Inner space as much as outer space
Early Hawkwind is the sound of musical barbarians at the gate and, apart from their aberrant ‘Silver Machine’ single, they have never been allowed into the mainstream. Often, their outsider status has been physical as well as a state of mind. Jimi Hendrix dedicated a song to ‘the cat with the silver face’ at the 1970Isle Of Wight Festival, and that ‘cat’ turned out to be Nik Turner, founding member of Hawkwind, who had painted his face with silver stars and was playing several free gigs outside the festival wall with the band in protest at the high ticket prices.
As well as being renowned for playing free gigs and festivals, Hawkwind were also initially infamous for their lack of musicianship. Most of the early band members were people who had taught themselves to play instruments (Nik Turner, Dik Mik). Some were solid players but their ideal gig was to turn up, play a freeform psychedelic rock jam (usually entitled ‘Sunshine Special’) for one or two hours straight through, without any breaks for applause and then leave to a standing ovation. The band was inspired by the avant- garde elements of Pink Floyd but also cite the vast krautrock movement (particularly Amon Duul II, Can and Neu) nascent in Germany at the time.
While bands come and go, the name Hawkwind carries on, producing striking music and almost representing an entire lifestyle. Always enigmatic and outside of the mainstream, most people associate Hawkwind with ‘whoosh’ noises, ‘Silver Machine’, Lemmy and the recognition that they produce something called Space Rock music. Even from the cursory glance afforded by this book, it will become clear that there is far more to this group than this long-lived but inaccurate stereotype.
Hawkwind’s longevity can be ascribed to both luck and determination, but part of the secret of their long life is that they actively accept and promote change both musically and, inevitably, in personnel.
Perhaps surprisingly, one of the band’s early stated aims was to create an atmosphere for the audience by combining music, lights, dance, theatre and mime that was psychedelic and tripped outwithout the need for illegal drugs of any kind. Most of the band members dabbled, if I can be politic, in hallucinogenic drugs to one extent or another and the tales of the band’s drug intake are legendary. This has to be looked at in context, of course: the principal drug of the day, LSD, had only been criminalised by Parliament in 1966 and many people had carried on using it, particularly when it seemed that other bands had continued to use only recently illegal drugs themselves.
The band officially came together in late 1969 as Group X, mostly because they couldn’t think of a name for themselves and they had a gig that night. John Peel saw them and recommended to Doug Smith that he sign a management deal with the band there and then. The band continued looking for a name and settled on Hawkwind Zoo. With that settled, they recorded their first demo consisting of three songs and Doug Smith began hawking it around various major labels. Almost immediately, the nascent Hawkwind signed contracts with Andrew Lauder’s Liberty
