a very neatly
crafted seque) Angels of Death/Life (with firey images of skull heads and a
truly wonderful extended drum/choppy guitar/drum rhythm sequence - a
glorious sound) then Wraith, Utopia (excellent version - clear vocals -
images of the mindless masses on their way to work -
as-indeed-I-should-be-tomorrow-don't-want-to-think-about-it), Damnation
Alley, Sentinel - I like this, lyrical, calm and has the dancers/performers
as strangely stooped giant stilted creatures stalking among the band on
stage (though sadly they couldn't get on stage in Exeter) then Right to
Decide (with a 3rd verse I haven't sussed yet), Fahrenheit 451 (Dibs doing
an excellent job with the spoken verse), and Damnation Alley to end the set.
In Exeter the encore was limited (unsurprisingly) to Silver Machine but in
Newcastle the band started early so did an extended encore which included
(hooray - I don't care what anyone says about repetitiveness I just love
this!) Assault and Battery / Golden Void and Where Are They Now).  Dave's
guitar really makes these tracks come alive and "sing" <that's not the word
I want - perhaps "resonate" is better> but truly I could not have been
happier.  Overall I strongly feel the strength/quality of the overall sound
is so much better with Tim and Niall contributing as well - you may not
always be aware of them individually but the extra dimension makes a
tremendous difference - at least it does when the sound mix doesn't deafen
you.   

Anyhow - that's it for my tour this winter.   Thank you and congratulations
to everyone.   Enjoy the rest of the tour!
jill   
==============================================
Jill Strobridge <jill.strobridge at blueyonder.co.uk>
==============================================