TMTYL

[Carl Edlund Anderson]

On 20 Jun 2008, at 16:07 , mike coleman wrote:
> the palace springs tour a 3-piece??  where really?? I was actually  
> at the
> palace springs show, but it had Harvey, Richard, Dave, Alan.....4


And sometimes Simon, as well, to make it 5.

But I understand why Steve calls it a 3-piece -- and it very shortly  
became one in the Electric Teepee period.  Honestly, that little blob  
of years between Palace Springs and Electric Teepee -- 89ish to 93ish  
-- is one of my favorite Hawkwind periods.  The return

IMO, Hawkwind _should_ be a 4-person 3-piece :) with guitar/bass/ 
drums ... and some actual human hands to helm the whooshy noises.  (I  
think of Nik's sax in the Space Ritual era as ... basically another  
whooshy noise. ;)  And much though I love Huw ... I never really felt  
Hawkwind needed any guitarist other than Dave.  Nothing says  
"HAWKWIND!" to me like chugging Brockian power chords and wailing wah  
solos.  (Closely following by Lemmyish or Daveyish gut-rending bass  
work ....).  OK, Nik's sax and Simon's violin sometimes bring  
additional texture and colours to the space that _could_ be occupied  
by Dave's wah solos ... but I can get by with Dave. :)

So, I was really delighted with the basic return of the early-90s "3  
piece" around 2003-2004 (rounded out with Jason Stuart on keys, etc.   
There are some great live performances from the years thereafter. But  
then I was not too impressed with TMTYL, which I thought should have  
been at least as good as Electric Teepee, but I don't think it was.   
Too much time screwing around with the mix and too many guest cooks  
without enough good songs sounding sufficiently butt-kicking.

Well, if I ever get to hear Knights of Space, then perhaps I'll find  
out how things are with Mr. Dibs handling the bass duties -- I'm not  
sure I've downloaded any audience recordings with him on, yet.   
Perhaps he'll manage to get them writing some new stuff ....

Cheers,
Carl

--
Carl Edlund Anderson
http://www.carlaz.com/