Mojo - The Music Magazine

Pink Floyd Issue

New issue

Click For CONTENTS

Features Disc of the day

Hawkwind
Levitation

(Bronze, 1980)

Dave Brock and co enter the digital age...

Hawkwind

A decade into their career and Hawkwind had already survived both prog and punk. Now they saw their audience buoyed by New Wave Of British Heavy Metal fans who'd discovered the group through the success of their former bass player Lemmy, now leading Motörhead and lionised by the new metal hordes. Hence, Hawkwind once again found themselves regarded as the forerunners of a scene they had nothing or very little to do with. Nevertheless, their renewed appeal led to a triumphant winter tour in 1979 - captured on the invigorating Live Seventy Nine set, released on the Bronze label. The latter proved that the band could survive the departure of troubled frontman Robert Calvert and that their new line-up - which now featured ex-Gong man Tim Blake on synths as well as guitarist Huw Lloyd-Langton and bassist Harvey Bainbridge alongside leader Dave Brock - appeared set to usher in the third phase in the band's tumultuous career.

Replacing drummer Simon King with the legendary Cream drummer, Ginger Baker, the re-energised five-piece laid down nine tracks during the summer of 1980 at London's Roundhouse Studios. Some of the tracks - such as Motorway City - harked back to the band's controversial recent past as Hawklords (a name change enforced by contractual wrangles and general dissatisfaction), but while the band's previous studio release, PXR5, had been little more than a jumble of random material, Levitation itself offered a fresh, re-focused vision of where Hawkwind were heading.

The opening title track crackles with intent and energy, fuelled by Brock's trademarked cyber-riffs and Lloyd-Langton's clear, stinging lead work, the latter being a feature throughout this nine-track affair. While the album boasted a newly refined sound (recorded, as it was, using then-groundbreaking digital techonology), thematically it nodded to the band's past (The 5Th Second Of Forever alluded to Calvert's 1972 poem, Tenth Second Of Forever) while Hawkwind's continued sci-fi influence manifested itself on the closing track on Side One, World Of Tiers - inspired by US author Philip José Farmer's series of novels.

Released in October 1980, Levitation crashed into the UK Top 30, and confirmed Hawkwind's enduring appeal. Latterly, the album has been reissued by the good people at Esoteric records via the Hawk-specific Atomhenge subsidiary. Their expanded three CD set (limited to 3000 copies) also features additional demos from the pre-Levitation Hawklords-era (the gargleblasting Valium 10 being particularly fine), as well as an entire live show recorded at Lewisham Odeon on December 18, 1980, and featuring a guest appearance by author/acolyte Michael Moorcock. Writing as someone who, as an impressionable teen, attended the same said show, it is easy to be overcome by the Proustian rush of it all. Three decades after Levitation's release, however, it is hard not to believe that Hawkwind's very aesthetic presented fans and listeners with a design for life that was truly alternative. Remarkably, they still do.

Hawkwind play the MOJO Honours List launch at HMV, 150 Oxford Street, London, tonight [May 4] from 6.30pm. Admission is free.

Phil Alexander

Posted by Ross_Bennett at 11:14 AM GMT 04/05/2010

Further Listening

Hawklords – 25 Years On (Charisma, 1978)

Tim Blake – New Jerusalem (Egg, 1978)

Hawkwind – Live Seventy Nine (Bronze, 1980)

Related MOJO content:

Hawkwind

Comments

Comment on this post


Click here for House Rules

Comment on this post

end of body content back to top

Footer

Home

News

Features

Our pals:

We Like

Join us on:

  • youtube
  • twitter
  • facebook

© Copyright Bauer - all
rights reserved.
Reproduction of this
website, in whole or in
part, in any form or
medium without express
written permission from
Bauer is prohibited. All
use is subject to our
Terms of Use

end of footer back to top

Back to top