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Remembering Robert Calvert

His MySpace page reads – Despite the fact that most people view Robert Calvert as a rock musician, Robert actually viewed himself as a poet and a writer. It is of course easy to see where the confusion arises as Robert was for many years a member of British rock band Hawkwind. Robert recorded numerous albums with the band between the years 1971 and 1978 including important releases such as Space Ritual and Quark, Strangeness and Charm .
I just stumbled across his page while browsing and had forgotten how much I liked Quark, Strangeness and Charm and Captain Lockheed & The Starfighters (sadly lost this album) – will have to re-order from Amazon as I miss it.

Urban Guerrilla

martin | MySpace Video


Hawkwind – Quark Strangeness And Charm

Rab | MySpace Video

Posted in Now This Is Music.

Tagged with , , , .

2 comments

By Laughing Dog – 11 March, 2010

2 Responses

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  1. Spacepig says

    There’s never a bad time to discuss Hawkwind and if the subject is the Calvert years then so much the better.

    Two great videos provided here. Urban Guerilla was supposed to be as big a smash as Silver Machine. But as is so common in the Hawkwind camp, the timing was way off. Just before it was released the IRA blew the Birmingham boozers to bits and the powers that be decided that this song was inappropriate for the times and promptly suppressed it. The idiots obviously never even listened to the words.
    And, any video which gives us a glimpse of Stacia has to be treasured.

    The Quark video seems a little tame in comparison, which is a bit surprising because at the time it was filmed Calvert was in all out loopiness mode. I think this was recorded just before the Atomhenge live album and that one sees him go way over the top – great stuff!

    I am the proud owner of every Hawkwind studio album and countless live recordings. Probably in all, about 200 CDs. I know its not to everyone’s taste, but probably close to the top of the list would be Astounding Sounds Amazing Music. I never seen Calvert myself, much to my regret, but I have looked long and hard for a video or DVD of one of his concerts, no luck yet though.

    By the way, he could cut it without the backing of Hawkwind too. Mr D mentioned Captain Lockheed which is Hawkwind in all but name, but also worth picking up are Lucky Lief and the Longships and if you stumble across Blueprints from the Cellar I can highly recommend grabbing it.

    8 April, 2010, 11:30 pm
  2. Laughing Dog says

    Hi Spacey – 200 Hawkwind CD’s – man you are amazing. I will always have a soft for them – one of my proudest moments as a Dad was when my pups saw them live at last years Greenman festival and were blown away with how good they were.

    They are truly an amazing band

    Here’s a challenge for you – why not put together a playlist of all your favourite Hawkwind tracks, say around 20 tracks from them and all their offspring Calvert, Hawklords, Nik Turner etc. etc. anybody you want. Then I’ll post as a special music mix. It would be great if you could write some notes for each track as well but if there’s no time then just the music will be grand. One more thing I have loads of Hawkwind as well but when you email me you 20 tracks give me say another 6 or so that I can substitute if I haven’t got what you put in your playlist.

    This must surely be a labour of love for you

    9 April, 2010, 8:41 pm



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