On October 6th 25 Years On was released on Charisma, the 40+ date tour kicking off on the same day at Oxford’s New Theatre (5). (The name Hawklords may have been a reference to the Micheal Butterworth (and Michael Moorcock) 1976 book The Time of the Hawklords, a sci-fi/fantasy novel featuring various members of Hawkwind.) The whole shake-up has been a great challenge, and I’ve been working with more enthusiasm than I’ve felt for years” (Crawley 1978: n.pag.). I’ve got no regrets about people like Simon House leaving to join Bowie. We waited politely for people to leave the band, others were sacked, and we found the replacements we wanted and now everybody is agreed on what we’re doing. You can always coast along making enough money to get by, but that’s not our style. Interviewed in October ‘78 Brock commented “It was time for a rethink. Simon House also plays on several tracks ( Banks 2020: 301-302). The band started recording in July with Simon King from Hawkwind initially involved until the new more hierarchical relations within the band became apparent, he left and was replaced by Griffin. In the summer of ‘78 Brock decided to form a new band with Calvert, under the name of Hawklords, recruiting Bainbridge and Griffin from Ark/Sonic Assassins and Steve Swindells on keyboards. (Later released as the excellent P.X.R.5.) The recordings for the follow up to QS&C, made in January ‘78, were put on hold ( Banks 2020: 300-301). ) Hawkwind set off on an American tour in March ‘78, the tour was difficult, Simon House was leaving to join Bowie and there were tensions between the different members of the band, soon after the tour (the QS&C incarnation of) Hawkwind was disbanded ( Abrahams 2004: 121-125.).
(The gig was recorded, tracks appearing on Weird Tape 1. The band’s first gig was Christmas Eve 1977 (Abrahams 2004: 119-120). In 1977 Hawkwind released Quark, Strangeness and Charm, at the same time, as a side project, Dave Brock started up Sonic Assassins with Calvert and Ark members Harvey Bainbridge (bass), Martin Griffin (drums) and Paul Hayles (keyboards). 1978 also saw the release of Grease and its soundtrack (4).ĭescribed by Robert Calvert as “almost a worker’s cooperative for a while” by 1978 Hawkwind had morphed into Hawklords and was based around core members Dave Brock and Robert Calvert as leaders with a “back up team” of musicians recruited mainly from Devon band, Ark (Calvert 1978: n.pag.). In the ‘rock’ genre there was the release of Live and Dangerous by Thin Lizzy, Powerage and a live album by AC/DC, two new albums by Judas Priest and Van Halen’s first album. In a fascinating essay called Do not panic: Hawkwind, the Cold War and “the imagination of disaster”, Erin Ihde examines how ‘Hawkwind’s activities and output…can clearly be placed within the framework of both countercultural social history and Cold War political history’, looking at their choice of benefit gigs and festivals, lyrics and visual material (Inde 2014: n.pag.).ġ978 saw the release of Kate Bush’s The Kick Inside, Real Life by Magazine, Darkness on the Edge of Town by Springsteen, The Man Machine by Kraftwerk and PIL’s first album. Running alongside these domestic issues was the Cold War and the background threat of nuclear annihilation. Under Thatcher unemployment rose to 3m (over 11%) in the mid 80s (3).
#ECHOES OF A COLD WAR EVIDENCE FREE#
The UK was months away from the beginning of Thatcher’s rule and the imposition of neoliberalism, which saw the deliberate dismantling of organised labour as a political force, privatisation, deregulation, shrinking of the welfare state, subcontracting ot state activities and a belief in the free market as the most efficient processor of information (Spencer 2016: 2). There was widespread industrial unrest which culminated in the ‘Winter of Discontent’ between November ‘78 and February ‘79 caused in part by strikes against ‘unfair wage restrictions’ (2). Unemployment was high (1.5m), compared to previous post WWII figures, running at about 5.5% following a recession between ‘73 and ‘75, industrial shrinkage and advances in technology (1). The end of the 1970s and beginning of the 80s was a turbulent time in the UK, in 1978 inflation was running at over 8% (down from 15% in ‘77).
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