“Flash” had a vibrancy and optimism that transcended all the stereotypes of seventies rock music. They really loved their music and it always showed. They were Flash – their life was short but burned bright. They came and went in a Flash.
Fortunately for us all, several Hawkwind shows were recorded, and the best of two from Liverpool and Manchester have been spliced together to give the complete experience, all done in the correct running order. This was first released as a double album in 1973 at the price of a single album, Hawkwind being Hawkwind and always giving value for money. As well as a poster-size foldout cover, you also got two booklets, one telling the story of the Space Ritual joining the dots between songs, the other giving you all the information you could possibly want about the tour.
Argus was voted album of the year by very influential British Music Paper Sounds. Sold-out world tours followed, creating a huge fan base. An album that should be in every record collection.
The musicianship is never anything but superb; for that alone, the album cannot be faulted. The best and heaviest thing on the album is the John Gustafson-written ‘Sinister Minister’ with its crunchy guitar licks and bass-heavy driven rhythm.
It’s impossible to pick out highlights on Legends of the Shires as the album is best served to be listened to in its entirety. But after a brief introduction, the second song, Small Dark Lines, shows off Threshold’s combined power. Heavy riffing over a pounding beat with determined vocals—an aural battering.
Released 1978, Blonde’s third album ‘Parallel Lines’ reached number one all across Europe, Asia and Australia. It’s been ranked #140 on Rolling Stone magazine’s Top 500 albums of all time.
“Take Me To Your Leader” was the 21st all-new studio album to come out under the Hawkwind banner since the band’s conception in 1969. It is also a fine return to form by the original lords of Space Rock.
As the 1980s drew to a close, hair metal died away to be replaced by grunge, hip hop and rap. But underneath this was a small but determined surge of Progressive Rock. Here are a few debut albums from this period.
Formed in Bristol, England in 1968, Stackridge was one of those wonderfully quaint rock bands that could only have been British in their frightfully stiff upper lip way on the recorded plain.
Arriving out of a band called Sisyphus, with the addition of singer Sonja Kristina, the band Curved Air rose to prominence in the early seventies and captured the attention of both the British press and the growing rock audience with some of the great musicians of the age.
