Hawkwind – Live At The Royal Albert Hall 3CD/3LP (Cherry Red) – Two hours and forty minutes, a triple album, admittedly the live performance only takes up the first four sides, thankfully no Silver Machine, the third disc features rehearsal recordings and such, there is a sixteen page booklet, information is a touch vague though. Recorded at London’s Royal Albert Hall back in September 2023, a prestigious event, the mere thought of it surely brings a smile to even the most cynical of us (yeah, I know, not the first time but hey). Question is, do we need another Hawkwind live album? Probably not, there are a number of classics already and I’m not sure the current line up, as fine as they play, have the personalities of past times. Hawkwind have always been about foils, about the interplay and yes, sometimes the tension between the big figures, the characters, this line up doesn’t quite have the presence of a Robert Calvert or a Nik Turner up there alongside the ever present Dave Brock, they are maybe a little faceless these days but hey we’re coming to the end of 2024, this album comes out in January 2025, they’re got another UK tour booked (although as someone irately pointed out when we published the dates recently, eleven dates all in England does not make for a UK tour). Hey, Hawkwind are still releasing more than decent studio albums (we’ve been genuinely impress by the most recent two), they’re still touring, last time I caught them live they were on excellent form, and according to the press release that landed with this album yesterday, Hawkwind’s new studio album, There Is No Space For Us, will be released in Spring 2025 to coincide with live shows.  

Do we really need another Hawkwind live album? Well there is the newer material on here, pieces from The Future Never Waits and such, pieces that manage to hold their own in a set loaded with classics but then the previous live album We Are Looking In On You really wasn’t that long ago, recorded in 2021 and released in 2022, it did feature the current line up of of Dave Brock, Richard Chadwick, Magnus Martin, Doug MacKinnon and Tim ‘Thighpaulsandra’ Lewis and it did feature a number of the tracks you have on here. True, you have got Arthur Brown to add his unique colour and yes an anti-establishment set of urban guerillas like Hawkwind playing the Royal Festival Hall and all that stands for (again) is worthy of celebration and commemoration and this version of Born To Go that’s flowing past right now is a rather fine version. You could maybe wish for the current members to put a little more of their own finger print on some of the more familiar songs and they are kind of almost thrashing through what maybe just another version of Brainstorm right now when it needs just a little more maybe? It does kind of feel like Brock and, with respect, a gang of sidekicks, oh for an acid drenched sax played by a man with a green horn or a House-flavoured violin duelling with it all. But these are still great versions, some of it is almost jamming in a positive way and yes we do have more than enough of that space thrusting, and that Arthur Brown spoken word bit during Black Corridor and all the space is there and it isn’t large but it isn’t small is more than inspired, Arthur is nothing short of brilliant here, vital, and that is a really great version of 10th Second of Forever and that is a a rousing version of Master Of The Universe as the set draws to an end. 

So do we really need another Hawkwind live album from this line up? Well no one is forcing you to buy it, if you are one of those completists that must have everything then that really is you’re choice (or your problem?). I guess the completists are going to be as interested in the third disc and the rehearsal recordings as much anything? I’ve never been a completist, I’ve never needed to own every track and every version by a band (well maybe besides the classic days of Motorhead, I will admit to numerous copies of Overkill, none of the recent ones though). The demo-ish feel of the third disc does hold something, it is just the tracks, no studio interaction or anything as interesting as those insights might offer. The fourteen minutes of Practical Ability is certainly a curiously rewarding quarter of an hour of mellow Hawkcolour and that’s an interesting version of Lost Chances that does kind of look to the future and and leads to a five and half minute instrumental Second Chances, and a very very mellow version of Underwater City a track found on the most recent studio album that takes us to the cold grey mask of morning and a revisiting of the dream world of 1992’s Electric Teepee album and the thinking that you might have found perception’s doors (they open to what?)

Do we need another Hawkwind live album so soon after the last one? Probably not but then this is a commemoration of a spacial gig even if there have been many many special Hawkwind gigs (and yes I know there’s a live album from when they played there in 2016 as well), and hey, if you are a dedicated fan then there are some more than decent versions of classics alongside the newer material. Yes, it is a good live album, yet another good live Hawkwind album, I kind of want their live sets to take on some of the left-field spaces that have taken them out of their comfort zones in such a positive way on the most recent studio albums, maybe that all comes with the 2026 release of Hawkwind Live at the Barbican that they’ll record in May of 2025 all being well with the seemingly tireless Brave Baron Brock by the late Spring of next year. 

Yes, the front cover art is once again a little disappointing and looks like it was knocked up in five minutes, when you think of some of those glorious Barney Bubbles covers you kind of wish they’d put a little more into recent covers (and yes I’d do it at the drop of a hat if you’re asking, there’s a painting over there that the basis of what would make the basis of an excellent Hawkwind cover one day even if I do say so myself), the 16 page CD booklet is entertaining even if it does lack some of the important information, and yes I have just hit repeat and that busy version of Levitation that opens the whole thing up has just fired up again for a third or fourth time so I guess I like it. Of course it isn’t Space Ritual or even Live 79 (which, if it didn’t explode would be perfect) but yes, another rather good Hawkwind live album. Hey, look, I’m a fan, Hawkwind have a special place in Organ history, there’s been many interviews and features along the way, and those hundreds (thousands?) of copies of Organ sold to Hawkwind queues more than kept the presses running at times back in the earlier printed days. We launched the first issue of Organ out of the back of an old army ambulance at a Hawkwind gig very nearly thirty-eight years ago now, they’ve fuelled us almost as much as Cardiacs have over the years, we’ve worked with them, danced with them, hell, some of us have even been invited to robot dance on their stages, yeah, this is a more than decent Hawkwind live album, and that is a defiantly strong Spirit of The Age and yes, we kind of do need and other Hawkwind live album and yes, bring on the next one, long may the spaceship fly on, no going mindless here! Hang on, did I miss the Orchestral live album? Was there a live album from that Palladium show? Surely there must have been? Surely that is a what’s really needed, those Mike Batt arrenagements, that and the forthcoming  Live at the Barbican 2025 quadruple. That really is a great version of Spirit of The Age that leads into a refined Underwater City and the always absolutely beautiful start on Assault and Battery and another fine footprint left in the sands of time and oh Hawkwind have always been special, this is a damn fine live album…  (sw)

The album is released on 31st January 2025. The photos on this page are from the London Palledium show…

Links: www.hawkwind.com / Album details at Cherry Red

Just some of the previous Hawkwind coverage on these pages

ORGAN THING: A whole load of Hawkwind family and a new Hawkestrel album featuring Nik Turner, Robert Calvert, Simon House and more…

ORGAN THING: A first listen to what is another strong Hawkwind album, Stories From Time And Space reviewed…

ORGAN THING: A collection of Robert Calvert remixes? A new album, the Hawkwind legend’s work revisited in just the right way, the right stuff indeed, The Last Star Fighter flies again…

ORGAN THING: Hawkwind? At the London Palladium? Don’t be silly, that didn’t just happen…

2025 Live Dates:

Thursday 17th April – Gateshead Glasshouse
Friday 18th April – Guildford G Live
Saturday 19th April – Bournemouth Pavilion
Sunday 20th April – Birmingham Symphony Hall
Friday 9th May – Aylesbury Waterside Theatre
Saturday 10th May – Liverpool M&S Bank Arena
Sunday 11th May – Manchester Bridgewater Hall
Friday 23rd May – Sheffield City Hall
Saturday 24th May – Portsmouth – Guildhall
Sunday 25th May – Cambridge Corn Exchange
Monday 26th May – London Barbican

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