Hawklords_________
“I’ve heard that Dave Brock gave his blessing for it: the name was available for use.” Jerry Richards Seven albums in, Hawklords continue to explore strange new worlds and boldly go their own way in the space rock universe…
Ex-Hawkwind alumni channel that original 70s renegade spirit.
Who or what exactly are the Hawklords? Anybody with a passing interest in doughty cosmic warriors and space rock progenitors Hawkwind may recall that for a year or so in the late 70s, they changed their name to Hawklords and released the album
25 Years On, revealing a more melodic, new wave-anticipating side to the band. The current iteration of Hawklords isn’t a direct continuation of that band, but it channels the same spirit of producing questing, intelligent rock music – and it does feature ex-members of Hawkwind.
In fact, when the new Hawklords first got together in September 2008 to play a memorial concert for Hawkwind singer and mercurial genius Robert Calvert, the band consisted entirely of Hawk alumni, including Nik Turner, Adrian Shaw, Ron Tree, Jerry Richards and Harvey Bainbridge. Of those members, just the last two still remain in the current band, with the affable, engaging and very well-organised Richards soon emerging as the captain of this particular (star)ship.
After playing another memorial concert, this time for Hawkwind artist and designer Barney Bubbles, Richards reflected, “Well, this is a lot of fun, and there was a will to go and do something, so I arranged a European and UK tour, and took it from there.” The shows were a success, and in 2012 Hawklords released their debut album, We Are One. It was at this point that Richards decided the band needed to become a serious proposition if they were to survive. “I said, if we’re going to do this properly, we need a longer-term strategy beyond just recording an album. You have to be prepared to commit to doing this. It’s Chairman Mao principles I’m afraid, you have to do a five-year plan!”
He wasn’t kidding. Hawklords have been incredibly prolific, with latest album Brave New World being their seventh in as many years. Richards is also committed to doing things as ethically as possible: “We are totally independent, we don’t have a record company. We’ve all been so badly burned by the business, even friends in the business. I said, ‘We are not going to behave like that, not ever.’ What advice can I give you about the business? Just be nice. It’s a no-brainer…”
But what about the potential accusation that Hawklords are trading off the legacy of another band, and one that’s still very much active? Richards is having none of it: “I’ve heard that Dave [Brock] gave his blessing for it: the name was available for use.” And while the dispute between Brock and Nik Turner over the use of Hawkwind’s name still rumbles on, Richards has nothing but praise for his former boss: “Dave was always gracious to me. He’s hard-working, very talented and has a fantastic voice – he is the most underrated British rock vocalist
I can think of.”
However, Richards can’t resist adding, “According to the Hawkwind mythology, if you were a member of Hawkwind, then you are a Hawklord! Harvey said to me 30 years ago, the thing about being in this band is that it will follow you around, you can never shake it off. It will be there forever because of the loyalty of the fans.” Harvey Bainbridge, the band’s electronics wizard and member of the original Hawklords, concurs: “I find it fascinating there are people drawing cartoon characters of us and writing stories based on the albums we were on – they’re so much into this thing, this different world…”
Hawklords do play the occasional Hawkwind song in their live set – both
Uncle Sam’s On Mars and Psi Power were resurrected for the last tour – but the main emphasis is on their own material, which has no problem holding its own in such company. “We’ve got a brand name, and people have certain expectations from that, but there’s so much wriggle room for selfexpression,” says Richards. “But our fans are very discerning, you have to deliver something of substance. We have a live
show that’s all-encompassing, including a light show that’s extraordinary, and people trip off on it without having to take drugs.”
Just like all of Hawklords’ previous albums, Brave New World has an over-arching concept. The release is also the second part of a trilogy, that was kicked off by 2017’s
Six album, which addresses the ideas of war, peace and love. But as Hawklords themselves describe it, Brave New World is “a musical treatise on peace for these truly turbulent, transitory and unyielding times”. For Richards, the idea that we are currently living through peacetime is “Bullshit – the planet’s on fire. Look at Britain right now – politically it’s in flames, there’s a great amount of disharmony and discord. We’re going back to Dickensian times in my view, where poverty and homelessness are rife, and the 1% have 99% of everything.”
The album’s cover painting reflects this conflict – a crucified figure hangs in the air above a medieval slum, while a futuristic skyscraper rises up in the background. The artwork is by Steve Smith – “As soon as I unwrapped it, it just blew my head off, it captured exactly the situation as I see it,” says Richards. But that’s certainly not to say that the music inside is gloomy dystopian gruel – far from it. This is perhaps Hawklords’ most colourful and multi-faceted piece of work to date. And the sound, while still
“heavy electric music with whooshing noises”, as Bainbridge puts it, feels warmer and more organic than before, which turns out to be an intrinsic part of its creation.
After a short tour of Scotland last April, the band went straight into The Moonbase studio in Coventry and started jamming. “We went in without any preconceptions at all, nothing really prepared, just a couple of riffs and sketches, so we wrote it in real time,” says Richards. “Pretty much everything you hear there is live, other than a few vocal and guitar overdubs. You can feel everybody’s input into it. I think it’s the best one we’ve done so far.”
On previous albums, Richards has done much of the preliminary recording in his home studio using Pro Tools, but he became dissatisfied by this “piecemeal” approach. “There are no sequencers on this album and it wasn’t recorded to a click track. It went straight to disc, which is a fantastic way of working if you’ve got the capability within your band to do that. We really excel playing live, where you get to explore the structures and stretch out. I edited these numbers down, some of them were 20 minutes long! But I thought the band were extraordinarily controlled in their approach to what we were doing, not just thrashing around. We were only in the studio for three days.”
As a result, Brave New World is probably Hawklords’ most prog-friendly album to date, with a richer, spacier sound palette and more extended songs than ever before. Bainbridge is also pleased with the results, appreciating how recording live means that the music “can flow and go off on tangents.” His intuitive, unconventional synth work is integral to Hawklords’ sound.
“People ask me what I do for a living, and I say, ‘I make noises!’” Bainbridge says. “I’m not a trained musician, but I was a cathedral chorister for a few years doing classical singing, so I can read music pretty well and know my way around a piano. But I just try and do what I feel is right for the moment. I suppose my style is unique because nobody else plays like that! I’m definitely a one-handed keyboard player, put it like that…”
Bainbridge’s approach also recalls the early days of Hawkwind, when the band’s deep space riffage would be swathed in a cloak of primitive electronics. “When Hawkwind did the big Hawkestra concert in Brixton [in 2000], Del [Dettmar] came over from Canada and Dik Mik was there – we were like the Three Witches in Macbeth! We all had our little gadgets and we just made noise all the time. It was great! I wasn’t even supposed to be on the stage at that particular time!”
One of Brave New World’s most striking tracks is the album opener Devil In Your
Head. It starts off as a driving rocker before dipping down into a mid-tempo bass groove, over which Richards declaims a poem about the dichotomous whispering voices on our shoulder. It’s a fine example of dramatic Sprechgesang, which could almost be from Robert Calvert himself. “I thought the song needed something else to give it thematic value beyond being a good pop tune, which I think it is,” Richards says. “Whether it’s based around Bob’s performance or not,
I can’t definitely say, but to me diction is really important, especially when you’re playing live. Look at Calvert’s performance on Steppenwolf – it’s phenomenal, you believe every word he’s saying.”
Nevertheless, Calvert is clearly an ongoing influence for the band. Richards says, “My favourite ‘Hawkwind’ album is Captain Lockheed And The Starfighters [Robert Calvert’s 1974 solo album]. I was always drawn to
Bob’s songs because he was so inventive. He talked about things that sparked your imagination without tying you down, making everyday themes provocative and funny.” Bainbridge agrees: “Bob’s lyrics were so intelligent, but very simple. The idea is to keep that thing going…”
Richards’ personal favourite from Brave
New World is dreamy psych ballad End Of
The Line, which he describes as “quite gentle, a nursery rhyme mantric thing, trying to use simple motifs for maximum imaginative effect.” But the album ends on a sombre note, with closing track A Walk In Albion based around a nagging, minor key guitar line.
“It reflects that Dickensian vibe. It’s pretty dark and bleak out there, people,” says Richards, though ever the optimist, he adds, “You can still find beauty in that as well.”
In line with Hawklords’ relentless programme of forward motion, the next album and final part of the trilogy is already being written – this time, the theme will be love, but don’t expect a traditional take on the subject. The band are also confirmed for this year’s HRH Prog, taking place at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London in October, with a tour of their own no doubt in the planning. Richards sums up the band’s philosophy as: “We’re trying to do something good. We’re trying to create art, that’s the whole point. It feels right and decent, and it elevates my mind.”
The last words go to Bainbridge, who at their recent shows improvised a long and slightly sinister speech about how “nothing’s a problem when you’re having fun”. He says, “I thought, there’s a lot of angst in the world, so let’s just smile and try and have fun. I was just trying to make people laugh.” It sounded like an order… “Well, I shout at the audience when I can!”
“Bob Calvert’s lyrics were so intelligent, but very simple. The idea is to keep
that thing going…”
Harvey Bainbridge