1970-75: United Artists era Pretty Things guitarist Dick Taylor was brought in to produce the 1970 debut album Hawkwind. Although it wasn't a commercial success, it did bring them to the attention of the UK underground scene finding them playing free concerts, benefit gigs and festivals. Playing free outside the Bath Festival, they encountered another Ladbroke Grove based band, the Pink Fairies, who shared similar interests in music and recreational activities, a friendship developed which led to the two bands becoming running partners and performing as Pinkwind. Their use of drugs, however, led to the departure of Harrison who didn't imbibe, followed by Lloyd-Langton after a bad LSD trip at the Isle of Wight Festival led to his having a nervous breakdown.
1971's follow up album In Search of Space brought greater commercial success, reaching #18 on the UK album charts, and also saw the band's image and philosophy take shape, courtesy of graphic artist Barney Bubbles and underground press writer Robert Calvert, as depicted in the accompanying Hawklog booklet which would further be developed into the Space Ritual stage show. Science fiction author Michael Moorcock and dancer Stacia also started contributing to the band. Dikmik had left the band, his place being taken by sound engineer Del Dettmar, but chose to return for this album giving the band two electronics players. Bass player Dave Anderson, who had been in the German band Amon Duul II had also joined but departed before its release due to personal tensions with some other members of the band. Meanwhile, unhappy with the commercial direction the band were heading in, Ollis also chose to leave.
The addition of bassist Lemmy and drummer Simon King propelled the band to greater heights. One of the first gigs this band played was a benefit for the Greasy Truckers at The Roundhouse on 13 February 1972 and a resultant single "Silver Machine" was released, reaching #3 in the UK charts. This generated sufficient funds for the subsequent album Doremi Fasol Latido Space Ritual tour. The show featured dancers Stacia and Miss Renee, mime artist Tony Crerar and a light show by Liquid Len and is immortalised on the elaborate package Space Ritual. At the height of their success in 1973, the band released the single "Urban Guerrilla" which coincided with an IRA bombing campaign in London, so the BBC refused to play it and the band's management reluctantly decided to withdraw it fearing accusations of opportunism.
Dikmik departed during 1973 and Calvert ended his association with the band to concentrate on solo projects. Dettmar also indicated that he was to leave the band, so Simon House was recruited as keyboardist and violinist playing live shows, a North America tour and recording the 1974 album Hall of the Mountain Grill. Dettmar left after a European tour, emigrating to Canada, whilst Alan Powell deputised for an incapacitated King on that European tour, but remained giving the band two drummers.
At the beginning of 1975, the band recorded the album Warrior on the Edge of Time in collaboration with Michael Moorcock loosely based on his Eternal Champion figure. However, during a North America tour in May, Lemmy was caught in possession of amphetamine crossing the border from the USA into Canada. The border police mistook the powder for cocaine and he was jailed, forcing the band to cancel some shows. Fed up of his erratic behaviour, the band fired the bass player replacing him with their long standing friend and former Pink Fairies guitarist Paul Rudolph. Lemmy then teamed up with another Pink Fairies guitarist, Larry Wallis, to form Motörhead, named after the last song he had written for Hawkwind.
1976-78: Charisma era Robert Calvert made a guest appearance with band for their headline set at the Reading Festival in August 1975, after which he chose to rejoin the band as a full-time vocalist and front man. Stacia, on the other hand, chose to relinquish her dancing duties and settle down to family life. The band changed record company to Charisma Records and band management from Douglas Smith to Tony Howard.
1976's Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music is the first album of this era and highlights both Calvert's well crafted lyrics written with stage performance in mind and a greater proficiency and scope in the music. But on the eve of recording the follow-up Back on the Streets single, Turner was sacked for his erratic live playing and Powell was deemed surplus to requirements. After a tour to promote the single and during rehearsals for the next album, Rudolph was also sacked for allegedly trying to steer the band into a musical direction at odds with Calvert and Brock's vision.
Adrian "Ade" Shaw, who as the bass player for Magic Muscle had supported Hawkwind on the Space Ritual tour, came in for the 1977 album Quark, Strangeness and Charm. The band continued to enjoy moderate commercial success, but Calvert's mental illness often caused problems. A manic phase saw the band abandon a European tour in France, while a depression phase during a 1978 North American tour convinced Brock to disband the group. In between these two tours, the band had recorded the album PXR5 in January 1978, but its release was delayed until 1979.
On 23 December 1977 in Barnstaple, Brock and Calvert had performed a one-off gig with Devon band Ark as the Sonic Assassins, and looking for a new project in 1978, bassist Harvey Bainbridge and drummer Martin Griffin were recruited from this event. Steve Swindells was recruited as keyboard player. The band was named Hawklords, probably for legal reasons having recently split with their management, and recording took place on a farm in Devon using a mobile studio resulting in the album 25 Years On. King had originally been the drummer for the project but quit during recording sessions to return to London, while House, who had temporarily left the band to join a David Bowie tour, elected to remain with Bowie fulltime, but nevertheless did contribute violin to these sessions. At the end of the album's UK tour, Calvert, wanting King back in the band, fired Griffin, then promptly resigned himself, choosing to pursue a career in literature. Swindells left to record a solo album after an offer had been made to him by the record company ATCO.
1980s: In late 1979, Hawkwind reformed with Brock, Bainbridge and King being joined by Huw Lloyd-Langton (who had played on the debut album) and Tim Blake (formerly of Gong), embarking upon a UK tour despite not having a record deal or any product to promote. Some shows were recorded and a deal was made with Bronze Records resulting in the Live Seventy Nine album, quickly followed by the studio album Levitation. However, during the recording of Levitation King quit and Ginger Baker was drafted in for the sessions, but he chose to stay with the band for the tour, during which Tim Blake left to be replaced by Keith Hale.
In 1981 Baker and Hale left after their insistence that Bainbridge should be sacked was declined, and Brock and Bainbridge elected to handle synthesizers and sequencers themselves with drummer Griffin from the Hawklords rejoining. Three albums, which again saw Michael Moorcock contributing lyrics and vocals, were recorded for RCA/Active: Sonic Attack, the electronic Church of Hawkwind and Choose Your Masques. This band headlined the 1981 Glastonbury Festival and made an appearance at the 1982 Donnington Monsters of Rock Festival, as well as continuing to play the summer solstice at Stonehenge Free Festival.
Nik Turner had returned as a guest for the 1982 Choose Your Masques tour and was invited back permanently. Further tours ensued with Dead Fred Reeves augmenting the line-up on keyboards and violin, but neither Turner nor Reeves would appear on the only recording of 1983/84, The Earth Ritual Preview, but there was a guest spot for Lemmy. The Earth Ritual tour was filmed for Hawkwind's first ever video release, Night of the Hawk. Alan Davey was a young fan of the band who had sent a tape of his playing to Brock, and Brock chose to oust Reeves moving Bainbridge from bass to keyboards in order to accommodate Davey. This experimental line-up played at the Stonehenge Free Festival in 1984, which was filmed and release as Stonehenge 84. Subsequent personal and professional tensions between Brock and Turner led to the latter's expulsion at the beginning of 1985.
Brock had started using drum machines for his home demos and became increasingly frustrated at the inability of drummers to keep perfect time, leading to a succession of drummers coming and going. First, Griffin was ousted and the band tried Simon King again, but unhappy with his playing at that time, he was rejected. Andy Anderson filled in while he was also playing for The Cure, as did Robert Heaton prior to the rise of New Model Army. Lloyd Langton Group drummer John Clark did some recording sessions, Rik Martinez started the Earth Ritual tour but failed to end it, being replaced by Clive Deamer, who was deemed "too professional for the band. Eventually in 1985 Danny Thompson Jr, a friend of bassist Alan Davey, was drafted in and remained almost to the end of the decade.
Hawkwind's association with Moorcock climaxed in their most ambitious project, The Chronicle of the Black Sword, based loosely around the Elric series of books and theatrically staged with Tony Crerar as the central character. Moorcock contributed lyrics, but only performed some spoken pieces on some live dates. The tour was recorded and issued as an album Live Chronicles and video The Chronicle of the Black Sword. A headline appearance at the 1986 Reading Festival was followed by a UK tour to promote the Live Chronicles album which was filmed and released as Chaos. In 1988 the band recorded the album The Xenon Codex with Guy Bidmead, but all was not well in the band and soon after, both Lloyd-Langton and Thompson departed.
All material posted here on Psychedelic Central is copyright protected and may not be copied or used for any purpose without prior writen authorization and consent from the editor and/or legal copyright holders.
