COMPLETE '79 COLLECTOR SERIES VOL. 1

Although not the best sound this shows the 79 rebirth of Hawkwind was a brave move, going on tour with no label backing and then presenting to the fans at least 9 songs never recorded on a Hawkwind album(at that point)

The 'original' album was always one of my favourites. I liked putting it on in between Space Ritual and Do Not Panic (live at Stonehenge) to wallow in the sounds of the mighty Hawks live. My first thought is that I can't remember the sound being so poor back in the day. It's not awful but sounds like a good bootleg (which is essentially what it is I suppose). The best thing about this CD is the material. With Huw Lloyd Langton on guitar, and Harvey Bainbridge, Tim Blake, Simon King and the good Captain completing the line-up this is a good representation of Hawkwind when they wrote 'songs' rather than 'jams'. They're exquisite at both of course but it's nice to have a change. Whereas Space Ritual was dominated by extended jams often built around one solid riff, much of the material here falls into the verse / chorus way of doing things......oh, and there's guitar solos. I'm listening to Motorway City at the moment and, well, you can't keep a good song down. Brilliant!! Fear not, those who enjoy the 'space' part of space rock more are still well served, particularly by Tim Blake who brings his own New Jerusalem to the table as well as providing the signature tweets and whooshes no Hawkwind album would be without. Recommended for Hawk fans but in this day of downloads a newcomer would be better served by downloading the studio versions of the tracklisting and making him or her self a mighty fine compilation.

BEWARE! Whether it's Hawkwind doing it to themselves ? or unsprupulous others ?I really don't know.

What I do know is that there is a huge pile of Hawkind DVD's and CD's of trully appalling quality ? I couldn't telly you what the performances are like if I wanted too. They might br great ? We'll never know as these products are marred by truly awful bootleg sounds that are much worse than the freely available live sets that can be downloaded LEGALLY, FOR FREE, from numerous websites. If you must have more Hawkwind check the websites ? Do NOT buy these terrible recordings ? you have been warned

Live albums aren't really my thing. Generally I'd rather go for the studio offerings. In most cases they satisfy me more. Although, there are some albums of great worth: Camel's Pressure points or Deep Purples Made in Japan. These are albums where one really feel the music in a live setting. Another great leve album is this one, Complete '79.

I do agree with some reviewers, that the single disc album is a tighter album in some sense but this one gives more of a true feel of what it must have been like that night, witnessing Hawkwind on stage. First one must say that Complete '79 is one of the hardest live albums made. It's really, really furious and storming. Shot down in the night opens up the album with enormous energy and rage. And it carries on in that way for the remainder of the album, except for New Jerusalem and Lighthouse, which are two electronic pieces. Quite ambient and peaceful, in a way. It's soothing, especially since the band after those songs kick off Brainstorm, a version capable of kicking the Earth out of it's orbit. It's really something extra.

The reason for me to buy it was the fact that there are quite a few songs from the upcoming Levitation, by then not yet released. They are all great live adaptions and it's great fun hearing them like this.

The sound quality is not top notch. There are a few weird anomalies and sometimes it's quite rough, like a soundboard bootleg. But that's fine, actually. The music is so magical, enthralling and mezmerising that it ultimately leaves little to wish for. A great live album!