THIS IS HAWKWIND - DO NOT PANIC

Never heard of Hawkwind? I'm not surprised, they're not exactly a household name but since you have never heard of them you may find this surprising - over one hundred Hawkwind albums have been released since 1970. That's right, almost three albums a year. True many of them are live bootlegs box compilations and EPs but still, I don't think even the most prolific artist out there has come close to that. Hawkwind is a Space Rock or Experimental Rock band from England.

Obviously there is a lot of history behind this band, which one could probably write a book about but here's the condensed version. Hawkwind was formed in the late '60s by Dave Brock (Singer/Songwriter), Mick Slattery (Guitar) and Nik Turner (Sax/Flute/Singer). Brock was the leader and glue of the band and managed to keep the band afloat through forty personnel changes over 35 years.

Their sound has continued to evolve and morph over the years. Starting with a semi-jazz feel in "Hawkwind," followed by experimental acoustic sounds of early releases - "In Search of Space." They adopted more of a metal sound in the late 70's, a contemporary electronic feeling on "Electric Teepee." They went on to virtually invent a new sub-genre of Progressive rock called psychedelic space-rock, featuring the use of the versatile new instrument - the synthesizer. Their creativity seemed to reach their acme with the use of the synths to augment their acid-space rock expressions.

Hawkwind

Stonehenge - This is Hawkwind Do Not Panic is a live album that was recorded in two locations. The first seven were recorded in Lewisham Odeon theater in London in 1980 and the last two in Stonehenge in 1984. The album was subsequently released in 1984. The music of this album is a curious mix of straight rock, almost sounding like a garage rock (Psi Power)on some tracks and progressive rock sometimes spacy rock ("Angels of Death" & "Shot Down in the Night")on others

CONCLUSION The more you listen to Hawkwind the more it grows on you. While there's nothing on this particular album that I couldn't go on without hearing again, as a whole it is an interesting if not impressive listen and like I said the more you hear it... Overall, for a live album, the production, while not great, is more than acceptable.

If you are interested and have not heard Space Rock with all it's attendant psychedelic nuances, this may be a good place to start. Final Rating - high 3 stars.

Don't let the cover of This Is Hawkwind - Do Not Panic deceive you; only the last two tracks actually hail from Hawkwind's 1984 performance at the Stonehenge Free Festival. The remainder all come from a December 1980 concert at the Lewisham Odeon on the Levitation tour - hence the presence of Ginger Baker on drums. That material is solid, though you only get extracts from the concert here. (Other bits would emerge on the Hawkwind Anthology series and on the Zones collection of odds and sods.) If you are interested in that concert, I'd say you are much better off getting the 3CD expanded rerelease of Levitation, since the two bonus CDs there offer the most complete official release of that gig extant and the remaster reveals the Levitation-era band on top form.

Overall rating: 2 stars for the rather poor Stonehenge recordings, 4 stars for the Lewisham material, so I'd say this comes to 3 stars on average (whereas the nearly-complete version of the Lewisham material on the Levitation reissue would come to, say, 4.5 stars).