CANTERBURY FAYRE 2001

Canterbury Fayre is the Hawks second live album in the new millennium. While I prefer Spaced Out In London from the following year, this album will sure please more fans as it sticks closer to that good old Hawkwind sound: Brock and Davey handle most vocals, the sound is a very solid blend of drums, pumping bass and heavy and delayed guitars, and there's only a minor role for the keyboards and effects. As you will remember that is the exact formula of Space Ritual.

But that does not make this album irrelevant. Hawkwind live always starts from the bare essence of their songs and then improvises around them for as long as they have fun doing it. That's a good way to keep things interesting. On top of that, the track list is entirely different here and doesn't share one song with Space Ritual. It more or less revolves around a best of the Levitation and the Warrior on the Edge of Time albums. And the sound is crisp and forceful. What more do you want?