“That gig you did in 1971 changed my life”: The band who gave out acid to their own audience
The life of being a band on the road sounds pretty good, but just ask the members of Hawkwind when they first started out, and it can be pretty tricky.
Thanks to social media, in the modern age, bands don’t need to be relentlessly touring in order to build up a following. In fact, life on the road can be very taxing, and people would rather just sit behind a screen in a bid to promote their music. A lot of the time, when modern bands relentlessly tour, it’s because they like doing it as opposed to seeing results from it.
However, back in the 1960s and ‘70s, touring was an absolute must. If you were an upcoming band and you wanted to get signed, the most effective way that you could do it was by going to different towns, playing amazing shows, and hoping the right person heard you. This is what Hawkwind set out to do in the early ‘70s.
A small rock band, playing mind-blowing music, indulging in different substances, going to different parties, it sounds like a dream, right? Well, no. Hawkwind had an incredibly hard time during these early days on the road, as they were constantly subject to abuse, both from members of the public, music lovers who hated their specific music, and the police.
“Guys with long hair were always getting picked up, always being searched in the street,” said band member Dave Brock.
“Every time we arrived back in the early hours in our van, we’d be stopped by the police in Notting Hill and searched. In those days, anyone with long hair was a drug addict.”
While times might have been hard, the long nights on the road together, driving up and down the country in the hope that the right person might hear them, helped bring the band together, and this reflected in their sound. They grew tighter, their shows ran smoother, and they became intrinsically linked both on a personal level and also on a creative one. The crowds got bigger and louder, and suddenly, there was a pretty exciting buzz about Hawkwind in the air.
“That’s what brings a band together,” said Brock, “Constantly playing and travelling.”
Terence Ollis agreed and remembered what it was like when the crowds slowly started to pile in. “We used to pack out town halls, they just loved us,” he said. “We were all out of our heads, and so was the audience! We really connected. We lived what we believed and practised what we preached.”
They certainly were off their heads, both literally and figuratively. The fanbase that Hawkwind steadily started attracting all had drugs at the heart of their music listening experience. So much so that before a show, the band decided to simply hand liquid LSD out to the crowd in order to boost everyone’s experience. A rogue move? You bet. But it made some great memories for onlookers.
Nik Turner recalled some of the reactions he’s had to those gigs since they took place. “I think it really compounded the band’s popularity,” he said, “Because people still come up to me and say, ‘Wow, that gig you did in 1971 changed my life!’ And I say, ‘You sure it wasn’t the acid?!’”
