The band was formed in 1969 by visionary Dave Brock and although it has been subject to numerous line-up changes it is still led by him. The early line-up featured Dave Brock on vocals and rhythm guitar, Huw Lloyd-Langton on lead guitar, Terry Ollis on drums, Thomas Crimble on bass, Nik Turner on Saxophone and Dik Mik on synthesizer.
The band became established as a space-rock underground band with their renowned concert at the Glastonbury Rock Festival 1970 when they set up in an alternative field and played a free concert, pulling crowds away from the main event. Their debut album, the self titled ‘HAWKWIND’, was released by EMI and to this day still sells steadily. In 1970 they appeared at the Isle of Wight Festival where Jimi Hendrix was spotted in the audience. He was asked to get up and join the band and he replied ‘No I don’t want to spoil it!’ Huw Lloyd-Langton remained with them until late 1971. The band shot to fame in 1972 with their hit record ‘Silver Machine’ featuring Lemmy (now of Motörhead fame) on vocals. (This record featured in the soundtrack of a recent TV Mazda advert in the UK). In 1973 Simon House (Electric Violin) joined, and throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s, the renowned World famous Sci-fi author, Michael Moorcock often recorded and appeared with them.
Lemmy was sacked from the band in 1975 after a drugs bust in USA, and went on to form ‘MOTORHEAD’, named after the last track he wrote for the band, a slang term for speed freak. Huw Lloyd-Langton joined Leo Sayer in 1974 and then in 1975 went on to form supergroup ‘WIDOWMAKER’ WITH Steve Ellis (Love Affair), Luther Grosvenor (Mott The Hoople), Paul Nicholls (Lindisfarne) and Bob Daisley (Ozzy Osborne). In 1977, Simon House joined David Bowie. Dave Brock and poet Bob Calvert tour as ‘HAWKLORDS’, performing the stage show ‘METROPOLIS’. Throughout the 70's, Hawkwind released a series of classic albums; ‘IN SEARCH OF SPACE’, ‘DOREMI FASOL LATIDO’, ‘SPACE RITUAL’,
‘HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN GRILL’, ‘WARRIOR ON THE EDGE OF TIME’, ‘ASTOUNDING SOUNDS, AMAZING MUSIC’, ‘QUARK STRANGENESS & CHARM’ and ‘PXR 5’. In 1979, Dave formed another nucleus with Huw Lloyd-Langton on lead guitar, Simon King on drums, Harvey Bainbridge (from Hawklords) on bass and Tim Blake from ‘Gong’ on keyboards.
Their live album ‘LIVE 79’ went straight into the national top ten charts chart. In 1980 Ginger Baker replaced Simon King on drums and they recorded their classic album ‘LEVITATION’. Once again, the release went straight into national top ten album chart. Tim Blake and Ginger Baker remaied with the band until after the Christmas Tour 1980. From 1979 to 1985 the band’s singles and albums were never out of the national, independent and heavy metal charts, with albums such as ‘SONIC ATTACK, ‘CHURCH OF HAWKWIND', 'CHRONICLE OF THE BLACK SWORD, 'LIVE CHRONICLES' AND 'XENON CODEX'. Nik Turner who left the band in 1975 briefly rejoined the band 1982-1983 for the ‘CHOOSE YOUR MASQUES’ tour. In 1984 Alan Davey replaces Harvey Bainbridge on bass and Harvey moved over to keyboards and synths. In 1985 the band tour with the spectacular ‘CHRONICLES OF THE BLACK SWORD’, a stageshow portraying music and images based on Michael Moorcock’s epic saga, ‘ELRIC’. During this period the band reached a new audience with the emergence of ambient acts such as The Orb openly acknowledging Hawkwind’s influence.
Huw Lloyd-Langton remained with the band throughout the end of the 80s, departing in 1989 followed
shortly after by Harvey Bainbridge. The band continued to perform live throughout the nineties, and had
some noteable album releases such as, 'SPACE BANDITS', 'PALACE SPRINGS', 'ELECTRIC TEPEE',
'IT IS THE BUSINESS OF THE FUTURE TO BE DANGEROUS', 'THE BUSINESS TRIP', 'ALIEN 4',
'LOVE IN SPACE' and 'DISTANT HORIZONS'. During their entire existence the band have performed numerous free concerts, notably STONEHENGE and have supported various charities, which include SHELTER, when in 1977 at the Blackheath Concert Halls they raised thousands of pounds for the homeless, and even released a charity single version of the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter" with Samantha Fox guesting on vocals. N.A.S.A. in the USA have also used sound tracks from the ‘LOVE IN SPACE release. In 1997 they headlined the ‘1ST SPACEROCK FESTIVAL USA’. In 2000, the band staged the highly successful ‘HAWKESTRA’ event at the London Brixton Academy, which saw many past members reunited on stage with a nucleus of Dave Brock, Ron Tree, Jerry Richards, Hugh Lloyd-Langton, Simon House, Richard Chadwick, Alan Davey and Tim Blake. In 2001 they were voted the 8th top progressive band in the country on Channel 4 TV. The band have recently released a double live cd recording of their Xmas 2000 'Yule Ritual' show at the London Astoria, as well as the Arthur Brown helmed 'Out of the Shadows' in 2007.The concept of a Hawkestra, a reunion event featuring appearances from all past and present members, had originally been intended to coincide with the band's 30th anniversary and the release of the career spanning Epocheclipse – 30 Year Anthology set, but logistical problems delayed it until 21 October 2000. It took place at the Brixton Academy with about 20 members taking part in a 3+ hour set which was filmed and recorded. Guests included Samantha Fox who sang Master of the Universe. However, arguments and disputes over financial recompense and musical input resulted in the prospect of the event being restaged unlikely, and any album or DVD release being indefinitely shelved.The Hawkestra had set a template for Brock to assemble a core band of Tree, Brock, Richards, Davey, Chadwick and for the use of former members as guests on live shows and studio recordings. The 2000 Christmas Astoria show was recorded with contributions from House, Blake, Rizz, Moorcock, Jez Huggett and Keith Kniveton and released as Yule Ritual the following year.
In 2001, Davey agreed to rejoin the band permanently, but only afiter the departure of Tree and Richards.
Meanwhile, having rekindled relationships with old friends at the Hawkestra, Turner organised further Hawkestra gigs resulting in the formation of xhawkwind.com, a band consisting mainly of ex-Hawkwind members and playing old Hawkwind songs. An appearance at Guilfest in 2002 led to confusion as to whether this actually was Hawkwind, sufficiently irking Brock into taking legal action to prohibit Turner from trading under the name Hawkwind. Turner lost the case and the band now perform as Space Ritual.
An appearance at the Canterbury Sound Festival in August 2001, resulting in another live album Canterbury Fayre 2001, saw guest appearances from Lloyd-Langton, House, Kniveton with Arthur Brown on "Silver Machine". The band organised the first of their own weekend festivals, named Hawkfest, in Devon in the summer of 2002. Brown joined the band in 2002 for a Winter tour which featured some Kingdom Come songs and saw appearances from Blake and Lloyd-Langton, the Newcastle show being released on DVD as Out of the Shadows and the London show on CD as Spaced Out in London.
In 2005 the long anticipated new album Take Me to Your Leader was released. Recorded by the core band of Brock/Davey/Chadwick, contributors included new keyboardist Jason Stuart, Arthur Brown, tabloid writer and TV personality Matthew Wright, 1970s New Wave singer Lene Lovich, Simon House and Jez Huggett. This was followed in 2006 by the CD/DVD disc Take Me to Your Future.
The band were the subject of an hour-long television documentary entitled Hawkwind: Do Not Panic that aired on BBC Four as part of the Originals series. It was broadcast on 30 March 2007 and repeated on 10 August 2007. Although Brock participated in its making he did not appear in the programme, it is alleged that he requested all footage of himself be removed after he was denied any artistic control over the documentary.. In one of the documentary's opening narratives regarding Brock, it is stated that he declined to be interviewed for the programme because of Nik Turner's involvement, indicating that the two men have still not been reconciled over the xhawkwind.com incident.
June 2007 saw the departure of Alan Davey, who left to perform and record with two new bands: Gunslinger and Thunor. He was replaced by "Mr Dibs", a long-standing member of the road crew and bassist for the bands Spacehead and Krel (who had supported Hawkwind during 1992). The band performed at their annual Hawkfest festival and headlined the US festival NEARfest and played gigs in PA and NY. At the end of 2007, Tim Blake once again joined the band filling the lead role playing keyboards and theremin. The band played 5 Christmas dates, the London show being released as an audio CD and video DVD under the title Knights of Space.
The band's official Website is to be found at www.hawkwind.com
HAWKWIND and solo projects: Dave Brock, Nik Turner, Inner City Unit, Lemmy, Motorhead, Huw Lloyd Langton Group, Robert Calvert, Alan Davey, Bedouin, Michael Moorcock Deep Fix, Harvey Bainbridge, Agents Of Chaos ,Space Ritual, Spiral Realms,ect.A truly prolific act !
Awakening
Hawkwind Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Than this cruel descent from a thousand years
Of dreams, into the starkness of the capsule.
Where two of our crew still lay suspended cool
In their tombs of sleep.
Those nagging choirs of memory
Worming from their flesh to machinery
I would have to cut
Such midwifery is but one function of the leader here
Floating in a sac of fluid dark
A clear century of space
Away from Earth
While one man stares from the trauma of his birth
Attending to the hypno-tapes
Assuring him
That this was reality
However grim
Our journey's end
Landing itself was nothing
We touched upon a shelf of rock
Selected by the auto-mind
And left a galaxy of dreams behind
The lyrics to Hawkwind's "The Awakening" describe the unsettling reality of space travel. The singer laments the fact that they would rather be facing "fire storms of atmospheres" than the cold, clinical voyage through space they find themselves on. The thousand-year dreams of humanity have given way to a "starkness of the capsule," and the crew that surrounds the singer is in a "suspended cool," slumbering within their tombs. As they float through the darkness of space, the singer feels an urge to cut the "tubes and wires" that connect the crew to the machinery. Though it is a necessary part of the voyage, he sees it as a violation of their humanity.
As the journey drags on, the crew is disconnected from the reality of Earth. The singer describes himself as "floating in a sac of fluid dark, a clear century of space away from Earth." He notes that one of his fellow crewmates is still dealing with the "trauma of his birth," and is constantly reassured by hypno-tapes that the situation is real. When the crew finally reaches their destination, it is a shallow victory. They land on an alien world that is little more than a "shelf of rock," and it forces them to leave the "galaxy of dreams" behind.
"The Awakening" can be seen as a reflection on the disconnection that comes with space travel. While it represents the ultimate achievement of humanity's technological prowess, it also forces us to confront the limitations of our own humanity. The song paints a picture of a journey that is both awe-inspiring and unsettling, one that requires the crew to sacrifice their humanity in order to achieve their ultimate goal.
Line by Line Meaning
I would rather the fire storms of atmospheres
I prefer to endure the dangerous and exciting conditions of outer space than to leave my advanced civilization to go to a less advanced one.
Than this cruel descent from a thousand years
Descending back to Earth after centuries of technological progress and world building is difficult and painful.
Of dreams, into the starkness of the capsule.
Going from a world of imagination and creation to the cold, sterile environment of a space capsule is a harsh adjustment.
Where two of our crew still lay suspended cool
Two of our crew are still in cryogenic sleep, preserved until they can return to civilization.
In their tombs of sleep.
They are in a state of suspended animation, awaiting their awakening.
Those nagging choirs of memory
The memories of our previous lives and civilization continue to haunt us.
The tubes and wires
The medical and technological devices attached to the cryogenic pods keeps the crew members alive.
Worming from their flesh to machinery
The devices are connected to the crew's flesh, slowly draining their life force to keep them alive.
I would have to cut
In order to wake up the two crew members, I would have to remove the tubes and wires that keep them alive, which may put their lives at risk.
Such midwifery is but one function of the leader here
One of the responsibilities of the leader is to oversee the awakening process and ensure the safety of the crew members.
Floating in a sac of fluid dark
One of the crew members has been born and is floating in a dark, liquid-filled pod that simulates the womb.
A clear century of space
We have traveled far enough to be disconnected from Earth for over a hundred years.
Away from Earth
Our journey has taken us far from Earth, and we are now disconnected from our original world.
While one man stares from the trauma of his birth
One of the crew members experiences intense psychological distress as he adjusts to the traumatic experience of being 'reborn' in the artificial womb.
Attending to the hypno-tapes
The crew member is being treated with hypnotherapy to help him process the overwhelming experience of being born in a pod.
Assuring him that this was reality
The hypnotherapy aims to help the crew member recognize that the strange, artificial environment he's experiencing is the new reality.
However grim
The crew member is being encouraged to accept his new reality, even though it may be bleak and difficult.
Our journey's end
We have arrived at our destination after a long journey through space.
Landing itself was nothing
The landing was smooth and uneventful, with no major challenges or disturbances.
We touched upon a shelf of rock
We landed on a rocky surface, using advanced auto-piloting technology to navigate our way to the landing zone.
Selected by the auto-mind
The landing site was automatically selected by the ship's advanced AI system, which identified the optimal landing location.
And left a galaxy of dreams behind
Our journey through space was filled with dreams, imaginings, and visions of what our future civilization could become. As we land and return to reality, we leave those dreams behind.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: ROBERT NEWTON CALVERT
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind