I found this show somewhere online a couple years ago. I've since tagged the FLAC files, but done nothing else to them. SHN files are referenced in the original text file below, but I never had them. I've only had the FLAC. This is my first upload, so hopefully it all goes well.

I attended this show, 27 years ago today, and I've included another text file in the download with my voluminous and somewhat goofy gushings about the show which I wrote before I went to sleep that very night. I was high like kite on a very powerful cannabis infusion. Let's all remember that I was a 21 year old American in England for the first time, and this was my first Hawkwind show. I'd been worshipping them since I found Space Ritual in 1976, so this was a BIG DEAL.

I've also included a photograph of a poster which I tore off a wall leaving the show. I was in the very front with a camera, but my elevated state of mind and my inexperience in photographing a live show seem to have yielded nothing of real value. Tant pis.

This is an excellent sounding recording. I've listened to loads of Hawkwind shows, and the quality of this is top-notch. I haven't seen it on DIME in the year or two that I've been on, so all of you Hawkfans should definitely grab this.

cg

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ORIGINAL TEXT FILE

Hawkwind
Queensway Hall
Dunstable
U.K.
1983-02-10

Dave Brock: Guitar, keyboards, vocals
Harvey Bainbridge: Bass Guitar, keyboards, vocals
Huw Lloyd-Langton: Lead Guitar, vocals
Nik Turner: Saxophone, flute, vocals
Andy Anderson: Drums

This was Andy Anderson's 2nd gig (of only 8) with Hawkwind.
The ticket price for this show was �4.00

prob. Aiwa condenser mic.>Aiwa walkman (auto-record level)>TDK-AD cassette>Yamaha SW1000XG A/D>.wav>CEP>CDWAV>CD and .shn[and flac].

Queensway Hall is a circular dome - virtually a hemisphere. If you stand in the center and speak quietly (in the empty hall) the echoes of your voice amplify what you are saying quite freakishly.

This recording was made close to the stage - which was very wide. The sound sources were mostly on-stage equipment, rather than the PA - the sound from the PA passing mostly far behind the microphone. Perhaps because of this it has an unusually clear sound (given the unsophisticated equipment used) - in particular the instruments are quite clearly placed across the soundstage (listen to Dave Brock's guitar!)


Disc #1:
1. Chatter 0:55
2. Outer Limits intro 1:14
3. Choose Your Masks 5:34
4. Coded Languages 5:38
5. Magnu> 5:44
6. Dust Of Time 4:17
7. Dream Worker> 6:38
8. Waiting For Tomorrow 6:00
9. Ghost Dance 4:37
10. Psychedelic // Warlords 7:48
11. Fade-out 0:05
Total Time: [48:24]

Disc #2:
1. Fade-in 0:06
2. Sonic Attack 5:34
3. Solitary Mind Games 6:07
4. Utopia> 2:53
5. Social Alliance 3:38
6. Motorway City 7:24
7. Brainstorm 8:39
--encore--
8. Turner Rap & In The Mood 0:31
9. Ground Control To Pilot 0:39
10. Ejection> 3:06
11. Shot Down In The Night 2:19
12. Master Of The Universe 4:21
Total Time: [45:23]

I think I hear Nik squawking offstage at 2:36 in Coded Languages, maybe 3:02 & 3:44, possibly even earlier - prior to his apparant appearance on stage @ 4:01.

Following audio repairs were made in CEP:

From start of audio:

The entire 93 minutes were normalised.

I noted analogue flaws at:

d1t03 (Choose Your Masks) : 0:25, 0:42
d2t03 (Solitary Mind Games) : 4:37
d2t07 (Brainstorm) : 5:24

I slightly repaired the one at 0:25 in d1t03, the rest are untouched. There are probably a few more similar, but the recording is generally very good considering the basic equipment used.

The tape flip in Psychedelic Warlords was a bit of a problem. I tried to figure out how to patch it from 16/2/83, but the tempo (as well as the sound) was very different. In addition, the structure seemed somewhat different.

However the last couple of seconds before the tape flip pretty much matched the first couple of seconds afterwards, so with the loss of approximately 2-3 seconds IN ADDITION TO the music already lost with the tape flip, I patched the two segments together without a break. I think the result is better than leaving a silent gap in the middle of the track. It's 5:19 into Psychedelic Warlords. In reality there is probably 15-20 seconds of missing music.

The gap between the band leaving the stage, and returning for the encore is significantly cut. But you probably guessed that.

The fade out at the end of disc #1 duplicates the first few seconds of d2t02, and the fade-in at the start of d2 duplicates the last few seconds of d1t10. To rejoin (ie using the .shn files), simply omit d1t11 & d2t01.



---

I saw my first Hawkwind show at Dunstable Queensway Hall 27 years ago today. I was a young American college student in London. I'd been a huge Hawkwind fan since discovering Space Ritual in 1976. I saw this Dunstable show from the front row in front of Harvey. I was high like kite for the show. Before I went to sleep that night I wrote the following. It's a bit goofy, but this is what it was like to 21 years old in England for the first time living the dream of seeing Hawkwind at last...



There are feet in my face! What the fuck, where the hell did Nik come from! This is the craziest human I've seen! This guy is immense... he's dressed in a white suit... his face is made up with black triangles on his cheeks accentuating the bone with triangular black goatee and mustache painted on as well... wearing black wrap around bubble sunglasses... a string of horns, whistles and bells dangling from and flying about his neck... his hair is flaming red... he's blasting noise out of his sax... and he's just laying back dancing... kicking out his legs nice and easy... and snapping his feet right in my face! Thirty seconds ago I was minding my own business watching a set by Hawkwind, and then this guy appears, trots over from the far side of the stage and starts WAILING!

The stage is amazing! It's as if you are looking into a space age room. There are sixteen video screens arranged in a square in the center of it all. Two separate banks of keyboards and audio generators. Lights all over. The intro music is pretty intense... very spacey... sort of like a landing... they have arrived. People are screaming! Dave shows up as the rest wander out... Harvey Bainbridge, Huw Lloyd... and some unknown drummer. They are laughing and Dave yells to H.B., "Are you ready Harvey?". They blast into "Choose Your Masques".

They play for quite a while before Nik arrives. I had already assumed that he would not show up. It was probably two or three tunes into the set when suddenly... hello Nik. He makes the show. I knew I was going to enjoy Hawkwind as soon as they walked onstage. But when Nik came out, I knew that I was going to lose my mind!

Songs just flow by. I had read the list of songs posted earlier so that everyone could remember, but I couldn't. It didn't matter, for there was no future. There was only the unreality before me.

Suddenly Nik is soloing. The band is just hanging out and Nik is over at the far side of the stage soloing on his sax one-handed with the other one stretched out shaking as many as it can reach. I'm just clicking my camera in disbelief! But then he runs. Right over to me and sticks his hand out. I just stick mine straight out and he grabs it for a second then flitters off towards other hands. I just stare up and laugh.

The jokes are flying too. The only things said on stage are jokes.

Member of audience: Psi Power!
Nik: What?
Moa: Psi POWER!
Nik: (walking over to pay special attention to the bloke) What's that?
Moa: PSI POWER!
Nik: Solitary Ashtray? (walking away)

Nik: What do you want to hear?
Audience: PSI POWER!
Nik: WHAT DO YOU WANT TO HEAR?
Audience: PSI POWER!!!
Nik: Are you sure you didn't say Motorway City?

Nike's back again, blasting in my face with his sax... this time spittle flys. We shake hands again. He's whirling, jumping, running, pumping, wailing, twisting, diving, flying constantly. He's absorbing the energy of the place. Actually, there are too many incredible moments to write, remember or retell. This has truly been an experience of the first order.

Dave Brock is, however, the most intriguing of the characters. He is rarely seen by me because of the angle, but you can feel he is the sould of the machine. This textrual landscape of sound and vision is probably his mastermind at work. His creative output is quite astounding. there are the twenty odd official Hawkwind albums, the random singles and B-sides, the seven Weird tapes (two 105-s) and on and on. He is always smiling and laughing like he's having the greatest time in the world.

In between tunes there is a blast of music which is obviously a mistaken button pushed by one of the two men at the consoles.

Dave: that was you Harvey! (into the mic)
B.B,: No it wasn't (smiling knowingly)

Huw Lloyd is an impressive guitar player. Amazing speed and admirable taste. He suffers a bit from Nik's antics. I would have been happy to hear him play a bit more without the interruptions.

Dave is up again with a tremendous smile. He holds up a spray can and shoots out a string of something. He gives it to Nik who runs over to one side of the stage (again the far side) and runs along the front spewing out this stuff all over everyone in front. It is a sticky, dry string-like substance. I realize as I peel it off my face and hair later on. At the time, though, I was laughing in delight.

Incredibly it just goes on and on. What went by... Magnu... Dance of Ghosts... Shot Down in the Night... Psychedelic Warlords... countless others that just charged my brain and overpowered my memory banks. "Sonic Attack"... was... incredible! Nik is a master. "Brainstorm"... everyone goes loony! Nik is going berserk.

Shock. Nik says goodnight.

They come back, of course, but with he stipulation that we promise to dance. Is this the same band that once refused to appear until everyone sat down?

"Ejection" leads to mania. Nik and Dave even do the spoken intro. Another tune played and the the segue into "Master of the Universe". Nik is brainstorming again and the stage is out of control! This start to move fast and suddenly it's over. If I hadn't already had a ticket for the London show, I would have...

Images for all shows as well as full size images for this show.

Images for this show: