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Hawkwind - some great (and under-appreciated) bass playing


Clarky
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[quote name='Clarky' post='845254' date='May 22 2010, 06:20 PM']and is at his best on the album 'Electric Tepee' (check out 'Sputnik Sam').[/quote]

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnSlhFdQMpw"]Now THAT'S a bass sound. Cor.[/url]

Edited by mildmanofrock
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Gah... this thread's got me digging up my favourite Hawk basslines/tones....

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTO4yU_OIjQ"]Orgone Accumulator - nice tubey and compressed solo from around 5 mins 50...[/url]

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVIm_Xcnj7A"]Dust of Time... [/url] and [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJBx_TACsM4"]Freefall...[/url] - nice noodling from Harvey Bainbridge.

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[quote name='Stu-khag' post='846567' date='May 24 2010, 03:16 PM']My old band always used to get compared to hawkwind. A lot!
I'd never really heard them other than silver machine. So at the grand old age of 24 I heard Warrior on the edge of time for the first time with some mates.
When Opa -Loka played and we heard the bass, everyone looked at me and said "that sounds like you playing".
I played a gig at a little festival in an afro jazz kind of band and was playing just after Nik Turner, I like to tell people he supported us.
Whenever I get asked to DJ at gigs, I always try to Opa Loka.

I've never been to see Hawkwind live as people have told me not to bother as they aren't sounding too great live and rely too much on sequencers live. People's views on them differ so much that I don't want to take the risk and be disappointed.[/quote]

Dave Brock played bass on "that bloody Opa-Loka thing". Lemmy told me. :) I love the track but Lem hates it!

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  • 1 year later...

Just resurrecting this thread....
Was lucky enough to see the Hawklords last night at a small 'secret' gig in Bristol.
Totally blew me away, storming versions of classics from all the eras, with some interesting twists. I think they're better & more than just a 'sans Brock' Hawkwind.
Bass duties were shared between Alan Davey & Adrian Shaw, two very different styles ,both played excellent. Two keyboards, including Harvey Bainbridge - plenty of sonics... Nik Turner on sax......
They played a 2+ hour set & afterwards they all took time out to chat with the audience - very humble, nice guys.

They're currently half way through UK tour, worth catching IMO.

Edited by nick
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[quote name='Pete Academy' timestamp='1319391070' post='1413544']Am I missing something here, Clarky? :)

That first track you posted sounds a mess. I can't pick out the bass part, Doesn't sound very 'melodic' to me.[/quote]
I wonder if the link has changed? That is much shorter than the version on the album and the sound quality is pants

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[quote name='Pete Academy' timestamp='1319391168' post='1413547']
Saying that, my fondest memory of Hawkwind was the naked dancer with the big norks.
[/quote]

Ah, that would be the ample charms of Stacia then!

+1 for Space Ritual. Love the way that Lemmy's bass absolutely pounds things along, and proves that he really could play bass. There have been a few occasional Motorhead moments for his bass playing in recent years......"Joy Of Labour" springs to mind.

Recommended early Lem listening would have to be Sam Gopal's "Escalator". OK, he is on guitar, and singing, but I love that album. The bass absolutely pounds the tracks along, and really love Lem's singing on them, a time before his voice got seriously gravelled.

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[quote name='the_skezz' timestamp='1274693821' post='846318']
I much prefer Lemmy's Hawkwind days in terms of his bass playing, in Motorhead he plays it too much like a guitar IMO (still a cracking band though).
[/quote]
Describe Lemmy as a bassist in his presence & he'll soon put you right. He's "[i]a rythym guitarist who just happens to play it on a bass[/i] [i]because he likes the noise it makes"[/i].

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[quote name='BassJase' timestamp='1274611128' post='845612']
I toured and played with Hawkwind in 2007 and their all great guys, Mr Dibs is an absolute gent and a really good bloke to have a beer with.

If you go to the Hawkwind website and watch the Hawkfest 2007 video you'll see my fugly mug bouncing around on stage with them whilst trying to play bass after a very heavy weekend.... ('nuff said really.)
[/quote]
Cool! You'll know Jez Richards then, I was at school with him and he was a source of my inspiration to play guitar. We were in sixth form art A Level together. I met him (for the first time since school three years ago) when he played in London, on bass with Nik.

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[quote name='retroman' timestamp='1319391923' post='1413561']

Ah, that would be the ample charms of Stacia then!

+1 for Space Ritual. Love the way that Lemmy's bass absolutely pounds things along, and proves that he really could play bass. There have been a few occasional Motorhead moments for his bass playing in recent years......"Joy Of Labour" springs to mind.

Recommended early Lem listening would have to be Sam Gopal's "Escalator". OK, he is on guitar, and singing, but I love that album. The bass absolutely pounds the tracks along, and really love Lem's singing on them, a time before his voice got seriously gravelled.
[/quote]

That's her!

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[quote name='Stu-khag' timestamp='1274710585' post='846567']
I've never been to see Hawkwind live as people have told me not to bother as they aren't sounding too great live and rely too much on sequencers live. People's views on them differ so much that I don't want to take the risk and be disappointed.
[/quote]

For a band spanning that many years, with differing line ups and states of mind at any given time, im sure live performances have differed greatly, I must have got a good one (20 years ago), it was a really impressive experience

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[quote name='Earbrass' timestamp='1276101457' post='862392']

Funnily enough I dug out my old vinyl copy of this the other day to play 'Ejection' to the rest of my band - one of our new tunes has a similar kind of feel.

Hawkwind were the first band I ever went to see play live - Harlow Town Park, summer 1974. I fear they were already past their best - would have loved to have seen them on the Space Ritual tour (as my elder brother did!).[/quote]

On a slight tangent, first live show I ever saw was at Harlow town park. 1986 (or 87?) The Damned. Bit of a charity fund raiser thing throughout the day, got to throw a flour bomb at "comedian" Mike Reid who was trying to do a turn and introduce the headliners. Some guy with a green Mohawk had been wandering around giving them out, wasn't going to argue with him was I?

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[quote name='Pete Academy' timestamp='1319391168' post='1413547']
Saying that, my fondest memory of Hawkwind was the naked dancer with the big norks.
[/quote]
By far their greatest contribution to the music world!

Edited by peteb
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[quote name='peteb' timestamp='1319494521' post='1414990']
By far their greatest contribution to the music world!
[/quote]

I never understand why on this forum, some folk just wade into threads, appreciating one musical genre or another, a band etc.... and slag it off.

Just out of interest, would be interested to hear what was your own greatest contribution to the world of music? :)

Edited by nick
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My own contribution to music is relatively modest - I've played in a few decent bands who never set the world on fire and I've played with some very good players, a few of whom have also played with guys you may have actually heard of!

A lot of my mates at school were into Hawkwind so I heard a fair bit of them, was even dragged to see them live, and I always thought that they were fu@/in awful! However I have no problem if someone else likes them

You ought to learn to recognise a jocular remark when you see one!

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PS. on another note - someone said that Huw Lloyd-Langton isn't well - does anyone know what is wrong with him? I'm mates with his cousin (another good guitar player btw) and Huw seemed a nice guy when I met him....

Edited by peteb
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