Hawkwind – Hawkwind, 3CD/Blu-ray Edition Box Set (Atomhedge/Esoteric) – Of course we’re looking back on all this with fifty-odd years of reverential hindsight and with a much evolved Hawkwind still making significant albums today; last year’s There Is No Space For Us, an album made by a now in his mid 80s Dave Brock and his current band – Mr Brock being the only constant part of a still flying Hawkwind – an album that felt and sounded good enough to significantly figure in our busy end of the year best of album list back at the very start of January. Hawkwind are still, while not quite being on the cutting edge they once stood on, or the exciting ground-breaking band they were back when this self-titled album originally came out back in 1970, are still a band of some importance. 

And here we go with the opening delight of Hurry on Sundown, a track that surely just puts a smile on your face every time you hear it? Here we go with that first track on this latest version that first album…

This is where it all properly started, an album originally released back in the Summer of 1970 and released here as a rather plushly expanded four disc box with excellent sleeve notes;  “This is the beginning. By now we will be past this album. We started out trying to  freak people (trippers), now we are trying to levitate their minds, in a nice way, without acid, with ultimately a complete audio-visual thing. Using a complex of electronics, lights and environmental experiences…”     

And here we go with the facts: “Released in August 1970 on the Liberty label, the album was recorded in March and April of that year and established Hawkwind as one of the most exciting and original bands to emerge from the UK Underground scene. Tracks such as Hurry On Sundown, Mirror of Illusion, Be Yourself, Seeing It As You Really Are and Paranoia set the scene for the legendary Space Rock style that Hawkwind would explore to great acclaim and success in the 1970s and beyond. This limited-edition deluxe boxed set comprises three CDs and a Blu-Ray disc and features a brand new remaster of the original album an additional CD of rare live recordings from 1970 from Dave Brock’s archives along with with seven bonus tracks drawn from a 1969 demo session, both sides of the Hurry On Sundown single, a studio out-take and new stereo and 5.1 Surround Sound mixes of the album by Stephen W Tayler. The set is completed with an illustrated book with new essay, making this boxed set the definitive release of this legendary album”.     

  Now with all due respect to Stephen W Tayler’s mixes of the original album, what we all really want to know about are the live recordings and the demo tracks. Now I’m not going to claim to be a Hawkwind expert in terms of live material, bootlegs and the rest of it, I can’t tell you how widely available these live versions are and the plush 48 page full colour word-packed booklet isn’t quite telling us where they were recorded either. The booklet is excellent by the way –

“In the first week of December 1969, a small advert appeared in Melody Maker announcing “Hawkwind Lives”. Less than a month later this mysterious slogan was plastered on walls throughout the London underground system. At first almost no one understood the inscrutable message that seemed to be announcing the arrival of a new life-form. When the first Hawkwind album was released a few months later, cover artist Arthur Rhodes perfectly captured the essence of this new creature as a chimera. Since that distant summer of 1970, music historians, pundits and experts have been trying to determine the secret alchemy that led to the unique musical organism known as Hawkwind….”

So we’ve got some live recordings, we’ve got the Abbey Road Group X demos (the name they went under for the shortest of short whiles before becoming Hawkwind Zoo, via that first infamous Eel Pie island gig opening for Stray where they were mistakenly billed as Hawqwins Zoo). Interesting to note the was a recording of Cymbaline on the 1969 Group X demos that lead them to the record deal, the Hawkwind version was released as a bonus track on the 1996 re-issue version of this debut album, however, even though they were doing it live Pink Floyd themselves didn’t record it until 1969 and the More soundtrack album, so did anyone tell the A&R man at Liberty who signed Hawkwind on the strength of the demo recording (recorded at The Floyd’s then home base of Abbey Road) that it wasn’t their own original song? Did they sucker the man from the record label? Interestingly Cochise, a band David Gilmour had a strong connection with were also signed to Liberty by the same A&R man around the same time. Surely he knew it was a cover, but then I have quite a bit of first hand experience of A&R men, he probably didn’t until it was a done deal?  

So, we’ve got the live recordings that, according to the credits; “are included here because of their important historical significance. Although lacking in fidelity, they are an important record of the evolution of Hawkwind” and yes that is right seeing as the first album is pretty much based on live recordings through Hawkwind’s own PA that co-producer and Pretty Things guitarist Dick Taylor had insisted be brought into Trident Studios to capture the spontaneous feel of Hawkwind’s then live set. The live recordings are raw, they are a touch muddy, not too muddy though, perfectly listenable, they sound like a more than decent live bootleg to these ears and yes, they are important; they do tell you where Hawkwind were at at the time, that early evolution, those two familiar chords and those jams as Nik Turner’s musical personality starts to emerge. The live recordings are fascinating actually, and yes I’d argue that it is vital that they are here as part of this well put together box set. 

There is no indication as to where the live recordings are from, they sound like tracks from different gigs or recordings to me. That’s an excellent live version of Hurry On Sundown and that spoken word version of Mirror Of Illusion (Brock’s voice) is certainly interesting and of course the album is pretty much live anyway, Robert Godwin’s extensive essay is rather good in terms of the album recordings: 

In their first feature article in Melody Maker, Turner recalled, “We tried double tracking, and layering down separate parts, but it was so sterile that we ended up just playing it live. Just doing two or three takes of each number and picking the best.” Huw Lloyd-Langton concurred, “The studio was sterile and inhuman.” Bass guitarist John Harrison remembered, “We cut the album all in one take. A second take would have been almost a different album.” 

It is now well established, there were several takes which differed from the final album versions, which does beg the question, do those alternative takes still exist? Well it looks like the answer in yes and it looks like Stephen W Tayler has been exploring them for his mixes here. 

Now we only have the MP3s that the label have been good enough to send in advance (along with a full download of the 48 page booklet) which of course is no way to be listening to the work of Stephen W Tayler, it does sound like he’s dragged out a different angle or two, that he’s respectfully explored things, brightened and sharpened in just the right way, and that his disc of remixes make for an excellent companion to cleaned up original recordings here. I especially like what he’s done with Paranoia and the putting back together of it (the original breaks so you can turn album over) and, yes, that live version of Paranoia makes for a great reference point in terms of how they were playing it live at the time…

Hey look, these (no doubt expensive) box set versions are pretty much only for the committed fan who want to obsess over different versions of Kiss of the Velvet Whip or to give it its alternative title Sweet Mistress of Pain as it was on that Hawkwind Zoo 12″ that came out as a retrospective on Flicknife in 1981. I took my freshly bought copy to a gig back in ’81, Brock was most irate about it coming out at the time as I asked him to sign my copy – he did sign. Ginger Baker was not so forthcoming when I asked him to sign something, yep, I’m one of many people Mr. Baker told where to go in no uncertain terms. Brock also signed a copy of Organ issue number 1 when we launched it at a Hawkwind gig in ’86, it is about time we dug out the many Hawkwind interviews we’ve done since that first one. it does look like Brock approves of this box set release, he and Kris Brock are thanked and those live recordings seem to be from his personal collection.  

Back to the box set and enough about Mr Baker telling me to f’off….

Back to the box set; yes, this is just for the fans who probably already have this album several times already. Yes, it is worth your time, yes these different mixes and alternative versions as well as the demos and especially the live recordings are well worth exploring, yes the booklet is a good read and the visuals all add to it, The old gig adverts and such. Yes I like what Stephen W Tayler has been doing with this series of re-issues, he pulls things out, finds slightly different colours without ever imposing himself too much on it. By the way does Paranoia suggest some people might have been moonlighting on uncredited Hammer House of Horror soundtracks to make a bit of spare change?  

Yes, Hawkwind here at the very start of the 70s – these recording were made just weeks into the then new decade – were a cocktail of the changing spirit of the age, that coming together of early forward moving Can electronics, of what (the) Pink Floyd were doing in the clubs at the time, of what Nik Turner had learnt in the Berlin squats jamming with Amon Duul, they were a coming together of all of that as well as that rather special West London Ladbrook Grove thing, they were all that, but there was something unique, that thing that if it wasn’t quite fully formed, was strongly emerging as we headed towards 1971’s defining space rock statement of an album in the shape of X In Search Of Space.

This box set, the remixes, the live tracks and the booklet are a fine document of a significant band arriving. This is an excellent release.  (sw)  

The images here are from the booklet…

ORDER VIA CHERRY RED – Vinyl / CD / Box Set

http://www.esotericrecordings.com  / Hawkwind is released on 27th February 2026.

TRACK LISTING

DISC ONE

Hawkwind remastered

1.  Hurry On Sundown

2.  The Reason Is

3.  Be Yourself

4.  Paranoia – Part 1

5.  Paranoia – Part 2

6.  Seeing It As You Really Are

7.  Mirror of Illusion

Bonus tracks

8.  Bring It On Home (Dave Brock solo track from “The Buskers” album)

9.  Hurry On Sundown (recorded 23rd October 1969)

10.  The Kiss of the Velvet Whip (recorded 23rd October 1969)

11.  Cymbaline (recorded 23rd October 1969)

12.  Mirror of Illusion (mono single version)

13.  Hurry On Sundown (mono single version)

DISC TWO

Hawkwind – New mixes by Stephen W Tayler

1.  Hurry On Sundown

2.  The Reason Is

3.  Be Yourself

4.  Paranoia

5.  Seeing It As You Really Are

6.  Mirror of Illusion

Bonus track

7.  You Know You’re Only Dreaming

Recorded at Trident Studios, London – 9th February 1970

DISC THREE

Hawkwind Early Days Archive live Recordings 1970

1.  Paranoia

2.  Seeing it As You Really Are

3.  We Do It

4.  Came Home

5.  Hurry On Sundown

6.  Mirror of Illusion (spoken word version)

DISC FOUR

Hawkwind – 5.1 Surround Sound & stereo mixes by Stephen W Tayler plus the original album mix remastered (96kHz / 24-bit)

BLU-RAY

1.  Hurry On Sundown

2.  The Reason Is

3.  Be Yourself

4.  Paranoia

5.  Seeing It As You Really Are

6.  Mirror of Illusion

Bonus track

7.  You Know You’re Only Dreaming

Recorded at Trident Studios, London – 9th February 1970