Review: Hawkwind, Stroud Sub Rooms, Thursday, May 18

By Ade Blair

SPACEROCK legends Hawkwind have been around for a long time, forty eight years to be exact.

During that time they have released over forty albums and had nearly fifty musicians pass through the ranks including; Lemmy, Robert Calvert, Ginger Baker, Huw Lloyd- Langton and Arthur Brown.

They are credited as being one of the founding fathers of punk, ambient and progressive rock music and whenever there was free festival from the nineteen seventies onwards they were usually there playing until dawn.

It was in front of a full house as the sun was setting that Hawkwind took to the Sub Rooms stage tonight.

Rather than a have a support band Hawkwind chose to start the proceedings with a riveting acoustic set of old and new songs including the classics We Took The Wrong Step Years Ago and Psi Power.

This new approach to old songs sounded great and well received by an enthusiastic audience made up of a surprisingly eclectic mix of people.

After a short interval the band returned for the main event which comprised of an hour and fifty minutes of sonic bliss complimented by some very impressive projected psychedelic visuals.

The set was a perfect mix of old Hawkwind favourites such as Born To Go and Steppenwolf and new songs from the latest two albums EM Forster inspired The Machine Stops and this year's critically acclaimed Into The Woods.

The highpoint of the night came with breathtaking renditions of Magnu and The Golden Void, in which bass player Haz Wheaton and drummer Richard Chadwick laid down hypnotic rhythms.

These were built upon by keyboardist Magnus Martin, guitarist and founder member Dave Brock and singer Mr Dibs and then bathed in flowing saxophone by guest member Michal Sosna.

In the dozen or so times since 1985 that I've seen Hawkwind this was their finest twenty minutes!

Due to the length of the set and the early curfew there was no encore so the audience were certainly left wanting more although judging by the beaming faces of the band I don't think we will have to wait too long to see Hawkwind again in Stroud.