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SPACE RITUAL Hawkwind
Released on May 11th 1973 on United Artists Records. Recorded at Liverpool Stadium & Brixton Sundown, December 1972 by Vic Maile. Mixed by Anton Matthews & Vic Maile at Olympic Studios, Barnes. Produced by Hawkwind.
by Mark Cunningham dominant in the music echoing around my pal Tony’s house. I was only nine – what did I know? Almost a year later, I was making one of my regular browsing visits to Harlequin Records in Upton Park when a promo poster on the wall grabbed my attention. This intricate and colourful piece of art would look perfect on my bedroom wall, I thought, as its emblazoned words ‘Space Ritual’ triggered my innocent imagination. The record shop manager seemed to think so, too. He had already supplied me with numerous flyers and huge posters in the past, and happened to have a spare. A weird obsession about an album I had not yet even heard, and wouldn’t for another year, began that day.
S
Recorded over two nights, Space Ritual Alive
ome time between Bowie’s ‘Starman’ and Sweet’s
in Liverpool and London, to give its full title, documented the
‘Ballroom Blitz’, I was briefly a Hawkwind fan,
creative peak of Hawkwind’s long, multifarious career, and
thanks to the long-haired brother of a school friend
specifically a tour intended to promote new album Doremi
who graced us with repetitive plays of his latest record shop
Fasol Latido, that ended up achieving a mythical status
purchase, ‘Silver Machine’, one summer afternoon in 1972.
amongst rock fans.
Previously unaware of the band and this, their only major
Led by mainstay guitarist and singer Dave Brock, the
hit, I was fooled into believing that someone had left the
ever-changing band – once described as “Star Trek with
kettle boiling. But no… it was a new-fangled EMS VCS3
long hair and drugs“ – then featured Nik Turner on sax, flute
synth that was creating the distinctive, high-pitched whistle so
and vocals, synth player Del Dettmar, electronic effects
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83 CLASSIC LIVE ALBUMS
wizard Michael ‘DikMik’ Davies and
Its main fantasy narrative married the
three relatively new members: freak poet
suspended animation of Starfarers as
Robert Calvert, future Motörhead icon
they travelled through space and time,
Lemmy Kilmister on bass and vocals and
with the ancient, metaphysical concept
ace drummer Simon King, who brought
of the ‘Music of the Spheres’. Are you
a harder edge to the band’s sound.
still with me, kiddies?
A nebulous audio-visual ‘opera’
As well as later designing the
created to surpass the live psychedelic
extraordinary double album package
‘freakouts’ of the mid-to-late ’60s, the
with the two discs housed inside a 3 x
Space Ritual show itself was based
2 foldout, Bubbles was responsible for
around lysergically-charged sci-fi themes
the stage presentation that toured Britain
invented by Calvert, Colin Fulcher, a.k.a.
in the November and December of ’72,
graphic art visionary Barney Bubbles,
and accommodated the trippy, naked
and introduced by Andy Dunkley, a
cavorting of Amazonian dancer Stacia
regular DJ at the Roundhouse and
Blake (above right) – Notting Hill Gate’s
Aylesbury’s hip venue, Friars.
answer to Barbarella – and
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84 CLASSIC LIVE ALBUMS
Left from top: Another on-stage scene; Jonathan ‘Liquid Len’ Smeeton; Lemmy and Dave Brock.
‘Molten Mick’ Hart, ‘Astral Al’ Alan Day and John Perrin. Pioneering in many ways, ‘Len’ and his team frontprojected 3D images on to the stage, washing over the band, while a 61-key colour organ remotely controlled a mirror ball, creating a “direct relationship between colours, light and shade, and sound,” according Calvert’s menacing poetry recitals ‘The Awakening’, ‘10 Seconds Of Forever’
to Astral Al. For a short time, Liquid Len & The
and ’Sonic Attack’, a kind of cosmic
Lensmen was the brand name behind
information broadcast, penned by sci-fi
the UK’s leading light show, thanks to
author Michael Moorcock.
Space Ritual’s exposure. The press were unanimous in their praise: Disc magazine
CREATING THE AMBIENCE
reported that “…aside from Joe’s lights’
The Space Ritual shows were not so
collaboration with the Grateful Dead, this
much concerts as an attack on the senses,
is the first time that light and sound have
not least due to the work of esteemed
fused as a whole, each a part of the
lighting designer Jonathan Smeeton (later
other.”
to work with the Stones, Wham!, Marilyn
After ‘Silver Machine’ reached No.3
Manson and Taylor Swift) who conjured
in the chart and some real money poured
an unprecedented 20-projector light show
in, Hawkwind seized the opportunity to
under the guise of Liquid Len, with the
make some wise investments in
support of fellow Lensmen John Lee, Mike
hardware, following in the tradition of
Hawkwind seized the opportunity to make some wise investments in hardware, following in the tradition of Yes and Pink Floyd. winter.2017
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85 CLASSIC LIVE ALBUMS
Right: The Pye Mobile, shortly before the Space Ritual recordings.
Yes and Pink Floyd. Simultaneously bank rolling Smeeton’s light show and the visuals, Hawkwind ploughed cash into vehicles for transporting themselves and more than a ton of equipment that included their own PA and numerous items such as a headphone comms system for the crew, all designed and built with electronics guru Perrin in Belsize
RECORDING
Park.
The main figure behind the recording of Space Ritual was
The crew, known as the Roadhawks, also included
Vic Maile, who began his career as an engineer for Pye
manager Doug Smith, Alex ‘Higgy’ Higgins, Gerry
Records’ Mobile Recording Unit in the ’60s, capturing the
Fitzgerald, sound engineer Steve Casey and PA/backline
likes of Hendrix, Zeppelin, Clapton, Fleetwood Mac, Small
tech Bob ‘Ginger’ Batty.
Faces and The Kinks for live releases.
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86 CLASSIC LIVE ALBUMS
Maile was also involved
Olympic Studios in Barnes early
in the recording of The Who’s
in 1973, preparing it for its May
monumental Live At Leeds in
release whereupon it climbed to
1970, and this fact alone was
No.9 in the UK chart. It remains
enough to inspire Hawkwind
the most commercially successful
to hire his services – and those
ralbum of Hawkwind’s 47-year
of the Pye Mobile – to record
history.
two shows at the end of the tour at Liverpool Stadium (the local
LEMMY: AN APPRAISAL
home of boxing and wrestling)
In the spring of 2009, I was
on December 22nd and the
fortunate to have a brief chat with
newly-opened Sundown venue in
Lemmy about the album that fired
Brixton on December 30th.
my pre-teen imagination all those
Pye had recently upgraded its mobile service, refitting its
years ago. “Can you think of an LP sleeve
equipment into a new, articulated
that’s seen more skinning up
vehicle that by 1972 was in
than Space Ritual? No, I didn’t
direct competition with the better-
think so!” he laughed, with his
known Rolling Stones Mobile.
unmistakeable, Marlboro-stained
The truck offered 16-track
cackle.
recording via a pair of 3M
“It’s one of those albums that
M56 multitrack machines and
can really take you on a journey.
two Neve Series 80 desks, with
I haven’t listened to it in years
Tannoy Lockwood speakers
but I know that if you have your
providing the monitoring.
headphones on loud and take
With assistance from engineer
the right kind of chemicals, you
Anton Matthews and direction
can easily start to imagine what
from Brock and Dettmar, Vic
it was like to be at one of those
Maile mixed Space Ritual at
shows, which were probably
“CAN YOU THINK OF AN LP SLEEVE THAT’S SEEN MORE SKINNING UP THAN SPACE RITUAL?” winter.2017
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87 CLASSIC LIVE ALBUMS
more psychedelic than anything that was happening in ’66 or ’67. In fact, they were some of the best gigs ever. I just wish I could’ve been in the audience.” “Dave Brock was definitely the captain of the dynamics. We’d often play for three hours sometimes – a full-on, relentless show of free-form consciousness. We didn’t even stop between numbers. I’m just glad we had the foresight to get it on an album so the madness is preserved.” –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Of that original Space Ritual cast, Bob Calvert and Andy Dunkley have now sadly died. In December 2015, they were joined by Lemmy, whose loss will be mourned around the world for years to come. Today, aged 75, Dave Brock continues to captain the good spaceship Hawkwind.