PSYCHEDELIC
This month Simon Barnard takes a trip in a silver machine to explore the space rock sounds of British psychedelic jam band, Hawkwind.
Simon Barnard checks out a legendary band who fused glam and psychedelia: Hawkwind.
Hawkwind formed in London in 1969 and the band is still touring 50 years on. Over this time they have released 31 studio albums plus numerous live records, compilations, EPs and singles. Hawkwind was formed by guitarist, vocalist and keyboards player Dave Brock who is the only original member of the band still remaining. Although a veritable revolving door of musicians over the years, there have been relatively few guitarists to accompany Brock as an additional six-stringer, with the exception of the excellent Huw Lloyd-Langton who appeared on 12 of the band’s albums.
Huw Lloyd-Langton sadly passed away in 2012 but left behind a legacy of licks through his time with the band, and also through his solo output and work as a session musician for others. His work as a lead guitarist spawned countless creative and fluent lines showcasing his technical ability on the instrument. Some of his best work was from the 1980 album Levitation which features some amazing guitar playing right from the opening track. It’s rumoured that he once performed with a broken arm, not wanting to let his fans down. Although his movement was limited due to his arm being in plaster, he managed to re-work his solos so that they could be played on a smaller section of the neck. This clearly demonstrated his knowledge of the fretboard and scale positions on different strings.
Even though Huw Lloyd-Langton played a huge part in the band, enjoying three separate stints with a combined 14 years, it was Dave Brock who was the creative driving force behind the Hawkwind sound. In fact, in 2013 he was presented with a lifetime achievement award at the annual Progressive Music Awards. Although Brock didn’t have the same degree of technical ability as Huw LloydLangton, he made up for it by having an ability to create melodic guitar hooks which would often be played for great lengths of time - as was the tradition of the jam bands from The Grateful Dead onwards. Hawkwind wrote most of their music through improvising and, as a result, musical ideas were often formed on the fly and then built upon.
There’s nothing overly technical in the examples, but it’s important to bring vitality and a sense of fun to your performance, while still maintaining timing and accuracy.
NEXT MONTH Simon gets to the heart of the music made by the great Arthur Lee and Love
THE FUSION OF DAVE BROCK AND HUW LLOYDLANGTON’S DIFFERING STYLES RESULTED IN SOME OF PSYCHEDELIC ROCK’S GREATEST GUITAR LINES