Side one

1. "Hurry On Sundown" 4:50

2. "The Reason Is?" 3:30

3. "Be Yourself" 8:09

4. "Paranoia — Part 1" 1:04



Side two


5. "Paranoia — Part 2" 4:11

6. "Seeing It as You Really Are" 10:43

7. "Mirror of Illusion"


Released in 1970, however, I didn't get to hear it until around 1975. I was sat at the back of the Chemistry Class ( a subject I was rubbish at ) in high school when one of my friends gave me a bag of LPs to listen to, among them were a Lynyrd Skynyrd album (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd), I think a Hendrix album and Hawkwind by Hawkwind. Incidentally this friend played bass guitar in a local band doing covers of Santana, The Stones, Free etc. They once played our local hall as support for Pallas, so he was the guy who got me into rock music and for that I will be forever grateful.

You'll no doubt have guessed from the subject of this post as to which one of the borrowed albums blew me away 

I hadn't heard anything like it at the time, I listened mostly to Radio Luxembourg on MW Radio and I can't remember them ever playing anything like Hawkwind. Of course with it being near year end 1975 going into 1976 with Bohemian Rhapsody the Christmas Number one I had a few Hawkwind albums to catch up on, In Search of Space (1971), Doremi Fasol Latido (1972), Hall of the Mountain Grill (1974) and Warrior on the Edge of Time (1975).  I would consider these the golden age of Hawkwind and all essential albums to own/hear. Sadly I no longer own an original copy of their first album having been burgled and most of my record collection stolen in 1984, I went on to CD after that, I now have to make do with the Record Store day release in orange vinyl. Original copies can command prices of up to £200. 

I went to my first gig in September of '76 - 20/9/76 to be exact to see Hawkwind on their Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music Tour (Robert Calvert on Vocals), Tiger were the Support, staying with my best friend at his aunts house in Edinburgh we spent the day trawling the record shops, and then heading back in to town at night for the gig, it was some hike from the top of Costorphine hill to the Usher Hall, and to think we did this at age 15 walking home after midnight in an age when most young people had to be home before 9pm.

The album I bought that day was Hawkwinds - Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music ( mine has the reversed cover ) and it is still in my collection, hard to believe it survived. I even noted on the inner sleeve the day I bought it as can be seen in the photo below.



Anyway I digress, the album you should be reading about is their first release, I know it won't be to everyone's taste, but it holds a very special place in my musical heart, having previously listened to chart music via Radio Luxembourg and Top of The Pops, this album started me a journey of discovery, I mean the only LPs I owned at the time were Burning Love by Elvis and the Soundtrack to Disney's The Jungle Book 

This first album released by Hawkwind was based around a live studio recording and you can certainly feel/hear the tracks "Be Yourself" and "Seeing It As You really Are" as a band really used to jamming and just going where the music took them. You can also hear Dave Brocks busking side coming through on "Hurry On Sundown" amd "Mirror Of Illusion"

I'm pretty sure many modern bands will say that Hawkwind were/are a band that influenced a lot of them, the driving rhythms, the weird and wonderful electronic sounds, the lyrics, Space Rock it was called and I don't think there is another band like them.

I went on to listen to Gong, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Rick Wakeman, Thin Lizzy ( whom I nearly chose for this month - as they were my favourite live band ), I also started to listen to electronic music, again being introduced by another school friend to the likes of Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Ashra, Kraftwerk and many others.

I saw Hawkwind live as recently as 2013 at the O2 Academy in Glasgow where Dave Brock wandered onstage wearing a a woolly hat, hoodie top, joggers and a pair of Ugg boots, classic !  I had taken my daughter ( aged 27 ) to see them as I thought she should at least have seen them once, she loved it, Focus were excellent as support, Dave was feeling poorly that night and had to sit on a chair for some of it as he had bronchitis and was knackered, but it didn't deter them from putting on a great show, I think they still do around 100 gigs a year, and with Brock now aged 76, that's not bad going   Talking about gigs, they are famously known for playing for free outside the gates at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970, this is something Hawkwind did often, handing out free condoms at gigs was another idea of theirs.

Spotify - 






Tidal - listen.tidal.com/album/151355



Youtube -




Please note that the links are for the 1996 remastered version with extra tracks, the original album only had 7 tracks on it so please ignore the extra ones.



Notable names linked to Hawkwind which will give you an idea of their place in musical history:


Dick Taylor ( producer for this album )

Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister

Ginger Baker

Tim Blake

Michael Moorcock

The Pink Fairies

Barney Bubbles



First formed in 1969 Hawkwind released their latest album "Into The Woods" in May 2017.


Mike.