Hawklords

The Hawklords took shape essentially as an offshoot from Hawkwind, remaining active for barely twelve months yet playing a decisive part in persuading founder-guitarist Dave Brock to attempt reviving his original outfit. The project originated after Hawkwind completed a six-week U.S. support run between February and April 1978; Brock found the experience so disheartening that he sold his guitar minutes after the final show in California, though manager Doug Smith urged him to reconsider. To circumvent contractual obstacles attached to the Hawkwind name, Brock assembled the new group as the Hawklords during summer 1978, enlisting former Hawkwind mainstay Bob Calvert on vocals together with Harvey Bainbridge on bass and keyboards, Steve Swindells on keyboards from String Driven Thing and Pilot, and drummer Martin Griffin.

The band mounted a twenty-five-date U.K. tour in autumn 1978, seeking a Jefferson Airplane-to-Starship-style name transition while promoting the album 25 Years On and the single “Psi Power”/“Death Trap.” The classic Hawkwind sound remained audible in the new songs, albeit with a rawer edge that drew younger punk-era listeners who had dismissed the group as unrepentant sixties holdovers. “Psi Power,” whose lyrics center on an unwilling recipient of extrasensory ability, became the most enduring Hawklords track for a time, later opening the 1984 live album This Is Hawkwind, Do Not Panic. Complications mounted, however, after the third reissue of Hawkwind’s space-rock anthem “Silver Machine,” which reached number 34 on the U.K. charts.

As expected, Brock’s and Calvert’s long-fractious partnership soon collapsed; Calvert departed in January 1979 to resume his on-again, off-again solo career. Griffin also left, allowing Simon King to reclaim the drum position he had held in both bands between 1975 and 1978. Now reduced to a compact quartet, the Hawklords suffered another setback when Swindells defected, leaving Brock and Bainbridge to continue through several more aimless months. Almost simultaneously, Charisma released the PXR5 album in May 1979, material recorded by the final Hawkwind lineup but previously shelved amid uncertainty over the parent band’s future.

By summer 1979 Brock had reverted to the Hawkwind name, a move that proved logical given the personnel overlap between the two projects. With King back in the lineup, guitarist Huw Lloyd-Langton and ex-Gong keyboardist Tim Blake joined the resurrected Hawkwind in time for its first engagement of the year at Leeds’ Futurama Festival. Brief though it was, the Hawklords episode ultimately demonstrated business as usual, even if the principal players reached that point by an unusually circular route.