I first saw Hawkwind in 1971 at Manchester University, that gig changed my life and led to me eventually publishing my own magazine, Penetration. The second interview I conducted for the first issue was with Nik Turner, I became good friends with Nik and the rest of the band and they became Penetration’s ‘house band’. We had many adventures with the band, most of them under the influence of mind altering substances of one kind or another.
When it came to the Space Ritual I was totally blown away, the best live show I’d ever seen and it has never been equalled by anyone since although, as Dave Brock has said, listening to the recordings now in parts it sounds like everyone is playing a different song at the same time.
Of course, when Lemmy was sacked by the band Penetration supported him all the way, and we followed Motorhead around the country habitually. Motorhead and Lemmy were a joke as far as many people were concerned, how Lemmy proved them all wrong.
Of course, the original members of both Hawkwind and Motorhead have gone off to join the great gig in the sky and yet Dave Brock, who is currently 81 years old, is still the space captain in control of the mighty Hawkwind and he still looks like he’s enjoying the trip. I caught their recent show at Manchester’s Academy, just two minutes away from where I first saw them back in ’71 and the audience, many of whom were not born in 1971, were enjoying every last second of the show.
The band played many of the old classics like ‘Assault and Battery’, ‘You’d Better Believe it’, ‘Utopia’, ‘Spirit of the Age’ and of course, as an encore. one for us all to go fucking crazy ‘Brainstorm’. It was like being transported back in time and the lightshow was superb and finally, I must mention The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. I caught Arthur Brown again at Manchester University around the same time that I first saw Hawkwind. The God of Hellfire is still as crazy as ever and he gave a great performance with a remarkable number of costume changes.
People who have seen Hawkwind recently have enthused about just how amazingly good they are, if you missed them check out the live recordings on YouTube and enjoy!
Paul Welsh Writer 