The annual Hawkwind Christmas Concert was held at the Astoria, London, as usual, and I was there, as usual.It was interesting to see them two night in a row and totally different venues. At The Brook it was up close and crowded and at the Astoria it was admiration at a distance and room to dance.
I managed to wriggle my way to the second row but the band were still some distance away, behind the crash barriers, dance area and monitors, so I concentrated on the music and only took one or two pictures.
The stage made the performance very different from the night before. We saw a lot more of the dancers and they had a lot more space to perform in. A real plus point here was the two performances on stilts, neither of which were performed at The Brook. They were especially dramatic during Sentinel as, er, sentinels.
The band also enjoyed the freedom that the extra space gave them. Tim Blake emerged from his cramped corner in to an open stage where he could perform to the crowd waving his keyboard guitar as if it was a sensible music instrument.
The set was all but identical to the previous night except that better timing allowed for two songs in the encore so we were treated to Flying Doctor as well as the closer Silver Machine.
I was taking bit of a risk seeing Hawkwind two nights in a row but it worked perfectly and I am a very happy bunny. And I have a new Hawkwind t-shirt to prove it.
And a ruddy good gig it was too! I'm definitely envious that you saw them at The Brook, though; it would have been interesting to compare the two venues, although a shame they didn't tweak the set listing; I was really looking forward to hearing Motorway City but Who's Gonna Win the War certainly made up for it :)
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