OLLIS OUT - ALL HAIL THE KING

Lemmy bumped into Simon King whilst he was getting out of a taxi on Oxford Road. King had been the drummer in one of Lemmy's previous bands Opal Butterfly, and with Hawkwind still having problems with Ollis, Lemmy invited King to double-up. Ollis soon failed, left the band and booked himself into hospital, and King became the new drummer. Calvert was now getting more involved in performing with the band.

On Terry's departure Dave Brock had this to say -

"Someone in the front row had taken a large amount of LSD. The rest of the audience were sitting down and stayed down except for this one bloke. Terry became more and more un-together and his drum beat slowed down, so this guy noticed it The slower the drum beat became, the more agitated this bloke became. He jumped up on the stage screaming 'Crucify me!'. At that same time Terry fell off his stool onto the floor - Dave Brock on Ollis' last gig (1983, This Is Hawkwind)"

SPACE RITUAL - IT'S ON THE HORIZON

The single? Well, that's the one that we all thought 'rush that out, that's going to be a hit'. We'd probably still be struggling like fuck to get the Ritual together, if it wasn't for that - Dave Brock, 1972

The basic idea of the opera - for want of a better word - is that a team of starfarers are in a coma, a state of suspended animation, and the opera is a presentation of the dreams that they're having in Deep Space. It's a mythological approach to interpreting what's happening today - Bob Calvert, 1971

MIC THEFT

On the 2nd August, Hawkwind recorded another BBC Session, this time recording Silver Machine and a version of Brainstorm pre-dating the album sessions. On the 28th September, Hawkwind appeared on the BBC's In Concert, recording a 60 minute set previewing the forth-coming Space Opera. During one of these sessions, a microphone was stolen which led to an indefinite ban by the BBC on Hawkwind sessions, which explains why it was over 10 years before the band was to record another session. The band also appeared at Windsor during September. 

OLLIS - OUT

KING OF THE CASTLE!

OUT NOW - THE STUNNING ALBUM

FROM HAWKWIND

DOESN'T INCLUDE THE HIT SINGLE

SILVER MACHINE

CALVERT

BROCK

Greasy Truckers

On the 13th February, Hawkwind contributed to a benefit at the Roundhouse,Greasy Truckers, which also involved Man and Brinsley Shwarz. The concert was recorded and a double album released with one side per band. The Hawkwind side included Born To Go and Master Of The Universe. In addition,Silver Machine   and Welcome To The Future were taken from this concert and issued on the Glastonbury Fayre album.

Bickershaw

The band continued gigging heavily playing Festivals such as Bickershaw (organised by Jeremy Beadle!, pictured below), beneath the Motorway at Portobello, at the Roundhouse and around the country. In the pipeline was a project Calvert was working on, A Space Opera, but in order to put on a full show they needed to generate money. They decided to have a hit single.

BEADLE - SCARY

Silver Machine had been recorded at the Greasy Truckers gig and the band took it into Morgan Studios to add overdubs (significantly Lemmy's vocal) and mix. The single was the first and only hit single, spending 15 weeks in the chart, reaching number 3 and an appearance on Top of the pops   (albeit a filmed performance from the Dunstable gig on the 7th July).

Commenting on the song in 1981 Bob Calvert said - I read this essay by Alfred Jarrey called 'How to Construct a Time Machine'... I seemed to suss out immediately that what he was describing was his bicycle... I thought it was a great idea for a song. At that time there were a lot of songs about space travel... I thought it was about time to come up with a song that actually sent all this up, which was Silver Machine. Silver Machine was just to say, 'I've got a silver bicycle' - Calvert (April 1981, Cheesecake 5)

THE ORIGINAL SILVER MACHINE ?

DO RE MI

The band travelled to Rockfield Studios in South Wales to record the Doremi Fasol Latido album in September and October. Although Calvert was involved in organising the forthcoming Space Opera shows, he did not contribute (aside from sleeve notes) to the album.

"We've got enough down for two albums in fact, because it's so nice down here. All the basic stuffs done; we recorded bass, guitar, drums and vocals together, so it's as live as it can be, and then we put on the other things afterwards... We just let the tapes run and play like we do when we're playing live; do a three-hour track and then cut it up into pieces, use one piece as a complete section, and join it up to another piece with a synthesiser link or something... It's improvised, but it's together in the first place, that's why we do it the way we do because the three of us know what we're doing, so we put that down and then if the others don't know it they can Iisten to what we've done, get some ideas. and lay their bits down afterwards". - Dave Brock, 1972

The band then undertook a mammoth UK tour in November and December to promote the album. This tour was the crystallisation of Calvert's Space Opera - the music being tribal and revolving around a space theme, Calvert performing poems backed by eerie sounds, a developed (for its time) light show and performers on the stage. Stacia was joined by Renee (who had been dancing with Quicksilver Messenger Service) and a mime artist, Tony Crarer.

THE FIRST OF THE GODFATHER MOVIES IS RELEASED TO CRITICAL ACCLAIM

11 ISRAELI ATHLETES KILLED BY PALESTINIAN TERRORISTS AT MUNICH OLYMPICS

THE WATERGATE AFFAIR

EUROPEAN FESTIVALS SPELL CHAOS!

During May the band travelled to Europe playing festivals at Dusseldorf, Berlin, Rome and Triest.

We played this huge pop festival [in Rome] and there were thousands and thousands of people there and it was really hot. No chicks, and they really, go berserk over there... about fifty, a hundred guys chased Stacia after finished dancing. She jumped into the car and all those who were pursuing her started rocking it, trying to get in at her... we all carried coshes in our back pockets, 'cos they're very excitable out there, you know... so many guys kept getting up on-stage and ripping gear off - Dave Brock, July 1972