We're at the 100th album already, and Hawkwind's live epic takes this proud slot. I first heard Hawkwind when Silver Machine hit the charts, seemingly like no other music about at the time, and many a schoolboy fancy was tickled by tales of Stacia dancing topless as part of their stage show.
It was partly recorded at Liverpool Stadium, a venue of legendary decrepitude, and one I was destined never to visit. It's an album I heard during my teenage years, and hadn't thought of much until a couple of years ago, mooching around in HMV Canterbury with my daughter, they were playing this. It sounded great, so I bought it there and then. Well, it was on special offer, and it would be rude not to, since they'd gone to the trouble.
This is Hawkwind at the peak of their powers, sounding vastly different to anything else a 12 year old had heard in 1972. It opens powerfully, displaying an array of spacey electronic noises before rocking off into Born To Go, Down Through The Night and Lord Of Light, each gap punctuated with Robert Calvert's booming voice, delivering his lyric/poetry over strange noises. It's a series of trademark Hawkwind space rock epics - Space Is Deep, Orgone Accumulator, alternating with Calvert's dulcet tones before CD1 (three sides of the original double LP) ends with the sonic mayhem of Brainstorm. At this point, it's a nailed on four star.
This standard continues on CD2, Seven By Seven, a solid rocker, Calvert's terrifying Sonic Attack, but then something odd happens. Time We Left This World Today seems to plod and drag, and it's downhill from there. Nothing reaches close to the highs so far experienced. This CD version adds three extra alternate live versions, but since two of them are repeats of weaker tacks from CD2, they add nothing to the album. Perhaps, it's not the quality, perhaps an hour of Hawkwind is all the human ear can tolerate, but I think CD1 will get frequent plays, while CD2 gathers dust.
3* - a real album of two halves - CD1 is a fantastic effort, CD2 is frankly very average and too long.
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