[CHRONOLOGY] 1969: Standing On The Runway
Ref: p6 – Hawkwind’s ‘first’ gig at the All Saints Church Hall has taken on a mythic dimension, which is another way of saying that many of the details around it are lost in the mists of time. One thing that’s kept coming up is regarding the line-up, specifically whether or not DikMik played with the band that night. While DikMik himself stated that he did play, various other parties have claimed that he was still just a roadie at this point, and hadn’t yet acquired/been given his prototype audio generator. Nik Turner claimed that it was quite a bit later after the first gig that DikMik began playing electronics and that he started off with a testing kit assembled for him by the London Arts Lab.
But I became particularly intrigued by this puzzle when I came across the US press release for their first album (written by Dick Lawson, who claimed to have been at the All Saints Hall gig), which also said that DikMik had been “picked up” sometime afterwards. I asked Doug Smith for his recollection, and he seemed to confirm that DikMik was indeed a non-playing member of the group at the time. Doug adds, “Somewhere in my memory, there’s an image of Dave showing DM in a studio what to do with the audio generator. It was Dave’s idea to use it and why not use the guy ostensibly humping the gear to operate it!” But who knows? As Doug himself would say, “Print the myth.”
STOP PRESS: I recently spoke to Pete Pavli of High Tide, who were the headlining band at the All Saints Hall that night, and he was pretty adamant that DikMik did play, though he recalls that an “instruction manual” for the audio generator was consulted!
Ref: p6 – I deliberately didn’t go too much into the back history of Dave Brock’s pre-Hawkwind exploits (read Ian Abraham’s Sonic Assassins for the full lowdown), but again, there’s one particular story I’d like to address, only because once again, it demonstrates an early commitment to myth-making/being generous with the truth… It’s regularly stated that the Famous Cure had a “top five hit” in the Dutch charts with ‘Sweet Mary’, presumably a version of Leadbelly’s ‘Sweet Mary Blues’. However, with the online resources available these days (Discogs, 45Cat etc), it doesn’t take long to establish that no such single or recording by the Famous Cure exists.
In Sonic Assassins, Ian notes that a recording session did apparently take place in Holland, with 'Sweet Mary' supposedly one of the songs recorded. A mysterious footnote on the Wikipedia entry for Dave Brock quotes this information, but also states, "Although "Sweet Mary" was reported to have been a hit single in Holland, the recording was never issued... The tapes are believed to have been re-used or destroyed, so only acetate recordings of these performances could possibly have survived." There is no source for this final sentence.
Mick Slattery has said on the Hawkwind And Related History FB group, “I don't think there ever was a recording of 'Sweet Mary'. When Dave recruited me for the tour, he told me 'Mary' was in the charts, but I didn't believe him as I never saw anything about it or ever heard it. I think it was used as publicity & became a bit of a myth!” Indeed, the story was used in Liberty’s original press biography of the group, was subsequently quoted in an early feature in ZigZag (March 1970), and has cropped up in official histories ever since.
However, Mick also said, “We did play 'Sweet Mary' in our set in Holland, and Brock used the same chords for 'Hurry On Sundown' a couple of years later...” Popular Dutch group Cuby & Blizzards released ‘Sweet Mary’ as a b-side in 1966, but for a fantastic slice of contemporary freakbeat, check out The Art Woods’ version from 1964, featuring a pre-Deep Purple Jon Lord.
Ref: p6 – One thing that isn't a myth is Dave Brock’s membership of the Dharma Blues Band prior to the Famous Cure, a source of some actual pre-Hawkwind recordings. Brock: “Yes, I did take part in a collective album some years ago. It came out on Immediate and was called Blues Anytime Volume 2. It featured people like Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Tony McPhee, Savoy Brown etc, and I contributed four tracks with the Dharma Blues Band (though only two were released here - JB), which consisted of myself on harmonica and vocals, boogie pianist Mick King and Luke Francis on harmonica and guitar. Luke was originally with the Animals and has become a popular entertainer in Finland. When Immediate collapsed, the tapes were brought by RCA, who re-issued them as a double album called An Anthology Of British Blues Artists.” (from Melody Maker, Sept 74) (Just to confuse matters, there’s a Dharma Blues single from 1969 of ‘Sweet Mary’ – but apart from the fact that Brock had left the band in 1966, there’s some suspicion that this is a bootleg produced much later than ’69)
Ref: p6 – To see film of Dave Brock busking around Portobello Road in 1968 and lurking in the background during rehearsals for the Albert Hall Buskers Concert in January 1969, go here.
Ref: p7 – Doug Smith paints a nice picture of those early rehearsals: “In those first four months after the All Saints Hall gig, they were rehearsing in a basement in Great Western Road, which is where they decided on becoming 'Hawkwind Zoo'. The landlord (‘Tommy’) of my place (Clearwater) also owned a row of houses on the west side of Great Western Road leading up to the bridge over the canal and the rehearsal room/basement was in the building one away from the canal. It was a double basement and the lower level had a door out to the canal path, as it went under the bridge. They all liked that door, a quick escape in case the 'Old Bill' raided the place.”
Ref: p8 - "...re-named Hawkwind Zoo... mainly inspired by Turner’s prodigious phlegm-hawking and wind-breaking..." According to Terry Ollis, it was bassist John Harrison who came up with the name 'Hawkwind'.
Ref: p8 – In the earliest Melody Maker live ad for the band, supporting Stray at the legendary Eel Pie Island Hotel, 24 October 1969, they’re listed as ‘Hawquins Zoo’ (which perhaps suggests they were originally calling themselves Hawkwind’s Zoo? Or at least that’s what somebody said over the phone). Judging by the live ads from this time, the band were known as Hawkwind Zoo through to the end of November 1969. The first ad that lists them as just 'Hawkwind' is for a gig at the Country Club, Belsize Park, 4 December 1969. View these ads here.
Ref: p9 - CORRECTION? "Events move quickly once the demo is complete. Doug Smith approaches Andrew Lauder, UK manager of Liberty Records, who agrees in principle to release a single by the band..." In an interview with Chris Wade for his book The Music Of Hawkwind, Doug says he was unaware of the EMI Studios demo until "much later", and got the deal with Liberty without its help. However, when I spoke to Andrew Lauder, he said, "Just before I became head of A&R (at UA), Doug gave me an acetate which had Hawkwind Zoo written on it, and Group X as well, but that had been scrawled out, and it was the demo version of ‘Hurry On Sundown’..." Doug also says that Andrew took some persuading to sign Hawkwind, whereas Andrew claims that the band were "right up my street". However, after well over 50 years, it's hardly surprising that accounts may differ...
[CHRONOLOGY] 1970: Hundreds Of People Like You And Me
Ref: p18 – Hawkwind’s free performances at the 1970 Isle Of Wight festival have also taken on a mythic dimension. According to Dave Brock, “Jimi Hendrix came in to see what was going on. I think in Hendrix’s set Jimi dedicated one of the numbers to ‘the guy down in the front with a silver face’, which was Nik. Nik got around to talking to him and asked him if he’d have a jam with us. But by the time he got there the tent was deflating…” And in Sonic Assassins (p30), Huw Lloyd-Langton says, “Somebody asked him if he wanted to get up and play. He actually said to them that if he did so, he’d spoil it!” Nik Turner also says that Miles Davis stuck his head into the pre-deflation tent.
Ref: p19 - "Brock recruits Lloyd-Langton as Slattery’s replacement." The process of replacing Slattery wasn't quite as simple as that. It appears that another guitarist thought they'd got the job ahead of Lloyd-Langton. In this article by Ian Abrahams about the making of the first Hawkwind album, Marion Lloyd-Langton, Huw's wife, makes reference to a "young guitarist from Switzerland" who had supposedly failed an audition with the band. However, Vic Vergeat - guitarist with Swiss band Toad and subsequently a solo artist - has long claimed to have once been a member of Hawkwind. Could they be one and the same? (Thanks to Hawk expert Bryan Pitkin for this titbit!)
Ref: p19 - Another project that Hawkwind were apparently involved with in the early months of 1970 was 'Moon Rock', a radical workshop/play scheme for deprived children held on Saturday mornings at the Roundhouse. Famed Nigerian drummer Ginger Johnson was also involved, and was probably where he 'collaborated' with Hawkwind (as per various Johnson biographies).
Ref: p19 - "On 29 March, they play their first show abroad at Le Festival Musique Evolution near Paris, alongside Pink Floyd, Ginger Baker’s Airforce, Kevin Ayers and the Edgar Broughton Band." Held in a chilly aircraft hangar with a stage at either end, Evolution was the first officially sanctioned music festival in France, and apparently a pretty chaotic affair, with many of the advertised bands not playing. However, according to Doug Smith, Hawkwind were heroes of the event, playing when others wouldn't and filling in for missing acts with impromptu jams. You can view footage from the festival (though unfortunately not Hawkwind) here.
Ref: p19 - CORRECTION: "On 31 July, ‘Hurry On Sundown’/‘Mirror Of Illusion’ is released as a single..." While this is the 'official' date, the single's release was actually put back to 7 August (handwritten on some of the promos).
Ref: p19 – There’s a nice description of Hawkwind from an unknown publication around this time: “A motley six-piece group consisting mainly of self-confessed buskers, layabouts and general wanderers, Hawkwind make a noise that they describe as ‘a mixture of electronic music, heavy beat and simple chords and incorporating avant garde jazz sounds.’” ('Hawkwind Moog Blues' - unknown publication, April 1970?)
Ref: p20 – “1 - Hawkwind and the Pink Fairies would play together as one band on many occasions.” For more about ‘Pinkwind’, read this excellent interview with Paul Rudolph.
Ref: p20 - "3 - The percussionists were at the festival with exiled Tropicália stars Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, who Nik Turner played with on the main stage..." There is a fleeting glimpse on film of Turner on stage at the 1970 Isle Of Wight festival, flanked by a man in red Y-Fronts, presumably from Murray Lerner's 1997 documentary Message To Love.
Ref: p28 - CORRECTION: "1 - The origins of this song are likely in ‘Hurry Sundown’, a gospel blues released in 1944 by Richard Huey & His Sundown Singers, which includes the refrain “See what tomorrow brings”." Actually, it seems more likely that Brock took inspiration for 'Hurry On Sundown' from Leroy Carr & Scrapper Blackwell's 'Hurry Down Sunshine', the B-side of their 'Corn Licker Blues' single from 1934. Not only does it also feature the “See what tomorrow brings” line, but Brock has talked about being a fan of Carr & Blackwell (‘Whatever Turned Me On – Dave Brock’s Influences’ - New Musical Express, 05.08.72). Brock probably first heard the track on the Leroy Carr compilation Blues Before Sunrise, released in the UK in 1963.
Ref: p28 – “5 - ‘Mirror Of Illusion’ shares its lyric with ‘Illusions’, a dour but affecting piece of acid folk recorded by Dave Brock & Friends for the 29 January 1969 edition of John Peel’s Night Ride show.” Listen to ‘Illusions’ here.
Ref: p30 – There’s an alligator man leering out of the ad for Hawkwind’s debut album, but it differs from Arthur Rhodes’ original artwork in the coiled, extended length of its worm-like tail.
Ref: p30 - "Only Harrison directly professes an interest in “electronic
music” – ironically enough, as by the time of Hawkwind’s release, he’s been replaced by Thomas Crimble." For a long time, very little was known about what had happened to John Harrison after he left Hawkwind, other than he had gone to live in America - and apparently, as one of the signatories of the original Liberty contract, there was a not inconsiderable amount of money being held on account for him from sales of the debut album.
It was only when John died in 2012 that it emerged he had remained in the music business, and worked as a staff engineer and producer at Village Recorders, one of the top studios in Los Angeles. However, the only evidence I can find of his time there is this piece by Joe Nolte of the band The Last, where he talks about John producing their debut album (L.A. Explosion! from 1979) - he had apparently become quite averse to guitar distortion of any kind ;-) Here's a letter that his sister Franny sent to Dave & Kris Brock following John's death.
Ref: p30 - "The band is already being promoted as a ‘space rock’ act, despite no overt references to the cosmos on this first album." Ironically, the very next album that Liberty released after Hawkwind's debut was Future Blues by Canned Heat, which came in a tremendous 'space rock' themed cover (and controversially references the iconic WW2 photograph of US Marines raising the Stars & Stripes atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima).
Ref: p32 – CORRECTION: Actually, there’s no evidence that Hawkwind appeared at the Pilton Festival. For instance, there’s no mention of them here or here.
Similarly, Hawkwind are sometimes linked with the earlier Phun City festival (24-26 July 1970), but while some members might have been present, they didn’t play... Or did they? According to Terry Ollis (in Chris Wade's The Music Of Hawkwind), "We played Phun City in 1970 too, the first festival I think. That was a fucking cracking one with the MC5 and all that." Certainly sounds like Terry was there...
Ref: p35 - CORRECTION: "b - ‘Journey Into Space’ – Jonathon Green, Frendz, 13/11/70" The magazine was still known as Friends when this article was published.
Ref: p35 - "1... Budgie used another illustration originally intended for Hawkwind..." Here are the two Budgie albums featuring rejected Hawkwind cover designs...
[ESSAY] The Origins Of Space Rock: Parallels And Precursors To The Hawkwind Sound
I've compiled an accompanying playlist to this chapter, which you can listen to here.
Ref: p38 - "Brock and Robert Calvert were both serious fans (of The Velvet Underground)..." As was Simon King. Michael Moorcock commented on Facebook, "I found Lou (Reed) pretty agreeable and had the impression he liked Hawkwind, too." And Marco Gloder, head of Flicknife Records, added, "I met (John) Cale a few times when Nico was living with us and he came a-visiting. He liked Hawkwind and we had interesting conversations about freaks music."
Ref: p39 – One other band, or rather song, I have to flag here is ‘The Forest Of Black’ (1968) by Dirty Filthy Mud, which sounds like an exact cross between Silver Apples and Fifty Foot Hose, and is amazing.
I should also mention Lothar And The Hand People. Based out of New York in the late 60s, they were one of the first bands to have their own Moog, while ‘Lothar’ was the name of their Theremin. However, they were more of a quirky psych pop outfit rather than space rock pioneers. Still, take a listen to this.
Ref: p39 - "The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)... featured the high-pitched wailing of a Theremin..." The Theremin also featured prominently on the soundtrack of BBC radio drama Journey Into Space (1953-58), of which both Calvert and Lemmy were big fans.
Ref: p40 – There’s another couple of European bands I’d like to highlight as, if not exactly precursors to the Hawkwind sound, certainly operating in a similar avant/freak out rock vein: France’s Red Noise and Denmark’s Burnin Red Ivanhoe. Oh, and Dave Brock was apparently a fan of trippy Swedish psych band Mecki Mark Men, whose debut album came out in 1967.
Ref: p41 - "Finally, we shouldn’t forget Hawkwind’s own formative influences and
favourite bands." You don't see Principal Edwards Magic Theatre being cited as an early influence on Hawkwind, but Stacia was a big fan and saw them many times in Exeter (they formed at the university there). Check out the make-up, dancing and cosmic slides in this great clip from French TV...
I also mention The Liverpool Scene as a possible influence in one of the book's endnotes (p344, 4), something I become more convinced of every time I watch this incredible footage.
Ref: p41 – Regarding the influence that Krautrock may or may not have had on the early Hawkwind, Thomas Crimble says in Sonic Assassins (p30), “Dave Brock was always on at me to go and listen to some Can, or ‘play it like Can’…” (Listen to the extraordinary, Crimble-driven ‘We Do It’ from the November 1970 BBC live session for evidence of this). And in another early piece on Brock’s favourite music, he singles out Kraftwerk’s pre-Autobahn albums for praise and says, “Kraftwork (sic) are doing things I’d like to see Hawkwind get into. At the moment we seem to be more of a rock band than anything. But I’d like to move more into electronics.” (‘Whatever Turned Me On – Dave Brock’s Influences’ - New Musical Express, 05.08.72)
[CHRONOLOGY] 1971: Charged With Cosmic Energy
Ref: p46 – Hawkwind also first came to the attention of the national media in 1971, though not for any musical reasons. On 18 January, the Daily Mirror ran a story about Terry Ollis appearing naked during a gig at the Breaks Youth Centre, Hatfield (“Drummer Strips At A Pop Show”).
And in the summer, there was an even more surprising mention of the band in the national press, when The Daily Telegraph ran a story on 6 July about the cancellation of an event at the Royal Festival Hall in London, organised by the Family Planning Association and due to feature Hawkwind! The FPA had invited them to play "to attract young people", before realising this might lead to the event descending into a "pop festival-type shambles."
Ref: p48 – Andy Dunkley had DJed at a number of Hawkwind’s 1970 shows eg. at Friars, Aylesbury and the Lyceum, London, though it’s probable he didn’t start regularly working with the band until 1972. In an interview in Sounds (‘Dig The Showbiz’, 30.7.74), he confesses to “hating” Hawkwind when he first heard them, but was persuaded to persevere with the band by “a lady he quite fancied.” He goes on to describe them as a “rock mantra, repetitive but changing.”
Ref: p49 – There can’t have been too many hard feelings around Dave Anderson’s departure, as Amon Din, the band he'd formed with Huw Lloyd-Langton, supported Hawkwind just a few weeks later on 27 October at the Dorothy Ballroom, Cambridge, plus 4 December at the Starlight Rooms, Boston. This also dispels the myth that Lloyd-Langton completely fell out of Hawkwind’s orbit following his departure. According to Anderson, Lloyd-Langton played with the band a number of times during 1971, and this was the main reason why Anderson recruited him as Amon Din's guitarist. (In fact, there's photographic evidence of Lloyd-Langton playing with Hawkwind, possibly standing in for Dave Brock, on 20 March 1971 at the Liverpool Stadium.)
Ref: p50 - "In Search Of Space is released on 8 October". But a week before this happened, the press were invited to a pre-release playback event at United Artists' offices, indicative of how hard they were promoting the album given Hawkwind's growing profile as the underground's number one band. Here's a copy of one of the invites they sent out, printed on a page from The Hawkwind Log (John Tobler wrote for ZigZag).
Ref: p51 - CORRECTION: "8 - ...the inside cover of ISOS notes that ‘Master Of The Universe’ was “first recorded at Air Studios”. It does indeed say this, but according to Dave Anderson, it's not correct: "We were there for a week, but we never even got the gear set up. The studio had suspension on the floor, so we spent the first day jumping up and down on that and running around like idiots! Then our friends the Furry Freak Brothers broke into George Martin’s office and pinched all his booze. They also spiked up the engineer, who got completely freaked out and never returned for the rest of the week.” ('Charged With Cosmic Energy' - Joe Banks, Prog, November 2021)
Ref: p51 – CORRECTION: “12 - Although in 1971, he had just stepped back from full-time editorship.” Michael Moorcock actually remained at New Worlds until 1973, albeit as editor of the bi-annual paperback format it had adopted in 1971.
Ref: p52 - "14... Keith Emerson, who knew Lemmy when he was the road manager for The Nice, maintained that Kilmister was a big fan of the BBC sci-fi radio drama Journey Into Space (1953-58) and (his name) came from radio operator Lemuel “Lemmy” Barnet." There's further confirmation of this origin story (and more about Journey Into Space) here and here. And in the May 1989 edition of Strangled, the Stranglers fan magazine, Lemmy says that the name attached itself to him during his schooldays in Wales (where he grew up). Also, that the 'Lemmy A Quid Till (sic) Friday' t-shirts were his idea, but "it's been backfiring on me ever since... Jesus, I wish I hadn't said that now."
STOP PRESS: Keith Kniveton, Hawkwind archivist and synth player, says, "I've always believed the name came from his hometown of Burslem. When he moved to Anglesey people asked him where he was from and he became known as Burslemmy, later shortened.". Perhaps his hometown and Journey Into Space were combined...
Ref: p54 - CORRECTION: "Produced by: Olympic and AIR Studios". Oh dear. That should of course say "Produced by: Hawkwind and George Chkiantz".
Ref: p55 - CORRECTION: "...a higher, more aggressive chant of “Shouldn’t!” kicks in." Having cleaned my ears out, it's clear that the chant is actually "Do That!"
Ref: p57 - "‘We Took The Wrong Step Years Ago’, another of Brock’s 12-string polemics..." Note the 'seagull' sounds at the start of this song (and 'You Know You're Only Dreaming'), produced by DikMik's audio generator. Four years later, 'The Demented Man' will also feature seagulls, though this time real ones.
Ref: p57 - "‘We Took The Wrong Step Years Ago’... laments how the modern world has turned its back on Mother Nature. It’s unclear when this wrong step occurred – Post-Eden? Industrial Revolution? Hiroshima?" In a recent interview, Brock cited Rachel Carson's Silent Spring as a direct influence on this song. Published in 1962, Silent Spring was a controversial, best-selling attack on the use of synthetic pesticides, and a key text of the early environmental movement.
Ref: p58 - "2 - Brock’s love of The Steve Miller Band perhaps gets the better of him here, as there’s an uncanny resemblance to ‘Jackson Kent Blues’ (from 1970’s Number 5)." In fairness, the opening riff to 'You Know You're Only Dreaming' isn't an uncommon one - for instance, here it is on Family's 'How-Hi-The-Li', from their 1969 album Family Entertainment (thanks to Hawkfan Andy King for the tip-off). And listen to what Chicago (and three of The Beach Boys) do to it on 'Wishing You Were Here' from 1974's Chicago VII.
Ref: p59 - "In Search Of Space spends 19 weeks on the UK album charts, peaking at number 18." This statement needs some qualification. Released on 8 October, In Search Of Space doesn't actually get into the charts until 5 November, and then just for one week at no. 44. However, it continues to chart sporadically over the next few months, before beginning an unbroken run of 15 weeks from 29 July to 4 November, coinciding with the runaway success of 'Silver Machine'. It peaks at no. 18 on 9 September 1972, 11 months after its release.
On saying all that, there's significant variance between Hawkwind's chart positions in the 'official' BMRB chart ie. the one that the BBC used, and other industry charts, such as Melody Maker's. For instance, here's the MM chart from 6 November 1971, which shows ISOS entering at no. 24, the same week that the BMRB chart had them at no. 44 - and instead of just dropping out, the MM chart had ISOS at no. 28 the following week, and at no. 22 the week after. ISOS re-enters the MM chart (which was only a top 30) at no. 20 on 26 August 1972, peaks at no. 10 on 23 September, remains on the chart until 11 November, then re-enters for one week at no. 22 on 25 November.
What's particularly odd is that the positions of other albums in the MM chart pretty much correspond with the BMRB chart - so why the discrepancy with Hawkwind?
(And for more intrigue on this front, there's Hawkwind's first feature in IT from October 1970, which states that their debut album "is selling well - it's just reached the lower section of the album charts" - and yet there's no record of it making the official charts at that time.)
Ref: p61 - "Terry Ollis is absent (deputised in this instance by the Pink Fairies’ Twink)..." There's a fascinating promo press booklet prepared at the end of 1971 (possibly ahead of ISOS's American release) which suggests that Twink had joined the band permanently in a proto-double drummer line-up with Terry... When I recently asked him about his departure from Hawkwind, he said that the stories about his incapacity had been rather overstated, and that he had left because the band were becoming too money-oriented...
Ref: p62 - CORRECTION: "j - ‘Del On The Beat’ – Beat Instrumental, December 1971" The title of this piece was actually 'In Search Of Space - Hawkwind'.
Ref: p62 – “1… the front cover title – by which the album is sometimes referred – reads Xin (or X In) Search Of Space, inviting allusions to Brit sci-fi films such as The Quatermass Xperiment and X The Unknown.” Of course, it could also be a sly reference to Group X… I sometimes wonder whether it actually might have been better if Hawkwind had retained their original name, hinting as it does of something new, mysterious and slightly threatening. If you stare at the front cover long enough, it becomes clear that the stylised hawk behind the main emblem could also be seen as a giant 'X'...
Hawkfan Pedro Bellavista believes it should be read as ‘Xin’ and was a nod to eastern philosophy by Barney Bubbles – pronounced ‘hsin’, it’s a word frequently used in Chinese daily life, and translates as: heart; mind; feeling; intention; centre. And in the Frendz Sonic Assassins comic strip, it says “Follow the adventures of Hawkwind on ‘Xin Search Of Space!’”.
However, when I spoke to Nik Turner, he simply said, “We needed an album cover and Barney did it – we didn’t have a title and he gave us the title X In Search Of Space. X was there as a mistake, but we kept it there.” So, Barney came up with the title as well as the cover design, but as for that ‘X’, who knows…?
STOP PRESS: I recently spoke to Terry Ollis, who said, "It’s Xin Search Of Space, not X In Search Of Space. Barney Bubbles said to me, it’s pronounced ‘Zin’. But what that means, I don’t know!" So much for my sci-fi B-movie ideas...
(There had actually already been a band called Group X. They released the fabulously titled ‘There Are 8 Million Cossack Melodies, And This Is One Of Them’ on Fontana in 1963, an excellent Shadows-esque instrumental. The title is a reference to the payoff line of popular American cop show Naked City: “There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them.”)
Ref: p62 - "2... When it sells 100,000 units, ISOS becomes their one BPI-certified gold disc." This statement also needs some qualification. What I should have said is that it's their only current BPI-certified gold disc ie. it's the only Hawkwind album that meets the BPI's current criterion for achieving a gold disc, which is based on units sold. As you can see below, ISOS is the only Hawkwind album to sell over 100,000 copies in the UK - the gold standard - while a number of other albums have silver status (sales of 60,000 and over), including, perhaps surprisingly, Roadhawks, but not Doremi. (see my entry 1972-1974, ref: p89, about Doremi's release and sales - perhaps UK sales of foreign manufactured records didn't count towards the BPI's total?)
However, as plenty of fans have pointed out, there are contemporary gold discs in existence for other Hawkwind albums, for example, Space Ritual. So what changed? When the BPI was founded in 1973, certification was based on actual monetary sales rather than units - so for instance, a gold disc was awarded when sales of over £150,000 were achieved (see picture of DikMik's gold disc for Space Ritual). However, given the vagaries of inflation etc, this system was phased out in 1978 to be replaced by units sold - so while Space Ritual had qualified for gold disc status previously, it no longer did, because its unit sales were under 100,000.
[ESSAY] The Making Of A People's Band
Ref: p72 - "Among the long-haired young people sewing and knitting in the Friends bazaar, there’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance from Nik Turner." And Dave Anderson as well! Here they both are in The Alternative Society skulking out the back and up the stairs...
Ref: p74 - CORRECTION: "6... (‘Del On The Beat’ – Beat Instrumental, December 1971)." Again, the actual title of this piece was 'In Search Of Space - Hawkwind'.
Go to 1972-1974