Cherry Red (label)
22 April 2022 (released)
23 March 2022
There was a scene from the late seventies until the millennium that encompassed a huge travelling community of bands and fans.
Partly musical, partly political and partly just ‘alternative’.
I would say that its roots actually go back a decade or so further, as I remember Hawkwind playing an alternative free show at the Isle Of Wight festival in ‘69 so while 250,000 paid to see Dylan and the Band, a smaller number enjoyed the mighty Hawkwind playing for free just outside the festival fences.
Those early days gave birth to a form of rock that featured long riff-laden jams, heavily involved with certain pharmaceuticals, and featuring psychedelic lighting rigs, called ’Space Rock’.
This triple CD set, curated by Hawkwind founder Dave Brock, celebrates the bands, and brings a really strong feeling for the music that was at the heart of the free festival scene.
Musically, it is wide ranging and goes from heavily riff-based works through electronica, early dub and even into House as the influences changed and the bands developed, merged, split, and jammed together.
Across the three CDs there are some absolute gems, a few ‘horrors’ (which are still worth the ride) and at least a half dozen tracks that should be in anyone’s collection.
The bands featured include Hawkwind in various guises, Dave Brock solo projects, Ozric Tentacles, Dumpy’s Rusty Nuts, Robert Calvert, Tim Blake, Hugh Lloyd-Langton, Boris & His Bolshie Ballaika, Michael Moorcock's Deep Fix – this list is extensive.
It is complicated when Dumpy’s Rusty Nuts have a track called ‘Hawkwind’, the band called Crew have a track called ‘Led Zep’, Dr Hasbeen have 'Spirit of Brock', but it all pans out one way or another.
It’s an excellent collection and anyone who was familiar with the sight of police chasing old school buses, caravans, RVs around Stonehenge or the Yorkshire Dales will probably be equally familiar with the sounds sights and smells of those remarkable days – this collection certainly brings the memories back and brought a smile to the face of a grizzled old hippie.
