sonic assassins

This piece originally featured in hawkfan 11 which came out way back in 1984. It was written by good friend and contributor of many a fine picture to the museum, Dr Ozy Hardwick who kindly allowed me to reproduce it here. Being the all round good bloke that he is, he has also supplied some pictures that he took at the event which I think I can say with some confidence that have never appeared on the internet before, thank you sir!

Throughout the day I'd seen Dave and Harvey briefly and had a bit of a chat with Huw, but references to the nights performance were rather vague, with no-one seeming to know what was to be played, or even which members of the band would be present, and with Harvey's non-committal 'it's all a bit of fun' it was beginning to sound like the 'Electronica' gig all over again.

Finally the speculation was over as the stage was set and tonight's incarnation of the Hawks took their places with ( as seen from the audience ) Dave at the far right at his keyboards and Harvey occupying a similar position at the opposite side of the small stage. Huw, sporting a rather tasteful metallic blue guitar of some description, stood slightly to the right of centre, with the space between him and Harvey being taken up by a desk covered in an array of strange electronic gadgets, at which sat none other than Bob Calvert! it was obvious that were in for something a bit special.

The set soon got underway with a build up of sound as the band picked up the feel of things and moved into the first number of the night - a dynamic 'Spirit of the age'. This was the first time I'd seen bob since the Hawklords days and absolutely none of the old magic had gone. His vocal delivery is still superb and even though he spent most of the time sitting down, there was still something which completely captured the attention - a remarkable stage presence.

Next came 'Dreamworker', with Harvey taking the vocals,coming over a lot like the original album version, but with the power of the subsequent 'live' versions. I've recently seen a few reviews of the recent tour, in several of which this is referred to as a low point in the set, so I'd like to balance public opinion a bit . . . I think it's excellent!

Following what my ailing memory tells me was the 'Zones' tape came the first pure improvisation of the night. This kind of thing can never be fully expressed in words, but it was based firmly on a heavy, driving rhythm which had bob bouncing up and down in his seat with that old familiar intense stare which makes you feel that he's looking right into you. Huw was alternately throwing sparse echoing chords into the general framework and producing some really nice lead runs with no apparent effort whatsoever, playing the loosest and possibly most inventive music I've heard from him and providing an edge so often missing in purely electronic music. Towards the end, Bob added a short vocal improvisation on the 'PSI Power' theme before things kind of dissolved into nothing, in one of the more ragged moments, though things were soon back on course.

Bob's slow and resonant reading ( from the lyric book . . .he's obviously been taking lessons from Nik ) of 'Ten second of forever' led into an almost jazz-ish-feeling jam featuring a guest sax player who I later discovered to be one of the events organisers ( his name, I'm afraid, escapes me . . Paul something ), who fitted in very well with the overall sound and it was interesting to hear someone of an entirely different style to Nik in that context.

Once more the lyric book had been consulted for a classic 'Sonic Attack' - a slight echo on Bob's voice as he read the famous warnings, underlined by Dave's 'Do Not Panic!' etc, as the audience was assaulted by a bombardment of electronic sound. It was at this point that the simple, but effective, lighting worked at its best - constantly changing coloured spots from small banks on either side and to the back of the stage, with occasional clouds of smoke drifting menacingly across - Harvey looking particularly demonic / silly ( delete as applicable ) in his devils horns which had appeared from somewhere during the course of the show.

Next came the last 'proper' song of the night - 'Brainstorm'. I am of the opinion that in a normal Hawkwind set this has become a rather tired and redundant H.M. thrash that is an inevitable let-down at the end, but this was something different. An incessant basic rhythm and strong bass keyboard riff embellished by some more excellent guitar work from Huw made this the most interesting version I'd heard in a long time as Bob came to the front of the stage and delivered the lyrics in an almost pained fashion.

'Do you want us to carry on?' asked Dave. ( we certainly did! ). You've got to understand this is all unrehearsed. . . improvised. We haven't done it before.'

There then followed various asides as to who had or hadn't done it before, whatever 'it' may be before Dave announced, 'now we're gonna play some Martian disco music.' and I don't think I could describe the jam that followed any better than that.

And then, all too soon, it was over, to a very good response from a far from typical Hawkwind audience. But then, it was a far from typical Hawkwind gig - an hour of music that can't really be compared with their normal shows, but which was enormously entertaining in it's own right. I for one would like to see more of this.

As Harvey said, 'All a bit of fun', and that's what it's all about, isn't it?

No this isn't the DJ who took over from the Hawks once they had finished their set, but the genius that was Bob calvert!
Alternative caption -
"Oi Langton, have you just dropped one, 'cos and I've just copped a mouthful"
( see the picture at the bottom for further explanation )

"All a bit of fun harvey?", looks like you're having a whale of a time!

I reckon Dave must have been at the "Jazz cigarettes" in a big way that day as it appears he's so disorientated someones had to paint an arrow on the wall to point him in the right direction of the rest of the band members!

"get out and walk, ya ba****d", Huw on the other hand looks as though he might have sampling a bit to much of Brighton's Indian cuisine pre gig.