25 Years On

Hawkwind had self-imploded on a US tour earlier in the year leaving only Robert Calvert, Dave Brock and Simon King to embark on this project. They were joined by Harvey Bainbridge who had played bass in Devon group Ark who in turn had performed with Calvert and Brock as the Sonic Assassins, and by keyboardist Steve Swindells who had been in Pilot. During the Devon recording session King returned home to London and was replaced by Martin Griffin (also from Ark), but King subsequently returned giving the band two drummers. Simon House had left the earlier band to join David Bowie but contributed violin to the sessions, as did noted British jazz trumpeter Henry Lowther. Road manager Les McClure also sneaked a performance in.

The music is perhaps as far removed from space rock as the band would ever get, these tracks being tightly arranged pieces more in tune with New Wave of the time rather than the band's history. Lyrically this is Calvert's most diverse dealing with themes such as telepathy ("Psi Power"), skydiving ("Free Fall"), Australian drug misuse ("Flying Doctor"), heroic bravery ("The Only Ones") and espionage ("The Dead Dreams of the Cold War Kid"). There is a light-hearted playfulness to these tracks, only the lyrics of "The Age of the Micro Man" hinted at the bleak cold futuristic factory workers concept that Calvert and Barney Bubbles put together for the stage show of the album.[4] The programme was reproduced in the CD booklet of the Atomhenge re-release.

"Psi Power" and "25 Years" were released as singles but are slightly different versions to those that appeared on the album.

New acoustic versions of "Flying Doctor", "Psi Power" and "The Age of the Micro Man" were included on The Road to Utopia (2018), produced and arranged by Mike Batt with additional orchestrations.[5]

On 31 March 2023, Atomhenge Records (via Cherry Red) issued a new Steven Wilson mix and surround mix of the album as part of Days Of The Underground (The Studio & Live Recordings 1977-1979) 8CD/2BR boxed set. This set also included the Hawklords live album and previously unissued video recordings of "PSI Power" and "25 Years".[6]

Hawklords

• Robert Calvert – lead vocals, acoustic guitar (track 7)
• Dave Brock – acoustic and electric guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
• Harvey Bainbridge – bass guitar, backing vocals, synthesizers
• Steve Swindells – keyboards
• Simon King – drums (tracks 4,7,8), Congas (track 6)
• Martin Griffin – drums (tracks 1,2,5,6)

with

• Simon House – violin (tracks 6,7,8)
• Henry Lowther – trumpet (track 1)
• Les McClure – whisper voice (track 4)

• Recorded: Ronnie Lane's Mobile Studio at Langley Farm, Devon.
• Produced: Robert Calvert and Dave Brock. Engineered by Dennis Smith, Neil Fawcus and Neil Mount.
• Mixed at Wessex Studios, London. Engineered by Tim Friese-Greene and Mike Shipley.
• Sleeve by Barney Bubbles and Brian Griffin.
• CD 1 tracks 9–10: A & B sides of "Psi Power" single, released as Charisma CB323 in October 1978
• CD 1 track 11: A-side of "25 Years" single, released as Charisma CB332 in May 1979
• CD 2 tracks 1–5: Sonic Assassins: Recorded at the Queens Hall, Barnstaple on 23 December 1977
• CD 2 tracks 6–15: Unreleased session tapes: Recorded at Langley Farm, Devon between June and August 1978

• October 1978: Charisma, CDS4014, UK vinyl. Initial copies came with an inner sleeve.
• August 1982: Charisma, CHC10, UK vinyl
• April 1989: Virgin, CDSCD4014, UK CD
• January 2009: Atomhenge (Cherry Red) Records, ATOMCD2006, UK 2CD
• 31 March 2023: Atomhenge (Cherry Red) Records, ATOMCD101050, UK 8CD/2BR[6]

• Atomhenge Records
• Starfarer Archived 16 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine – reviews, October 1978