Hawklords @ Waterfront Studio

I saw Hawkwind twice in the early 90’s, both times being two pretty crazy nights of full on psychedelia. I’m only familiar with a small part of their huge catalogue, but it seems to me that they are a seriously underrated band who get very little credit for what was, at times, genuinely ground-breaking music. They were hippies, they were punks, they were electronic experimenters and they put on incredible live shows. One of the reasons they don’t get that deserved respect perhaps is the enormous amount of line-up changes they’ve been through, which has dissipated the impact that their classic work had. What do you do if you’re an ex member of Hawkwind? In the case of Harvey Bainbridge, Ron Tree & Jerry Richards you perform under the name Hawklords and put on the kind of live show I probably thought I’d never see again.

The Studio was buzzing with a good sized crowd; great to see as I’d feared a small turnout. At exactly 9pm the screen (well – sheet actually) flickered into life and the barrage of music and trippy visuals began, with barely a pause until it ended at exactly 11pm. Finally, that two hour show I’d been craving at some of the recent gigs I’ve been to. It really took me back to those days of seeing Hawkwind, Gong, or even some of the Megadog nights; really great stuff. The second song was Death Trap, a brilliant, propulsive Hawkwind track that is truly imbued with the punk spirit that they tapped into during their mid to late 70’s period. Any doubters were won over at this point and they kept us hooked right until the very last note. Harvey Bainbridge looks like Doc Brown, as he studiously elicited amazing sounds from his synths, whilst vocalist Ron Tree, whippet thin, kept up the freaky dancing as he sang and recited Moorcock-esque snippets of poetry; channelling the spirit of Robert Calvert at times, but never once imitating. The set was a mix of a handful of Hawkwind tracks, songs from the original Hawks 1978 album, when they were more or less Hawkwind in all but name, and songs from the four studio albums the band have released since relaunching the name in 2008. Throughout Jerry Richards guitar playing soared and he soloed like his life depended on it.