© Kevin Julie 1999

HAWKWIND

Interview

St. Catharines, Ontario - April 1995

This interview was conducted prior to HAWKWIND's show at "The Hideaway" in St. Catharines, Ontario on April 5, '95. The band was in town to kick off their North American tour, and prior to the show Ray Point and I had the opportunity to speak with Dave Brock and company. The band were somewhat tired and goofy from their flight and busy days, and thus much of the questions were passed over or replied to with jokes and giggling commentary from the band. Present with Brock were drummer Richard Chadwick, and (then new) singer Ron [Bastard] Tree.

Q (RP): Most memorable concert over the years?

DB: Impossible to even think about at the moment! ...Ask me another question.

RP: Are you amazed at the underground fan-base that has sort of exemplified the Hawkwind theology over the years?

DB: Well - No, because there's always got to be a revolution in which things are built up and torn down. So consequently there's got to be grassroots things happening, change all the time.

RP: What lurks on the horizon with Hawkwind, or are you starting to power down a bit?

DB: (jokes....) Continuous change!

RP: After all the LPs, CDs, previously unreleased material, what are going to do next?

DB: (more jokes...) I've got loads of Bob Calvert stuff to do - which has never been heard or released. So we're gonna go home and work on that. And we're gonna make new songs. There's a Free Festival album of all the festivals that we've played over the years - which is quite a few. That we're going to probably release at some point with a book and loads of photographs, and things that used to happen at the festivals. That's quite a big project, with a large book, and hopefully a lot of photographs!

RP: Do you have a message for your fans?

DB: Whatever you want to do, don't be put off or antagonized by those (laughs) adverse forces - because really at the end of the day it's you that counts -- people that count! .......Carry On, everybody carry on! (laughs, jokes..)

KJ: Ron, where did the guys find you? And what did you do before this year?

RT: In the gutter! We met at festivals. I've just been playing in lots of different bands, and doing a few support gigs. I just wrote to Dave to see if he needed a singer and he gave me a go, and so far it's been going all right.

KJ: Dave, are you into reading a lot of Sci-fi ?

DB: Yeah. But at the moment I'm not really into the sci-fi thing. I'm reading a book about the conquest of America as seen by Native Americans. A totally different concept of a lot of Mians and Aztec writings. A totally different attitude of like how they saw the conquering of Spain. It's a very interesting book called "The Lost Continent".

KJ: Does all this stuff play into the lyrics eventually?

DB: I don't know. I was reading a couple of sci-fi books just recently. I've got a book about Hawaii. So far we've been here one day and I've already bought 2 books, so by the time I go back I'll have loads (ha ha).

KJ: Tell us about the 2 most current releases.

RC: "White Zone" is a sort of sideline project of music we felt wasn't suitable for a Hawkwind LP per-se, so we put it out under our pseudonym "Psychedelic Warriors". The idea has been called sort of an alibi album, but it's not, it's just a collection of our music that was good to come out in that kind of format.

KJ: So none of this will play into the live show!?

RC: Yeah - absolutely! We're also playing songs that we haven't even recorded yet, which are projected for the new album.

KJ: You guys are also playing some stuff you haven't played in years!?

RC: We'll be playing a mixture of old songs that haven't been played in years, and totally new things.

KJ: Where's this tour take you?

DB: (more jokes, laughs). ..Outer space!? (more laughs).

Copyright Kevin J. Julie

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