Shot Down in the Night
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| "Shot Down in the Night" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| Single by Hawkwind | ||
| from the album Live Seventy-Nine | ||
| B-side(s) | "Urban Guerilla" | |
| Released | 27 June 1980 | |
| Format | 7" Vinyl record | |
| Recorded | November, 1979 | |
| Genre | Space Rock | |
| Length | 4:15 | |
| Label | Bronze Records - BRO98 | |
| Writer(s) | Steve Swindells | |
| Producer(s) | Ashley Howe and Hawkwind | |
| Chart positions | ||
|
UK#59 |
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| Hawkwind singles chronology | ||
| 25 Years (1979) |
Shot Down in the Night (1980) |
Who's Gonna Win The War? (1980) |
| "Shot Down in the Night" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| Single by Steve Swindells | ||
| from the album Fresh Blood | ||
| B-side(s) | "It's Only One Night of Your Life" | |
| Released | 27 June 1980 | |
| Format | 7" Vinyl record | |
| Recorded | 1979 | |
| Genre | Rock Music | |
| Length | 5:12 | |
| Label | ATCO – K11532 | |
| Writer(s) | Steve Swindells | |
| Producer(s) | Steve Swindells | |
| Steve Swindells singles chronology | ||
| Energy Crisis (1974) |
Shot Down in the Night (1980) |
Turn It On, Turn It Off (1981) |
Shot Down in the Night is a 1979 song by the UK rock group Hawkwind. It was originally released as a single in the UK (BRO98) on 27 June 1980 reaching #59 in the UK singles chart, being a slightly different version to the one on the album Live Seventy-Nine.
The song was written by Steve Swindells while rehearsing with the Hawklords at Rockfield Studios in 1979. He presented it to the band and they agreed its potential as a future single. However, not having a record deal at the time, Swindells left the band when offered a solo deal by ATCO which resulted in the Fresh Blood album, and his studio version of the song was released as a single on the same day as Hawkwind's live version. Swindells claims his version to be "waaay harder, more dramatic and simply better than Hawkwind’s version. In both the battle of the butch and the artistic, the queer won."[1] Despite that claim, Simon King (drums) and Huw Lloyd-Langton (guitars) played on both giving the two versions a musical closeness, but Swindells' gruff vocals perhaps make his version heavier than Dave Brock's folky vocal on Hawkwind's version.
