horsemouth is back from an excursion to the south of the seaside towns - there he saw'the praire frogs' play - they played an improv set to soundtrack one of lucy's films on the colour red and then played 3 or 4 songs themselves in an improv blues style (think john fahey's 'fare forward voyager' ) ending with what horsemouth took to be 'bullfrog blues' . it was good, horsemouth enjoyed it, he particularly enjoyed the slide guitar - it tempted him to get one. curiously on their way there horsemouth and howard heard a guy busking what seemed to be a slower blusier version of 'power of soul'.
sean has been in touch;
"Well Hawkwind may not have been the Scratch Orchestra, let alone the Red Flame Proletarian Propaganda Team (that was a new one on me), but nevertheless......
"Screw your politicians, harassment and laws" - Marx
In his Age of Empire, historian Eric Hobsbawm notes the brevity of the British empire, observing that its entire existence - which he dates between the mid 1870s and late 1960s - fell within the space of a single lifetime (like that of Churchill, who he cites as an example). Being a Leninist, he was of course wrong; the British empire existed a lot longer than that. Doubtless he felt obliged to consider imperialism as the last stage of capitalism, but those of us of a more infantile and disordered disposition know that imperialism exists concurrently with capitalism from the start and, in fact, predates it (how else to obtain an initial accumulation of capital?)
In passing, we note that in his capacity as jazz critic he was also wrong about Cardew and the AMM, slagging them off on the grounds that
a. what they did wasn't music and
b. even if it was, it didn't sound like Sonny Rollins.
It isn't known what he thought about Hawkwind - we tend to doubt he had an opinion.....
Anyway, while the treaty of Paris may have marked the beginning of a specific type of formality in British imperialism, it wasn't essentially anything new....yet we do understand Hobsbawm's point about the speed at which it declined.
When was it finally gone? I suggest the most suitable date to mark the definitive end of the British empire is 25th Aug 1973.
This is when Hawkwind played the Windsor Free Festival (Preview) ; in 1945 Britain had the largest land empire in human history, yet a mere 28 years later all the forces at the disposal of the state were unable to prevent a few hairies like Brock, Turner, Lemmy, Calvert and Moorcock setting up a PA and making a racket in the queen's back garden, while a thousand or so of the dodgiest reprobates in the country took loads of drugs and did it in the road.
"You can disappear in smoke" - Marx
Definitely the end....
Not quite the end of the maoist ritual,,,,
1.In all the excitement, how could I have forgotten to include the obvious meeting point - erstwhile Scratch Orchestra member and Lucky Lief producer Brian St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno? All together now - "jonbar-bar-bar-bar-barian"
2,I also forgot to refer to Cornelius Cardew finally joining the working classes when he was reinvented as an unemployed pipe fitter in comic book werewolf Alan Moore's early 80s ET meets Boys From the Blackstuff serial Skizz (2000AD).
Aha, found it! From his autobiography Mick Farren describes the moment he decided to emigrate -
"We were circling Parliament Square, past Big Ben, the statues of Winston Churchill and Richard ! - and drummer Al Powell announced that he was going to vote for Magaret Thatcher.
"Someone's got to be in charge here."
"Are you kidding me?"
Was he winding me up? Apparently not. This was the moment I decided I wanted out.....If Al from Hawkwind could make such a statement Britain as a nation had surely become
[completely] demoralised....."
So there you go; perhaps I was wrong, and Hawkwind do serve imperialism after all.....(Although, to be fair, Powell was purged soon after). I just found these cool pictures of anti-imperialist struggle in 1973 (hawkwind play the windsor free festival and the hairies build geodesic domes) to illustrate that last missive ( that must be Calvert in white, no?)
Dig the newspaper headline in the last colour pic. 'bomb goes off at the bank of england'
Couldn't find any pics of Cardew and the Scratchers playing Grunwicks. Doubtless the workers were suitably impressed (although they probably didn't build any geodesic domes).
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