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REVIEWS
MESSAGE by Jeremy
Just out of curiousity , do they tour with anything resembling the old Hawkwind lightshow of way back in the roaring 70's ? They play a festival this summer
here in Germany at Berg Herzberg , and having been there once (Nektar ) and seen how beautiful the site is , it may be tempting.
REPLY by Steve
They are playing in my home town in a months time and i will let you know how the gig turns out, i have heard from a reliable friend that they are worth seeing.
also the members are more hawkwind than the brock version of hawkind as he is the only original member now in hawkwind but the space ritual version has about 4 original members. nik turner, del dettmar, terry ollis, dave anderson, and thomas crimble. hmm thats 5 not 4 ah yes del dettmar only turns up when he can so cant be guaranteed to be there at every gig.
REPLY by Brian Zero
Yep these guys are the real thing! Can be a bit shambolic but the vibe is wonderful. I remember seeing them at Glastonbury last year and Howard Marks introduced them as "Hawkwind". Too right.
FROM HAWKWIND YAHOO SITE
drfegg@aol.com wrote:
Right...
I prefer seeing Space Ritual live. Yes, it can be a bit all over the place, band not quite in time, Nik forgetting the words etc. but they play a fine set of old Hawkwind numbers and the atmosphere is brilliant.
I have seen Hawkwind live many times since 1979 but in my opinion went downhill in the 90s when relying on electronics to get *the sound* when a three piece. I have some bad experiences of seeing them as the Hawkwind Trio which has sullied my opinion.
I personally don't like much which has been produced by Hawkwind since Space Bandits and since tours are there to promote the new albums the live sets contain a lot of songs I don't care for except for the odd gem.
Musically I prefer the first dozen or so Hawkwind albums and then (in my opinion) lost direction recording some lame albums which weren't in the same vein which got me into Hawkwind in the first place. The abysmal Yuri Gagarin etc didn't help matters either but you can't blame Mr Brock for that!
I have trashed my copies of Space Ritual Alive, X-In Search of Space and Warriors from years of playing the vinyl (okay being ripped to the t*ts fumbling around in the near dark with your strobe going trying to change sides didn't help) and it was these albums which drew me into the seedy world of being a Hawkfan (LOL) and I guess you never forget your first love (ahhh!) and that is why I prefer seeing Mr Turner Live and listening to Mr Brock in the studio.
All the talk about favorite albums etc always goes back to the perenial favorites, I can't remember anyone saying Alien 4 or Choose Your Masques as their favorite Hawkwind of all time, I guess that says it all.
Some people dislike Nik's Space Ritual because they can't play, can't play in time etc but for a fun night out down memory lane in my opinion they can't be beaten. If you get the chance to see them do so.
Over to Paul for the case against Space Ritual...Mwwhaahaa!
Steve
GUILFEST 2005 REVIEW
Space Ritual – Uncut Stage
Dressed a little more normally this year Nick Turner and the various ex-members of Hawkwind, play a storming gig in the heat that totally blows me away. I just spend the whole set dancing like a loon, well I think I might have been trying to out dance the little girl dressed as a fairy on stage while singing along so raucously that I think I actually put Nick off ‘Master of The Universe’ at one point. Either that or I was convinced I was a dancer at the end of time. I prefer today’s incarnation of Space Ritual more laid back and less visual and really concentrating on the music - well of course there were the dancers too. Some fantastic early era Calvert-Hawkwind tunes like ‘Brainstorming’, ‘Ghost Dance’ and ‘Born To Go’ that probably are the best tunes that Hawkwind produced. Classic stuff!
Space Ritual live at Guilfest 17th July 2005
Thanks to MikRik for the review and Rob Dreamworker for the photo! As you can appreciate, for Hawkfans at the Guilfest (and there were a number dotted around), seeing Space Ritual was one of the highlights of the 3 day festie. The weather was glorious and the vibe was good. ***
Space Ritual hit the Uncut Stage at about 5:15pm accompanied by billowing dry ice and sonic rumblings. The line up – Nik Turner, Dave Anderson, Mick Slattery, Thomas Crimble, John the Ghost, Terry Ollis, Sam Ollis and probably some others too. Also, the band were joined on stage by some female dancers, the youngest of whom was Rob Dreamworker’s little daughter – Connie. The girls did a fab job. One of the dancers was a sexy looking nurse ;-) [That would be Angel!]
The band kicked off with Welcome To The Future and then went into a cracking version of Right Stuff. Things then get a bit blurry but I think they did a new number (that Thomas mentioned may be on the new album), Sonic Savages (not sausages, as I originally thought), possibly another number and then they finished with a great version of Master Of The Universe.
The band were playing together really well. Dave and Terry driving things forward. The revelation for me was the quality of Mick’s guitar playing – he was really playing some great lead and rhythm. Sam added some nice scratching here and there, too. Nik played some far-out sax stuff and John the Ghost added the spacey synth noodlings. A really good performance.
The band attracted a much larger crowd than they had done the previous year. Everyone was really into it and you could tell the band were chuffed with the reaction. It was good to see them get some recognition from a large crowd. Real shame they couldn’t have been allowed a bit more time to do one more song – the audience certainly wanted that. Nik said they were doing various up-and-coming gigs including the Wickerman festie (22nd & 23rd July 2005).
Go check ‘em out – you won’t be disappointed
Well, it’s not from the Guilfest performance, but here’s a dramatically opposed take on the merits or otherwise of Space Ritual from Keith Henderson (posted to the BOC-L/Hawkwind email list and reprinted here by permission), who saw them at Burg Herzberg 2005:
“Space Ritual I think are really terrible, sorry to say. I hadn't really thought about it much beforehand, but it just makes absolutely no damn sense whatsoever to have assembled this crazy band. Yeah, OK, it has five people who were (nearly) original members of the band, but then why is the band called Space Ritual, and why do they play Space Ritual-era songs (almost exclusively) when none (apart from Nik himself) were ever actually *in* the band in 1972-73? Unlike before, when Nik occasionally threw together a bunch of guys to play behind him without much rehearsal (if any), such that it was kind of a mess (but at least it was some kind of 'celebration' of Hawkwind music...that is to say, as classic Space Rock), this band actually could play reasonably well, with only an occasional clusterf*ck. So the problem wasn't the *ability* of the band members to play, just that none of them (save perhaps Terry Ollis) know a damn thing about how to 'blanga.' The style of the music was ALL WRONG. I couldn't even recognize half the songs until Nik started singing. I thought D-Rider was Golden Void (it was actually pretty good, 'cause Golden Void is my favorite HW song), and Brainstorm sounded oddly like Damnation Alley. And Mick Slattery was playing some f*cking kind of slide guitar solo in the middle of it...he doesn't apparently realize that HW strayed away from blues music very soon after he left. I swear, the band sounds much closer to Status Quo (or what I think Status Quo sounds like, given that they are almost completely unknown in the states), ie. some kind of silly party boogie-blues-like rubbish. It was very surreal to hear Hawkwind songs played in this style, and frankly rather disturbing and almost painful. OK, I admit that I thought Nik and Trev's (silly?) punk versions of Brainstorm and MotU were enjoyable, so I'm not entirely against reinterpretation of old HW classics, but these versions were truly offensive I must say.
Actually, Sonic Attack (no horrible bouncy blues rhythm) they did really well, oddly enough...and MotU as a finale wasn't too awful, but then Anderson (I never really liked him in AD2 either) and Ollis at least played on the studio version. Other than that, they did no tracks that any of the members featured on. Not even Hurry on Sundown amazingly enough.
Anyway, sorry, but I can't give thumbs up to this band. Nik has just gone off the tracks with this one...I would like to see what sort of excuse he might have for why anyone should care that he has a band with five 1969-1971 members, when the one thing they absolutely can NOT do is sound anything remotely like Space Rock. At all. And who the hell even knows/remembers that Tom Crimble and Mick were ever in the band? What the hell is the point of all this?! And why wasn't it obvious to me that the whole thing was silly before I even went to see them?”
I thought this piece quite powerful, fuelled by the author’s evident indignation, and as far as I know it’s the first time that anyone’s made this precise point (as opposed to the criticisms of Space Ritual’s looseness a couple of years ago). I am neither agreeing nor disagreeing with the sentiments expressed here, not having seen Space Ritual live. Some of the responses to Keith’s original post endorsed his views, but plenty would dispute them firecely. So here’s a link to streaming audio of Space Ritual playing live at the Roadburn festival in the Netherlands, April 2005, which I don't think entirely bears out the criticisms; Ejection is a bit ropey perhaps, but Brainstorm is decent and MotU is pretty good...
22nd July 2005: a counterblast has arrived by email:
My God, Keith was a bit harsh, wasn't he?!? As a relatively (!) objective fan of the band, I would like to offer the following in the interests of equality:
1. The band is called Space Ritual because they are not permitted to use any name containing the registered trademark "Hawkwind", or indeed any other name combining a bird and an element. The album "Space Ritual", which of course features Nik extensively, was the band's most successful album in the UK, hence it makes commercial sense to use the name. "Hawkwind", it should be remembered, was originally Nik's nickname!
2. They do not play "Space Ritual"-era songs almost exclusively. "Master", "Brainstorm", "You Shouldn't Do That" and "Children Of The Sun" all pre-date the SR album, and were written by Nik and, in two cases, Dave A. The "SR" album tracks performed are "Born To Go", on which Nik sang lead, "Orgone Accumulator", included as a tip of the hat to Robert, "Sonic Attack (likewise, or Michael Moorcock, if you must). The remainder of the set consists of, amongst others, "D-Rider" (written by Nik, post-"SR"), "Ejection" and "The Right Stuff" (both Robert solo songs), ""Watching The Grass Grow" (ICU), "Ghost Dance" (Nik with HW 80's), not to mention a handful of new tracks.
3. The chord sequence from "D-Rider" is the same as that from "Golden Void", albeit in a different key. D minor to B flat, A minor to F... same interval. Interestingly, Nik's song came out a year before Dave Brock's...
4. Mick and Terry have both played in blues-orientated bands for many years. Nik plays in a jazz/funk/latin band! This is not unnaturally going to show in SR's music. I appreciate that this might not be to everyone's taste, but it hardly results in the "disturbing and almost painful" result implied.
5. If that's what Keith thinks Status Quo sound like, I would recommend listening to some Status Quo. Try anything btween "Ma Kelly's Greasy Spoon" (1970) and "Live!" (1977). Anything after that isn't as good, but will prove that SR sound even less like Quo!
6. SR do not play any songs which have been solely credited to Dave Brock due to a legal injunction preventing them from doing so. Tellingly, Hawkwind currently finish their live set with a Nik Turner song...
7. I would hazard a guess that Nik's reason (I will not use the word "excuse") for playing in this band would be that several old friends who genuinely enjoy each other's company are playing a selection of old, new, borrowed and even blue material to enthusiastic audiences and having a great time doing it!
Sorry for the rant Steve, publish if you dare!!!
Very best wishes,
The Count
And that's where I'd like to leave this, since I republished Keith's BOC-L/Hawkwind post for its powers as a piece of writing and don't want to foster any Hawkwind religious wars...
SPACE RITUAL – PAIGNTON HALF MOON 7/5/05
What a great gig, A packed Half Moon witnessed a very together and
musically tight Space Ritual, they may not be Hawkwind, indeed they
are not even Space Ritual era Hawkwind but they are very very
enjoyable. The rhythm section of Dave Anderson and Terry Ollis holds
the whole thing together, Mick Slattery is a superb guitarist and as
for Nik he is the star! and he didn't "just" honk once!!
D-Rider is sublime, Brainstorm manic and Master of The Universe excellent.
Overall an excellent gig! and with Pete Pracowitz guesting on guitar
too! (after the gig Pete drew me a sketch which he dedicated to my son
Ryan and signed!)
Chriz
SPACE RITUAL FALMOUTH 05
Yes, good time had by all - plenty of dancing at the front (that's a Good Thing, but the fact that the attendance level was low enough to allow it, isn't) good atmosphere and though as always they came over unrehearsed the musical improvisation had that little bit of Wow factor. Disappointments were that the lovely Miss Angel was missing tonight (family issues) and Pete Pracownik's guest spot went completely wrong when his guitar wouldn't run through the amp or something.
But it was great to meet up with Steve and his mates (Ozrics? Definitely!), Ben (Linuxchaos) and a few non-list fans that I knew. I grabbed a quick chat with Pete P which is always a delight, one of life's gentlemen, Nik and Thomas Crimble and also managed to get a chat with Mick Slattery and a nice conversation with Dave Anderson both of whom I've spoken to on the phone but never met in person - and Mick was kind enough to introduce me to Terry Ollis who I've never encountered in any way before bar leaving unanswered interview requests on his (apparently lost!) mobile.
Good stuff, would do Paignton tonight but the nagging risk of the video not recording Dr Who prevents :-)
Ian Abrahams
SPACE RITUAL – SOUTHAMPTON NEXUS 5/5/05
They were on top form in Southampton on Thursday night too. It was a superb night out, although the late start meant that we didn't get back home til gone 3am.
I had started to write a review but, with the exception of the bits about Pete P (who wasn't there), it was along very similar lines to the reviews written by Chriz and the good Dr F Egg. If you want to hear just how good they sounded on the night, the show is about to be treed on neo-quark, so get over there and get a copy.
We similarly missed the talents of Miss Angie, but we were treated to two of the Imps (there were 3 of them at the 100 Club) and a somewhat exotic dancer who had more 4 o'clock shadow on "her" chin than most of the audience !!
I didn't catch the names of the two support bands, the first of whom featured a Del Dettmar style pickaxe handle and were very spacey (if anyone knows who they are please let me know), and the second who played very competent rock.
Cheers. Rob.
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
LASERS IN HONITON
A last-second flurry of emails found me hopping a west-bound freight-train to check out this:
I think there's a typo on the ticket, as the venue is/was actually The Honiton Motel, a surreal-looking, slightly down-at-heel venue on the edge of town that had a definite West Country Phoenix Nights vibe to it. And I mean that in a good way.
Meet up with CyRus Da Virus, who, as usual, is packing more hi-tech gizmo heat than Inspector Gadget. Whi-Fi Network-detection kit, palm-tops, mini vid-cam, GPS: it's like going for a pint with Nick Fury, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.
We groan when a poster says there's a support-band, but one of the roadies laughs and explains that it's actually the name of the company that's doing the lighting. Hurrah!
Support 'act' is Sam Ollis, son of original Hawkwind drummer Terry, who's DJing. We arrive to find him playing U-Roy, followed by some Old Early Nineties Acid-Techno, which is pretty strange in itself considering we're in what feels like a 60's style Social Club. Nice lighting-rig, though.
Neck a drink while Cyrus sets up some sort of Hi-Tech perimeter, presumably in case Hydra attack us during the gig. I check out the merchandising stall, just as the motel's head-chef (a very fat man dressed in full papal chef-regalia) marches across the dance floor in time to an Old-School 303-squiggle. Someone tests out the UV-lights and he temporarily turns luminous. My God, I suddenly realise, I'm at a Rave at the Crossroads Motel; and my brain momentarily short-circuits and shuts itself down: zzzxzztz....zzzzzkktxxz...zzzzzik
As CyRus boots-up some weird glowing device that looks like a minature Epcot centre, I get some more drinks in. A gaggle of Goths, students and really old people with long hair have crawled out of the woodwork and are drinking Real Ale, sucking on roll-ups and (barely) shuffling in time to some M25-Era bleepbeats. I keep having to pinch myself and say "Honiton....2005....Honiton....2005..." Without this mantra I will surely lose my sanity and temporally up-anchor. There's nothing worse than time-travelling accidentally.
The lights suddenly turn red and Nik Turner emerges from a mini-blizzard of dry-ice to ragged cheers. With short hair and a cropped mini-beard he resembles a sort of benign-looking Ginger Baker. Behind him, shadowy forms stumble through the back-lit fog, plugging-in guitars and bumping into drum-kits. My God, the stage is tiny; how can they fit that many people on there...there's two drummers, for Chrissake.
They start with a languid, Duul-ish Acid Rock jam that immediately gets my ears tingling inna Fimbles-stylee. Something I didn't recognise but which sounded like an outtake from the first Hawkwind LP is followed by a chugging version of "Born to Go": Da Vyrus takes his cue from my gin-fuelled whoop of delight and starts filming the band with a gizmo that looks as if it was drawn by Jim Steranko.
...And the band don't stop for breath: songs are linked by Old School echoplex'd synth-swirls and glissando guitar smears, with Nik reciting classic spoken-word interludes from "Space Ritual" and "Warriors on The Edge of Time". Time has softened Turner's voice and he lacks Calvert's caustic edge, but hearing him read "Welcome to the Future" ("Welcome to the oceans in a labelled can/Welcome to the dehydrated lands/Welcome to the self-policed parade/Welcome to the neo-golden age/Welcome to the days you've made/YOU. ARE. WEL-COME.") and "Sonic Attack" in a run-down motel in Devon quite frankly blew my mind.
Unforunately, no Del Dettmar tonight, but original Hawkwind bassist Thomas "Iron Man" Crimble filled in on keyboards and occasional guitar, while analogue fwoooooshes and bleep...bluuuup...bluuuurps were ably provided by (I think) John Greves.
Acid Rock Bass-God Dave Anderson (who also played on Amon Duul 2's first two LPs) was in the house tonight, head bobbing as he locked into a series of Space-Rock grooves, meshing with drummer Terry Ollis and his son Sam. Dave was Hawkwind bassist after Iron Man Crimble and before Lemmy...I have to say, I much prefer his playing and his tone to Kilminster's leaden contributions, but then Hawkwind were a heavier-sounding band by the time they hit "Space Ritual"...
John Effay commented that Space Ritual (the band) can sometime sound a bit pub-rock...I understand where he's coming from, but I think part of the reason might be that some of the musicians (guitarist Mick Slattery, in particular) come from a Sixties Blues-Rock tradition...these guys cut their teeth playing in that era, and there are still stylistic echoes of that in their technique and approach. Some of Thomas Crimble's keyboard fills had a vague Blues/12-bar feel which may have contributed to John's perception. Odd to think that there is a direct lineage from the British Blues Scene to Acid Rock.
A young-lady (Jacqui?) provided some suitably out-there Stacia-style 'cosmic' dancing and multiple costume-changes that culminated in a (oo-er, missus) vinyl nurse's outfit during "Brainstorm". Turner gave her a good 'seeing-to' with his sax. Well, the stage-show may have been tongue-in-cheek and a bit cheap and cheerful (Hawkwind on a shoestring), but the enthusiasm and the energy-levels of the band and the dancer were infectious. As gigs go, this one was fantastic fun
Apart from Sam they're not young guys, but they played for two hours non-stop, and they were never boring. Okay, I know I'm biased, but how many bands can you say that of?
I mean,lasers in Honiton, man...
And Nik Turner's day-glow glasses.
And a great version of "D-Rider".
Mick Slattery is a terrific lead guitarist (he played some absolutely blinding solos), but his rhythm-work sometimes lacks force and directness, and I think that's what the band is missing, if anything. When Crimble doubled up on rhythm-gtr, or when they were joined by a second guitarist (forgot his name: Peter...er...?) on "Master of the Universe" the power-levels went up a notch and the music sounded more forceful and propulsive. I think they def. need a second rhym-gtrist to flesh the sound out, which would free up Slattery to supply texture and the occassional blistering solo, both of which he excels at. I know this is near-blasphemous to say, but they are missing Dave Brock...I reckon Slattery is technically a better guitarist than Brock, but Brock plays solid and distinctive rhythmn work.
In fact, Slattery played in various pre-Hawkwind Blues-Rock groups with Brock (Flash-Fact: they once released a single of Beefheart's "Electricity"), as well as the legendary Group-X with Nik Turner and Terry Ollis. He left Hawkwind immediately after they signed to record their first LP.
So, yeah, a second gtrist would toughen the material up a bit and highlight the two-drum line-up, but, really, that's a minor niggle. Needless to say, I had a fantastic night out.
They ended with Nik's notorious rendition of "The Pink Panther Theme", which apparently used to really wind up Dave Brock.
Afterwards, Nik Turner kindly signed my copy of "In Search of Space" ("To Kek - Stay High...") and patiently listened to my slurred standard rant of "Hawkwind in Yeovil, 1974; it changed my fuckin' life, man...Lemmy tried to cop off with a girl in my year..."
Terry Ollis (a lovely guy and a total dude in bright orange combats) said (as he went to write "Love and Peace" on the blurred naked photo of original dancer Stacia): "Okay if I write on top of Stacia? Wouldn't be the first time I've been on her...hurh, hurh, huhr!"). Terry used to drum in the nude with Hawkwind at festivals in the (very) early Seventies. What a star!
I tracked down gentleman-dude bassist Dave Anderson, who also signed "Yeti" by Amon Duul 2 for me and made my fucking year by chatting w/ me about his Krautrock exploits. Seems like he's still in contact with John Weinzierl, Renate and the rest of the original Duul Cru, and had actually recieved a phone-call a few days earlier from Holland where they rang up from a festival to say "Where are you, man? You should be here playing with us tonight..." Needless to say, the thought of a Duul reunion line-up consisting of Dave and most of the "Phallus Dei" line-up had me salivating. Maybe they'll come and play the West Coker Motel (just outside Yeovil). Sorry, groovers, but it doesn't take much to reduce me to non-critical fan-boy mode. After all, these guys are the closest I've got to heroes...
Anyway, I just had to ask about Van Der Graaf Generator. Did Dave actually play bass for them? "Yeah, for about five minutes," he laughed, "Well, we rehersed on and off for most of the summer after Nic Potter left (in '71?), but it didn't quite come together..."
What happened?
"Well, someone in the studio kept spiking our drinks..."
Spiking your drinks? What, acid...mushrooms...?
"Yeah, acid. It was fun, I guess, but it created a weird vibe...you can't really reherse music that complex while you're tripping...so it didn't really come together, then I got the call to join Hawkwind, and the rest is history..."
I didn't realise that Dave had also played with legendary Brit Bluesman Alexis Korner (again, that 60's Blues-Rock connection...) and was a member of (Nik Turner's) Inner City Unit. Space Ritual played a couple of punkier tracks during the evening that I didn't recognise, which I guess must've been old ICU songs.
Dave's also a producer (with his own studio in Wales) and had just finished an LP for New Model Army a few days later, and has also been producing an LP of new Space Ritual material ("It's beautiful stuff...") over the last year or two. Recordings, rehersals and gigs are hampered by the fact that band-members "live all over the country and it costs a small fortune in petrol just to get us all together in the same room..."
I never used to be into getting stuff autographed, but it's started adding a new physical component to some of my favourite LPs; it's sappy, I know, but every time I hear them now I also get transported to that time-and-place in addition to the complex web of memories and associations that already flavour and spice the music.
I left the ol' Honiton Motel walking on air, I can tell you. CyRus and I rounded the evening off by raiding the burger van in Honiton High St. and eating what was possibly the best cheeseburger I've ever had in my life.
Thanks to Cy and Ali for their hospitality. CyRus is the only guy I know who, if he was stranded on a desert island, could hand-build a server in 15 minutes from sticks, rocks and seagull droppings.
I woke up the next morning, hungover but happy, under the biggest lampshade I have ever seen. On the wall next to me, a huge poster of Yoda (made up of stills from the original trilogy) smiled down at me, knowingly.
posted by kek-w @ 10:21 AM
SPACERITUAL, 100 CLUB (OXFORD STREET, LONDON), 12TH NOVEMBER 2004
As prediced by those who've reviewed the gigs earlier in the tour (thanks), the show last night was a stunner. I thought that Spaceritual were good back in July when they last played the 100 Club, but this was an order of magnitude better again.
The band were slightly smaller in number but much tighter. For 2 hours and 25 minutes they played their own style of jazzy/funky space rock, yet managed to stay faithful to some old favourites. The set flowed well with lots of long jams that took you off on the groove, although there was a lot of heckling during the poems (of which there were 8 if you count Sonic Attack and Arrival in Utopia), suggesting that not everyone was glad of a few minutes to reorient themselves. It felt coherent rather than a collection of different songs.
It's too late for me to start to pick out highlights (I need my bed), but here's the setlist:
Ghost Dance
Welcome to the Future
The Right Stuff
Warriors on the Edge
Born to Go
Sonic Attack/Paranoia
Time Crime
The Black Corridor
Orgone Accumulator
poem
D-Rider
The Awakening
Brainstorm
poem
Sonic Savages
Ejection
Watching the Grass Grow
Arrival in Utopia
Children of the Sun
Master of the Universe
Silver Machine WARNING: extreme audience participation :)
(Nik entertains the crowd while the crew start to clear the stage)
Bones of Elvis
Tequila
Cheers.
Rob.
SPACE RITUAL – 100 CLUB LONDON 12/11/04
We went along to this gig armed with a healthy dose of scepticism and
trepidation, having experienced some of the previous performances of
Nik Turner's version of Hawkwind.
However, what a nice surprise; the band were tight and obviously well
rehearsed, the music was excellent, Nik's playing was tuneful and the
whole event was highly enjoyable (except for the amount of cigarette
smoke in the venue!), something which I would not say of the recent
Hawkwind gig that we went to. The new songs were also rather good,
better than the samples of the new album on Mission Control
So, is Nik Turner's version of Hawkwind better or worse than Dave
Brock's version of Hawkwind? Well, neither really. It is a very
different band and a very different event, much closer to the live
recordings that I have heard of pre-Space Ritual era Hawkwind than
Dave Brock's version of the band are producing. There is certainly
plenty of room for both on the circuit.
Enjoy!
Susan (and Deepa)
EXELLENT GIG AT GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL
Dear Nik and the Space Ritual
The Glastonbury gig was mind blowing....
You are all so damaged and random (Space fused Alien Jazz funk with added Cosmic debris)
We were all truly impressed....and maybe a little damaged also....
I saw that you had someone videoing the Ritual and I thought i could add to your record
of the occasion with some stills that i took whilst grooving...
Is there going to be availible a live video or was it just for your own records???
Please let me know if there is.
Good to see Howard Marks introducing you (as Hawkwind) it was so right......and wrong!
Hope to see you in illfracoombe (Public transport willing)
Best wishes
Robin and Shelley
SPACE RITUAL
EXETER PHOENIX ARTS CENTRE, UNITED KINGDOM,
NOVEMBER 1 2003
Clayton Trapp
http://claytonandtheresa.users.btopenworld.com/Home.html
For the second time in a mere eight days, the walls of the Phoenix theatre
resounded with the sounds of “Master of the Universe.” The most obvious
explanation, that Hawkwind forgot that they’d already played and showed up
to play again, is false. Mainly.
Space Ritual is not Hawkwind, technically, but similarities abound. First,
Space Ritual includes, as the local freak who owns the best record store in
the region pointed out, “more original Hawkwind members than Hawkwind!”
The setlist is composed almost entirely of Hawkwind numbers, these almost
exclusively from the most critically acclaimed period of 1971-1978. So it is,
unashamedly, something of a nostalgia act. Except that it’s so alive.
Where Hawkwind sold the venue out, Space Ritual allowed room for
spectators to orbit a bit more. A delegation of Exeter’s homeless population
was present, with their dogs. The band went on an hour and a half late, as the
bass player had difficulty getting there from another gig. Turner took the stage
after walking through the audience, and wearing spiky alien insect headgear.
The introductory “Ghost Dance” set the stage. The Hawkwind version in which
the mystical dance and chanting are actually performed (remember the alien
insect headgear), not the wonderful Patti Smith song of the same name. Good
opener which, as it relies almost entirely on repetitive rhythm, gives the band
an opportunity to find its groove.
Like Hawkwind the Ritual is backed by an enormous screen featuring
psychedelia in its many forms. Rather than the intricately unfocused stuff we
saw last week, the Ritual runs a lot of oil and water and food coloring mix, the
primitive stuff that served as the visual soundtrack for the acid tests of the Ken
Kesey/Grateful Dead days.
In addition to a large ensemble band featuring Turner on sax and/or flute and
two drummers (classic Hawkwind drummer Terry Ollis, and his son Sam), a
band easily filling up the Phoenix stage once they got to rampaging about, the
visuals included Angel, an exotic dancer. Angel goes through costume
changes (schoolgirl uniform, space suits, mini-skirts) faster than David Bowie,
and uses stage props including a baseball bat and a parasol. The dances are
rated PG, but appear to be spontaneous and are highly individualistic. They
were loudly received by some members of the audience, presumably those
not attending the event with their wives. To complete the effect powerful
strobe lights began going off halfway through the show, driving one teenage
girl from the theater, and never stopped.
In the finest Hawkwind tradition the band demonstrated no interest in playing
any riff fewer than fifty times per song, broken up with spontaneous
excursions of discovery into musical space. Unlike Hawkwind, in its present
configuration, it finds quite a bit of worthwhile stuff out there. Space has never
really been my thing, musically, to listen to, but these guys (Dave Anderson
on bass, Mick Slattery and Thomas Crimble, guitars) are a helluva jam band.
“Ghost Dance” was followed by an entirely ballsy “Born to Go” that pulled the
band elements together into a cohesive, even coherent, unit, and by the time
they got to “Brainstorm” and “Sonic Savages” in mid-set the crowd was more
than sold on the idea that these guys should be allowed to do what they were
doing. They were not feeding off the carcass of Hawkwind, it was more like
one of those space worms that breaks up into separate living entities sharing
the same ecto-genetic structure.
“Orgone Accumulator,” reminded me that, however dubious his hintermost
postulations, Wilhelm Reich had more going on upstairs than the McCarthyite
bureaucrats who threw him in jail and, more than that, that I’m not the only
person still occasionally pondering such esoteric concerns. For their part the
band appeared less interested in the man or his politics, but instead on his
work: it’s a song about sex, sex is good, sex is powerful, sex is the key to the
cosmos.
That all being the case “Ejection” (um, no, it’s a song about spacecraft) was
snugly sandwiched by the classics “Master of the Universe,” and the closing
“Silver Machine.”
“Silver Machine” was unquestionably the highlight of the show. Tired feet
came to life, levitation was the audience standard, the chords were of a
veracity and magnitude that no lunar landscape can ever again feel secure,
the “discovery” period unearthed (unearthed, space band, get it?) a series of
goldmines.
In the pattern of inconsistency that must be expected from these individuals.
the encores were solo sax representations from Turner including “In the Mood
(Nude),” and “The Pink Panther Theme.”
They don’t have the name. They don’t have Dave Brock. But they can rock,
rhythmically and repetitively in a manner that belies the reality that they’ve just
gone somewhere. They have a cool show, and costumes, a rabid audience
including barking dogs, and when they go off in tangents they often end up
somewhere interesting. As much as I enjoyed Hawkwind last week, this was
more what I was looking for out of these, my virginal live Hawkwind
experiences.
........
Space Ritual -
The Boardwalk, Sheffield, November 6th, 2003
Sound psychedelic, it sure was - a band comprising of ex-Hawkwind members
who had named themselves after 'winds famous live album 'Space Ritual
Alive' with a line-up featuring Nik Turner (Vocals/Saxophone), Thomas
Crimble (Guitar), Terry and son Sam Ollis (Drums/DJ Strike Lightning),
Michael Slattery (Guitar), and Dave Anderson on Bass.
Baffling and titillating the place with set opener 'Indian Chant' where Nik
Turner played way-out sounding jazz on the Sax while walking out onto the
crowd with a thick spiky red mask on his head following up with early
Hawkwind classics such as the rarely heard 'Born to Go'; the tongue-in-cheek
or should that be reefer in cheek splendidity of Inner City Unit's 'Watching the
Grass Grow' and the Space Ritual's own ditty called 'Sonic Savages'.
We were all engrossed with the madly dressed, wig wearing and exotic
dancing of Miss. Debbie' who at one point completely naked and swirled to
the thunderous repetitively brilliant music that these guys are legendary for.
She's the updated equivalent of 70's beauty Miss. Stacia who regularly
paraded the stage with Hawkwind - tell me, do Dave Brock's crew still have
this on a regular basis (by all accounts they do actually !!).
This was a night that dreams are made of and made new fans for the band, in
fact my mate Alex Kotziamanis was completely engrossed by it all and he's a
hardcore Yngwie Malmsteen/Def Leppard fan - "I gotta hear some more of
these guys", he kept saying to me.
How could you go wrong with a mighty pack of songs that included Nik Turner
wrote and co-wrote in his Hawkwind heyday like the bizarre 'Sonic Attack';
'Shouldn't do that'; the bluesy 'Orgone Accumulator' and pen-ultimate
milestones such as 'Masters of the Universe' and the huge well-known hit that
is 'Silver Machine' for the encore.
Did we want to go home when the song list had come to an end - not likely
and neither did Nik Turner who furtherly entertained us alone on saxophone
by with renditions of 'Theme from the Pink Panther'; 'In the Mood' and
'Tequila' which were sang to. He had the time of his life and so did we - now
there ain't many performers who'd do that.
A spectacular night provided by one of the most original bands out of the UK.
It makes you proud to be a Brit - judging by the reception they'll be back at
Boardwalk very soon.
10/10
By Glenn Milligan, BA Hons CS
........
Space Ritual featuring Del Dettmar + The Theory, Exeter, Phoenix Arts Centre
22nd February 2003
Nik's words: "This is the first time I've been back in Exeter since the court case", said clearly with a wry grin on his face, as it would seem that Space Ritual were obviously having a good gig. And it was! For over an hour and a half, the audience was treated to some great renditions of such classics as Ghost Dance, Born to Go, Brainstorm, D-Rider, Master of the Universe, Orgone Accumulator, Shouldn't Do That, Children of the Sun and Silver Machine, linked by synthy swirls and poetry pieces (the Black Corridor being one of them), and also the fab Inner City Unit song, Watching the Grass Grow. A great treat was the new songs, one by Michael Moorcock called Sonic Savages and another written about Timothy Leary when Nik visited him in a mental institution. Both these new works were instantly memorable and are promised on the new forthcoming studio album.
At one point, there were nine musicians on stage, and you really had the feeling that this could have been the Roundhouse in 1971, complete with oil wheels and bubble machine.
Coming from the right place, and if you can get to see them, then do! A great band on form and having fun. What it's about really. The Line up: Nik Turner - sax, flute, vocals; Terry & Sam Ollis (Terry's son) - drums; Mick Slattery - guitar; Dave Anderson - bass; John the Ghost - keyboards; Del Dettmar - synth-axe; Alice - percussion and vocals; Thomas Hewitt - guest guitar.
Brianzero (Global/Invisible Opera)
........
Saw you at The Brook and was priviledged to meet all of the band backstage. That gig has to be the best I have ever seen or heard, you and the band have captured the essence of what Hawkwind were, are and should be. Spaceritual.net is the perfect name for the band. What a pleasure it was to see 11-12 muscians/singers/people on stage enjoying every minute of what they are doing as much as we, the audience, were!
Your choice of songs was beyond belief, even now I am still on a high, so you must return to Southampton before I come down off the high; my 2 oldest kids want to come and see you all and enjoy the experience. Well must leave now in search of space for magnu.
All the very best & hear from you soon, I hope.
Roadhawk Marc Hamilton
........
Saw you and the group at Brighton and I have to say was impressed. I have been into the Hawks since the Hawklords days and thoroughly enjoyed the evening, the crowd you pulled were a very easy-going and genuine bunch, a lot less hassle than some of the lairey lot you come across, the aggressive ego-pumping buggers normally in the smoke. Well worth the drive from Folkestone & stop-over. Some of the music was very trippy and I thought the Masters... was the best I have heard in 20 years! Objective evidence - I was enjoying myself!
Always thought you were the pick of the bunch - keep doing it, a lot of people are surprised!
........
On Sunday, I set off with my brother to Brighton to see how things go with Spaceritual.net.
I had seen them before but my brother has not. He is not a Hawkwind fan as such but does like their music and would go and see them live within reasonable distance. He did go and see Hawkwind end of last year at the same venue. His verdict after the gig was: Spaceritual were better! He thought Hawkwind were really good last year, better than the 2001 Brighton gig but this was better! More authentic. He is not on the internet so has never read nor has any interest in which group has the claim to the name, etc. but he did feel it was closer to early Hawkwind than Hawkwind themselves.
In many ways I agree with this. Every song Nik's lot did was long and the solos rambled slightly. The big advantage now is that they actually know how to play the songs! If you like short and to-the-point songs then this is not for you. I personally love Hawkwind and the stuff they do but do love the rambling solos like Nik's lot do. Del Dettmar was on stage but I couldn't hear him. Could he hear himself? I do wonder as I was standing at his side of the stage. Very audible was the keyboard player John Green.
As usual, Nik came along through the crowd. The crowd wasn't as big as at the Hawkwind concert but I was at the front so I could be wrong. After the long intro of Nik's coming through, they went into Born To Go. This was followed by Watching The Grass Grow and then Sonic Savages. The latter was really good and wouldn't sound out of place on an Inner City Unit album. Then they did D-Rider and an instrumental from Del/John. All of this took about 45 minutes, and that was followed by Ghost Dance. I also liked the song about the Mental Hospital thingy.
Other highlights included Children Of The Sun and Brainstorm. They even did Blue Train which I like. Sadly, no You Shouldn't Do That and not much spoken word. Songs done by Hawkwind last year also done by Spaceritual.net were: Master Of The Universe, Ejection and Silver Machine. People have been complaining that they have too many people on stage but I disagree with this. I think the two drummers are perfect. Whilst Sam didn't play on every song, he did play on most of them. The double drumming could really be heard in places and it did sound very fusion/space-rock-like. Then, at times, when Sam wasn't playing, you had the bongo player and it still sounded like two drummers! The bass could have been quieter and Thomas Crimble needed to be much louder. On the guitar, the one thing lacking was the powerful guitar riffs. The guitar solos were fine though. Besides, just because Mick Slattery left Hawkwind back in '69, doesn't mean he has to be rubbish - and he's not. I actually did wonder
about this previously but have been converted fully to the fact that he is good. Any one care to disagree?
Nik didn't play the flute too much and when he did they didn't always bring him up loud enough in time. He allowed room for the other musicians rather than playing over them. Del couldn't be heard so I just had to accept the fact that I can see him doing stuff but not hear it. If I hadn't thought like that I would not have enjoyed the concert. I had hoped it would only be Del at the gig so I could just hear the sounds he makes. He played his axe and kept moving pegs on what must have been his EMSA synth. He also turned a few deals on that and some other equipment now and again.
There was a certain amount of electronic stuff between songs but they still had some gaps and the songs ended rather than fading out into a mess. That is something both bands miss that early Hawkwind had. Thomas Hewitt played guitar every so often, and they had the two dancers. They managed to fit everyone on stage which was great, and I went home very very happy. The support act, The Theory, were okay in places. Some songs were good and others great only in places. The rest were not good. More work required.
So, all in all, very happy. Concert ended at around 11: 30/40 pm after at least 2 hours. Something like 2 hours 10 minutes.
........
Just have to say what a brilliant gig last night. It was done in the true sprit of what Dave should be doing now, Nik and his guys played for the audience. And as for being played out at the end by the theme from the Pink Panther, well what can you say... just pure entertainment from start to finish!
The last time I saw Hawkwind was at the Leascliffall, Folkestone, some years ago (I only recognised Dave Brock) and the show was pretty dismal. I was talked into going to the Spaceritual gig at Brighton and I'm glad I went. It seems the original band were all there (minus Dave) and what a show! They have really captured the early Hawkwind scene performing the old favourites such as Brainstorm, Master Of The Universe, Silver
Machine, Children Of The Sun as well as some Calvert material (Ejection) and other songs that I didn't recognise. The light show also captured the moment to perfection. The dancers were great and for a minute I thought I was looking at Stacia (remember her?) but the other two (Alice and the conga player seemed a bit superfluous).
Was Del Dettmar there for show or was he really playing? When he stopped to smoke (I assume) a joint, the electronics and synths continued regardless. Nik Turner fronted the band in his old inimitable style and, all in all, the show was a total mind-blowing experience I haven't seen since the '70s! I recommend any fans of the early Hawkwind to see them, it was a totally deja-vu-like recreation of Hawkwind at their best. Keep it up, guys.
........
Really enjoyed the concert. Thought it was absolutely brilliant. Please don't let the disappointingly small crowd put you off coming back to Northampton. I'm really looking forward to seeing the band again.
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REVIEWS IN THE PRESS:
Record Collector, October 2002
"Spaceritual.net treated us all to slabs of cosmic rock in the late afternoon served up with a suitable side salad of bizarre costumes, dancers and weirdness. Hawkwind faves Brainstorm and Orgone Accumulator were the highlight of a set that was powerful..."
Classic Rock, November 2002
"Spaceritual.net - a motley collection of former Hawkwind members plus bongo players and idiot dancers (including a brickie wearing a negligee and DM's - Alice Rhubarb) momentarily enticed the sunshine with Brainstorm, Masters Of The Universe and Orgone Accumulator…"
Canterbury Fayre newspaper review
"Although Fish headlined on Friday with a jovial performance, Spaceritual.net was one of the most entertaining acts. All 12 members, including quite a few ex-members of Hawkwind, played a baffling set that was more Space Oddity than Spaceritual. They were certainly one of the more colourful acts on the show."
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