The Saga of Hawkwind by Carol Clerk

Author:Carol Clerk
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Music Sales
Published: 2009-11-04T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

Three Walnuts, A Hazelnut And The Head Of Yuri Gagarin

“I’VE been as happy as Larry since day one,” says Alan Davey of Hawkwind.

“We play real music. There are no gimmicks or flashy edges. Everyone can appreciate real music, like jazz was appreciated in the Fifties by everyone from rich businessmen down to poverty-stricken black people. It’s the only time you’d see all these people in the same room. Like the old Charlie Parker stuff, his gigs being full of the most amazing mix of people. He played for real, no gimmicks. None of us are what you would call shit-hot technical musicians. All my fingering is wrong on the bass. Technically, it’s very badly played bass. But it doesn’t matter. And Dave doesn’t know music. None of us can read it or write it. It’s all about feel.”

Alan was born on September 11, 1963 in Ipswich, and brought up there. He attended Nacton Heath Comprehensive – “a very rough place at the time” – and grew up with a great liking for Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis, Bill Haley& The Comets and all the other great Fifties rock’n’roll stars.

At 14, he was given a guitar by his parents, but he showed no interest in it. And then, a year later, he became fascinated by his elder brother Andy’s copy of Quark Strangeness And Charm. Alan, a huge Star Trek and sci-fi addict, loved the “spacey noises”. But it was when he heard Andy, a confirmed Hawkwind fan, playing Doremi Fasol Latido that Alan became an instant convert.

“‘Time We Left This World Today’ came on, with Lemmy’s bass solo in the middle,” he says, “and something switched on – ‘I want to make this noise, whatever it is.’ I was such an idiot, I didn’t know what the instrument was. This guy I knew had a guitar shop and I played it to him. I said, ‘What’s that instrument?’ ‘Well, it’s a bass.’ That was it …”

Alan acquired his first bass after doing a deal with his mum. She bought it on HP and he paid it off, week by week, with money from his first job as a butcher’s delivery boy, taking food to housebound customers.

Alan started thrashing along to Hawkwind LPs and by 1981, was playing bass in a band he formed with his cousin Nigel Potter. They dallied with several names – Stallion, Stormbringer and Chainsaw – before settling on Gunslinger and setting up gigs for themselves. “We used to play in Ipswich,” recalls Alan. “Just about every gig we played we got banned from ’cos it was too loud and raucous. We did six gigs or so, and that was about it, really.”

Nevertheless, Gunslinger nearly got a break through the weekly music paper Sounds who had teamed up with Neat Records in Newcastle to launch a talent search.

“We banged up a demo and sent it off,” says Alan. “We got right through to the last two. There was us and Raven [New Wave Of British Heavy Metal band from Newcastle].

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