Among the evolutionary tangents of London’s pop-music scene in the late ’60s were the original stylings of progressive rock, psychedelia, and what came to be known as “space rock.” Bands such as Pink Floyd, the Beatles, and even the Rolling Stones dabbled in “spacey” sounds – think “2000 Light Years from Home” and “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.” Hawkwind, though, carried the banner loud and proud – and still does.
In the early 1960s, guitarist Dave Brock was known around London as a busker who briefly played in a duo with Eric Clapton before forming Hawkwind in ’69. A product of its time, the band was part of the city’s trendy psychedelic scene (along with Floyd, T-Rex, Gong, and a few others), playing long jams alluding to science fiction and outer space, performed live as dynamic sensory experiences with light shows and costumed dancers.
Wishbone Ash guitarist Andy Powell recalls being part of the scene in the early ’70s, though his band had virtually nothing in common, stylistically.
“Hawkwind and other bands were inspired by the San Francisco psychedelic movement,” he said. “In the U.K., the performance-art movement started in ’67 with the Crazy World of Arthur Brown – that ‘god of hellfire’ thing where he’d set his head on fire.
“We lived behind a venue called the Roundhouse,” Powell said. “Hawkwind played there on occasion, and so did we. We also played one or two festivals with them.”
With 1972’s Doremi Fasol Latido, Hawkwind’s classic lineup was in place – Brock on guitar and vocals, songwriter/singer Robert Calvert, Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister (bass and vocals), Nik Turner (sax, flute, and vocals), Dik Mik (audio generator and electronics), Del Dettmar (synthesizer) and Simon King (drums).
For the subsequent tour, Calvert collaborated with graphic artist Colin “Barney Bubbles” Fulcher to design an audio-visual production depicting the desolate nature of space travel. Brock’s primary guitar was a modded Les Paul copy made by the British builder, Knight.
The Space Ritual Alive in Liverpool and London (a.k.a. Space Ritual) was culled from performances in Liverpool on December 22 and London eight nights later. Each was contiguous, with electronic sound effects, reverb-drenched bleeps, and behind-the-bridge guitar noodling from Brock providing innovative sonic segues.
Calvert injected several passages with dramatic spoken-word interludes and poetry recitations, accompanied by ambient noise and other effects, adding to the spacey authenticity of the performance; in the first line from the first soliloquy, he says, “I would rather the firestorms of atmospheres than this cruel descent from a thousand years of dreams into the starkness of the capsule.”
Science-fiction writer Michael Moorcock was a fan of Hawkwind, and would occasionally join them onstage; Calvert pays homage to him on Space Ritual with potent readings of “Black Corridor” and the ominous “Sonic Attack,” a broadcast of emergency instructions accompanied by a chittering synthesizer hovering in the background.
Brock’s performance on Space Ritual is one of his best, roaring through the band’s pile-driver presentation using punchy downstroke power chords that evoke a proto-punk sound. He also made liberal use of wah.
Hawkwind was the first band in which Lemmy played bass, starting with a German-made Hopf, then his first Rickenbacker. On occasion he’d use a Gibson Thunderbird, but preferred the Ricks.
“They’re very good instruments for a guitar player turned bass player,” he said of them in a 1994 interview with VG. “They’ve got very fast and skinny necks, which I like. Also, they’ve got a weird shape. I buy guitars as much for the look of ’em as for the playing.”
Lemmy’s melodic bass workout on “Lord of Light” and the quasi-boogie of “Orgone Accumulator” affirm that he didn’t stray far from his guitar stylings.
“I was used to playing chords,” said the legendary bassist, who died in 2015. “I’ve got a very good sense of timing. When I went to bass, I didn’t play ‘strict’ bass; I played a lot of open strings, a lot of chords. I do a lot of things you shouldn’t do, which is great fun.”
Space Ritual was released in May of 1973 and reached #9 in England, but barely dented the Billboard 200 in America, peaking at #179.
Lemmy was fired from Hawkwind in ’75, after being busted for drugs at the Canadian border. Though he was on five albums, he wisecracked about never becoming an official member.
“I was still auditioning when I was fired, actually,” he said. “They never told me I was in the band, and I played with Hawkwind for four and a half years!”
He then founded Motörhead and became known as the godfather of heavy metal. Today, Brock still fronts Hawkwind at age 82; for decades, he has been the sole original member, overseeing the band’s 35 studio and 13 live albums.
Hawkwind music has always been an acquired taste, but Space Ritual stands as an innovative, powerful live concept album, despite its lyrical themes. With all due respect to the title of a Be Bop Deluxe song, this ain’t no honeymoon on Mars.
This article originally appeared in VG’s February 2024 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
