Hawkwind Solstice at Stonehenge DVD

Submitted by Andy B on Sunday, 07 November 2004 Page Views: 12292

You may be able to guess when this DVD was released this year, and that gives a clue to how long it's taken me to get round to reviewing it, for which I apologise. I present in my defence not having a working DVD player for a while, and will redeem myself to the record label with my immediate urge to add this to your Christmas want list if this is your sort of thing, as this is a fantastic DVD.

This DVD presents highlights of Hawkwind's performances at the Stonehenge Free Festival in 1984. If, like me, you've been enjoyed listening to 'This is Hawkwind, Do Not Panic', the Stonehenge Album since the gold gatefold sleeved LP came out, then many of the tracks will be very familiar. To see them being performed 'from the archives' is a real treat. The first half of the concert seems to have been given in almost total darkness. I found this part very atmospheric, with Nik Turner and what look like Alan Davey and Lloyd Langton emerging occasionally from the gloom under a solitary chaser light. There's no mistaking Nik T in a tight white all-over body-suit, looking not unlike a Woody Allen 'sperm', and with a piece of black gaffer tape over his eyes like a strange Zorro mask. At the end of this section the crowd is promised that the performance will continue at dawn - 'if we can keep the band awake that long'!

Presumably they did, as things picked up again at some point in the morning. I have to say that the ambience of this performance is somewhat lost in broad daylight, not helped by the girls clad in white 1970s polyester sheets prancing around on stage trying to look like Druids and vestal virgins.

The music redeems things however as the camera pans over to the engine room of Spaceship Hawkwind, where Harvey Bainbridge and Dave Brock can be seen and heard stoking the analogue synthesisers for all they're worth.

There's a sprinkling of footage from the festival, I would naturally have liked to see more of this as it's fascinating, and ties in well if you're reading Andy Worthington's book about the Stonehenge festival, also released this past summer solstice. From the brief pans around the scene, the words 'Environmental Catastrophe' spring to mind! It's fortunate the producers of this video were around with their chunky cameras, as they created a valuable archive of something uniquely ephemeral and definitely 'of its time'. To recap - add this to your Christmas want list if this is your sort of thing, as this is a fantastic DVD.

The DVD Hawkwind - The Solstice At Stonehenge 1984 is produced by Cherry Red Records, and available from amazon.co.uk. There are more screenshots in our egallery.

Contributor Bio for Andy B: Megalithic Portal Founding Editor.