Hawklords
I’ve lived in Norwich for 28 years and have been to hundreds of gigs here, but bizarrely I have never set foot in the Brickmakers. The legendary Brickmakers you could say. So it was with an extra spring in my Sunday night step that I made my way to the venue to indulge in some full on space rock with Hawklords. Details about set times and support bands had been non-existent, so I arrived early to find there would be a 90 minute wait until Hawklords took the stage – harrumph.
Still, it gave me the chance to enjoy a couple of pints and see the band wandering about the pub, chatting with the small crowd who had gathered. Very small crowd I’m sad to report – maybe 30 people, whereas last year at the Waterfront Studio there had been four times as many people. Inexplicable really. I’m happy to say they did what any decent band would do in that position – they gave the full two hour show we had expected, and just like last year they were absolutely brilliant. With visuals projected across the width of the stage and a spot on sound mix, they took us on a ride far out into the outer reaches. Standing just a few feet away from musicians of the calibre of Hawklords is a rare treat indeed. Jerry Richards' guitar playing was faultless, Dave Pearce on drums was understated and bass player Tom Ashurst, decades younger than his bandmates, gave everything an injection of youthful energy and fire. Harvey Bainbridge has the job of providing all the keyboards and synths, which put the space into the rock. Frontman Ron Tree never stops dancing. Even in a sparsely populated pub in Norwich on a Sunday evening, he danced the freaky dance, sported luminous face paint, wore a cowl and even donned a flashing face mask with additional antennae (Space Medusa?) because why the fuck wouldn’t he? He even filled the brief gaps between songs with swirls of electronic noise from his handheld box of tricks.
The set was a brilliant mix of Hawklords originals (new song SR-71 was as good as anything played all night) Hawkwind covers – the riff monster Master Of The Universe and two personal faves Quark, Strangeness & Charm and a fantastic rendition of Spirit Of The Age. We were even treated to a couple of selections off the Robert Calvert album Captain Lockheed & The Starfighters with Right Stuff being one of the set highlights. What I still can’t accept is why there were so few people there. In April I saw Hawkwind play to an almost full LCR. Yes they have the more famous name and of course feature Dave Brock but as a show the only thing Hawklords lack is scale, due to the smaller venues they play. For half the price though, what you are getting is a Hawkwind show on a budget; two full hours of magnificently played music. I feel genuinely sad that so few people were there to witness it.
Standing in a pub with a handful of other people, in a room that was too bright, I was still transported away by music that unashamedly embraces science fiction and this is testament to what a great live band Hawklords are. They should be appearing at Liverpool Psych Fest every year, they should be opening for current psych bands like Temples and blowing minds, but they should never be playing to 30 people in a pub ever again.
