Hawkwindforum

Thought that it might be a nostalgic topic.

For me it was chance/fate whichever you choose back in the 70's. My fathers brother was into high quality audio and invited us round to hear his new purchase which happened to be on a Saturday afternoon when a rock program was played on the radio (can't remember the name of the show). After listening to a couple of tracks from his uninteresting (to me) LP's I asked to try out his new headphones and switched over to the radio and was completely blown away by the track that was being played. I can honestly say that no song before or after that event has had the same affect on me. At the end of the track the only words that I picked up from the presenter were Battery and Assault and didn't know whether this was the name of the band or song. Again fortunately in Ipswich we had a very very good backstreet record shop where we spent many hours thumbing through and reading album covers so I went there the following monday lunchtime and asked the owner if he could help. Without hesitation he stated the the track was by a group called Hawkwind taken from their new album Warrier on the edge of Time. I handed over my money immediately took it home that night and as they say the rest is history.
What made it even better was Hawkwind started to play live in Ipswich at that time and I was lucky enough to see Warrior played lived with the full seven member line up and a naked dancer who I assume must have been Stacia.
Happy memories indeed.

I quite liked Silver Machine when it hit the charts, but got into Floyd in my last year in school. Decided in Jan 1976 that I wanted to try smoking some gear, and asked a mate where I could get some, and he introduced me to a chap. A couple of weeks later, that pair suggested I borrow an album or two, and check them out.

Their view seemed to be: if you're going to smoke dope then you might as well listen to some Hawkwind as well. I was a bit bemused by the Sp. Ritual album, but liked Warrior. A few weeks later, they asked me if I wanted to see them play live. This was March 1976.

My first large-scale rock concert, and I remember the buckets of joss-sticks being plonked down in the gangways, and all these biker guys and hippies spliffing up. And a thunderous assault of sound and lights. I recognised very little of what they did, but, as HighRise said, the rest is history!

Likewise, when I bought Silver Machine, but was more blown away with 7 by 7 on the B-side, then 3 years later it was cemented when I first saw them at Reading Festie

hearing cotbs in my mates older brothers bedroom ,blew me away,wandered why his walls were painted black with silver stars ......mad times they were

My next door neighbour bought Hall of the Mountain Grill in late '74 and I fell in love with it.
Conned my parents into buying me Space Ritual for Xmas that year and I've never looked back.
Getting Warrior just after it came out confirmed my addiction.

Easy answer. All of my mates liked them, so there was no way I could escape not getting into them as well.

My mates brother had come home from university , and played us the new Hawkwind LP - Church of Hawkwind , and i just went f**cking hell!! this is the music for me!!! . I was into punk at the time , but hearing that album totally changed everything . Hair grown etc.

I have to thank my everlasting hunger for trippier music really.....:)

In the early/mid 80s I used to listen to Radio 1's 'Friday Rock Show' DJ'd by Tommy Vance (10pm-Midnight if I recall) and as a young kid this is typically how I'd end my week - after swimming club!. One day he played Hawkwind's live set from The Reading Festival 1986. I'd never heard anything quite like it - really resonated with me and captured my imagination like nothing else I'd heard. I think I recorded it onto tape at the time...
Off the back of this, Hawkwind Bristol Colston Hall around 86-87 was my first gig which I loved - I think Tubilah Dog were support (?). I bought a grey, white and black 'Angels of Death' poster from some vendor outside the place. The band were shrouded in darkness for the whole gig, couldn't really even see who was on stage; lightshow was a green laser splitting onto (and off of) a mirrorball. It was nuts.
I got into it all more by contributing a bunch of art to Trevor Hughes and Brian Tawn for their fanzines... and then one day Dave Brock called me up whilst I was watching 'The Bill' telling me he wanted to use my painting for the inside of the Electric Tepee LP...
Bit of a trip down memory lane all this!

I got Silver Machine on a bizarre compilation called Space Invaders circa 80 or 81 for my birthday - the only qualification seemed to be to have some space-related title for your song or act, so it had A Spaceman Came Travelling by Chris De Burgh, Magic Fly by Space and all sorts of weird stuff on it.

Anyway, I liked the bike song and bought Masters Of The Universe, the EMI comp, for about £1.99 soon afterwards, and that was me off, so thanks for the crap Various Artists thing, Auntie Mary!

My old mans fault. I suppose I kind of grew up with them in the background but it wasn't until 1982 when I really got into them. I think it was Quark Strangeness & Charm and Roadhawks that I got first and then Choose Your Masques came out and that was me. I was only 11!

nice one mikehe . would that be the painting of castlerigg stone circle in cumbria ? very nice location that ,, stunning scenery

yep dazzy b, that's the one

I used to go to friends houses where we would raid thier older brothers albums and somewhere along the line I was introduced to Hawkwind. The first album I bought was Roadhawks as it had some of the stuff I knew. After that it was warriors album and the rest is history.

Non of my friends had older brothers or non that had any musical taste to speak of,so in many ways discovering music away from the mainstream TV fodder of TOTP's, the largley uninspiring OGWT, as well as the endless legacy of fading 60's icons and the 'hard rock 70's royalty' of Led Zep,Deep Purple,Black Sabbath etc, was no easy task especially in a NE backwater where WH Smiths was the only outlet for LP's.
But one fateful evening the new commercial radio station aired its 'new and exciting' rock show, the presenter took great delight in slagging of a dreadful band called 'Hawkwind' but by request played Brainstorm.................well that was it..............revelation without Damascus insight.......... and although Hawkwind were in hiatus I caught up with their back catalogue, and then when they did emerged I caught the Quark tour, the Hawklords, Live 79, the Earth Ritual.............says it all really