HAWKBOLLOCKS

Our gig the other day was a bit crap because we were all coming down with flu and the set up was such that we couldn't really hear each other. One of the promoters said we were operating a "high risk strategy" improvising live on the spot. It started like a good idea back in the days of Camberwell basements. We'd all build up mad waves to crescendos and smash them to a halt over and over followed by one of us saying

"OK. So we'll play that one then."

Every one a winner.

The first Tottenham gig worked well too, maybe because we were following some great and varied bands. I still haven't heard the recordings yet but we had lots of spontaneous reactions including random people getting up on stage and shouting etc.

Still a bit ill I got to see Hawkwind the other night at their regular London solstice (ish) bash. Maybe they had the excuse of being a bit flu-ridden too but they weren't very good. All the what people from my way used to call "greebo" biker rock with none of the psychedelia. All the "classic Hawkwind swirlings" were handled by a long haired guy with a Theromin. Now I like theromin but by the fifth or sixth time this guy made kettle boiling noises I really wanted him to stick it up his fucking arse.

The dancers were great, but their costumes were terrible. Maybe the original Hawkwind should stop all their childish feuding and reform. Don't know. Don't really give a fuck. Even the die hard old Hawkwind fan I went with hated it. Don't know what I was expecting having seen what Psychedelia moved onto circa 1994-5 with Juno Reactor et al, and that sounds dated now.