Robert Calvert

Robert Calvert (Bob Calvert or Capt’n Bob to Hawkwind fans) was one of the true British originals in the manner of Viv Stanshall or Brian Eno and his death in 1988 was a sad loss to both the worlds of music and poetry. This was his first solo album and probably his best since he had assembled all the elements of his art clustered around a genuinely fascinating story.
The Lockheed Starfighter was a classic case of a country’s needs exceeding its capacities as the German Luftwaffe bought a limited but successful fair-weather fighter plane and had it adapted to be an all-weather fighter bomber that flew like a brick with disastrous and very fatal results – the original ‘Widowmaker’ or ‘Flying Coffin’ – but made the Lockheed Corporation a great deal of money.

Anyone familiar with Hawkwind’s music will recognise the throbbing bass and rhythm guitars, the synths and keyboards are instantly recognisable as is the explosive drumming as most of the then-current Hawkwind play on the album but the addition of performances by Arthur Brown and Adrian Wagner (Wagner’s grandson) as well as the aforementioned Brian Eno and Viv Stanshall takes it to a different realm.
The songs are interspersed with little vignettes of stories and supposed snatches of conversation and at the time it fell into the ‘Prog’ world although it is far more revolutionary and fits very well into the ‘SpaceRock’ category that Hawkwind made their own.

A few of the tracks are stone classics – ‘Widowmaker’, ‘The Right Stuff’ and ‘The Song Of The Gremlin’ are quintessential Calvert – but the album needs to be viewed as a whole as the tracks-between-tracks tell the real story of greed and hubris.

The digital mastering is excellent and the booklet is a good read and comparing the CD to the LP suggests that they have managed to clean off a lot of the Noise Reduction mud on the original.

All round an above average album and a fine release – essential for Calvert and Hawkwind fans alike.