Porchester - Saturday

[Steve]

Hey Andreas, I wondered where you'd got to, I thought we'd just lost you in the crowd in Notting Hill carnival.

Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: andreas.stuewe at T-ONLINE.DE
Date: Tuesday, Sep 1, 2009 12:39 pm
Subject: Re: Porchester - Saturday
To: Reply-    BOC/Hawkwind Discussion List <BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET>To: BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET

Ok, I rarely post anything here, but the party last Saturday was so good that I just have to write down my thoughts. 

We, that´s me, my wife and her friend, arrived in London on Saturday morning and after having breakfast near Piccadilly in Soho went by bus to Notting Hill Gate. It was great to see some familiar faces and
getting to know some more Hawkfans, especially Steve Swann. The Hawkwalk really was very enjoyable, a big thank you to Jim who did a great job showing us all the historical buildings round Portobello Road. Though I´ve been there before I haven´t noticed the "flat block of 2
dimensions" before that inspired both Calvert´s and Ballard´s High Rise. Seeing the houses where Moorcock lived in the 70´s was very inspiring. Wish I had a time machine going back there some 35 years... The 25 page booklet Jim produced is a very interesting read as well, with some
photographs of places as they were back then and as they look now. Sorry that I couldn´t make the last part of the tour cos I had to look after my wife and her friend who had some aching feet and sat down at a cafe. Strange that they chose the one that used to be the office where
Friends/Frendz magazine was produced ages ago. The personal didn´t knew anything about Frendz though when I asked them. But we did continue the route and got to see Island Record Studios (which had some beautiful
graffitis sprayed upon its walls) and All Saints church.   

After we checked into our hotel we walked about 400 yards to Porchester Hall, got our bags with the CD etc., got our tickets stamped and heard Tim Blake singing. Hawkwind were already on stage and were doing some songs by Tim at a rather low volume. There were only about a hundred
people there and greeted my old friends Rainer, Bernhard and Christos. Standing right in front of the stage seeing Hawkwind perform was a
strange experience, as well as hearing Dave singing Mirror of illusion in an unusual stripped down version, even playing harmonica and
obviously having lots of fun. He had to put his glasses on to read the lyrics from the lyric book from the 80´s (which has by the way lots of faults...). It was over all too soon though. 

The Porchester Hall itself was beautiful, as we walked around we met other familiar faces (it was great to see you again, Scott!). Got some very tasty ale at the bar, bought T-Shirts and had a good time. TOSH was playing much louder than HW, and the drums were pretty annoying. But it was great to see Huw playing electric guitar with them. Ok, his soloing went a bit too long, but anyway, it was good to see him well and alive and having some fun on stage. Obviously he was in a much better state than at last year´s Hawkfest when I last saw him. Smiling throughout the day he was friendly to everyone who wanted to have a talk with him. His acoustic set later on wasn´t that great, but occasionally his playing was plain wonderful. 

Tarantism were indeed pretty good, but I would have liked to see some other HW-connected act instead, maybe some more Tim Blake songs. Ah
well, you cannot have everything. The Chili was excellent as well, after ordering it took only 15 min. until our meals arrived. After that we
took an hour break and went back to our hotel for a littly nap, which was plain necessary considering we´ve been up since 2.30 am. So we
missed the skiffle band who got some divided reactions from fans. We
arrived just in time for the raffle, but since we knew nothing about it we left our bags of HW goodies at the hotel, so we couldn´t win
anything. Did anyone hear Matthew calling out the numbers 0547, 0548 or
0549? 

By that time the ale barrel was empty so I tried a Guiness, which was ok. After I got used to that dark brew I wanted another one, but then the barrel was also empty. So then it was time for, gulp, a lager... no, that was no good, but anyway, it was the only booze left... No, it ain´t not good, but over here in Germany we are blessed with so much better beer... The only good thing was that I had no headache from those 3 or 4 pints of lager the next day.   

Then after Huwie finished his acoustic set the HW show began. It started really good with that A&B/Golden Void/Where are they now medley. The
band was really enjoying themselves, and the fans were going nuts. The sound was really muddy though and it was some big noise, I couldn´t hear each instrument clearly, which really was a shame. After an hour we left the front rows and farther away from stage the sound wasn´t better. The highlight for me was Angels of death, especially for the very heavy bass playing by Niall. The 2 new songs didn´t work for me, sorry to say, but I have to admit that I´ve heard them for the first time. Spirit of the Age was another totally different version and there was lots of rambling around on stage by that time, with the 2 dancers, which were excellent throughout the set, and even Cpt. Rizz fitted in perfectly. The encore was a let-down though: another boring version of Assassins of Allah and a not very inspired version of Fahrenheit 451. Maybe it was the fault of the bloody booze, but by the 2nd part of the show wasn´t much enjoyable for me, or maybe I was missing the "special guests" or maybe it was cos I was expecting a setlist more varied, some older stuff from the first 4 albums. To me it wasn´t one of the great gigs, just an average one. I´ve seen them so many times, over 50 concerts over the last 22 years, and a lot of them gigs HW were much better, but then again I´ve seen worse
gigs, especially in 93/94 and in 97, so I won´t complain. 

All in all though it was a great party and worth the distresses of
travelling. We, the fans, really got a lot for our money. For 25 quid you got a festival, a CD and a wonderful bag. And HW could have easily sold more tickets, but on that day you could walk easily all around the Hall without bumping into people. So we´ve all had a good time and I´d like to thank Dave and all of the crew members on & behind stage for a wonderful day. 

Lastly, one wish: Me and all the German fans (there were at least 15 of us there) would really like to have HW celebrating their 40th
anniversary in Germany as well! Please, just one gig here would be just fine. A gig in Amsterdam or Tilburg or any other dutch town would be
fine as well. 

Cheers,
Andreas