Music > Live Reviews

Hawklords

The Brickmakers

23/11/18

The ever evolving line up of parent band Hawkwind has spat out so many ex-members it should come as no surprise that some of them would regroup and coalesce into new bands. Foremost amongst those groupings has been Harvey Bainbridge’s Hawklords and Nik Turner’s Space Ritual, so news that there would be a fusion of sorts at the Brickmakers, with Nik stepping in as guest saxophonist was more exciting that I feel ready to admit to. The last time I saw them on stage together was during the Choose Your Masques tour (you do the maths) so their reunion was of no small significance to me. Sadly, as my sharp-eyed companion pointed out very shortly after entering the pub, only two mic stands were set up. Sure enough, as the sound engineer mordantly informed us, Nik’s car had broken down, and the dream reunion was not to be.

It’s a set of circumstances that somehow epitomise this curious corner of uniquely British music – transcendental multi-universe space rock spliced with the mundane. The Hawklords send us on a Flight through Space Age Infernos with Ghosts and Circus Freaks for company on the way to Brave New Worlds, yet they do so within a cavernous performance space in what is otherwise a standard local boozer with the lights on, while projecting cosmic imagery onto an overgrown bed sheet. What would we, and they, do without the poor, beleaguered Brickmakers, plugging away for years on the very outskirts of town, just off the ring road in the middle of nowhere, and now facing such an uncertain future? For years the venue has offered a platform for eccentric and unfashionable bands to play for their eccentric and unfashionable fans. If there is a scintilla of doubt in your mind why the venue is so necessary then I give you, as evidence for the defence, the inestimable, eccentric and splendidly unfashionable Hawklords.

They launched into what proved to be a two hour set of full on Space Rock with Devil in My Head, and to be honest it seemed to take a few tunes for them to get into their groove with a spaced out version of Robert Calvert’s The Aerospace Age Inferno. Covers thereafter were few and far between – Hawklords have never been a tribute band – but if you were looking for a life-raft amidst the sea of original compositions, we got a pretty good stab at Uncle Sam’s on Mars, with bassist Tom Ashurst stepping up very effectively on vocals. Psi Power also got a look in, but that was it from the Hawkwind songbook. Instead, we got a few off the last album, some off the new, and a pleasing extended interlude where Harvey noodled and twiddled over an excerpt of the 1950s radio drama Journey into Space. If you had to ask why, you’d come to the wrong gig. Harvey’s wilder eccentricities were also evident in his weird poem/rant about cats piddling in the kitchen and the importance of having fun. It was lost on me, I confess, but knock yourself out, Harvey – he’s such a lovely, avuncular fellow he surely gets a free pass for five minutes. Otherwise, vocal duties were left largely to Jerry Richards with Ghost in My Machine and the Joker particular highlights. With his impossibly mellifluous voice – he sound like a BBC continuity announcer – he is also turning out to be a fine front man.

The decision to focus almost entirely on newer material is something I sense we need to get used to. Rummaging through classic Hawkwind’s back catalogue can often produce a set highlight, as bands as diverse as Zetan Spore and British Sea Power have discovered, but neither band nor audience wants to be impatiently rocking on its collective heels, waiting for Master of the Universe or Spirit of the Age when they’ve got songs of their own to showcase. Better to have a set that offers the opportunity to listen to and appreciate what they are doing now, and understand that for the band, things have simply moved on.

Last year there had been a few gentlemen of mature years loon-dancing down the front with abandon, but far more seemed content to hang back, many of them leaning against the bar, or seated around and about, as if not wanting to commit to complete involvement, and I wondered then if they just don’t like to make a fuss at the Brickmakers. This time things had been quite different, with a densely packed and appreciative audience offering rapturous applause throughout, not least for the encore of the old Bob Calvert number “Ejection”. It was enough to gain a promise of return, so let’s hope the Brickmakers is still around to receive them.

I’m still upset Nik wasn’t able to join the party, but maybe next year. In the interim, perhaps we should crowd fund his membership of the AA.