Hawkwind: In search of Live Seventy Nine
NB. This post is pre-dated as its content is (ahem) somewhat niche!
NB2. I've since become aware of more source material. Watch this space in the next few weeks for a few additions!
Hawkwind's 1970s back catalogue has been extensively remastered and reworked, mainly by Cherry Red, with such classics as Space Ritual (1973) and Quark, Strangeness & Charm (1977) receiving the full treatment. But the cracks are starting to show - Hall of the Mountain Grill (1974) had only a remaster of the original stereo mix because the multi-track original tapes had been lost.
An album which I'd been hoping could be expanded and improved was Live Seventy Nine, actually released in 1980. This was a single disk live album, with only six tracks (plus a stub of 'Silver Machine' blown apart by an explosion). But as a tour it was a big success, and very popular, not least because the core of Dave Brock, Harvey Bainbridge (on bass), and Simon King (on drums) was joined by guitar maestro Huw Lloyd Langton and keyboard wizard Tim Blake.
But there are a few FAQ, before I get into what I've been tentatively doing...
Why were there only six tracks?
You have to remember that this was 1980 and vinyl was still the dominant way to release music - so that there was only 20 minutes of so of music physically possible per 'side'. And 40 minutes isn't long enough to do justice to a full 90 minute concert. What was needed was, as was traditional back in the 1970s, a double live album, i.e. two vinyl platters. But yes, the answer to a lot of 'why?' questions about Live Seventy Nine is that there simply wasn't room on the format of the time...
So, why wasn't Live Seventy Nine a double album?
It's a miracle that Live Seventy Nine was released at all, as I understand it a favour done by Bronze Records (who had signed Motorhead, with ex-Hawk Lemmy, of course) to Marion Lloyd Langton, Huw's wife. Finances would have been tight, so a fancy double live gatefold vinyl release would have been far less likely. Of course, an extended version could be released in the future if someone has been careful with the multi-track master recordings of one or more nights on the tour...
So... (again)... What happened to the master multi-track tapes?
I have absolutely no idea. And I've not heard from anyone who has even heard a sniff of these in the last 45 years, almost half a century. Bronze itself went out of business in the late 1980s and its assets acquired by a handful of other companies, for whom an obscure Hawkwind live single album won't have been a priority in terms of delving into archives and cataloguing. But never say never, eh?
So what was 'Complete 79'?
This sounded like a good idea. The full concert, published as a double CD by VoicePrint, ostensibly pushed by Brock to help pay a tax bill! But sadly it's of very poor quality and patched together mainly from audience recordings, with edits and joins multiple times in the middle of each track. So it's... something. And, arguably 'complete', though not very listenable.
Why is Live Seventy Nine so divisive?
With the departure of lyricist and front man Robert Calvert (again), off to get his head together and pursue other projects, plus the loss of Simon House on keyboards and violin, it's fair to say that Hawkwind reverted to the super-heavy thundering rock of earlier days. Which actually fitted in very well with the last days of punk rock (many exponents of which name check early Hawkwind as inspiration) and the burgeoning NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal), even though Hawkwind were still in a genre of one - and still are, another 45 years later.
The uncompromising wall of sound approach was a shock to anyone reared on the subtleties of Quark and PXR5 and, especially, the Hawklords '25 Years On', but for the Hawkwind old-time fans it was well within the requisite wheelhouse and I count myself as a fan of the live album here. As evidenced by writing this article. Yes, it's arguably faster and more aggressive than anything Hawkwind had ever done, but the thrill of hearing Simon's powerhouse drumming at these tempos and Huw's blistering soloing made it all worthwhile. Tim's keyboards delight every so often but there's not much from him in some songs - in the studio he'd multi-track, of course, as he did on the upcoming 'Levitation' album.
Putting a 'complete' concert recording together...
Note that my time is limited and the few remixes I've done below are only initial attempts, with less than an hour's work gone into each. But, in approximate set list order, from that 1979 Hawkwind tour, we have:
Shot Down In The Night
Heavier than Steve Swindell's original (from Fresh Blood), this is still a stomping start to each gig on that tour. On the Live Seventy Nine CD, of course, most recently in 2009 on Atomhenge, one of Cherry Red's sub-brands.
Motorway City
Another new track to fans at the time, this one was to make it in studio form onto the upcoming Levitation. Again on the official CD and crystal clear, with plenty of Tim Blake atmospherics. Critics point to oversimplified bass and general rhythm, but I still very much enjoy this live take.
Spirit of the Age
The perennial crowd favourite, here in stark, bombastic form, though it's a definite arrangement choice rather than an accident of personnel, given Brock and King's core role in the original on Quark. Yet again on the original vinyl and the official CD, so audio quality is excellent.
Urban Guerrilla
Hawkwind resurrected this one from post-Space Ritual days and gave it a punkier treatment. Not one of my favourites, it's just way too fast (Simon King even has to resort to playing (shock, horror) the beats rather than 8th notes on the hi-hat, as it would be humanly impossible to drum 8ths at this speed!), though it thuds along nicely and there are some crowd chanty bits to enjoy. Happily, this was mixed from the original master tapes at the time, so it's decent quality, if only to act as a b-side to the single version of Shot Down in the Night. So it has been available on many compilations, e.g. as a 'bonus track' on the Atomhenge CD.
So far so good then. No need for hackery. However...
Who's Gonna Win the War?
This is a track that had been bouncing around for a year or so, yet not put on tape - it would be for the Levitation studio album. The bootleg-ish Complete 79 has a version that's so appallingly recorded that I couldn't save it at all. So I'm going to cheat. Just a few months before the tour, with Steve Swindells on keys and no Huw (yet), Hawkwind were in Rockfield and laid down a live (as in all playing together and no overdubs) version of the song - and I think it fits well with the Live Seventy Nine set. You can listen to it (or 'rip' it ) from YouTube here.
World of Tiers
Dreadful. Both the Complete 79 recording and the unimaginative arrangement. IMHO. This was an early arrangement of the track that was improved a year later on Levitation by more Tim, more Huw, more dynamics, and, yes, even Ginger Baker's jazzy drums. So I'm breaking my streak this one time only and skipping any rendition of this song from the set. Axed!
New Jerusalem
Tim Blake's magnum opus and best known track. In his solo work and on CD this stretches to half an hour, but he did a ten minute version on his own halfway through Hawkweed's set, giving the others time to towel down, have a drink and use the facilities(!) Curiously, I couldn't find many recordings of this live other than on Complete 79, so I've used that one, tweaking the mostly missing bass from the audience recording and ending up with something more atmospheric. It's on my Remixes page.
Lighthouse
The band then drifted in while Tim Blake was starting Lighthouse and joined in halfway through as the track built. On the official Atomhenge CD, albeit not in the right place in the set. Still great quality and Tim even uses this version on his official 'best of' compilations.
Brainstorm
The classic HW rock anthem is given a heavy outing, with super riffing by Dave Brock, noodling by Huw, occasional bursts of synth from Tim and phenomenally powerful drums from Simon throughout. On the official Atomhenge CD, though the outro into 'You know you're only dreaming', which Dave used to play at the time, is apparently missing. Anyway, play it loud for best effect!
PXR5
Another incredibly rare live outing. You could argue that the version on the eponymous album is essentially live and could be substituted here, though then you'd miss the sheer energy Simon puts into the drums and all of Huw's guitar pyrotechnics. So I opted to take the truly terrible recording of this on Complete 79 (go listen, if you dare) and do as much as I could do 'normalise' it and make it listenable. It's on my Remixes page.
Master of the Universe
Another Hawkwind staple, played hard and fast and on the Atomhenge CD, albeit missing its third stanza, which I believe is how the band played it at the time (to get it over with?!)
Silver Machine / Levitation
The encore, heavily shortened on the original album, for reasons mentioned above. But it's very much worthwhile, with a punkified Silver Machine and a gorgeous segue into an early version of Levitation. The Complete 79 version is pretty tinny and inconsistent but I've worked relative wonders to bring it back to listenability. It's on my Remixes page.
So that was the show. As ever with Hawkwind, the exact line-up was transient, even more so when Tim Blake left the band in 1980 before the winter tour after he was late yet again for departure while talking on the phone with his poorly wife back home. Understandable but I don't think it was explained well to Brock and co, so he got replaced. Then Simon King was fired after drum timing problems (analysis here!) I refer you to Joe Banks' Days of the Underground book for the full tale.
I'm still hoping against hope that Cherry Red and Dave Brock somehow unearth the multi-tracks from the tour and we get an official box set of Live Seventy Nine. I'd be first in the queue. But I'm not holding my breath!
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