HAWKLORDS: 25 YEARS ON

25 Years On (1978) is the only studio album by this Hawkwind incarnation, and is a collection of mostly short and catchy songs with a considerable New Wave sensibility. Although these songs reflected the musical climate of the time, lead vocalist Robert Calvert later disparaged, somewhat paradoxically or perhaps ironically, the conserative nature of the New Wave and its return to the 3-minute pop song format. The UK tour that Hawklords undertook to promote the album involved an elaborate stage show with Calvert's fictional Pan-Transcendental Industries (PTi) at its dystopian centre. PTi's 25-year plan sought ''absolute authority over the planet'' via the ''industrialisation of religion'' and the obliteration of Nature by ''the new psycho- technology''.

The slow-paced THE AGE OF THE MICRO MAN is one of the album's highlights and its lyrics concern the ''Voluntary Prisoners'', or workers, in the giant PTi factory. The commercial- sounding PSI POWER and the punky 25 YEARS (with Calvert doing a great Bryan Ferry impersonation!) were both released in slightly different versions as singles, whereas the ambient synthesizer soundscape FREE FALL provides a rare helping of typical Hawkwind space-rock. My personal favourite is the humorous FLYING DOCTOR, which features Calvert's mock Australian accent and jaw's harp that serves as a surrogate didgeridoo. There's even some wobble board in the background; who would have thought that Rolf Harris would influence prog?!

25 Years On is ok, but it's certainly not the place to start if you're new to Hawkwind. Symphonic fans should look to earlier albums but the post-punks among us should enjoy this.