Hawkwindforum

It seems to me, that the Hawkwind 40th has brought their star back into the ascendancy once more.

The majority at gigs seem to be around my age, & as a whole, are more able to go to gigs etc now, than perhaps we were able to in the 80's (Maggies army:unemployed).

The down side, is that in the 80's Hawkwind ruled the underground, and anyone from an alternative lifestyle/viewpoint, was into them in quite a big way.

How can the 15- 20 year old brigade be brought back in today?
I hope that it can be done, as it's nothing less than deserved.

As I say, I'm more than sure the star of Hawkwind is once more in the ascendant, but we nee dthe youth to carry things forward .

Anyone else have viewpoints on this?

Yikes work in the morning, 12.45 a.m. now,, off to bed nite nite.

take your children, step-children etc... but in the end one has to accept the mortality of all stars....

fable of a failed race/ days of underground: we didn't reproduce... at least not quite as we intended... as the guardian article on fri 29.08.09 stated: "one of the most influential bands in history..." just most of those indirectly so influenced don't know it... so it goes....

it's really good to see 'kids' but i like it as it is too... it was almost like the beginning again at Porchester Hall... last of the tribe... no one knows... but its happening... it's real... & still ALIVE!

I see a lot of kids at Hawkwind gigs...well, teenagers and such anyway. Porchester may have been somewhat of an exception but there were teens there.
You have to remember that kids will be following whatever is in fashion. Isn't that how we got into Hawkwind in the first place.
To me the Hawks have, more than any other band i go to see and have seen, a wide variety of ages and cultures in attendance. That's what makes it so unique. There isn't really a 'typical' Hawkwind fan.
I can remember seeing Punks and Skins, Teds and Rockers, College lecturers and Dropouts and everyone inbetween all in the same hall, all enjoying it equally and getting along great.
Some of these people had to have been kids and i know i was at the tail end of '79 when i started watching them live.As the last poster said, Take kids, take nephews and nieces, take drugs, take whoever you can and show them why they should be at every gig like the rest of us.
Sorry, i seem to have added 'Take drugs' in there for some reason....force of habit i guess.

For my money though, Hawkwind will have an audience for as long as they keep going...and that will be forever.

absolutely drakrats... well, as to your observations anyway (ahem!)

if there is one single most promising source of replenishment it's gotta be the festival circuit: "kids" who might otherwise never dream of seeing the band live, or perhaps even really know anything of them, are much more likely to give it a whirl at a festival they've gone to for other acts/ things... and seeing the live show is what hooks people, androids, spawn and interstellar fledglings....

nonetheless, and personally hoping for a good few years yet, nothing is forever, unless all things and all time, all moments, are somehow eternal....

the baron brock maybe a 'wizard' but i doubt even he is quite the taoist sage cum alchemist enough to have found the elixir of life, the secret of immortality... seriously guys, the pleasure is in the hawk's flashing flight, its swoop and soar, and dive, the arc traced across the bright sky of NOW, and tyhen its gone....

it'll live on in its own million bastard progeny: ozrics and their tribe, the psy-trance freaks, the galactic dub vendors, the 'crusty' dance crews etc... etc... "you can't go forward, and you can't go back" but it will slip and slide on through into the future; why because it's already happened... some call it "karma, man"

I've got to say I don't really care. To me they've never faded.

As long as there's enough of us to justify a tour, Hawkfest, album release etc. I'm happy. We wouldn't want riff-raff in here, would we?

(Looks around) Too late!

Hawkwind's star in the ascendancy ?

well.....if it means that that long lost video footage from the Space Ritual tour finally comes out on DVD, or Dik Mik fianlly releases his long awaited solo album, or theres a boxset of unreleased Robert Calvert songs in the offing, then fair enough...........

to be honest, apart from about 5 minutes in 1972/3 Hawkwind were never the Latest Pop Sensation, were they ?

And thats fine with me. I like my Hawkwind to be playing 'Outside the Fence', even if its not for free these days

Festival circuit is right. I came back to the IOW on the ferry on Tuesday and the Bestival goes where starting to arrive. What stood out to me was they all looked like the Hawkwind fans at Porchester, I swear one had the same hairstyle as Mr Dibs, but younger After striking up conversation they seemed to be into the same kind of ethos as Hawkwind, but had never heard of them A few of these types of gigs and the mighty Hawks would have a whole new army of followers. Oh hold on, that would make the venues bigger and tickets more expensive. Forget what I just said, you didn't read it right!

at the end of the day, if you believe in this band, and by being a member of this forum i'd imagine most of you do then all i would suggest is try and encourage, persuede, threaten at gunpoint "non believers" to come along and try it for themselves.

even my daughter who was shall we say "very sceptical" when she first saw Hawkwind has been won over, although they might not feature highly on her i-pod playlist she can appreciate what a good band they are.

so go on, everyone out there bring a mate who wouldn't normally come to a hawkwind gig when the band tours in december


regards

dave

Well there was plenty of newbies bigging up the Wind at beautiful days, all weekend I just kept hearing youngters banging on about how good the show was.. My 10 year old really got into it, Unfortunately my partner just doesn't get it, mind she has tried twice, and actually enjoyed the 30mins she saw at Beautiful days.....

Now I want to know if Mr Eavis is going to ask Hawkwind back to play at Glastonbury next year - tis the only reason I'd be getting a ticket....

the cult of hawkwind will always live on!

Can't we just burn them?

I took a friend's 23 year old daughter to see Hawkwind at Edinburgh in the Spring.

I think her motivation to go see them was quite simple: a combination of curiosity, awareness that Hawkwind are truly legendary, the fact that the band have been around for ages, the realisation that the band can't go on for ever, and the fear that there may not be too many opportunities to see them in the future. There were probably other motivations too.

Not quite gunpoint but I think there's a few good reasons among that list and I'm sure they could be used to twist arms if necessary or for a bit of additional fun

a work mate of mine calls me sad and takes the piss of my devotion to hawkwind, but they must be doing something right because he might come along to manchester "just for a night out and the beer" and that would be his 4th concert.
theres plenty of closet hawkwind fans out there.

to my mind its all about "spreading the word"

so by all means encourage the curious to come along with you, at worst they won't come again at best there's another an in the making who'll be back for more.

it's not everyones cup of tea but i truly believe many would be pleasantly surprised

regards

dave

"Sensible Policies for a Better Britain"

I'm afraid its a fact of life that the potential audience for Hawkwind is less than it was in the 70's. As someone has already said back then there was "normal" or "alternative". Nowadays the alternative scene has splintered, in some of these splinters they probably don't know who Hawkwind are.

On the up side there were some young faces at Porchester so there's hope. Follow the suggestions - drag someone along to a gig. I've my "mark" for Decembers tour lined up