Confusing Chronology Clarified: Hawkwind 1977-79
Readers may well be aware that I'm partial to some 1970s Hawkwind. But there's one period of time, around two years from 77-79, where the usual people in, people out the door got a little silly, complete with multiple tours, multiple line-ups, three studio albums arranged in the 'wrong' order, and even a complete change of band name!
So, in an effort to get my mind round all of this, I'm drawing on personal knowledge and remembrances of the time (I was in my late teens), press clippings, album sleeve notes, extended CD editions, plus most importantly Joe Banks' excellent Hawkwind 70s history, to put everything into a strictly chronological list. Here's what happened and (as best as I can tell) in what order!
Early January 1977: Recording sessions for an album at Rockfield Studios, with Adrian Shaw in the band for the first time on bass. The rest of the band is Dave Brock, Robert Calvert, Simon House, and Simon King, of course.
28 January 1977: Recorded in 1976, 'Back on the Streets' is released by Charisma as a single, paired with 'The Dream of Isis'.
February 1977: UA release their second Hawkwind compilation, 'Masters of the Universe'. The only previously undressed track on it is the splendid 'It's So Easy', otherwise being a nuts and bolts, unsequenced 'greatest' album and arguably less inspired than 'Roadhawks' (April 1976)
27 February 1977: One off show at the Roundhouse, in London.
March 1977: Tour of The Netherlands and West Germany.
Early April 1977: More time at Rockfield, demoing 'Fahrenheit 451' and 'We like to be frightened', neither of which were released at the time and we only hear now thanks to extended CDs.
April 1977: Tour of France.
June 1977: Mini-tour of the UK, supported by the newly formed (and Lemmy's) Motorhead, finishing at Stonehenge on 21st June.
17 June 1977: 'Quark, Strangeness, and Charm' is released. Perhaps my favourite Hawkwind release of all in terms of concept, implementation, and inspiration, helped by all the wealth of extra tracks and extended versions released from those January 1977 sessions on extended CD versions in the 2000s. In particular, the 11 minute version of 'Spirit of the Age' (from which the album version was trimmed at either end and remixed).
29 July 1977: 'Quark, Strangeness, and Charm' is released as a single, flipped with 'The Forge of Vulcan', along with a TV appearance (minus Brock who - perhaps rightly - couldn't be bothered to turn up and mime) on the 'Marc' (Bolan) TV show, shortly before Bolan's untimely death.
28 August 1977: Hawkwind plays Reading Festival, featuring 'Quark' songs and some classics, along with developing new material such as 'Uncle Sam's on Mars' (which originated as a lyrical jam over 'Opa Loka').
Late September 1977: UK tour, mostly desk-recorded (as will become relevant), with new songs 'Robot', 'High Rise', and 'Jack of Shadows' debuting.
October 1977: Some European tour dates, culminating on 26th October with Calvert flipping out (as he did regularly through the 1970s) and the band returning to the UK without him.
5 November 1977: Calvert gets married (again), with best man Simon King.
23 December 1977: Brock, getting a little tired of the London-based members of Hawkwind not wanting to keep trekking to the West Country (in England) to play free (or nearly free) gigs, teams up with Devon band Ark (Harvey Bainbridge, Martin Griffon, and Paul Hayles), plus a flaky (again) Calvert. They rehearse and then perform on the 23rd as the 'Sonic Assassins' at the Queens Hall in Barnstaple, the resulting fireworks being captured on a widely available bootleg, but best heard on the remastered disk in the Days of the Underground box set.
March 1978: a tour of the USA, nicely documented by Paul Hayles in his book/memoir. He says that Dave originally wanted the Sonic Assassins to take over from Hawkwind fully, but this obviously was never borne out, despite Paul being asked to rejoin for this tour to fill in for Simon House, who went off to play with David Bowie.
April 1978: Brock decides he's had enough, after playing smaller and smaller venues in the USA and some cancelled shows (think Spinal Tap!) and tells Charisma that Hawkwind is finished.
June 1978: Typically(!!, and he's still going 46 years later), Brock has a change of heart but wants to freshen things up, with the name 'Hawklords' in mind (a reference to the novel 'Time of the Hawklords'). With Calvert, he has Simon King in tow already from doing some demos (notably 'Infinity'), and adds Bainbridge, plus free festival old-hand Steve Swindells on keyboards.
July 1978: The band record an album at Langley Farm, near Barnstaple. Simon King lays down drums for the straight rock titles like '25 Years', 'The Only Ones', and 'The Age of the Micro-man', but leaves before things are complete and local boy Martin Griffin is brought in to play drums on the final versions of the other tracks. Simon House is also back for some guest violin.
September 1978: The Hawklords rehearse at Shepperton Studios, along with dancers and a Barney Bubbles stage setting.
6 October 1978: '25 Years On' is released by Charisma, and the autumn tour starts. It's way over budget and elements get dropped as it goes on, disappointingly for Bubbles.
23 November 1978: Plymouth Polytechnic, part of the tour (I think) and perhaps a warm up gig for Brunel (to be filmed) the following day. To my knowledge, only a version of 'Uncle Sam's on Mars' survives (on the PXR5 Alternate Demos CD set).
24 November 1978: the Uxbridge gig at Brunel University was recorded and filmed. Only two songs made it so far to video (the Days of the Underground box set on Blu-ray, but now also here - unofficially - on YouTube), but an hour of the audio has been available unofficially for a while and then officially remastered on the Days box set (again). It's very decent indeed and the gigs were well received.
January 1979: Hawkwind return to Rockfield, though Calvert is off (on one) again and departs for London, for good from Hawkwind this time (sadly), but not before dismissing Martin Griffin as drummer, it seems. Mick Smith is recruited as a stop-gap session drummer and 'Valium 10' was laid down, remaining a fan favourite. 'Time of the Hawklords', 'British Tribal Music', and 'Douglas in the Jungle' were also recorded here, but are of lesser musical quality.
18 May 1979: Charisma releases '25 Years' as a single, oddly, though it's an impressive mix with way more of Simon King's drums and a new guitar solo from Brock - it remains my favourite version of the song.
15 June 1979: Charisma's final Hawkwind release, trying to make some money from all the previously shelved material, the album 'PXR5' is released, with those overdubbed 1977 live tracks, the three studio songs, and some Brock/King demos. Charisma described PXR5 as 'the legendary lost tapes'. Brock himself writes on the sleeve: 'This is the last but one' - which confused everyone at the time. Hopefully my chronology makes it clear what happened!
June 1979: Simon King is recalled on drums, so we now have the four piece Brock, Bainbridge, Swindells, and King. They tackle a couple of Swindells songs, recording 'Shot down in the night' and 'Turn it on, turn it off' (links aren't to top audio quality, but hey, it's all we've got of these recordings). Brock's classic 'Who's gonna win the war' is also recorded here.
July 1979: Steve Swindells leaves for other projects (including his second studio album, Fresh Blood, recorded in Cornwall early in 1980*, leaving Hawkwind as a trio (Brock, Bainbridge, King) with no formal record contract or plans.
August 1979: Building on PXR5's release, a full band is reassembled for a possible tour. Tim Blake (ex-Gong) is brought in on keyboards and Simon King brings in Huw Lloyd-Langton to rejoin Hawkwind officially. From having no soloists, Hawkwind now has two.
9 September 1979: Hawkwind headline the Futurama festival in Leeds, along with many new wave bands, many of which quote Hawkwind as a major influence.
December 1979: Hawkwind self-finances a '10th anniversary' tour of the UK and all but four of the venues sell out. Lemmy even guests on 29 December in Camden and the general feel is that the tour has been a great success. The setlist featured a contractual section from Tim Blake, plus heavy versions of many Hawkwind classics, helped by blistering lead guitar from Lloyd-Langton.
PS. The Oxford gig was also my first ever Hawkwind concert, aged 18! Also, material from this tour resurfaces officially in 1980 for the Live 79 album on Bronze.
So there we go. Plenty of Hawkwind chronology before and after this 1977-79 period, but at least I've straightened everything out in my own mind - and hopefully yours!
PS. Do please link and share as appropriate?! Thanks.
* on which he calls on the 'hypnotic powerhouse' Simon King and fellow Hawkwind alumnus Huw Lloyd-Langton)
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