1982 was a very important year in my personal musical development. Whilst the first half of the year saw the continuation of Motorhead as my favourite band, and White Heat being the band that I was playing in as player; the second half of the year saw the rise of Hawkwind, who would replace Motorhead as my ultimate band for the next 7 years, and I would leave White Heat to co-form a new band where I would have much greater artistic control, and write the first of my own songs.
There’s no doubt that my musical icon and role-model at this time, was Lemmy. His influence via Motorhead was already fully established, and this was reinforced by my attendance at two Motorhead gigs, after a year of not seeing them live due them touring the USA and Europe for the bulk of 1981. I first saw them in April on the Iron Fist tour at Leicester De Montfort Hall on April 7th. Whilst it has to be said that the Iron Fist album was a little bit disappointing compared to Ace of Spades and No Sleep ’til Hammersmith; the gig itself was absolutely fantastic, despite the imminent departure of ‘Fast Eddie’, bringing an end to the ‘Classic’ Motorhead era.
However, at this stage my fervour for Motorhead was far from over, and I went to see them again at the Wrexham Rock Festival on Saturday July 24th. Eddie Clarke had been replaced by ex-Thin Lizzy guitarist Brian Robertson; who seemed and odd choice given Thin Lizzy’s completely different brand of melodic rock; but ‘Robbo’ seemed to cope pretty well. Lemmy was on top form as ever, and the band mustered a great performance which kept my Motorhead passion burning bright.
In less than one month’s time I would see Hawkwind live for the first time, and in the meantime I was still continuing to explore Lemmy’s musical output with Hawkwind. Up to this point I had bought the last two remaining Hawkwind albums featuring Lemmy that I did not already have. Early in the year came Doremi Fasol Latido; Lemmy’s first album with Hawkwind. This powerhouse album became a firm favourite; and gave me more opportunity to study Lemmy’s quite unique approach to playing bass.
His role as bass player of Hawkwind became the major influential force in my own bass playing during 1982, and by the summer of 1982 my playing had become a sort of hybrid of the his respective sound and style of both Motorhead and Hawkwind, with a more of leaning towards the latter by the end of the year. In terms of developing my bass style, I was largely focussed on this album and Space Ritual for a couple of months, before getting the final Hawkwind with Lemmy around the time of my birthday in March.
Warrior on the Edge of Time was a significant album in other ways too. From the point of view of a Lemmy/bass led album, it was considerably less so than Doremi or Space Ritual. It was closer to Hall of the Mountain Grill in the sense of having a broader palette, but for me; Warrior was much more effective than Mountain Grill. I was very impressed with the keyboard led material; which its soaring mellotron, and huge soundscape that had such big impact. Tracks like Assault and Battery/The Golden Void, Magnu, and The Demented Man all became big Hawkwind favourites very quickly. Although I was on the verge of a big Motorhead phase with the Iron Fist tour and Wrexham festival; Hawkwind were about to hit me in a big way when I finally discovered the contemporary version of the band; after which I started focussing on their most recent albums. In the meantime; what other albums I did buy included filling in a few more gaps in my ‘Classic’ Sabbath collection, including their first live album; Live at Last. Also that year, Led Zeppelin released an album of unused tracks called; Coda. It seemed quite fitting, as by the end of 1982, Led Zeppelin had largely been subsumed by my interest in Motorhead and Hawkwind.
Meanwhile on the band front; back in the early part of the year, White Heat was still very much the band I enjoyed playing in, and my bass playing had taken a slightly more important role via two cover versions which we had adopted. The first of these was a song done by Janis Joplin called Move Over, which had been recreated by Slade in the early ’70s. Slade’s version was a heavier rock version which was a very bass guitar led arrangement. Andy and Gerry introduced the song, which was new to me, and asked if I fancied tackling it the way Slade did it, with the bass very much taking the lead, over and above the guitar itself. I was up for the challenge and went away to learn it, and pleased with the results, it was successfully introduced into the set.
For my own part, The Lemmy influence had led me to introduce the prospect of doing a cover version of ‘Overkill’ into the band. Gerry was fully supportive of us doing it as a trio, with me taking the lead vocal and singing it ‘Lemmy style’. This was something new for me. Previously, I had only ever sung backing, harmony vocals in White Heat, and this was the first time I’d ever taken the spotlight as ‘frontman’. It was also a slight departure from White Heat’s overall style, which was a little more mid 70’s heavy rock in its overall style. Although the song Overkill was already almost three years old, Motorhead’s more ‘punky’ influence added an extra dimension to the set, and Andy set about learning the guitar part, whilst Gilly had to replicate the double bass drum using a low floor tom, and I muddled through some of the more undecipherable words.
Overkill was first performed at a gig at High Oakham School Hall in February 1982, and also pictured here being performed at our second visit to the Mason’s Arms in May.
This beginning of an establishment of my own musical identity, albeit via an identification with Lemmy, would soon bring about the end of White Heat. I had grown to like the guys a lot, and we had tremendous fun, but ultimately there was a divergence in styles and a musical mind-set on my part that took me in a very specific direction. I had been listening a lot more to Lemmy’s period of time in Hawkwind, and I liked the very bass orientated music that he helped to shape with Hawkwind at that time.
I decided to leave White Heat that May after a gig at the Newark Palace Theatre. Although I felt full of the drive to do something new, in which I would take more of an artistic lead, It was a decision not without some personal sadness. Andy and I in particular had become a good friends, and I was touched when he told me how he’d grown to respect me over the last year or so, and that I’d developed into a great bass player. But we stayed friends, and musically our paths would cross again in the near future. But it was time to say goodbye to White Heat.
Gradually, between 1979 and 1982, pub culture had grown to be the main aspect of my social life. The Masons rock scene continued be the main source of meeting new people, but things had also broadened out by being invited to parties, which in turn led to meeting more people. The drug connections of the rock lifestyle were greatly personified by bands like Hawkwind, and I’d been introduced to cannabis in a small way at some of the parties I went to. It seemed to go hand-in-hand with that particular cross-section of the rock scene. Hawkwind, who labelled themselves: ‘Space-Rock’, had a less mainstream and more underground standing that seemed to have forged a fandom that mirrored that position. It seemed that being a Hawkwind fan and being a pot-smoker was rarely mutually exclusive in Mansfield, and as my interest in Hawkwind drew me towards meeting other fans, it drew me towards the cannabis scene.
My personal image was that of a fully fledged rocker. It was long hair, leather jacket and bullet belt. And by the end of the year, I had adorned my arms with tattoos celebrating my love of Motorhead, Hawkwind, and Led Zeppelin. Particularly Motorhead at the time.
That summer I’d met a local busker who was a Hawkwind fan, and through him I learned of another big Hawkwind fan, Dewi Taylor, who was a guitarist in the midst of forming a ‘Space-Rock’ styled band, and he was on the lookout for a bass player to complete this band. An introduction was facilitated, and a jam followed which yielded positive potential….
As previously mentioned, Lemmy’s bass playing; particularly during his time in Hawkwind had gradually become the biggest influence on my own playing over the last year. Learning the bass-lines to such tracks as Lord of Light and Orgone Accumulator was a very exciting goal to achieve. But even more-so was the gaining of an understanding of how use these ideas in my own way, and how to adapt and change and build on them; So that rather than merely replicating basslines, It was ultimately about learning to use musical information in a more spontaneous way.
This was an idea that I’d originally grasped through listening to Led Zeppelin; who, on songs like ‘Dazed and Confused’ for instance, would improvise and jam on different sections, to the point where every version that I heard would never sound quite the same. Hawkwind reinforced this idea; Even more-so by virtue of their different line-up changes. So for example, the way Dave Anderson played the bass-line on the original version of Master of the Universe, would be very different to the way Lemmy played the bass-line on Space Ritual live version. This reinforced the idea of being able interpret even the bass-line of a song in different ways; and thus opening the door to the idea that I could mix and match and build on ideas, and put a little bit of my own slant on things, whilst remaining in-keeping with the necessary working style.
There is perhaps one track I discovered in 1982, which best symbolises where my musical consciousness was at this time. And there perhaps couldn’t a better track that encapsulates the point at which Motorhead meets Hawkwind from the point of view of Lemmy’s bass playing; And that is the original version of Lemmy’s song entitled Motorhead. Not played by the band Motorhead themselves; but the original recording recorded by Hawkwind in 1975, with Lemmy on bass. This re-mix with a strong vocal by Hawkwind’s Dave Brock seemed to embody the very essence of the kind of music that I wanted to make.
In the midst of everything, On August 21st 1982, I saw Hawkwind live for the first time, at the Donnington ‘Monster’s of Rock’ Festival. Finally seeing this enigmatic band who had been moving slowly but surely, from the peripheral to the centre of my musical consciousness since first hearing them on the Friday Rock Show in 1979, was a tremendously thrilling experience. Whilst there I met up with my new musical partner Dewi Taylor, with whom I was on the cusp of forming a new a new ‘Space-Rock’ oriented band. And there was a taste of future things to come, when we both briefly met someone who, although I didn’t know it yet, was to become the biggest personal influence and musical hero of my years playing rock music; Hawkwind guitarist: Huw Lloyd-Langton.
Whilst it may not have been the perfect setting for a Hawkwind gig, I loved it and was instantly converted to this current version of the band. Largely because of Huw Lloyd-Langton’s compelling guitar work, and because of the ‘Captain’, Dave Brock himself. As soon as I received my next pay packet, I went out and bought the two most recent Hawkwind albums I could find; in the shape of Sonic Attack and Church of Hawkwind. I liked both albums, but I particularly favoured Sonic Attack with its brilliant mix of sequencers, synthesizers, great vocals from Dave Brock, and of course the guitar work of Huw Lloyd-Langton.
Within the next month, I’d also bought Live ’79 and Levitation. And whilst both were great albums; this time it was the sound of Hawkwind live that appealed to me more.
Meanwhile, back on the band front; When Dewi and I got together later for a meeting and a jam, with Dewi on rhythm guitar, Glen Annable on drums and Simon ‘Ched’ Tilston on lead guitar, there was no clear idea of exactly what we were going to do or play, beyond the fact that we were all great enthusiasts of Hawkwind. It was a ‘see what comes of it’ type situation. We simply jammed through a lot of Hawkwind songs. It was very loose, but very enjoyable, and we resolved to get together and do it again on a more regular basis. At that time, we were playing in a small 8 track recording studio called ‘Everbimes’, which hired out their room and equipment for rehearsal purposes when the studio wasn’t in use.
Along the way, It became clear that I was the most experienced musician of the four of us. I’d been playing for over 2 years; almost 18 months of which had been in a gigging band. To be fair, Dewi and Glen were fine in their respective roles on rhythm guitar and drums, but it has to be said that ‘Ched’ stood out as the weak link.
However, we stuck together for a while out of newly forged friendships and to give Ched time to practice. Meanwhile, the problem of a singer had to be addressed. As we’d found no-one suitable, we’d all had a go, and it was decided that I had the best singing voice of the four of us, so I took it onboard even though I was pretty rough at singing back then, having never really planned to be a singer at all! Luckily, we all recognised that that one of Hawkwind’s strengths was in the harmony vocal department, and Dewi, who also had a reasonably good voice took on that secondary role, supporting me with harmony vocals where it was required. To emphasise the ‘Space-Rock’ connection, Dewi came up with the name: Dancing Shiva, which we felt reflected our musical and ‘underground’ leanings.
In the meantime, practising at ‘Everbimes’, we had the opportunity to record a demo tape very cheaply. So although we weren’t at the gigging stage yet; In those days, the chance to record didn’t come around all that often, so we did it for the fun and the learning experience.
We recorded four songs. Three of which were Hawkwind cover versions; Master of the Universe, Motorway City, and a version of Motorhead, based on the Dave Brock re-mix version mentioned above. The fourth song was something of mine which was my first attempt at writing a song of my own, called Visions of You. I was quite proud of this little song at the time. It was another mini-milestone for me. But looking back; although far from perfect for the reasons described; the version of Motorhead was probably the best one on the tape.
Whilst all this was going on, Dewi and I gradually formed a strong friendship. He was the first of my musical collaborators who became one of my best friends. A friendship which far out-lasted our musical collaborations. But in the latter part of the year, Dancing Shiva would be forged from our mutual love of all things Hawkwind; albeit coming from different angles, as the Motorhead influence would remain strong for me over the next year or so.
Seeing Hawkwind live had brought my fascination with them into the present day, and on the record collecting front, Dewi also introduced me to a few gaps in my collection, all of which I soon bought for myself.
In October came the chance to see Hawkwind again, on the Choose Your Masques tour. I bought the album on October 15th, and went to see them live at Sheffield City Hall on the 25th. Both Dewi and I were there of course, and this second live experience, with the added bonus of the famed Hawkwind light show, had even more impact than the Donnington gig.
Choose your Masques would prove to be a landmark album for me personally, Because of a particular track called Arrival In Utopia. It was the guitar solo by Huw Lloyd-Langton that left its mark…. There was something about Huw Lloyd-Langton’s uniquely soaring style that really hit me on this track most especially;
And it planted a little seed that would take another two years before it really began to flower….
I wanted to play lead guitar….
But as 1983 beckoned, I wasn’t finished with the bass quite just yet….
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