Hawkwind – Palace Springs

I won't forget the day I was in this one second hand store. It sold lots of used NES and Sega Genesis games, some rifles, used VHS (no DVDs then, this was 1996), used stereos, televisions and VCRs, and ton of used cassettes. I couldn't believe I saw a Hawkwind cassette, Palace Springs sitting next to the usual New Kids on the Block, Debbie Gibson, Tiffany, and various hair metal groups on the lines of Bon Jovi, Poison, and Warrant. Already familiar with their early material, I was curious about their more recent stuff. I wasn't disappointed, although it turned out this was a couple of 1989 live recordings performing previously released material, with two brand new cuts, "Back in the Box" and "Treadmill". All this released in 1991, after Space Bandits. Given it was recorded in 1989, this was when the band just witnessed another lineup change, with guitarist Huw-Lloyd Langton and drummer Danny Thompson, Jr. leaving (yes, Danny Thompson, Jr.'s dad is none other than folk and jazz double bassist Danny Thompson of Pentangle fame). Drummer Richard Chadwick came in, and Simon House decided to rejoin, and for a surprise, a female vocalist, Brigit Wishart joined. It seems at that time the band was using a lot of that Korg M1 workstation synthesizer (which would also be put into great use on Space Bandits) here. "Back in the Box" threw me off because they included a female vocalist, Brigit Wishart, but it still sounded like Hawkwind. Simon House (who temporarily joined the band at this point) gives some nice violin work. "Treadmill", if it weren't for the digital synthesizers (like the M1) could easily pass for classic Hawkwind. There's also plenty of Moog-like solos. "Lives of Great Men" and "Void of Golden Light" are originally from Warrior on the Edge of Time (although with different titles), proving they can hold their own in 1989 as in 1975. Of course, the Korg M1 now dominates. "Time We Left" is naturally, "Time We Left This World Today". "Heads", while still completely recognizable, is still different from what was on The Xenon Codex or Dave Brock & the Agents of Chaos. "Acid Test" is basically a techno reworking of "Dream Worker" from Choose Your Masques. In fact, it's the same track from Choose Your Masques, but with added-on '90s techno beats. "Damnation Alley" starts off the same as the original from 1977's Quark, Strangeness and Charm, but unlike the original, they venture into reggae (probably inspired by what Ozric Tentacles were doing), and many of the lyrics of the original were left out, so I can understand why people might not be totally happy with this version.

It's no doubt that buying Palace Springs got me interested in later Hawkwind, and this is actually one of their better ones I've heard, despite what they did to "Damnation Alley".