Lemmy&Hawkwind

[Trikazul]

Dear Mr. Moorcock,

while reading "White Line Fever", the autobiography of Lemmy from Motأ¶rhead, I noticed that Lemmy mentions you and your work several times when he writes about his time with Hawkwind. I'd like to know, if you are still in contact with each other and how the time with Lemmy and Hawkwind was from your point of view? Was it really that crazy?


Best regards,
Trikazul

[Darren]

Re: Lemmy&Hawkwind

the autobiography of Lemmy from Motأ¶rhead, I noticed ...

You mean he can Read as well as wright?!!

:lol:

[Darren]

Re: Lemmy&Hawkwind

I wrote:

You mean he can Read as well as wright?!!

:lol:

This does not imply I can't read or write myself as I intentionally chose 'wright' the present participle of the older form 'wrought' meaning 'worked'.

Thank you for your attention.

[Anonymous]

Don't be fooled by Lemmy's wild man of rock exterior... he's bright as a button.

Funny too... close your eyes when he speaks, and you'd swear it was Les Dawson!

[Michael Moorcock]

Well, Trikazul, it depends what you mean by crazy. There are some rather vague patches in my life between, say 1963 and 1979, which I consider to be the years of the Golden Age! But what's crazy for some is fairly normal for others. I met a young man a little while ago who told me that his dad had told him that there was nothing special about the period and it was just the same as any other period. As I said to the young man -- maybe for your dad it was. I had a great time and I'm glad I'm still alive. I did take the precaution of getting a lot of life insurance to cover my family should something go wrong. This allowed me, I suppose, to climb out of moving cars to sit on the roof while the likes of DikMik were driving, but it seemed a natural thing to do.
Lemmy and I became friends almost immediately he joined the band and I still like him. We're in intermitten touch. If I get a chance to stay longer in LA next time, for instance, we're bound to meet up (if he's in town). The same goes for my friend Mick Farren, late of the Pink Fairies
and now a well-known sf rock 'n' roll writer, who also lives in LA. Mick was a brilliant editor of IT (International Times) and successfully defended himself in court during one of those interminable raids on the underground press which was also a feature of the 60s and 70s.
Lemmy is a gent. Linda loves him. He also tells a very fine joke (Les
Dawson maybe...) and is, I agree, very smart. I would guess he's one of the smartest people in rock, certainly that I know.

[DeeCrowSeer]

I met a young man a little while ago who told me that his dad had told him that there was nothing special about the period and it was just the same as any other period. As I said to the young man -- maybe for your dad it was.

My mother spent that period training to be a nurse, and my father was away in the Navy. Consequently they don't have a single interesting story to tell about Britain in the "swinging sixties". I wish I could say I'd made up for their lack of rebellious spirit, but I really, really haven't.

The same goes for my friend Mick Farren, late of the Pink Fairies and now a well-known sf rock 'n' roll writer, who also lives in LA.

I think I'm right in saying that Mick Farren's Phaid the Gambler was the first "grown up" science fiction book I ever read. I still love that book. Exit Funtopia and... er... C.O.R.P.S.E. (?) were also great fun. Phaid is one of those books that seems to crop up quite often in second-hand shops for a couple of pounds, so I highly recommend keeping an eye out.

D...

[Moody]

I have a theory that an UNUSUALLY high percentage of those born during the WWII period, roughly late thirties to mid fourties, were exceptional.

The devastating purgation of that obscenely wasteful conflict created a psychic charge that heightened the consciousness of many of those war babies.

Cue Van Morrison;

"We were the war children, born in 1945,
When all the soldiers came marching home from war,
With love-looks in their eyes".
[from 'Hard Nose the Highway']

This gifted generation came of age in the 1960's ....

p.s., I wondered why Lemmy doesn't mention Mick Farren much in White Line Fever?

[Trikazul]

Well, Trikazul, it depends what you mean by crazy.

Whenever I talk to people who were in London during the late sixties and early seventies, I'm told that the city was bursting with creativity. Everywhere was music, drugs and young people with funny clothing
Hawkwind seemed to be a very weird band. Lemmy writes that nobody knew how many of the band would show up at a gig so that they had to improvise very often. Nearly everyone seemed to be on acid or other psychodelic drugs and - this is a miracle to me - most of them survived without becoming human vegetables.

This allowed me, I suppose, to climb out of moving cars to sit on the roof while the likes of DikMik were driving ...

Allright, you are a very brave man. :D I wouldn't even sit in a car with a guy like DikMik driving. (Highway to hell, you know :) )


Best regards,
Trikazul

[Michael Moorcock]

DikMik's a good driver. He'd have to be or we'd all be dead. Jon Trux, who became the fictitious hero of M. John Harrison's novel, was also very good. But brave ? Hmmmm.... I think nuts might be a better way of putting it.

[Anonymous]

I wonder whatever happened to DikMik (or Stacia for that matter)? I love Hawkwind but for me the golden period was 1971-1977.

[Michael Moorcock]

This is a good place to plug Ian Abrahams's really excellent and intelligent and well-researched book on Hawkwind, just out.
HAWKWIND: SONIC ASSASSINS by Ian Abrahams, published by SAF Publishing at 25 pounds and well worth it, I'd say. Stacia and I were in touch relatively recently. She's happily married and living in the US.
Lost touch with DikMik, but Lemmy might know where he is.

[nalpak retrac]

I think I saw a pic of Alice Cooper hanging out with Hawkwind. Stacia was sitting on Alice's lap?

Earlier this summer I saw the Hawkwind book, or was it another book by Lemmy? I recollect he has some interesting things to say. I might have said this before, but I think he's the most legit guy in rock and roll (that is, about as legit as you can get in that business of illusions). There's really, yes, nothing phony about him. Iggy Pop also comes to mind. Who knows fer sure?

[Michael Moorcock]

Iggy, too, is a very nice guy. As, indeed, is Lou Reed. It's almost a rule that the meaner or crazier the stage image, the nicer the performer is off stage. Not ALWAYS, but often.

[Michael Moorcock]

Calvert's back:

http://aural-innovations.com/robertc...alvertnews.htm

I recommend this excellent site, with links to most of those associated with Hawkwind, Deep Fix etc.

One very minor point -- Pavli and I did Brothel in Rosenstrasse BEFORE
Pete used some of the same tunes for Robert's work!

[magmox]

Cool...I used to visit Spirit of the 'P'age and was wondering when it (or something like it' would return! :D