LIVE SEVENTY NINE

This live album has of course little to do with "Space Ritual".

This one is seriously hard-rock or even metal oriented. But several years separates those two and the tendency of the early eighties is drastically different than in 1973.

Still the band is mixing their early days period ("Brainstorm", "Master Of The Universe") with their most recent one ("Motorway City"). This also shows that even during their early days, energy did mean something to the band.

The version of "Brainstorm" available here is totally disjointed and of an extreme violence. Guitars are devastating and after such a track the audience must have been pretty knocked down. Fabulous work as well from the rhythmic section. This is wiiiiild rock music, my prog friends.

Some aerial moment is needed to cool down a little bit, and "Lighthouse" fully does the job. It doesn't come from the "Hawkwind" repertoire but from a solo work from Tim Blake ("Blake's New Jerusalem").

Another crazy version of "Master Of The Universe" is rather energetic as well. While "Space Ritual" was more "trip" oriented, this "Live Seventy-Nine" is definitely a great moment of highly paced rock music. It all started with the punkish "Shot Down In The Night".

Three stars for this short live album which could wake up the deadliest ones.

Hawkwind - Live Seventy Nine (1980)

Hawkwind is band that should be listened to when playing live. The band also knew this and there are several live albums from throughout their long career. Hawkwind plays space rock/metal/punk with lot's electronic equipment. There isn't much great songwriting, but the sound is great and the atmospheres are a blessing.

L79 isn't one of the important live albums. It's short and it has some poor vocals and some weaker tracks. Spirit of the Age is a weak track of the band and I can't understand why this song has to played like on several live albums. The instrumentation of the band is however still good and it's good to hear Hawkwind as a five-man setting. Throughout the album one can hear the punk influences in the music, whilst the progressive leanings of the early and mid-seventies are almost gone. Still this is pure space-rock that would attract many lovers of the symphonic genre.

Conclusion. Not my favorite Hawkwind live album at all, but still good. Three stars. First try Space Ritual, Love in Space or The Business Trip.

Hawkwind's second live album is a pale shadow of the epic 'Space Ritual' due to its lack of depth and material overall but there is nothing wrong with this album, that really cements the band's reputation as live treasures. This one features some of their greatest works such as the fantastic energetic opener, 'Shot Down in the Night' that became a single for the group.

It is followed by equally great 'Motorway City' and the live favourite 'Spirit of the Age' from their recent at the time 'Quark, Strangeness and Charm', though this could have been replaced by the brilliant 'Orgone Accumulator' that only seems to appear on 'Space Ritual' in live format for some unearthly reason.

'Brainstorm' is always welcome and this version rocks hard for about 9 minutes. Brock sounds dynamic and it is the band at their heaviest. The lead break is perhaps better than on 'Space Ritual' focusing more on rock than psychedelic overtones. There is an improvised section with some pounding drums, electronica and experimental guitar sonics making this a sheer delight.

'Lighthouse' is a nice diversion from all the heaviness and only appears on this album as it was a composition by Tim Blake. The band are in excellent form here with Dave Brock sounding raw but vibrant on vocals and guitars, with some synth thrown in. He speaks to the crowd occasionally such as before the ridiculously short 'Silver Machine' Requiem that cuts off badly. Harvey Bainbridge's bass and Huw Lloyd-Langton's guitars are always great to listen to. Tim Blake is on keyboards, and Simon King is terrific on drums.

'Master of the Universe' is a faster version that goes by too fast for my tastes but it is still fantastic to hear. The only low point is that 'Silver Machine' seems tacked on rather than included as the indispensable classic that it is.

Overall this is a solid live release and kicked off the 80s in fine form for Hawkwind. As with many Hawkwind albums this one appears in different formats with different track listing; the vinyl being different than the CD, but in this case it does not seem to detract from the overall enjoyment of the concert.

After a stint on Charisma Records where, with Robert Calvert fronting, Hawkwind developed the more ornate side of their sound for a time, Live Seventy Nine found them issuing a roaring return to the proto-metal aspects of their sound which had been such a feature of their United Artists years. As well as being a timely move in terms of current trends - the New Wave of British Heavy Metal was hitting at right about this time - it was also a creative breath of fresh air for the group, which allowed them to turn in the magnificent Levitation as their next studio album.

Including a well-chosen set of old classics (Brainstorm, a bit of Silver Machine before the titular machine explodes, and more recent tracks like Spirit of the Age) and new material (Shot Down In the Night was the big single from this release, and Levitation's Motorway City gets an early preview here), the album also includes a rare live performance of Lighthouse, a piece from Tim Blake's Crystal Machine solo album - for Gong veteran Blake had hopped aboard the Starship Hawkwind for this release.

Buyer beware: the release known under various names including Complete '79, which purports to be a complete recording of this concert, is not to be trusted. Yes, it is the full concert... but the sound quality is absolutely dire and is apparently sourced from an audience recording, and can only disappoint next to the sound of this release. The Atomhenge reissue includes as a bonus track Urban Guerilla from the same set, so if you must have more, you can tack that on, but that's it as far as recordings from this gig with acceptable sound quality goes. This does mean this live album is a little short compared with more epic releases from earlier and later in Hawkwind's career, but what it lacks in mass it makes up for in substance.