Hawkind has been a favourite band of mine since my mid teens. They were the second band I ever saw live, and I'm tempted to blame them in part for my failing hearing! Their history fascinates me; a kind of musical Withnail & I, with Lemmy, LSD two large gins, two pints of cider and a Camberwell carrot thrown in for good measure.
What they often lacked in musicanship they made up for with 'spirit' originality and their enormous influence over the punk scene, new wave and subsequent psychedelic space rock acts such as The Ozric Tentacles.
Having released hunderds of albums, most of which are bootlegs, live albums, compilations and ramshackle unpredicatble collections of half arsed oddities, it's sometimes hard to seperate the offical releases from the enormity of guff they farted out over the ether. However, for me the highs come with the lows as part of unique package of chaos and musical terrorism.
If we were to split their career into defined era's, my favourite era would be when poet Rob Calvert fronted the band, helping them ride out the new wave/punk era in style. The trio of albums; Astounding sounds,Quark, Strangeness and Charm & PXR5 is my favourite run, although best album overall is Warrior on the Edge of time ( te last album to feature Lemmy on bass). They had a partial return to form in the 80's with the albums Sonic Attack and Levitation.
Any thoughts on this amazing, inspired and often awful band?
)
