Group X - Starfarer's Hawkwind Page

High Tide‖ in an interview but, apart from the above quotes, there is simply no accessible written or anecdotal stories about the
venue (although following the 40 th Anniversary Happening this is likely to change!).
The hall itself is a very unusual location. There are no hoardings advertising bands, no electric lights to highlight the venue & it is
accessed via a single ornate door through a library. If it were not for the Happening it would be impossible to tell there was a venue
there, let alone a band.
Locations & quotes that just wouldn‘t go elsewhere!
Brock busking (c. 1968?)
Wormwood Scrubs, 2-2.5 km west of Portobello
Tottenham Court Rd., 6 km east of Notting Hill
John Harrison was a fellow busker who Dave Brock met at Tottenham Court Rd. Harrison‘s
background is, perhaps, the most surprising of the original line-up. An ex-member of
the Joe Loss Band, one account reports that he preferred golf to LSD! Harrison joined as bass
player for the band.
Young, aspiring musician Huw Lloyd-Langton worked as an assistant in at the Ivor
Moran‟s music shop in the area of Tottenham Court Rd. around Denmark St. that still contains
many music stores & publishers. Brock used to use Moran‘s for his equipment and,
after Slattery left, he invited Lloyd-Langton to gig with the band on 16 January 1970. Lloyd
-Langton, disgruntled at the management in Moran‘s, joined shortly after as a full-time
lead guitarist.
On August 23, 1970 Hawkwind played ‗Wormstock‘ on the common outside the prison.
Dubbed a “Spacerock skinhead moonstomp”, the band won over local skinheads who appeared
to be ready to cause trouble in the crowd. IT reported that they went down so
well that the skinheads requested them back! ―[These] brilliant young men from
Notting Hill [doing] their own proverbial multi-echo booming explosive thing...‖
- Kensington Post
Latimer Road/Freston Road (1 km west of Portobello. Straddling the Westway)
Hawkwind at ‘Wormstock’
Residence of Simon King, long-time drummer for the band (and once roadie for Cream. Ironically, Ginger Baker would be the drummer
who tried to replace him in Hawkwind). also festival favourites Here & Now. Community projects, such as the London Free
School, were based here & set up crèches & arranged the first carnival. This radicalism left a legacy in the social housing on Freston
Rd. Squatters created the Independent State Of Frestonia in 1977 when threatened with eviction by the evil GLC. The residents wanted
cheap housing & forced the government to build some.
Dave Brock: ―I lived near Ladbroke Grove, West London, in various places around there. It was the era of psychedelia, loads
of people smoking dope, taking LSD, loads of parties, lots of psychedelic music everywhere, clubs, strobes in all the clubs.
Luke, a harmonica player, Francis & me got invited to Marc Bolan's party, well, not invited - we gate-crashed really [laughs].
Luke was a wonderful harmonica player, played like Sonny Boy Williamson, & I played guitar.
We were at the party & heard Marc Bolan clanking around on his guitar. Luke said to Marc [thick Geordie accent] "Ee mon,
give im yer geetar!" So I had this guitar & played some blues & of course Marc Bolan didn't like that 'cos we were good
[laughs]. We were asked to leave. Consequently that's why I didn't turn up on his TV show in Manchester that time - I carried
resentment for many a year! I gave the excuse my car broke down! I didn't fancy travelling all that way just to mime the
show for our latest single 'Quark, Strangeness & Charm' anyway.”
―As a band, they hardly reflect an American influence, & on the surface, at least, it's difficult to imagine American kids beaming
out on Spaceship Ladbroke Grove. Hawkwind have always seemed a peculiarly English phenomenon, encapsulating a
typical eccentricity & inspired amateurism.‖—Simon House, 1974