Exciting news filtered down to the Eurorock column a while back concerning the legendary Hawkwind. Last December saw me make my annual pilgrimage from France to see them in London’s now sadly departed Astoria. It’s a trip that I try and make every year and sure enough it was a great night. They are currently playing dates across the UK, if you can get to them.

Shortly after that excellent evening last winter I heard that the Esoteric label, part of Cherry Red Recordings, had purchased Hawkwind’s entire back catalog between the years 1976 and 1997. This means that every Hawkwind album from Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music through to Distant Horizon will be getting the full re-release treatment.

Judging by past efforts from the Cherry Red group this is a development that will be well worth looking forward to. This news also marks the launch of a new label within the Cherry Red group called Atomhenge. It is on this label that the re-releases are appearing.

Not only do Atomhenge now hold the worldwide exclusive rights to every Hawkwind album between those dates but also every single, EP, and all the associated master tapes from that period. Let’s face it, there hasn’t been a dull period as far as the incredible journey of Hawkwind is concerned so this news is particularly exciting for everyone and anyone who has ever tripped over this band.

There have been several generations that have been influenced by them. Recently I had the pleasure of reviewing a band called the Oresund Space Collective who are busy proving that point with some excellent albums. Soon I will return to them to review their latest offering from the outskirts of the universe called Good Planets Are Hard To Find, so please watch this space.

The Atomhenge Hawkwind catalog starts with 1976’s Astounding Stories, Amazing Music album which is re-released with four bonus tracks. They are “Honk Dorky”, previously unreleased mixes of “The Dream Of Isis” and “Back On The Streets”, along with the single mix of “Kerb Crawler”.

1976 was a strange year in the history of Hawkwind. The word strange and Hawkwind go hand in hand of course, but this was the first album since Lemmy literally sped off, having fallen out of favor. The rest is history, as they say, and he went on to form Motorhead. 

This album therefore represented something of a transition period for the band who explored several different avenues showing a fascinating and wide ranging approach even by their own ground breaking standards.

Article Author: Jeff Perkins

Jeff is a writer who lives in France. He writes CD/DVD box sets, music reviews and has had a book published about David Byron of Uriah Heep. He is 'busy' exploring the music of Europe with his wife Debbie and dog Dylan. It's Dylan that does the writing of course. …

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