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Formed in the summer of 1969 as Hawkwind Zoo, they were offered a record deal by Liberty Records in November of that year and immediately shortened the band name to Hawkwind. Their live performances quickly gathered them a cult following, partly because they were seen as a 'community' Of the People - For the People group. Their second album In Search of Space was very successful.
During the early 1970s Hawkwind played a number of benefit gigs along with other 'community' bands/artists including The Pink Fairies and Steve Took who, as a key member of the UK Underground went on to work with a number of Hawkwind members.
Hawkwind achieved chart status with the release of the single " Silver Machine " in 1972 (Vocals by Lemmy). Their follow up single " Urban GuerrillaUrban Guerrilla is the name of a single 45 rpm record released in the United Kingdom by the band Hawkwind in 1974, but rapidly withdrawn following a terrorist outrage." was withdrawn after increased terroristTerrorism refers to the use of violence against noncombatants for the purpose of achieving a political, religious or socio-economic goal. Terrorist acts can be carried out by individuals or groups, and are sometimes sponsored by governments as an alternat activity by the Provisional IRAThe Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) is a paramilitary group which aimed, through the use of violence, to achieve three goals: (i) British withdrawal from Northern Ireland, (ii) the political unification of Ireland through the forced overthrow and.
Hawkwind have had a long-standing connection with the Stonehenge free festivalThe Stonehenge free festival was a festival from 1972 to 1984 held at Stonehenge in England. The festival was a celebration of various alternative cultures, in particular neo-paganism. The festival attendees were viewed as hippies (and some were, in fact, that ran from the mid 1970s until banned in 19851985 is a common year starting on Tuesday. Events January events January 1 Creation of the Internet's Domain Name System. January 17 British Telecom annouces they are going to abolish the famous red telephone boxes. January 23 A debate in the House of Lor.
On October 21October 21 is the 294th day of the year (295th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 71 days remaining. Events 686 Conon becomes Pope. 1600 Tokugawa Ieyasu defeats the leaders of rival Japanese clans in the Battle of Sekigahara, which marks the b 2001 the Hawkestra, a band formed by virtually all former members of Hawkwind, played a sell-out gig at the Brixton Academy.
Over the years they have had many line-up changes, however Dave Brock has been at the heart of the band since they formed. Other members have included Lemmy Kilmister (who went on to front Motörhead - originally with ex- Pink Fairies guitarist Larry Wallis), Nik Turner, Harvey Bainbridge , Del Dettmar , Huw Lloyd Langton, Robert Calvert, Paul Rudolph (former Pink Fairies/ Deviants member) and Twink (another Pinks member!) and more recently, Ron Tree as bassist and frontman.
Also Hawkwind have been known for giving credit to non-musician members of their crew, such as Liquid Len, a lighting engineer, and Stacia, a dancer. Their distinctive graphic design was created by Barney Bubbles, who would later create the graphic identity for Stiff Records, where, due to it being a small world Larry Wallis (Pink Fairies and Motorhead with Lemmy) was an in-house Producer.
The science fiction writer Michael Moorcock has a long association with the band. One of Hawkwind's albums Chronicle of the Black Sword was based largely on his Elric book series. The cover for this album was designed by John Coulthart.
Hawkwind should be credited in part with the genesis of Lemmy's Motörhead speed metal style of music (so named because of the slang name Speed for Amphetamines which the members of Motorhead consumed with relish). Lemmy was sacked from Hawkwind after being arrested at customs with suspected Cocaine, although analysis revealed it was Speed. Hawkwind also had an influence on some Punk rock and grunge: Former Black Flag and current Rollins Band singer Henry Rollins is a fan, as is Sex Pistol Johnny Rotten, while Hawkwind founder member Nik Turner formed the relatively successful Punk orientated Inner City Unit with former Steve Took's Horns members Judge Trev Thoms and Dino Ferari.