"A QUESTION OF COMPILATIONS?"

This piece was originally going to be a "guest" feature in the Dave's Diaries section of the site, having been kindly written by good friend and fellow web master Steve Starfarer. However by his own admission it ended up being a somewhat longer thesis than he originally intended and together with the fact that he brings up some very interesting points I felt that it warranted it's own page at the museum, and the fact that it then gives me a chance to both expand some of the points as well as making a few of my own.

For a direct link to my little bit that started of this interesting discussion
CLICK HERE

So Steve, take it away -

Dave's recent diary entry which discussed the merits of the Ambient Anarchists CD got me thinking about this particular type of album. What type of album is that? Well, anyone who's seriously into Hawkwind probably has some kind of reaction to the word "compilation". After all, the market is flooded with them, and for the last few years it's often been the case that you go into a record shop, go to the Hawkwind section, and that's *all* that they have. And what compilations, too: they're all rubbish, I hear you cry. But are they? Is there such a thing as a worthwhile Hawkwind compilation?

Before answering that question, it seems to me you have to ask what the purposes of compilations are. I mean for the consumer - I've partially gone into what the purpose is for the provider on my "Bring Me the Head Of " page ( Click here to view this page ) Well, first of all, there are the completists among us, those who have to own every Hawkwind release there is. No disrespect to these people, but I am not one of them, and I think they're very much the exception to the norm. As for everyone else, there are probably two different audiences for compilations. First of all, there's Norm who's not really a Hawkwind fan at all. Maybe he used to be one, way back in the mists of antiquity (typically the 1970's), who would see a Hawkwind compilation and buy it for old times' sake. Song recognition is probably the key to these purchases. Alternatively he/she may have only heard *of* Hawkwind, buys a compilation almost on impulse - and may not be aware that what they have bought is in fact a comp and not Hawkwind's latest album.

Then there is Norm who is a Hawkwind fan of current standing, and he must be numerically inferior to Norm the casual buyer / ex-fan. I am this second type of Norm, and I would assume most Hawkwind fans to be so also. This kind of buyer wants compilations only to provide those tracks otherwise missing from his/her collection. The kind of thing we are talking about here is that rare B-side, or tracks otherwise unavailable on CD because the album from which they originated is long deleted. In extremes, single mixes of a song might be grounds for buying a compilation. For the current fan, then, compilations would appear to be a necessary evil, the purchase of last resort.

Now I have to refer to another page on my site, the Guide To Hawkwind Albums (Click here to view this page). At the bottom of that page I listed a few worthwhile compilations, and I very much had the current Hawkwind fan in mind when deciding what comps to include in that. I've gone for those that will give you something that owning every single official album release would still leave missing from your collection. A good example is The Golden Void 1969-79, which provides the 1984 Earth Ritual EP tracks on CD. One thing to note is that compilations in this category eventually become out of date - when the rare track(s) they included come out as part of some other, more attractive release, the compilation ceases to be of interest to the current fan - although it may still attract the casual buyer. The 1977 'Masters Of The Universe' UA compilation is one of these. It used to be the only album on which you could find 'It's So Easy', the B-side to the 1974 'Psychedelic Warlords' single. But when Hall Of The Mountain Grill got reissued on CD with that as one of the bonus tracks, 'Masters Of the Universe' basically lost it's raison d'être.

We also have to consider the type of compilation as distinct from the buying audience - although there is a correlation. Many of the compilation albums out there are basically shoddy rip-offs, still of interest to Collectors, but probably aimed at the casual buyer. They do immense damage. I mentioned 'song recognition', and band member recognition might well be a factor here, too - it's all too easy to imagine a compilation putting the more illustrious names (like Lemmy) on the cover to this end. Even the ex-fan who maybe saw Hawkwind play live back in the 70's, and buys a crap compilation would fall prey to this. Assume for a moment that he or she picks up one of these rip-off comps, say "Oscillations". What's the likely reaction from the buyer? "Hawkwind? I used to think they were great. But this CD I bought shows they're really crap." The ex-fan remains an ex-fan. As for the casual buyer, a CD like this would be their first and doubtless last Hawkwind purchase. These albums that are effectively bootlegs owing to their poor sound quality, failure to pay royalties, or both - they should be cast into the nethermost pit and are not considered further.

Those compilations of interest to current fans, for their inclusion of one or more rarities, do not do this kind of damage. They may not be *ideal* for the casual buyer, but these albums are generally of decent quality and are not going to turn anyone off from ever again buying any Hawkwind. "Tales From Atomhenge" is a good example of this. However...these albums are probably reluctant purchases for the committed fan, for whom 9 times out of 10 it would be preferable to see the original albums reissued in their entirety. (This doesn't apply to compilations which provide non-album material on CD.) So are these compilations 'worthwhile'? The answer is no, not really - they're stopgaps.

And last of all, there are a very few compilations, without exception official releases, which are almost certainly aimed entirely at the casual buyer and undoubtedly do good for the cause. Ambient Anarchists is one of these (title designed to draw in the ravers, no doubt) and Epoch-Eclipse is another. Sometimes these releases are attempts by former record companies to cash in - like Charisma's "Repeat Performance" - but they nevertheless probably benefit the band, directly or indirectly. Most current Hawkwind fans won't need or buy these albums, but they should be welcome sights on the shelves.

So, to answer the questions I asked at the beginning of this piece - are all Hawkwind compilations rubbish? Well, no, of course not! Are any of them worthwhile? This is a more difficult question, and after some thought, the answer to this is not what I would have guessed. Those compilations that I labelled as 'worthwhile' on the Guide To Hawkwind Albums page really aren't - they're just temporary expedients (well, we hope they're temporary). The only ones that are undoubtedly worthwhile are the ones I'm not very interested in buying - the official releases like Ambient Anarchists. As my interests and Hawkwind's are not one and the same, I still won't be buying titles like this. But really, these are the ones that benefit the band the most, and I will look upon them a little more kindly the next time I'm flicking through the H's in the CD racks at my local emporium.

Dave's thoughts

Well before we go any further I have to thank Steve for taking the time to put this piece together, especially when he's in theory "doing it for the competition", nice one, it's appreciated. Secondly I've got to say that I can only agree with what he says regarding these releases, but I would like to take this opportunity to add my thoughts. On final thing I should also point out is that as much as music has been a major part of my life for over 25 years my knowledge of the "business" side is minimal so some of what I say may be a load of rubbish but it's just how I see things.

So where do we start, well let me lay my table out. 10 years ago compilation albums did not feature in my collection whatsoever, now I'm not talking exclusively about Hawkwind but as a general rule they were a no - no. I guess you could call me a musical snob but at the time I took the view that "compilations, greatest hits, call 'em what you like are not for serious collectors, just people who want all the supposed best bits and are not prepared to find out what a particular band is really all about", well I'm not saying it was exactly like that (it was a long time ago!) but I think you'll get my drift. Now I'm not sure when my opinion changed but if you look at my collection today you'll find a plethora of these type of releases by such diverse acts as Syd Barrett, Julian Cope, The James Taylor Quartet, Black Sabbath and purchased just the other day The Best of Blue Oyster Cult to name but a few. So why the change in stance? well I think that as far as music goes I've never stood still, I'm always wanting to try out new (or old) bands and with time far more of a premium these days the "best of" can provide a quick over view of a band and if your shrewd you can often find these fairly cheaply so the financial investment can be kept to a minimum.

OK so lets return to the more specific question of Hawkwind. The first thing you have to say is that there can't be too many other bands out there with such a wide variety of these type of releases as the Hawks, I'm supprised that they've never contacted the Guinness book of records to see if they qualify for an entry under "Most compilations released", but joking apart what purpose do they provide other than lining somebody, somewhere's pocket and as most of us are aware often that's not the band themselves. Steve has already covered in detail the different types of fans that are out there and the sort who will most likely go for this type of release, at this point I'd like to concentrate on the type of person who could be venturing into a record shop in any town today, tomorrow or when ever and could well come out with a statement something like the one below -

"Hawkwind, I used to be into them in the 70's, I had all there albums on vinyl but the wife's (or husband, lets be equal about this) made me put all me records in the loft, here's a compilation on CD, I recognise some of the tracks and it's only £3 - £5.00 I think I'll pick that up"

Before we continue I think that we've already hit on a point, the CD revolution, I'm not the only person with evolving musical taste and I'm sure Hawkwind are not the only band to have basically been forgotten about as those old vinyl LP's have been boxed up and placed in lofts, taken down the tip or ended up in the local charity shop.

So what's he (or she) picked up, well you'll notice that I've mentioned 2 prices and there's a good reason for that. If this person lived in my local town of Southend on sea then I know for a fact that in one local store they could have picked up a compilation that goes under the name of "Master of the universe" (and just to confuse matters it's not the one Steve mentions, even better than that just by doing a mall amount of research for this article I've discovered that there are at least another 2 going under the same name, all with different tracks!), anyway the one I'm referring to is the one pictured below -

And what will this set back the prospective buyer, the princely sum of £2.99, not bad on the face of it for well over an hour of music. However If I'm not much mistaken this has been previously released under the banner of "Hawkwind - the best of" (wonder how long it took a focus group to come up with that title!) and I'm afraid to say that yours truly owns a copy and can say hand on heart "it's a pile of cr*p" with many bizarre versions of old standards and the quality differing from "interesting" to "absolute sh*te". I'd put money on hero of this story giving it one play and muttering something along the lines of -

"well I was  a bit wild in the 70's, me brain must be more pickled than I thought, on reflection Hawkwind were sh*t"

So Hawkwind have potentially lost a fan who could have "rejoined the fold" had they liked what they heard and the thing is that all might not be lost. If this same person visited another shop a couple of miles away I know that they have had the Epoch single disc edition on  offer for £5.99 or if you buy another 3 CD's in the same promotion it's £20.00 the lot, hence the £5.00 and you won't tell me that unless this person has completely lost the plot that they're not going to be mightily impressed, with a selection of songs that cover the bands entire career, the original versions and informative sleeve notes I'd now wager that the self same person will have a much different view of Hawkwind in 2003.

And that I guess is the crux of the matter, it really is a lottery out there if you don't know what you are looking for. How you combat it I'm not entirely sure. One idea I've had is that all "Official" releases carry some kind of unique trade mark and message saying that this CD is approved by the band and also to explain the quality of the material on the disc. Although we're drifting slightly off the subject in hand there are some "Proper" releases that I feel leave something to be desired, I'm specifically thinking of the "Complete 79" package that appeared a few years ago but is still available if you know where to look. From where I'm standing this is purely a collectors item as the sound quality is far from what I would expect a professionally produced CD to sound like, however I know that there are a lot of fans out there who are desperate to get there hands on anything that carries the Hawkwind logo  and good luck to them it's a free world, it's just I'd rather it's one of the hardcore fan base who gets hold of it rather than our friend who's now scouring the "H" section of the local record shops.

Just by way of summing up I'd like to add a couple of other points. I also feel that a "good" compilation such as Epoch is an ideal way to introduce someone to the band. Whilst I think it's great that Hawkwind carry on without the backing of a major (or minor for that matter) record label (as I understand it, Voiceprint merely distribute Hawkwind albums that are released on the bands own Hawk records label), where many other bands would have called it a day long ago, I for one would still love to see their profile a little bit higher and one way all of us as fans can do that is to try and introduce new people to them and lending them a copy of Epoch or something of similar quality has to be the best starting point, (but do remember that duplication is illegal so make sure they don't rip it off!). Finally I have to say that these days I'm usually doing something else as well as just listening to music, be it driving to or from work, cooking dinner or maybe working on the web site and there are times when I just can't make up my mind what to listen to and it's in those moments that I'm most likely to pull out a compilation!

Well there you go, just Steve and myself's view on the matter, but what's yours?, if you'd like to joint he discussion then feel free to
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your thoughts

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