Hawkwindforum

Greetings from a long time Hawkfan...origionating, like many here I suppose from the Live '79/ Levitation era, when along with Rory Gallagher, the Hawks blew my 14 year old mind into the Rock and Roll Universe.
I tend to play the Robert Calvert era stuff most. He remains, in my humble opinion, the most captivating and unique talent, ever to have graced a Hawkwind record (and , I know, there have been many talented members Nik, Lemmy, the Simons, and DB to name but a few).
That said, it sounds like he was a nightmare to work with. I don't know about you guys, but mental health issues have affected some folks very close to me over the last few (mid life rock and roll) years and it can be a difficult existence to be in constant orbit around such personalities.
Apart from generally playing more HW after exploring many other musics over the last 30 years, just bought the first new release album since Choose Your Masques/Church of HW and Blood Of The Earth Is Amazingly good. Love the new players, and the fabulous return of Tim Blake.
Finally, I wonder if this community could help me out, if so disposed; as a teenage Hawkfan, I regularly wrote to band members, particularly Dave Brock and Robert Calvert. Both replied, and for that I was and remain greatful for their time and the happiness it gave a crazed teenager at the time...here's the deal...the one letter Calvert wrote to me was stolen along with a Calvert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall vinyl album I had, and was sold onto a long since failed second hand record shop in Grimsby, Lincolnshire.
I was mortified as the lengthy letter, written in inkpen on a tall thin folded length of yellow heavy paper was dear to my heart, and in a romantic, nostalgic way, still is.
The letter answered many questions in relation to the launch of Hype, the recording of 'High Rise', his opinions on band members, along with comment on various HW lyrics he had written. He addressed the letter to Simon.Me. I wonder...If anyone reading this know of the current whereabouts of this artefact, I'd love to try and buy it from whoever owns it now; or maybe its long since turned to space dust!
Keep up the fine work website folks, and love to you all.
A Kempeztribe transmission

I can't help you but good luck on your quest to find it.

Hi Kempez, welcome here. Too bad, that letter and LP getting stolen. Good luck with trying to find it!

Welcome!
Too bad about the letter, but you'll never know, there's a lot of Hawkwind stuff to buy out there...
Good luck!

Dear sir/madam,
Try writing down and sharing what you can remember. It would be interesting for us, it would help you get over it, and it would help prove your ownership if it does turn up

Will reply shortly with an approximation of the letter from memory...still remembering the odd comment he made here and there.
Cheers.

Ok...this is a very approximate version scrambled by years of daydreaming...but here goes. I will put my origional questions, penned in my letter to Robert in brackets to give some context to his replies. Please bear in mind my somewhat prosaic questions were written by a 15 yr old!

(I love the Hype album, how do you think it stands up to your older work?)

"Thanks for your comments. I think its the best think I've ever done, but I tend to think that about whatever the last piece of work you do, or you just couldn't carry on"

(My favourite HW track of yours is High Rise. I prefer the shorter numbers in the HW repertoire)

"On High Rise, Simon House and I put quite a lot of work into it, plus a last minute remix, the results are quite dramatic, as they should be. Space Ritual was over-long in my view and could have been edited down to a single album without any loss"

(I was reading some homosexual slant to Gallileo's sexuality in Quark, Strangeness & Charm, and asked Robert, "Is the some what I think its about?")

"Quark is about what you think it's about. Whether that's what I think it's about may be another matter"

(I heard the Hype launch took place in a disused morgue, is that true?)

"The launch took place in a disused hospital mortuary, I just thought it sounded interesting"

(What are your thoughts on Dave Brock, Nik, Lemmy, Simon King and other HW members?)

"In relation to all the people you mention, they're all good lads, especially Nik and Lemmy, who are old mates. Brock is a conniving bastard who uses other peoples talents to further his own career. It is of note that of all you mention he is the only one with a mansion and his own land"

"Thanks, maybe see you backstage sometime, Robert"

Sadly, I never got the chance, the closest being when I went to a solo Calvert gig in Nottingham in the early eighties,only to find out it had been cancelled.
Obviously at the time of writing his reply, Calvert was clearly at a nadir in his relationship with Dave Brock. He does raise a point, however; from a certain viewpoint (which I share, incidentally) Brock has always been something of a catalyst for the work of Nik, Lemmy, Calvert, House, Blake, Huw and even the latest players to define the HW sound of any particular era. Similar, in fact to George Clinton of Funkadelic fame, who also had this unusual, 'second line' way of working.
Anyhow it's bedtime. I feel better now after that therapy. Massive love all. Thanks to JephraimToe.

A bloke called kempez

Damn stupid typos.Please read 'song' for 'some' regarding the Quark question.

kempez. Nighty nite.

hey thanks for sharing that.....I was going to stay out of this, but I decided to make a couple comments:
1st, whoever got you to post this gets a virtual spanking (hehehehehe)(trying to imagine a spank emoticon), and next, you are not alone, I lost what was almost certainly the largest collection of HW vinyl in the USA, is 2002, including the personal stuff, notes from Dave, lots os autographed stuff still sealed, etc.....video with Nik thanking me from stage, on and on...
I will say that for myself, I've decided that internal mud-flinging goes with the territory and is not really for the fan and his enjoyment of the music, and for me.....Dave is my favorite musically of the lot, followed by the rest of them but to me, Dave clearly stands out......and yes Calvert was a genius in the sense of a RnR genius, no doubt....
and further, yes Bi-Polar people, while being quite common, can make people hard to be around, especially people like me who are heavy on the manic and bite hands that feed them and I would love to get away from myself...
HELP@!!! hehe

Tad more....I just meant that I think Dave was as talented an anybody else, given his guitar style and voice, and for me a tad above,,,,,
I think it was a combo of Nik and Dave who drew me in.......after Barney got my eye....(Space Ritual, ISOS)
and Dave started it.....when it comes down to just 1.....
I remain flabberghasted at the incredible job Simon House did with the synths on Warrior.......to me upstaging DilMik and Del by a little....

time to bring in the stalker cops oO

welcome aboard

kempeztribe wrote:I feel better now after that therapy. Massive love all. Thanks to JephraimToe.

Thanks for the recollections Kempez. I'm always drawn to the comparison with The Young Ones, the basic archetypes for which were allegedly drawn from 70's Hawkwind: the rocker, the hippie, the mad poet, and the money-minded one (no prizes for guessing who's who). These stereotypes may contain some truth but really they are all great characters with their own strengths and weaknesses..

I lost my Hawkwind collection in a fire but ironically I am enjoying my new virtual Hawkwind experience much more than all the bits of paper and packaging. Nostalgia can be a lovely thing, but as someone said recently, "the best time is always now"..

Good luck finding your artefacts. I'm lucky enough to still have all the 70's albums on vinyl in good nick. Silver Machine was the one that hooked me at 13. Space Ritual was the third album I ever bought and was so far ahead of it's time. I saw the band several times in the 70s, still the most amazing gigs I ever went to. Strangely the memories of some are a tad hazy...
As regards comments about the band members, the leader post rarely gains one personal popularity, but is very necessary and sometimes hard decisions have to be made. With Hawkwind the whole has always been much greater than the sum of the parts.
Was hoping to get to gigs this year but work and location made it impossible. Hopefully a Hawkfest 'Up North' one day.... the beers much better up here guys!!!