HW: Alan Davey interview

[Jonathan Jarrett]

On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 04:34:46AM -0600, mike coleman typed out:
> Jon Jarret writes:
> > P. S. Harvey is on the other hand in my opinion the best *synth* player
> > Hawkwind ever had and I would respectfully ask a rejoining Simon, were
> > such ever to occur, to stick to violin so that there would be space for
> > Harvey too...
> > --
> 
> Now in a "perfect world", for me, if Simon were to plug back into whatever
> he was using on Warrior, I would say do anything, I mean ANYTHING to keep
> Harvey from messing anything up........

	Aw, I know what you mean, but Harvey's big melodic washes of 
noise and his particular brand of squiggly sounds work for me better 
than Simon's rather orchestral leanings; they're good, but they bring 
Hawkwind too close to being a dinosaur prog band, which I think was a 
failing _Warrior_ suffered from maybe a bit too much.

> and before I continue, I rather see you as a personal friend Jon, and none
> of this stuff is very serious to me, and while I almost could have been a
> musician,  I do not have an "ear" for much besides guitar, although Simon
> King gave me an "ear" for his drumming, (and) I never found any fault with
> Harvey's bass-playing

	I don't know whether I have an ear for this stuff particularly, 
but I have some idea of what I think works and why. I find Harvey's 
bass-playing rather awkward, it doesn't flow like Alan's or Lemmy's, or 
even Ron's when Ron was/is on form. That said, as I think I did say, 
the bass-parts Harvey came up with are really fun.

> I find it strange that Simon House would (for me) trump Dik Mik and Del,
> though my connections higher up refer me to the fact Del was overseeing a
> bunch of the instruments..........

	This is one of those problems with time, innit: Hawkwind Del was 
a marvel to apprehend and all kinds of complexities and textures lurked 
within his machinery, but occasional-Space-Ritual-visitor Del with the 
axe, well, is not adding as much. If you gave me a choice between 1973 
Del and 1974 Simon, then Del is the more interesting for the head, at 
least this head, but 2000s Simon easily trumps 2000s Del as someone with 
a whole musical picture of what's going on and how to add to it.

> One thing I am sure of,  is that Judge Trev certainly chose the wrong
> instrument...that guy should NEVER have picked up a guitar......talk about
> painful.......and you should see how fast people make excuses to leave every
> time his "noise" is on my stereo.....I won't even mention when he opens his
> mouth to "sing"???

	Better than that Kev bloke he hangs around with, though... 
Believe me I've seen it (now), 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