Live Seventy Nine

Live Seventy Nine
Live album by Hawkwind
Released 21 July 1980
Recorded St. Albans, City Hall, 8 December 1979
Genre Space rock
Length 45:10 / 55:55
Label Bronze
Producer Hawkwind and Ashley Howe
Hawkwind chronology
PXR5
(1979)PXR51979		 Live Seventy Nine
(1980)		 Levitation
(1980)Levitation1980
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]

Live Seventy Nine is a 1980 live album by Hawkwind recorded on their Winter 1979 tour. It reached #15 on the UK album chart.

This is a reconstituted Hawkwind with Brock, Bainbridge and King emerging from the dissolved Hawklords, joined by lead guitarist Huw Lloyd-Langton who had played on the debut album Hawkwind and keyboardist Tim Blake who was a long-standing friend of the band and had played on Gong's Radio Gnome trilogy. This band embarked upon a UK Winter 1979 tour despite not having a record deal nor any product to promote, recording one of the shows.

Originally the band "didn't think the Oxford gig was very good, but we listened to the mixing-desk tape and were really surprised. So we mixed the master tape and got a deal with Bronze. If we hadn't got that deal, we'd probably have split up - we couldn't have carried on on our own."[2] Manager Douglas Smith secured a two-album deal with Bronze Records, even if Gerry Bron confessed "I don't think we would have signed Hawkwind if it weren't for Motorhead, I can't say I was that interested... Once you run a record label and you're employing people, you have to make good commercial decisions - you can't turn away business, even if the business isn't what you particularly want to do".[3]

The music is more energetic and aggressive than the previous albums released on Charisma Records and the album benefited in the rise in popularity of NWOBHM at the time.

"Shot Down in the Night" had been written by Hawklords keyboardist Steve Swindells for single release, but he departed during the year to record a solo album. The single was backed by the non-album cut "Urban Guerrilla" and reached #59 on the UK singles chart. Swindells also released a studio version of this track as a single and on his Fresh Blood album which he recorded with King, Lloyd-Langton and Nic Potter.

"Lighthouse" is from Tim Blake's solo album New Jerusalem.

"Silver Machine" explodes part way into the song and is suffixed with "Requiem" in Brock's attempt to kill it off, being sick of this 'hit single' he was expected to play every night.

Track listing

Side 1

  1. "Shot Down in the Night" (Steve Swindells) – 7:39
  2. "Motorway City" (Dave Brock) – 8:09
  3. "Spirit of the Age" (Robert Calvert, Brock) – 8:20

Side 2

  1. "Brainstorm" (Nik Turner) – 8:41
  2. "Lighthouse" (Tim Blake) – 6:25
  3. "Master Of the Universe" (Turner, Brock) – 4:33
  4. "Silver Machine (Requiem)" (Calvert, Brock) – 1:23

Atomhenge CD bonus tracks

  1. "Urban Guerrilla" (Calvert, Brock) - 6:28
  2. "Shot Down in the Night" [single edit] - 4:18

Personnel

Credits

Release history

Complete '79: Collector Series Volume 1

Complete '79: Collector Series Volume 1
Live album by Hawkwind
Released 29 November 1999
Recorded Hammersmith Odeon, 1 December 1979
Genre Space rock
Label Voiceprint Records - HAWKVP4CD
Producer Hawkwind
Hawkwind chronology
Choose Your Masques: Collectors Series Volume 2
(1999)Choose Your Masques: Collectors Series Volume 21999		 Complete '79: Collector Series Volume 1
(1999)		 Atomhenge 76
(2000)Atomhenge 762000
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic link

Complete '79: Collector Series Volume 1 is 1999 released album of a 1979 concert by Hawkwind.

During 1999, Brock issued a slew of archive recordings through Voiceprint Records to generate money to pay off an outstanding Inland Revenue tax bill. No permission from the other musicians was sought, although they did duly receive accounting and royalties once the outstanding bill was settled, leading to several members complaining about this activity, and former manager Douglas Smith commenting "I think it's wrong. As a human being and as a manager, I have to get the permission of all the artists involved before I would do a deal." [4]

This recording is not professional, possibly being a mixing desk tape but probably an audience bootleg. The sound levels and frequency fluctuate throughout making this difficult listening despite a good band performance.[5] It purports to be the full unexpurgated concert, but there are clearly edits, notably during "Brainstorm" at 5:08 into Brock playing "You Know You're Only Dreaming".

Exactly why such a poor quality recording was used for this release is uncertain, as the Hawkwind Anthology full versions of "Shot Down in the Night" and "Urban Guerrilla" demonstrate there is superior recordings available. Nevertheless, this CD contains the only available live versions of "PXR5" and Tim Blake's "New Jerusalem". The CD booklet is a reproduction of the 1979 tour programme by Steve 'Krusher' Joule.

CD 1

  1. "Shot Down in the Night" (Swindells) – 7:36
  2. "Motorway City" (Brock) – 9:07
  3. "Spirit of the Age" (Calvert, Brock) – 7:28 – 8:01
  4. "Urban Guerrilla" (Calvert, Brock) – 6:58 – 6:25
  5. "Who's Gonna Win The War?" (Brock) – 8:30 – 5:58
  6. "World of Tiers" (Bainbridge, Lloyd-Langton) – 3:11 – 5:41

CD 2

  1. "New Jerusalem" (Blake) – 9:34
  2. "Lighthouse" (Blake) – 10:08
  3. "Brainstorm" (Turner) – 8:10
  4. "Satellite" (Brock) – 2:41
  5. "PXR5" (Calvert, Brock) – 5:28 – 4:11
  6. "Master of the Universe" (Turner, Brock) – 1:57 – 3:14
  7. "Silver Machine" (Calvert, Brock) – 6:54 – 4:00
  8. "Levitation" (Brock) – 3:28 – 6:20

Note: The banding of tracks on the CD deviates from the actual songs, the first timings listed being those of the CD tracks, the second being the actual timings of the song.

References

  1. ↑ Allmusic review
  2. ↑ Orbit 4 (June 1983): Huw Lloyd-Langton interview
  3. ↑ DMME.NET - Classic Rock and Beyond - Interview with Gerry Bron, November 2004
  4. ↑ The Saga of Hawkwind, Carol Clerk, pp450
  5. ↑ Starfarer - CD Review
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