Text of Festival: Hawkwind Live, 1970 (Live 70-72) [Candlelight]

Performer: Hawkwind
Distributor: EMI Music Distribution

Notes: Recording information: 1970-1972. Get a front-row seat for the genesis of space rock with these live recordings from the early '70s. Hawkwind is captured here at their earliest, arguably most psychedelic stage, performing material from their first two albums. Though the slightly later album SPACE RITUAL is regarded as the definitive live Hawkwind album, all the electronic swoops and squiggles, extended stoner jams, and heavily processed guitars that are the band's hallmarks are already here in full force. When this album first appeared in 1983, there was indeed rejoicing in the streets -- an apparently bona fide Hawkwind live album that not only predated the decade-old Space Ritual set, it also delivered a clutch of previously unrecorded songs. The closing salvo of "I Do It" (aka "We Do It"), "Come Home," and 20 minutes of improvisation around a theme of "Shouldn't Do That" represented uncharted territory for even arch collectors. It really was a treat. Since that time, of course, the original double album has been revealed as merely the first shot in a barrage of reissues and repackagings that continues to this day, with the most pernicious being the crop of albums ignited by a 1985 reissue of this same set, In the Beginning, that sliced away the improv and made a few minor cuts elsewhere -- and then palmed itself off as an entirely different recording. The fact that there are now box sets that include both the full and edited shows, still in the guise of different albums, only adds to the collector's frustration. Or else it makes him/her laugh. The music itself, of course, is unimpeachable, with much of it capturing the band in considerably more disciplined form than one would ever expect from a period live recording. And it turns out there's a good reason for that. While a good half of the album (from "Paranoia" on) does indeed seem to be live, possibly at the Cambridge Corn Exchange in 1971, the remainder was taken from two BBC studio sessions recorded during August 1970 ("Hurry on a Sundown") and May 1971 (a turbulent "Master of the Universe" and a mesmerizing medley of "You Know You're Only Dreaming" and "Shouldn't Do That"). The sound quality is somewhat less than one normally expects from BBC recordings, suggesting they might even have been taped straight off air. Presumably, too, the lack of any firm information as to the recording's source can be put down either to ignorance or the hope that the BBC itself would not notice the unlicensed use of the material -- and so many similarly vague reissues later, it would appear that they didn't. Such caveats notwithstanding, however, Text of Festival represents a genuinely vital chunk of Hawkwind history. It's just a shame that future re-releases (and re-re-re-leases) would do so much to demean it. [Candlelight reissued the CD in 2009.] ~ Dave Thompson

Inspired equally by the hippie lifestyle/marathon jamming of the '60s West Coast bands and the interstellar excursions of Pink Floyd, Hawkwind helped invent "space rock" as we know it today. Through countless albums and personnel shifts, they've continued to combine heavy rock with science fiction in a futuristic setting, inspiring a generation of bands and several international space-rock festivals.

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