Like the Micro Articles page only bigger! that's what you find here on the Mini Articles page!
Please also note that I try as much as possible to transcribe these totally verbatim so for the most part the bad writing and poor grammar is down to the original author, in doing so I've tried to keep them as near to the original as possible.
1970
HAWKWIND LIVE (Zig Zag, March 1970)
Once upon a time there was Dave Brock. The one day, upon the scene in Holland, there appeared Mick Slattery, and upon their scene appeared John Harrison. A chance meeting with Nick Turner added yet another, and Terry Ollis, a scrapyard pig of devious character, completed the quintet. Lo and behold.... a group! Dick Mick Davies became their roadie, but proving his worth a fuse and valve changer, became their electronics wizard, adding sounds without conscience to the music.
Now..... Although very confusing, this was obviously the beginning of something very exciting.... but they were totally uninterested in management, contracts, records or even a name, and just played where anyone would let them. It just so happened that one day they came upon All Saints Hall, and after a short confrontation, played a ten minute set under the commanding name of "Group X". This action packed, fast-moving, star-studded 10 minute spectacular aroused a great deal of interest within the ranks of Clearwater (those enterprising entrepreneurs of W2), but they, at this early stage, were unable to impress Group X. Undeterred, they exerted all their guile and after a few weeks of, shall we say, friendly coercion, Group X returned the interest and recognised Clearwater's determination and faith (or words to that effect).
The first step was a name. Nick Turner, saxophonist of incredible versatility, is also the proud owner of a striking nasal organ, and this combination of physique and talent earned him the name of Hawkwind. Terry Ollis's strange rapport with pigs resulted in the name Hawkwind Zoo, which on the advice of a "disc jockey of repute" was abbreviated to Hawkwind.
Since the group hasn't been featured in the "Life Lines" page of the NME yet (next week maybe?), I shall now provide the briefest of historical information. Dave Brock (guitar) has been a busker all his life and suffered the inevitable consequences many times. He started playing way back in 1958 in the New Orleans Jazz Band (there's an original name for you) and between then and now has been busking around Europe, eventually getting to Holland where he was part of a chart-topping group, Famous Cure, Mick Slattery was also a busker and an integral part of "Famous Cure" and their partnership was the beginning of Hawkwind. (note, part of this article was missing so I'm assuming that's what it said!). Mick, however, recently decided to pack his bags and, clad only in a surgical appliance, headed of in the general direction of the East Anglia cannabis farms, never to be seen again. His place was temporarily taken by Dick Taylor (not pictured opposite (that's how it read, Dave))
Nick Turner (sax) was with "Mobile Freakout" (he really was) another Dutch band, and has been playing for many years, having originally been turned on to modern jazz by Mulligan and Parker. John Harrison (bass) was understandably very proud of the fact that he played with Joe Loss, and he fell in with Dave when they realised that they shared an interest in electronic music. Terry Ollis, scrapyard dealer, took the next logical step and became a drummer, whilst Dick Mick Davies suddenly discovered that he had black red and green fingers, and took up his true vocation as dial manipulator (though he looks a little more interested in having a wee smoke in the picture opposite).
Hawkwind, whose music, according to a panel of distinguished and impartial arbiters, can only be described as falling into the "Hawkwindy or Hawkwindish bag", must surely achieve some kind of national adulation this year, using as they do, electronic devices to give their music a strange and fresh flavour.
the group is now signed to Liberty Records, who after their American success in this country, are now attacking the contemporary scene with a number of new bands. They have arranged for the aforementioned Dick Taylor, founder Pretty Thing and now a very successful independent producer, to produce what should be a very interesting first album from Hawkwind, who are at the moment playing a great many venues around the country to amaze audiences.
Lastly, to confirm my belief that Hawkwind will zoom to success this year, John Gee described them, in a recent unsolicited testimonial, as being "a load of pretentious rubbish".
WHEN
IT COMES TO MIND BLOWING, HAWKWIND ARE REALLY INTO IT (Sounds 17/09/70 Jerry Gilbert)
'You can force people to go into a trance'
HAWKWIND MAY not be the worlds most affluent group, or the worlds most successful group, but they are certainly one of the most mind-blowing.
Their single release in no way reflects the kinds of sounds they are into, and the album only serves to scratch the surface. The fact is that their engineer, Dikmik, uses apparatus which emits strange electronic sound waves.
And recently the band noticed that the waves being produced by the audio generator was having a profound effect on audiences, not to mention themselves.
Dikmik has fitted a ring modulator to his audio generator, which produces arcs of sound in three different frequencies. But Dikmik can change the pitch of these drones and the top register sound gradually spirals higher and higher until it reaches a piercing, screeching pitch.
Says the group's guitarist Dave Brock: "The sounds send out a force field and things really came to a head at the Isle Of Wight."
"We were playing a heavy riff for about four hours with strobe lighting going on and off, and it freaked me out so badly I just had to get away. I gave my guitar to the nearest person, something I would never do normally and just walked up to the top of the hill, but I still couldn't get rid if this thing in my head."
Dave Brock realises the potential danger and is endeavouring to learn more about forces so that he can be sure of the effects Hawkwind's excursions into the unknown will have.
He described recent scenes at Norwich and Nottingham where people were being physically sick, tearing their hair out or just totally transfixed by the sound.
"Can you imagine 400 people together and the force field being given off by each - it really could be unbelievable. You can force people to go into trances and tell them what to do; it's mass hypnotism and you're really setting yourself up as God."
"Not only that, but I can see into the future; really and (I presume a typeset error in the original, Dave)
"The sound waves we're sending out is really affecting equilibrium. We saw out ex guitarist Mick Slattery the other day, and he could see that we'd all gone a bit mad, All of us blow our minds completely."
"Dikmik's hustling for a Moog, and some quite incredible things could happen when we get that - it could stretch peoples minds. the sound waves we produce are ruining us, and some of the sounds we produce are beyond registering on the meter."
Dikmik's ring modulator is connected to the audio generator and it goes through a Selmar 100 watt stereo amp and two small selmar cabinets which aren't half big enough.
Lead guitarist Huw Lloyd Langton and rhythm guitarist Dave Brock both use 100 watt Hiwatt stacks.
Nick Turner on sax and flute uses a Selmar 100 watt speaker cabinet and whatever amp he can get his hands on....usually a Vox bass amp, a Marshall 50 or a Hiwatt 100. New bassist Thomas Crimble uses a 100 watt Marshall amp and the remaining member of the band is drummer Terry Ollis. Dave Brock also uses a Dynachord echo unit on his set up.
Says Dave Brock: "The Floyd and Velvet Underground were on a similar sort of thing, but then they changed. I think someone's got to see it through, but I've got to find out more about what can happen first."
"I'm sure good can come out of it."
"For we're like a magnet with the power to repel or attract. I think we can all sense the forces and realise that this is a new jewel of communication."
'Free' Hawkwind slam expensive bands like Free! (Disc 12/70 by Caroline Boucher)
THE HARD slog around the country seems to be reaping rewards at last for Hawkwind, the freakiest and most electrifying band doing the rounds at the moment.
Talk to them about their growing fame and success and they'll laugh, tell you that they are working to hard for their liking and start of on long theories on how the road can send you mad. Then Dave Brock will start complaining that six gigs a week is ruining his busking career, and vowing that the next free day he'll be back on his old beat down the Portobello Road. Busking, he'll tell you, is good practice and good for the voice.
Hawkwind have always had this approach to their music, while being most serious about it at the same time. They cause their management - Clearwater Productions - not a little worry because they will play for free, and wreck the economics of the whole thing.
Undercut
"Clearwater needs expenses of about £200 a week to keep going," says Dave Brock "and they get about £140 a week. We realise the necessity of not doing too many free gigs, but we would like to undercut bands. we played with Free recently and they were getting something like £800 for doing a series of numbers that all sounded exactly the same."
"People like that are going out for ridiculous prices. We don't mind getting a lot of bread off universities because they cab afford it - small clubs can't and we'd like to help them. We'd like to do them for expenses only."
For what they play, Hawkwind are still going out for around £70 - cheap at the price. In January however they'll be going up to £125 which is still cheap.
Why the boom in popularity has happened, they're not really sure. Presumably it's through sheer hard work and the fact that wherever they go they seem to gather friends.
In London when they play the hall is often overrun by Hawkwind friends and they tell proudly of how they engulfed the Northern Polytechnic and upstairs at Ronnie Scott's
Also Nick Turner, he of the flaming red hair and leather trousers with silver stars on - has been getting quite a bit of solo publicity for his flamboyancy. "I've been in the Telegraph magazine, Vogue and Paris Match," he'll tell you proudly. The main reason for this was that he painted his face silver and leapt about brandishing a flute at the Isle Of Wight.
On Strike
Like the Floyd - the nearest comparable group - Hawkwind are beginning to go down big on the Continent and their album is selling fast there. But the main drag, due to all this work, is that they've had no time to rehearse and write new things, and collect stuff for a new album.
Also they're staging a small strike with their record company until they get a VCS 3 Synthesiser. "We'll refuse to make any more records until we've got one," says Nick.
BLOWIN' IN THE WIND ( Disc 14/07/73 By Peter Erskine)
Lemmy snatches the pad and starts scribbling. It's years since he last did an interview and he's just got hold of a really meaty question.
"local Welsh groups '57 - 60." He scribbles "then Sam Gopal, Opal Butterfly with Simon....and now the clongomerate" he mumbles looking up and doffing a roll up on an adjacent ash tray. "This is the first band that I ever played bass in though," he adds, by way of a casual afterthought and begins studying a decade of graffiti etched on the long pine table.
"Well then," says I "Tell me about Hawkwind's new album, Captain Lockheed' I mean is it (being hip) going to be a concept album?"
Silence
"No" says synth man Del Dettmar.
"It's taken a psychological nose - dive" says Lemmy "Bob (Calvert - Hawkwind's lyricist and vocalist) saw the symptoms coming and split."
Calvert is, euphemistically speaking, taking a rest, so "Captain Lockheed," his brainchild has been shelved. It transpires that it's intended as an offshoot project, utilising part of Hawkwind and Pink Fairies percussionist Twink and guitarist Paul Rudolph. Lemmy plays both bass and guitar and eventually explains that the concept is based around the series of Starfighter jet crashes in Germany a couple of years back.
Starfighters where designed and built in the States, and like the World War II Mustang, their great feature was not what you might call durability. Their dubious safety record earned them the title of "The Flying Coffins."
The proceeds from the embryo of the project - a single called Ejection - are to go to the widows of the pilots killed in Starfighter accidents.
"So it's just going to be based on the facts - nothing else?"
"That and the usual assorted idiocy... the last thing it'll be is serious."
Lemmy proves the point by playing the B-side of the single, Catch A Falling Starfighter (And The Gremlin) . The melody is as you'd think, but the words are clever and smirky:
"Catch a falling Starfighter / Put it in the pocket of your jeans / Use it as a cigarette lighter ? Or as the opener for a can of beans."
Hawkwind have just returned from a barn-storming tour of the West Country, covering Torquay, Redruth, Swansea....and Barnstable - "The night Liquid Len looned off." recalls Lemmy with a mysterious smile.
"Oh yes, how is the light show? you aren't using strobes now?"
"That's all we used at Torquay. It varies from night to night."
America too, is in the offing, apparently.
"In September - if our record company gets it together," says an unidentified figure attending to a cigarette paper construction. Hawkwind's manager"
"No peoples bands don't have managers, they have co-ordinators don't they?" grins Del, flicking through a dog eared phone book.
By now the next Hawkwind single is grinding away in the background, buzz sawing it's way out of the stripped down speaker cabinets tilted in far corners of the room. It sounds not unlike Silver Machine with multi tracked horn embroidery.
"The mix is too toppy." comments Del "I'd like to re-do the ending."
"We haven't the time." says the unidentified person.
"Ah well, it's not a very good song anyway." replies Del quietly. "And it isn't very well played."
Cynicism
Lemmy confesses to almost total cynicism about everything except the music.
"But I'm getting out of it gradually. Nevertheless there are times when you come off stage and you know you've just played one of the worst gigs in your life. Horrible, but there are still kids out there screaming for an encore....
"It amazes me, but if you look at it objectively I suppose it doesn't matter as long as they enjoyed it."
It gets boring too, on the road. Not the playing you understand, but the travelling, Hawkwind get so bored they have competitions to see who can wind the van windows up and down the fastest, or at least that what Lemmy says. He says, too, the boredom's the reason that Oscillator man Dik Mik left, and says he hopes he'll come back in time.
"But meanwhile," he says resignedly, "We're just waiting for Bob to get back."
POETRY IN MOTION (DISC 25/08/74 BY CAROLINE BOUCHER)
DESPITE the appearance and possible hit of Captain Lockheed And The Starfighters, their inventor Bob Calvert remains primarily a poet.
"Albeit one of the most highly paid poets in the world," he admits.
Bob has been reading poetry with, and writing lyrics for Hawkwind for ages now, and before that was a poet in his own right and even went on television reading some of his sickly love verses. He has just surfaced very sanely from a nervous breakdown and is staunchly proud of his profession while just beginning to branch out as a playwright.
Quaint
"It's all very well for Marc Bolan to call himself a poet. He's quite a quaint singer and writes fun lyrics; but to say he's a poet and to toss together a book of jottings that any self-respecting poet would throw out of the window is a bit much."
Bob has had the idea of Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters for a long time, and the single is just part of an album, which in turn is part of a big stage production.
The album is currently being recorded with people like Hawkwind and ex- Roxy, Eno; it is called "Hero with a wing" and is subtitled Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters.
The plot is the same as the stage production - is based on fact. In 1958 Franz Joseph Strauss, Chancellor of West Germany, reviewed the state of the Airforce and announced that it was imperative to build up the somewhat pathetic ranks with Lockheed Starfighters. These were revolutionary machines - the first link between the piloted missile and fighter plane.
He wanted 700, the government said they could only afford 250, and the planes duly arrived. The German pilots weren't used to these new machines, which had been slightly modified to order, and a series of terrible crashes began. In all 159 planes crashed and the whole business has been remarkably hushed up ever since.
The stage version will contain long narrative passages, and Viv Stanshall, Keith Moon and Arthur Brown will all, hopefully take part.
Laconic
"Arthur is definitely the bloke to play the Gremlin - that's the mythological thing the pilots talk about jokingly as causing faults. And I think Eno would be wonderful as a lounging laconic pilot."
For the first time Bob has written the music as well as the words.
"I want it more musical than Hawkwind things. The single is very into the Germanic style of rock that Hawkwind are a part of, where the melody tends to get subjugated by the solidity of the hypnotic beat.
But I want to use my melody as a way conveying lyrics; two of my favourite song writers are Noel Coward and Cole Porter.
SIMON KING - ARTICLE ABOUT THE HAWK DRUMMER, PUBLICATION UNKNOWN 1974
IT'S HARD to ignore the contribution made to Hawkwind by Simon King. Whilst he may not play with the obvious flash of a Cobham, Simon has the perfect understanding of the need for driving rythyms and swift intricate fill-ins, which, on examination, reveal the work of a very fine drummer indeed.
Like a lot of experienced drummers, Simon has worked his way around most of the kits on the market like Premier, Rogers, Ludwig and Hayman. In fact it was the theft of two kits, a Ludwig and a custom built Hayman that finally made Simon sit back and look at where he wanted to go next. He settled on Pearl, finding them a perfect kit for his style.
"Mine are really fantastic." he enthuses, "They're not just wood but a wood / fibreglass combination. I use a 24" bass drum which has a wood shell, sort of lined with fibreglass about 1/4" thickness. The result of that is that it has a really loud powerful sound that I like. Of course, the addition to that, fibreglass also makes the drums heavy which is another good point because they don't move about on stage."
"The tom tom's are 13", 14" with 16" and 18" on the floor. Again it's all Pearl even down to the fittings and the pedals and the whole things really marvellous. The snare is a 5 1/2" X 14" which I've fitted with a 42 strand gut to give it a really nice crisp sound."
On the drums Simon uses Remo Weathermasters, an excellent head.
"Unlike a lot of drummers these days, though, I always use the bottom head on the tom toms. I find that removing them on any kit gives you a toppy sound that just doesn't sound right to me. But one of the beauties of Pearl kits is that they take an awful lot of experimentation if that's what you want, they're a real versatile kit. On the last gigs we did I experimented quite a lot with different sounds. For example it was then that I put on the 42 strand gut and I also tuned the tom toms quite deep to give a ring. Then I had the bottom head on the snare done up really tight and had the top skin tight as well. That meant that I had a change the batter head quite a bit but with that gut it gave a crisp crack but not too much top. It's that sort of flexibility that makes Pearl so good."
"What Pearl have obviously done is look around at all the best kits on the market and see where their weaknesses lay, then they've gone out to improve as many departments as they can and they've succeeded really well."
It's a matter of universal acclaim that the greatest weakness with drum kits in general lies in the fittings used. Most drummers complain about collapsing and wandering kits and there can be nothing worse for a drummer than feel his kit sliding away from him in the middle of a hard rocking number. This, as it happens, is one area where Pearl really excel.
"Yeah, the tom tom brackets, for example, really stay put and yet, of course they'll go at almost any angle that anyone could ever possibly want. But it's the bass drum that's really amazing. There's just no problem with the old walking bass drum syndrome. In the past I had to go through all the hassle of nailing bits of wood in front of the bass drum, putting the kit on expensive bits of carpet or cheap bits of rubber but with this kit all I have to do is put it on the small drum riser that I have which has a bit of rubber on it. The kit just doesn't move around."
"Another thing is that it's a really loud kit. I know you have everything miked up these days but it's still important to have a kit that is loud enough to stop you having to wear yourself out to get a powerful sound from it."
"The whole question of fittings is really important, not enough manufacturers seem to realise that. If you have a reasonable drummer then most of the sound, probably 90% of it, comes from how he hits the drums,k the heads he uses, how he tunes them. Most top kits sound good but not a lot have good fittings. What they've done is solve the problem of all the niggling little things that go wrong and blow your concentration in the middle of a number. Remove those and you've got a happy little drummer."
Perhaps one of the greatest Pearl triumphs from Simons point of view, is that they have for him, usurped the place of his favourite American drum pedal.
"I have to admit that the Pearl took a while to get used to. To be quite honest with you I didn't really like it very much at first but I decided to persevere with it and I really like it now, it's very good."
"It's like the hi-hat which is a tremendously heavy duty unit. You know that it's not going to fall over and that makes you play with confidence."
"I think I'll stay put with Pearl for now although there are other products they do that I'd like to try. Especially those Phenolic concert toms which are made of recycled material and have a strange but fantastic sound. It's obvious that they are not afraid to experiment with new ideas and I'm really looking forward to trying some of their newest products."
VARIOUS REVIEWS OF THE HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN GRILL ALBUM, ALL 1974, PUBLICATIONS UNKNOWN
BY "B H"
Note from Dave!
Firstly
this is how the article originally appeared, no paragraphs etc, but really what I want to
say is that for me this has to be one of the most "Blimey, I've got my head stuck so
far up my own a**e, it's stuck" piece of bo**ocks writing I've ever had the
misfortune to transcribe for the site, I'm sure "B H" has made half of these
words up, it's articles like this that really drain my will to live, still it's done now
so please do your best to -
a - Try to understand what the £%*k he's on about
b - Do your best to get some pleasure from it!
In comes the dronewave., the fuzzchords, the mellowwash, the metrodrums, the poundbass. Mix together into a soundmush, and, hey presto, we're off again - it's another HAWKWIND album. Add sax fading in and out and in again and the first track is, well, underway. All set? hold tight, another rollercoaster ride in moebus mindloops. The first track (the single), "Psychedelic Warlords (Disappear in Smoke)" disappears into, well, smoke, or wind (= sort of black noise effects). More Mellotron waves lead the "Wind Of change" (not the Harold Macmillan variety). A pleasant stately melody on top (sounds like early King Crimson, tho). "D-Rider" (from Nik Turner) is back to the fuzzchords, with phased oboe, twittering Swaneewhistle synthesiser and quasi Floydian vocals. "Webweaver" has ordinary piano and acoustic 12 string (two non-electronic instruments in one track, even). "You'd Better Believe It" is a Brockian exercise in the Hawkwind predictability (thrasher variety) stakes (see later). Then there's two left of centre instrumental interludes from keyboardsman Del Dettmar, "Goat Willow" a cracked piece of pastoralism and Simon House's title track. But the overall impression from the album is of the archetypal Hawkwind sound - the basic track style (of which there are six examples here, by far the longest proportion of grooves) seems to be built up layer upon layer of sound, progressively increasing volume and intensity, get into top and blast along. That's a rough resume of what it sounds like. What is it all about? God knows. Not in a lyrical sense - altho' they're obscure(d) as ever. But what is the rationale behind this? Hawkwind travel on and the journey continues, going nowhere in particular it seems. Not even further in a Keseyian sense. Is you journey really necessary? I'd like to like Hawkwind - I think they're an admirable bunch (without being condescending), people in large numbers dig them and as far as I can hear this is a good Hawkwind album, but ultimately I find them unlistenable. Maybe I'm missing the point (maybe the lack of point is the point). It escapes me - music should be stimulating in some way or another. As far as I'm concerned Hawkwind fail. Mindnumbing. But if, as Lord Buckley said, you dug them before, re dig them now.
BY CHARLES SHAAR MURRAY (It must have been something they were putting in the water that year as this is also complete nonsense)
DON'T TELL anybody, but yours adoring thinks he's finally got this bunch sussed.
What they should be doing, y'see is laying down soundtracks for cheapo sci-fi movies - main theme from "Planetoid Of The Cheeseburger Man", that kind of thing. As it is, all their albums just come on like soundtracks - only worth the price of admission if you've been there and seen it.
as one who has Seen There and Been It, I have a sneaking fondness for this album, which is, according to most of the criteria of the recently developed Hawkwind cosmic Aesthetic, the lad's hottest waxing to date.
All right?
The main block to appreciating H.Wind is their Black Plastic Manifestation is their persistent habit of bashing their riffs around for several minutes on end with no appreciable textural variation (except a sheepish mellotron three quarters of the way through).
They commit the heinous offence on the last half of "Psychedelic warlords" (a great single in the truncated form) and "You'd Better Believe It" (one of the two live recordings contained herein), but generally they hold themselves down to shorter lengths and Do Quite Well For Themselves.
One of the more auspicous cuts is "Lost Johnny" a collaboration between Lemmy and your friend and mine, Mick Farren, with some appealingly slipshod guitars and a gorgeously damaged hoarse vocal, and Del Dettmar's "Ghost Willow" a gauzily pretty construct for flute electronics and harpsichord.
Elsewhere lies a generous amount of patented Hawkwind whooshes, burbles and riffing, and all in all its probably a Dandy soundtrack for their new show.
Me, I'm waiting for the "Asteroid Of The Dingbats" soundtrack, now that's one heavy movie.
How Hawkwind Gets The Ball Rolling By Jon Blake, London Evening Times 17.04.74
IT IS four in the morning and the boys from the London band Hawkwind have finally found some time to snatch a greasy hamburger in a sleazy all-night cafe in a bad part of Detroit.
Outside the snow is still falling heavily and the air is cold enough to turn breath to frost.
"It is at times like this that I wonder what the hell we are doing" says Nick Turner, Hawkwind's saz player and unofficial leader.
Hawkwind the original zonked out hippy band have decided it's about time they got rich.
So they are slogging around the United States for the second time in months in an effort to achieve that ambition. For it is only in America that there is big money to be earned.
There the concert halls are bigger so promoters pay more. And a single hit record can bring in several hundred thousand pounds.
Hawkwind are beginning to do well at concerts - but they don't seem to be able to sell more than a handful of records.
MONEY
It's virtually certain that we are going to lose money on this tour says Doug Smith, the bands youthful and articulate manager.
"But we are attracting larger and more enthusiastic audiences this time than we did on our first tour".
"Next time we could start making money".
Total cost for the 38-day tour estimates Smith is £20,000 - with most of the money going on wages to the band and the 12 people who travel with them to work behind the scenes.
"A lot of people don't realise how many people are involved in a rock tour", he says.
"But we need three people just to handle our lighting. Then there are sound man, people to hump the equipment about and all the others".
DOPED
In Britain, Hawkwind are best known for their hit single "Silver Machine" and for their steady selling albums.
For a long time they shunned money and gave free concerts to anyone who could either enjoy them or use them to make money for worthwhile charities.
Unfortunately their shows were often more virtuous than proffessional so they have acquired a reputation for a band that appeals only to people who are doped up to their ears.
STACIA'S TWO CLAIMS TO FAME Part of the same piece
For a spell Stacia was the best known nude in London.
But she tells me she has given all that up now, "I mean people get fed up with just seeing you flash your boobs around, don't they?"
Stacia, in case you haven't heard, is the magnificent six-feet tall, built like a ships figurehead girl who dances with the band Hawkwind.
Apart from her undulating inches, she has two great claims to fame.
The first is that she had been banned from performing at virtually every dance hall and theatre in Scotland because they think she is lewd.
'I'm Sensitive"
And the second is that she once turned a party thrown for Alice Cooper in Chessington Park into the world's first mass streak in.
"Because of the things I have done and because I'm so tall, a lot of men seem to think I'm very tough", she says
"But really, although it sounds hard to believe, I am ridiculously sensitive and unsure of myself".
Exactly how Stacia came to join Hawkwind is a little vague, but it seems she was working in a dreary factory job near her home in Exeter in Devon when the band came to town. She was so excited by the music that she told them she wanted to dance with them and they agreed.
"So one night in a hall in Redruth I got really stoned, took off my clothes and covered myself with grease paint".
"Then I danced about in front of the band. It wasn't too bad at all, I don't think many of the people realised that I wasn't wearing a stitch".