Hawkwind, who are they?
Been going on for years. Have known about some of this trouble as I’m been associated with both camps. It is all about who has the ‘rights’ to use the Hawkwind name. None of this changes who people are, of course. But from the fans point of view, it’s about ‘brand and brand loyalty’. Hence for the record companies an venues, it is know that the crowds, and hence the money, will follow the label / brand name.
Oh god!! with money, has it ever been any different?
This site explains some of the bad blood, between the ‘factions’. Who’s side am I on, I don’t know!!
spaceritual.net has been put together by Nik Turner, and features several members of the original Hawkwind line-up.
This site is the ‘official Hawkwind Site’
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A letter from the guestbook of spaceritual.net
Fellow Hawkfans,
A grim day in the history of Hawkwind dawns on us. Yes today Dave Brock takes Nik Turner to court to stop Nik using the name Xhawkwind. Nik can’t afford the fight so Dave with the power and money will probably win. It’s not just Nik who will loose out, the band includes many of the original line up including: Terry Ollis-Drums, Mick Slattery-Guitar, Thomas Crimble-Bass, plus others who have guested like Del Dettmar and Dik Mik. The fans will be the real ones to loose out, because they might not get that chance to see them play thanks to Dave’s power trip! A tour has been planned for later this year, so far Xhawkwind have played just a few gigs, which have gone really well. The crowds have enjoyed hearing the old songs being played in the 70’s style, that’s what put them on the map in the first place after all. Xhawkwind don’t play any of the songs Dave wrote because they don’t want to face any further legal action, but they can play the songs written by Bob Calvert and group compositions, which means they have still got a decent repertoire. Xhawkwind played at the Glastonbury festival, jamming some of the old songs and getting a great reception.
Orgone Accumulator
Master of the Universe
Warriors on the edge of time
Brainstorm
The Awakening
D-Rider
Shouldn’t do that
Silver Machine
Any Hawkwind fan would have loved to have seen that, 1500 lucky ones did! Don’t let Dave Brock ruin it for everyone. Write to the papers, contact the Hawkwind website, let people know what you feel about it.
A concerned fan
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reprinted from latest Record Collector
Dear RC
I’m writing in response to the recent Hawkwind article in RC273 and Nik Turner’s letter of reply in RC275. I’m now standing up and being counted as someone who has followed Hawkwind for over 20 years including making pilgrimages to Stonehenge to try to catch them at the Solstice.
I have immense respect for Dave Brock and his piloting of Starship Hawkwind through the chaos of the 70’s so that it was available to me in the 80’s as an adolscence-shaping experience – but this feud over the name ‘Hawkwind’ is not only undignified, but negates the communal spirit of the band in which they first formed.
Dave should know better than anyone that Hawkwind fans are nothing if not obsessive and often collect any musical offering featuring past and present members of the band. Side projects from Hawkpeople have always been embraced in the past and Nik Turner, Mick Slattery, Terry Ollis and Thomas Crimble have the most legitimate claim to the name Hawkwind- please don’t insult us by insinuating they are a fake version of Hawkwind that may be foisted upon us unawares as we (or promoters) are unable to distinguish between them. Hawkfans should be perfectly well aware of who they are and if they choose to witness the best renditions of the early material for decades, then its nothing to do with the ‘real Hawkwind’ (or are they worried they can’t compete?)
As for Lemmy’s comment that Nik is a ‘second rate sax player’ at least Nik has made the effort to improve his style over the years, as attested by his forming the Fantastic Allstars in the late 80’s. Jazz is much more difficult to play than space-rock-Hawkwind songs are technically undemanding but fantastic fun, as opined by Hawkwind guitarist Mick Slattery, in relation to the psychedelic blues he also plays with his band Fatfinger. Having just seen Nik jamming along with various friends in the Green Fields at Glastonbury this year, I’d challenge Lemmy to perform at a moment’s notice with such creativity and versatility. There was a definite undercurrent of opinion at Glastonbury that Hawkwind’s set on the Thursday had a tremendous amount of energy, while they still represent the spirit of festivals as demonstrated by the number of people there to see them.
Nik Turner is one of the most genuine musicians that I know and has sacrificed the pursuit of Mammon for the much more uncertain and often less well-rewarded path of playing music he really believes in. Time to let him
get on with it without all the legal proceedings and unpleasantness and allow people to make up their own minds about which incarnation of Hawkwind they would like to experience
Classic Rock has published the following article.:
X marks the spot Hawkwind row with Brock and Turner gets ugly.
Nik Turner and various other Hawkwind members past and present, including Lemmy, sci-fi writer Michael Moorcock and keyboard player Dik Mik, are set to take legal action against current band leader Dave Brock and a series of Hawkwind reissues. Led by former saxophonist Turner, who recently called Classic Rock to express his indignation at an Upfront story we ran two months ago, they allege that Brock himself is “destroying Hawkwind’s reputation”, and that he has also failed to pay royalties or seek permission” for the releases from what Turner called the “golden years of Hawkwind”.
Earlier, singer/guitarist Brock claimed that Turner and his group xHawkwind were “a Hawkwind tribute band”, and that their recent appearances at this year’s Glastonbury and Guildford festivals had cheated fans who were expecting the current line-up. Turner argues that the presence of vintage-era members Mick Slattery (guitar), Del Dettmar (keyboards), Thomas Crimble and Dave Anderson (both on bass) and Terry Ollis (drums) validates xHawkwind’s existence.
Worse still, Lemmy, Moorcock, Dik Mik, Ollis, Slattery, Dettmar and Crimble, plus ex-members Steve Swindells, Harvey Bainbridge, Paul Rudolph, Alan Powell, Adrian Shaw, Dave Anderson and even the estates of the late Barney Bubbles and Robert Calvert, now say they are pursuing Brock – who has trademarked the Hawkwind name – claiming “non-payments of royalties”.
Moorcock told us: “For some years Dave Brock has, wherever possible, removed the work of writers like myself and Bob Calvert from reissued albums and has generally behaved in a an unethical way. While I have been generally silent on these matters, Dave has been feathering his own nest at the expense of the others, especially the best-known members of Hawkwind. He has continued to put bands together which he has called Hawkwind which are only him and various new musicians. I’m speaking now because I believe Dave has behaved unethically in bringing an injunction against Nik Turner for using the name xHawkwind.”
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A press release has been prepared to explain some of all this.
http://members.aol.com/uheep2/pr.htm
Press Release 08/08/2002 – “Without Prejudice”
(Please note that this press release is independent from Spaceritual.net and does not necessarily reflect the views of Spaceritual.net)
Original Hawkwind members including Lemmy from Motorhead, science-fiction writer Mike Moorcock (see message from Mike Moorcock to Hawkwind fans further down), Nik Turner and a score of others line up in the court case against Dave Brock – about Brock’s destruction of the Hawkwind reputation and his issuing of CD albums featuring early members of Hawkwind and not paying royalties to or seeking permission of those members of the “Golden Years” of Hawkwind.
It started at the Glastonbury Festival 2002, Thursday 27th June 2002. Nik Turner and his eight-month old band XHawkwind.com (now forced to change temporarily to Spaceritual.net), featuring original members from the 1970s: Mick Slattery – guitar, Thomas Crimble – bass, Terry Ollis – drums (the band also often features other original 70s members such as Del Dettmar – noise generators/synths, Dave Anderson – bass, guitar, and Ron Tree – 90s Hawkwind member – bass, poetry, vocals, are just soundchecking as the first band to play on stage at Glastonbury 2002 (they played in a big top crammed with around 1,000 people and more were listening outside!) and Nik receives an injunction from Dave Brock, who is now trying to force Nik not to use any variation of the word Hawkwind as band name (Hawkwind was Nik’s original nickname from before the band was called that!!)
Dave Brock also bombarded the internet, pleading with punters to return their tickets and ask for their money back if they had bought those tickets thinking it was Hawkwind that was going to perform at the Guildford Festival and not Nik Turner’s XHawkwind.com After the Guildford Festival had finished, a journalist rang up its promoters and inquired as to how many people had asked for refunds because XHawkwind.com had substituted Hawkwind (owing to Dave Brock insisting on more costs to the Festival as the event drew nearer). The total number of people who have asked for a refund on their tickets as per Dave Brock’s massive internet campaign was ZERO!
By the 5th of August 2002, this had turned into a legal battle between all of the 70s Hawkwind stalwarts on one side and Dave Brock (who had registered Hawkwind as a trade mark without telling any of the past members of the band!) on the other, so the following ex-Hawkwind members are now pursuing Dave Brock about the so-called “Dave Brock-related bootlegs”, as well as non-payment of royalties:
Lemmy, Michael Moorcock, Nik Turner, the estate of the late Barney Bubbles, the estate of the late Robert Calvert, Terry Ollis, Steve Swindells, Harvey Bainbridge, Paul Rudolph, Alan Powell, Adrian Shaw, Dave Anderson, Thomas Crimble, Mick Slattery, Dik Mik and Del Dettmar.
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and on Dave Blocks’ / Hawkwind.com site, they say ……
PLEASE NOTE: DESPITE VARIOUS PROMOTION TO THE CONTRARY, WE HAD ABSOLUTELY *NOTHING* AT ALL TO DO WITH THE GUILDFORD FESTIVAL !!!!
Hello there! The Guildford festival were using the name ‘Hawkwind’ without permission. Simply putting an ‘x’ in front of the word Hawkwind was not far enough removed to avoid confusion. (Can you imagine watching xMotorhead, xLevellers, xOzric Tentacles etc while drinking xCoca Cola or indeed xXXXX!) There is an awful lot of confusion going on as well as legal action. The band who played WERE NOT Hawkwind and are not connected to or endorsed by the real band.
Hawkwind would like to make this clear to all of their fans.
Hawkwind are pleased to announce that the proceedings which Dave Brock had to take against Tony Scott and Scotty Events Ltd (Guilfest) in respect of the use by other artistes of the name of XHawkwind have reached an amicable conclusion. Tony Scott undertook to the court that he would not use the name ‘Hawkwind’, ‘xhawkwind’ or any name confusingly similar in relation to any band playing at Guilfest 2002 which is not associated with Dave Brock.
Tony Scott also has agreed to pay a contribution to Hawkwind’s legal costs.
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Hope no-one gets all shirty and legal with me, for just reposting this lot. Am just trying my best, in explaination of it all.
