Hawkwind - 'Space Night' - London Astoria Dec 2007

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Maybe you have to see Hawkwind twice on the same tour to appreciate them, but I thought the Astoria gig kicked a bit of ass. I could hear what the members were playing, which always helps! Or maybe you just have to see them at a venue with a decent PA. Anyway, in the new lineup we have Mr Dibs on bass, who gets on with the job and then grabs attention with things like the bass riff start of Master of the Universe.

I wonder if the smoking ban has worked against bands like Hawkwind. Time was, you'd get hordes of fans getting spliffed up and getting their heads down for a bit of space grunge. Whereas at Exeter a few days ago and then at this gig, almost no heads started gyrating until the bloody encore.

The encore did slay 'em, though. Flying Doctor and Silver Machine (clips of the latter are on YouTube) got those heads bobbing up and down like Status Quo were in town. For the foregoing, there was increasingly entheusiastic noise from the audience but - so far as I could see - very little energy going back and forth. The spark isn't there.

There was some material from the Space Ritual album (SR) days - Time We Left, The Awakening, Orone and Black Corridor - and, as I said, Master - but the gig didn't measure up to the hype beforehand. And this was hype that the band seemed careful not to discourage. Imagine Hawkwind's position: you've only got to get a few people talking about SR revivals, and the rest of us will latch onto it and start imagining all sorts of things. But the one characterising thing about SR was long free-flowing riffing. And that just does not happen anymore.

I think the nearest we got to free-form was Tim Blake (remember Live 79?) playing the strange resonance device known as a theramin. And, yeah, he did Lighthouse!

At Exeter, I took heed of the shape of the tracks and at Astoria they followed an identical setlist and the same gameplan. I am now amazed and rather bewildered to learn, from hawkwind.com, that "since the departure of Alan Davey, we have been able to dispense with the computer."

Well, I hadn't noticed. Sorry, lads, but it still sounds like everything's planned in advance and the gameplan is adhered to, no matter what.

I'd give it a 6/10 score judged as a Hawkwind gig. However, that rates it as 9 on the general music scale!

Edited by sonic_assassin - December 21 2007 at 21:35

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sonic_assassin Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Forum Senior Member Joined: February 29 2004 Location: Devon, UK Status: Offline Points: 157	Topic: Hawkwind - 'Space Night' - London Astoria Dec 2007 Posted: December 21 2007 at 21:28
	Maybe you have to see Hawkwind twice on the same tour to appreciate them, but I thought the Astoria gig kicked a bit of ass. I could hear what the members were playing, which always helps! Or maybe you just have to see them at a venue with a decent PA. Anyway, in the new lineup we have Mr Dibs on bass, who gets on with the job and then grabs attention with things like the bass riff start of Master of the Universe. I wonder if the smoking ban has worked against bands like Hawkwind. Time was, you'd get hordes of fans getting spliffed up and getting their heads down for a bit of space grunge. Whereas at Exeter a few days ago and then at this gig, almost no heads started gyrating until the bloody encore. The encore did slay 'em, though. Flying Doctor and Silver Machine (clips of the latter are on YouTube) got those heads bobbing up and down like Status Quo were in town. For the foregoing, there was increasingly entheusiastic noise from the audience but - so far as I could see - very little energy going back and forth. The spark isn't there. There was some material from the Space Ritual album (SR) days - Time We Left, The Awakening, Orone and Black Corridor - and, as I said, Master - but the gig didn't measure up to the hype beforehand. And this was hype that the band seemed careful not to discourage. Imagine Hawkwind's position: you've only got to get a few people talking about SR revivals, and the rest of us will latch onto it and start imagining all sorts of things. But the one characterising thing about SR was long free-flowing riffing. And that just does not happen anymore. I think the nearest we got to free-form was Tim Blake (remember Live 79?) playing the strange resonance device known as a theramin. And, yeah, he did Lighthouse! At Exeter, I took heed of the shape of the tracks and at Astoria they followed an identical setlist and the same gameplan. I am now amazed and rather bewildered to learn, from hawkwind.com, that "since the departure of Alan Davey, we have been able to dispense with the computer." Well, I hadn't noticed. Sorry, lads, but it still sounds like everything's planned in advance and the gameplan is adhered to, no matter what. I'd give it a 6/10 score judged as a Hawkwind gig. However, that rates it as 9 on the general music scale! Edited by sonic_assassin - December 21 2007 at 21:35