Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells A Story
Rod the Mod finds his solo footing, headed for stardom, with the Faces in his wake.
6:00 AM GMT 22/06/2011
Features Disc of the day
Hawkwind
Quark, Strangeness And Charm
(Charisma, 1977)
Ladbroke Grove's favourite space truckers face down punk's challenge.
Such is the power of Hawkwind's initial recordings on the United Artists label - and by that we're talking classic long-players that include In Search Of Space, Doremi Fasol Latido and, of course, the era-defining Space Ritual live set - that there are large chunks of the band's 40-year career that have remained criminally overlooked. The non-availability on CD of their Charisma releases (1976-1979) hasn't helped. Hats off then to Mark Powell and the Esoteric record gang for restoring the band's post-UA catalogue.
Included in their year-long reissue campaign is this spectacular set, which emerged just as punk took a hold in the UK, and shared punk's iconoclastic and libertarian spirit. If fans felt that Hawkwind had faltered with 1976's unfocussed and slightly jazz-inflected Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music, the band admitted as much, stating on Quark's inside sleeve that they'd been "out of touch with the modern world". "We are back on course," they claimed, proving it by channelling punk's energy and adding a fresh electronic edge to a set of songs that found eccentric lyricist Bob Calvert in unstoppable form.
With subject matter including cloning (Spirit Of The Age) through to Einstein's unfortunate physiognomy ("Einstein was not a handsome fellow!" cackles Bob on the title track), Quark is witty, pacy and utterly modern. Back in '77 its triumph was short-lived, the band splintering within a year as Dave Brock and Calvert launched the no-frills affair that became Hawklords. But the latest double-disc edition of Quark (released via Esoteric's Hawkwind imprint, Atomhenge) confirms this to be one of the band's most enduring affairs. A Hawkwind second wave classic, no less...
Phil Alexander
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 07/07/2009
Further Listening
Hawkwind – The Spirit Of The Age Anthology 1976-1984 (Atomhenge, 2009)
Hawklords – 25 Years On (Charisma, 1978)
Hawkwind – PXR5 (Charisma, 1979)
Previous Disc of the day
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Earl Brutus - Larky
Last salvo of Ginsters Pasty-Warholism from Britpop ramraiders.
12:04 PM GMT 08/06/2011
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Loudon Wainwright - T-Shirt
An overlooked small wonder from an unpredictable career.
6:00 AM GMT 03/06/2011
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Landscape - From The Tea-rooms Of Mars… To The Hell-holes Of Uranus
Dry computer club Futurists, upon hitting implausible chart paydirt.
6:00 AM GMT 17/05/2011
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Causa Sui - Summer Sessions Vol 1-3
Epic Danish jams, for when the neighbours get you down.
6:00 AM GMT 12/05/2011
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No one captured our enduring zeitgeist better than these boys on "Hassan I Sahba."
Posted by Mr. Beer N. Hockey at 8:05 PM GMT 12/01/2011 Report Abuse
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