1986 was a year in which I crammed in more gigs than any other year, and they were all centred around Hawkwind and Huw Lloyd-Langton, who dominated my musical affections on a level even higher than before. Whilst my own musical activities consisted of gigging with Stoney Road, and I also started doing quite a bit of busking with Dave and Jim.
There were not many Hawkwind gigs until the ‘Chaos’ tour began in November, but fortunately the Lloyd-Langton Group were on hand to fill the gap, and Dewi and I went to see them in Nottingham, York, Bradford, and Leeds.
The high point for me was taking my guitar along to the gig at Leeds “Adam and Eve’s” club, and having a jam with the band during the soundcheck; playing Talk To You, and Got Your Number. Huw as always, was tremendously encouraging, supportive and complimentary. Also, another huge bonus for LLG fans that year was the Radio 1 live session, broadcast on April 25th. For me, this is my favourite recording of the Lloyd-Langton Group, even over and above the albums.
Meanwhile, I also went to see Robert Calvert perform a gig with the Maximum Effect, at the Princess Charlotte pub in Leicester, where I was lucky enough to meet the man himself, and have a talk with him for a short while. I already had his classic solo album; Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters, and had bought his 1985 album: Freq, the year before. This year I bought his latest release: Test Tube Conceived.
On the Hawkwind front, there was double LP compilation called ‘The Collection’, and the release of two more volumes from the ‘Anthology’ series. The year also saw the release of a double live LP from the previous year’s Chronicle of the Black Sword tour, part of which was also released on video. For me, Live Chronicles is possibly the best album release of the decade, and my favourite Hawkwind live album ever. It included some big favourites like Song of Swords, Moonglum, Sea King, Master of the Universe, and Magnu.
On August 24th, Hawkwind headlined the Reading Festival, which was broadcast on the Friday Rock Show. Like the previous year’s Radio 1 session; I recorded it onto cassette and it became a great favourite.
In November, Hawkwind embarked on their Chaos tour, which saw myself and Dewi embark on another mini-tour of our own, going to five Hawkwind gigs, including their show at the Hammersmith Odeon, on which occasion we were kindly given a roof for the night with LLG bass player; Kenny Wilson. Huw had seen to it that we were put on the guest list for the tour, and we were fortunate enough to meet the various members of Hawkwind on these occasions.
On the band front, I made good progress as lead guitarist with Stoney Road playing a mix of classic rock covers, which included some Hawkwind songs like Master of the Universe and Brainstorm, and Huw Lloyd-Langton’s Got Your Number. I also continued my with my own song writing, which I contributed to the band. We played several gigs at the aforementioned ‘Malthouse’ pub in Mansfield, as well as other gigs around the local area. There was so much going on that we never found time to record anything with Stoney Road. We were concentrating on gigging and simply having good times. I’d also developed a good rapport with Jim and Dave, and had started to go busking with them with my Les Paul guitar; complete with rock guitar solos through a battery powered amp; all of which contributed to my continued learning and experience as a guitarist.
A great friendship with bass player Jim Ward developed through all this, and we often get together and jam around various ideas. All of this was great for learning to be a listening and intuitive musician, and for learning the skills of improvisation.
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