Sonic Attack

Hawkwind headlined Glastonbury Festival in June, and in a bizarre twist of fate, none other than Ginger Baker was co-headliner! The band had recovered from the debacle with their former drummer and regrouped around Dave Brock, Huw Lloyd-Langton and Harvey Bainbridge—the latter now sharing keyboard duties with Brock. Martin Griffin, previously a member of Ark and the Hawklords, returned on drums, as did poet Michael Moorcock (absent during most of the Robert Calvert era). Recorded in the summer of 1981 at Kingsley Ward's Rockfield Studios for his RCA-distributed Active label, Sonic Attack would be Hawkwind's 11th studio record in as many years. The album opens with a rehash of "Sonic Attack" and its familiar lyric, which dates to the Space Ritual days. But the Lloyd-Langton-penned "Rocky Paths" points to the band's new sound for the early 80s: the so-called "heavy metal years." Hawkwind's music is firmly riff-driven, pulsing over a click-track steady rhythm with sequencers and synths galore. Lloyd-Langton adds his proficient lead guitar, bending more than a few notes. Moorcock takes a vocal for his "Coded Languages," and Brock's "Angels of Death" (also the album's single) and "Streets of Fire" follow suit. Both of Brock's tracks highlight the driving rhythm that Hawkwind had perfected over the past decade. The album was released to near unanimous acclaim, reaching No. 19 on the UK charts. An appearance at London's Rainbow Theatre in December even saw former colleagues Nik Turner and Robert Calvert take the stage. Two further albums appeared in 1982 on RCA/Active: The more electronic Church of Hawkwind was released in May, while Choose Your Masques came out in October. Hawkwind would then sign to Flicknife Records, releasing several albums that consisted of live recordings, demos and other detritus—including the Hawkwind, Friends and Relations series (heir apparent to Brock's mail-order only Weird Tapes). However, it wouldn't be until 1985 that the band released a proper studio album: the epic saga The Chronicle Of The Black Sword. With Brock in the captain's chair, Hawkwind would soldier on through the 80s amind numerous lineup and personnel changes and continue to experiment with new musical directions; defying fate and fortune, Hawkwind continue to this day.