Steve Litchfield

It's not just 1970s bands that I try to get my head around who did what and when - in this case Erin Bennett is very much a live and going concern, along with her band EBB. But there's history here to be documented in one of my 'famous' chronologies - existing mini-bios of Erin are brief and omit a full context. So I'll try and rectify that here. Who is Erin Bennett and who are EBB (née the Erin Bennett Band - gettit!)? She's a singer/songwriter, and, first Syren, then EBB, produce heartfelt pop through pop-rock and into full on progressive rock. All with genuine emotion, terrific lyrics, and thoughtful arrangement. And special mention to her backing band, especially the original drummer Jo Henley (RIP) and replacement (since 2014) Anna Fraser, with Erin's songs being given genuinely intelligent driving rhythms by two virtuosos on the kit. So to the chronology, right up to date, since EBB (as a band) are still relatively new to the scene and are expanding t...

Hawkwind's seminal 1977 album Quark, Strangeness and Charm remains one of my favourites, but as I've previously discussed in these days of digital music, it's possible to curate your own 'version' of anything.  And with that in mind, I've been 'fiddling' with my digital bits and bytes to create my own 'best' album. Culled from the remaster of the actual album, from live bits and out-takes, as you'll see. I'd call it 'definitive', except I keep fiddling further, so it's always being changed in some small way. Happily, the original album, especially in super-clear remastered (by Steven Wilson) form, is so good that there's not quite as much needing doing as on some other albums by this or any other band. Side 1, in particular, is editing to perfection. The 11 minute 'take one' 'Spirit of the Age' was stripped back to verses 2 and 3, 'Damnation Alley' is complete and perfect in itself, and 'Fable ...

A while ago, I revelled in the process of digital remastering old 1970s music , enjoying it crystal clear in 2024. And the album I used as an example was  Steve Swindells  (wiki link) and Fresh Blood, along with a smattering of links (also included here). This is such an obscure release that, especially in remastered form, I thought it deserved further treatment in the form of an actual review. Albeit 44 years after release! Being a huge  1970s Hawkwind  fan, I was aware of Steve as a member of the band from 1978-1979, and particularly his use of Hawkwind's  Simon King  (of whom I'm possibly the biggest fan on the planet) and Huw Lloyd-Langton (for whose web site I was webmaster for a decade circa 2010) as backing musicians for his own (second) solo album  Fresh Blood . Also playing on the album was Van de Graaf Generator's Nic Potter. Steve was hailed as 'the next Springsteen' in some quarters, thanks to his lyrical prowess - all the songs are lyric h...

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not averse to technology, even within music - I'm a fan of electronica, think Klaus Schulze, think Jean Michel Jarre, even think modern trance. So I'm not against sequenced, synchronised music per se.  However, when it comes to rock music - you know, guitar, bass, and drums, I contend that it was the advent of the click track that heralded 'the end' of real music. With feeling, with excitement, with a sense that everything could go horribly wrong. Or right. Which is partly why so much of the best rock music in history was recorded in the 1960s and - especially - the 1970s, with click tracks that drummers had to stick closely to coming in at the start of the 1980s.  The idea was that by playing along to click tracks (in headphones), the dummer would be forced to stick to a specific tempo and cadence, stopping any unwanted speeding up or slowing down, and - mostly - ensuring that keyboard parts and sequencers could be overlaid and stil...

[Yes, yes, a little self indulgent, but I was musing on such a list recently and thought 'Why not do it properly and do it in a blog post?'] I was chatting to my daughter and talking about the 'old days' when we used to make 'mix tapes' on cassette, painstakingly copying on tracks from other tapes or LPs to create curated compilations. She paused for a brief moment and then said 'you mean like a playlist?'(!) Ah. So yes, turns out the mix tape is redundant in 2023, but the idea of picking 10 (or 15, as has ended up here!) favourite tracks from a band, an artist, an era, or a genre, and then theoretically putting them into a playlist is a good idea still. Not least because it filters out a lot of the rubbish that every artist inserts. Because none are perfect and all are guilty of putting in 'filler' songs, let's face it. The better artists or bands have less filler, but it's still there, and therefore warrants a retrospective curation. In...

Here's something off the wall. And not a little psychedelic. Also, I don't think I've reviewed a podcast before. Shiny gadgets are more my staple. But I wanted to put some thoughts down - and a recommendation - for Hawkbinge, an occasional podcast covering the complete discography of Hawkwind, the space rock band from 1970 through to the current day (with the main man, Dave Brock, now in his 80s(!), though thankfully supported by a revolving cast of younger chaps). Hawkwind as a band were always interesting to me because of their driving sound, sci-fi lyrics, and progressive/experimental leanings. And there have been many books written about their history and output. (I've even done a few mini-sites on tangential personnel and bands . Plus webmastering, in the past, for Huw Lloyd Langton , and playing Hawkwind tunes in support gigs .) But Hawkwind music has never been covered in this much detail . Andy Hood (long time Hawkwind fan) and Matt Longstaff (complete novice ...

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 i...