Hawkwind 40th anniversary - Porchester Hall, Londo

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As Hawkwind, year-on-year, leave the blanga (spacey thrash) behind them, they become less and less 'prog'... but I think they still deserve an 'honourary prog' badge of merit.

Anyway, I know lots of you like Hawkwind, so I'm not going to worry too much about technical justification!

Weekend just gone, they did two shows in Notting Hill - where the whole Hawkwind thing started 40 years ago. Fast forward 40 years, and there were no lasers, no smoke machines, nobody smoking, and almost no 'blanga' or trademark rhythm guitar riffing. That's just the spirit of the age, of course... political correctness bans spliffing-up indoors and Dave Brock's moved on from 1972. sh*t happens!

What we did get was 3 Hawkwind shows Saturday and 3 Hawkwind shows Sunday. Plus soundchecks. And some other stuff inbetween, but quite honestly I didn't care much about the non-Hawkwind stuff. I was outside, smoking and chatting to people, or wandering around.

Early afternoon, we had the Elves of Silbury Hill and their line-up was (L-R)

Tim Blake, Dibs [bass], Richard Chadwick [drums], Dave Brock, and Niall Hone [lead gtr]

Friday 4pm, I wandered in, and thought: Hmmm, that lot look familiar!

When they did stuff like Mirror of Illusion and Green Finned Demon they seemed even more familiar!

Mid-afternoon, we had TOSH - the Technicians of Spaceship Hawkwind.

They had this bloke on guitar some of the time... Dave Brock, I think his name was 

Friday and Saturday night, at nearly 9pm, the main Hawkwind set. They kicked ass, but not in a 1972 way. But then, I didn't really expect them to. Some people felt let down by HW not pulling something special out of the hat for their 40th. Me, I didn't have high expectations and so I enjoyed it.

Maybe therein lies a secret.

The evening track list (sort of) is on the Hawkwind forum at http://hawkwindforum.freeforums.org/porchester-hall-track-listings-etc-t1851.html

Edited by sonic_assassin - August 30 2009 at 20:42

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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 40th anniversary - Porchester Hall, Londo Posted: August 30 2009 at 16:17
	As Hawkwind, year-on-year, leave the blanga (spacey thrash) behind them, they become less and less 'prog'... but I think they still deserve an 'honourary prog' badge of merit. Anyway, I know lots of you like Hawkwind, so I'm not going to worry too much about technical justification! Weekend just gone, they did two shows in Notting Hill - where the whole Hawkwind thing started 40 years ago. Fast forward 40 years, and there were no lasers, no smoke machines, nobody smoking, and almost no 'blanga' or trademark rhythm guitar riffing. That's just the spirit of the age, of course... political correctness bans spliffing-up indoors and Dave Brock's moved on from 1972. sht happens! What we did get was 3 Hawkwind shows Saturday and 3 Hawkwind shows Sunday. Plus soundchecks. And some other stuff inbetween, but quite honestly I didn't care much about the non-Hawkwind stuff. I was outside, smoking and chatting to people, or wandering around. Early afternoon, we had the Elves of Silbury Hill* and their line-up was (L-R) Tim Blake, Dibs [bass], Richard Chadwick [drums], Dave Brock, and Niall Hone [lead gtr] Friday 4pm, I wandered in, and thought: Hmmm, that lot look familiar! When they did stuff like Mirror of Illusion and Green Finned Demon they seemed even more familiar! Mid-afternoon, we had TOSH - the Technicians of Spaceship Hawkwind. They had this bloke on guitar some of the time... Dave Brock, I think his name was Friday and Saturday night, at nearly 9pm, the main Hawkwind set. They kicked ass, but not in a 1972 way. But then, I didn't really expect them to. Some people felt let down by HW not pulling something special out of the hat for their 40th. Me, I didn't have high expectations and so I enjoyed it. Maybe therein lies a secret. The evening track list (sort of) is on the Hawkwind forum at http://hawkwindforum.freeforums.org/porchester-hall-track-listings-etc-t1851.html Edited by sonic_assassin - August 30 2009 at 20:42

djfake Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Forum Groupie Joined: June 10 2008 Location: Chicago Status: Offline Points: 71	Posted: September 13 2009 at 15:51
	Thanks for the pic, Who were the special guests?
	Author, "The Strawberry Bricks Guide to Progressive Rock" www.progressiverock.com

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	Posted: September 17 2009 at 05:10
	The 'special guests' was a reference to the entire weekend, rather than the main Hawkwind set. The phrase misled a few people, who interpreted it as 'ex-members playing with Hawkwind' but Captain Rizz did some shouty-vox during Spirit of the Age and (according to Starfarer's review) Bob Kerr did a trumpet solo during Lighthouse, although I don't remember that bit. If you consider the setlist and style of Hawkwind in Dec 2008, and the incremental changes that occurred on the April 2009 tour, then Porchester was a progression on from that. So it wasn't a special performance, as such - nor had anyone said it would be. What was special was the nature of the day as a whole. Starfarer's review of Saturday is here: http://www.starfarer.net/prchestr.html I did hear the names of some of the guests who appeared at various times but I can only remember Matthew Wright, who compered the 'question time' event.