Hawkwind at the Astoria

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.

Wishbone Ash 36 years on

Wishbone Ash are, I am very pleased to say, one of the many 70s bands that are still touring. And, as with the other bands, the line up has changed many times but their front man is original member Andy Powell and some of the other members while not originals have been with Ash for some years.

Wishbone Ash are still writing new songs and their concerts include material from their whole career though there is an emphasis on the earlier songs from when the band were more productive and innovative. Their eponymous first album from 1970 includes the 10 minute jam Phoenix which became an anthem for the band and remains a fixture at all gigs.

I did not see Wishbone Ash at their zenith (living in darkest Dorset made gig going difficult) but I had seen them before, in a warehouse in Chichester (!) a couple of years ago. That was a good gig so when the opportunity came to see them again I jumped at the chance.

The London set was a little different from the rest of their current tour as instead of just including the highlights of their classic album from 1972, Argus, (such as Warrior and Throw Down the Sword), they played all of it. Needless to say this was very well received and the audience was a mass of people singing along and shaking their heads in time to the music in ageing rocker style - no mosh pit here!

The band clearly enjoyed the night as much as we did and Andy Powell told us that his love of the music kept him playing so we can hopefully look forward to many more Wishbone Ash gigs to come.

Hawkwind Christmas Concert is a great success

Sadly, Hawkwind do not play that many gigs these days so I usually only see them once a year at their traditional Christmas Convert at the Astoria. The good news is that the concerts are always excellent.

The lead-up to the concert was fun too. My Sensational Alex Harvey Band t-shirt started a short conversation with somebody who was also at the recent Southampton gig. I met the Fabulous Ms Angel in the queue for the concert. My friend unexpectedly had his 14 year old son with him and the pub refused to let me buy a coke for him so we got one from Starbucks instead. The support band were Prime Sinister who were a bit Neanderthal but OK with it.

The Hawkwind set was every thing that you would expect it to be. The music covered their full career and included songs like Master of the Universe, Damnation Alley, Inferno (from a Bob Calvert solo album), Silver Machine, Orgone Accumulator, Robot and Lighthouse. Many of the songs were significantly different from their original versions which added interest to familiarity. The light and stage show more than made up for the fact that the band do not go in for stage histrionics.

I've chosen this picture from the forty or so that I took as it captures a lot of the features of the show; Dave Brock (far right) is in change, there is a robot on the stage and just to the left of this you can see Tim Blake who joined the band for the evening (hence Lighthouse on the set-list).

The Hawkwind Christmas Concert is a once-a-year event and I'm looking forward to next year's already!

Hawkwind at the Astoria (December 2006)

I first saw Hawkwind play in Southampton in 1976 and have been to several gigs since then, including two with Julia in Bristol and the (then) Hammersmith Apollo.

For the last couple of years I have gone to their Christmas shows at the London Astoria. They remain a class act after all these years, though Bob Calvert is greatly missed on some of the songs.

The current line-up is as a four piece but they had Huw Lloyd Langton join them on a couple of songs. (Huw also played a few acoustic numbers as a support act.) The sound is still solid rock with their trademark spacey sounds over the top. The space fantasy theme is reinforced by the "dancers", as pictured above.

The set list covered most of their history including the latest album Take Me to Your Future. For me the standout songs were Psychedelic Warlords, Spirit of the Age and Orgone Accumulator.

I'm sure that I'll be at the Christmas do again next year and I'd like to catch some other tour dates too.