Supporting Hawkwind on tour, 2006. Part Five. Up to the Black Country.

So, on the 29th October 2006, there we were again, rolling up the M5 towards the Midlands. We turned off towards Wolverhampton, a town I had never visited before and, with some difficulty due to pedestrian areas and the one way system, eventually found our way to the stage doors for loading into the Wulfrum Hall. Having offloaded our gear and parked up, we had the usual wait for our sound check and then got that done quite quickly. Again, our sound was great and the road crew were very helpful and chatty. Having gone through a few things during our couple of days off, we were very positive about doing our set and keen to get started. But, of course, there was an hour or more to wait so we went off to walk round the pedestrian area and found our way into a heaving pub for a couple of beers. What was strange was that there seemed to be two clienteles in the bar: the typical Hawkwind followers which could be spotted because they were older, had Hawkwind t-shirts on and looked primarily like ageing rockers. Then, there was a slightly larger (in numbers not individual size) crowd, slightly younger and quite Goth-looking with a few New Romantics and then some Madchester-looking types, all flares and loose shirts. This gave us the impression that perhaps Wolverhampton was in some sort of time-warp, back to the eighties and nineties.

New Order.

But we found out the reason when we returned to the stage door and a window-darkened Range Rover turned up and out jumped New Order. Apparently, there were 2 halls side by side here and New Order were headlining the other one. Now I had been a fan of Joy Division back in the day and followed the progress of New Order over the years. The diminutive Bernard Sumner was accompanied by bodyguards and whisked into the building but the larger than life Peter Hook, who was still with the band in 2006, hung around outside smoking and I managed a quick word with him. He gave the impression that he would rather watch Hawkwind play than play with New Order hence I was not surprised when he left the band the following year.
I also got collared by an old boy, a true OAP, complete with long waterproof coat, creased trousers and sensible shoes. He had spotted me and wanted to chat about Sonic Assassins and why the group hadn't continued. It turned out he came from Bristol too and wanted to know if there was any chance of a lift to the Derby gig. I had to say no because we already had a full car for that one but I did sign the Sonic Assassins album he had with him, the last member to sign.

Captain Dave Brock

When we went on stage for our set, the hall was only half full although we could see that the bar, off to one side in another room but visible in part, was quite rammed. But more and more people came through to the hall as our set progressed and by the time we got to our last number, pretty much everyone was in the audience. We played a good set and got a splendid reception which was very encouraging and some of the road crew made very positive comments as we gathered up our gear and left the stage. We went out the back for a smoke and visited the bar to get drinks on our way into the hall to watch Hawkwind. We were accosted by a couple of fans who complimented us on our set and asked where we were from cos they had never heard of us.
Hawkwind were on good form and went down as well as usual with huge cheers for the most famous old songs. It was interesting seeing quite a few youngsters who where there with their parents (or perhaps grandparents) and seemed rather bemused, particularly by the dancers, obviously not something they were used to seeing. Backstage we got into banter with Jason and Alan, the friendliest of the band and Chris even gave us a compliment when she gave us our hundred pound fee in cash.
It was quite late when we set off for home and we decided to stop on the motorway for some food in a large upstairs restaurant which we had to ourselves until a large group of rather drunk lads appeared. They were getting a bit leary so we finished off our all-day breakfasts and got back to our car.

Obny and me strutting our stuff.

We had another day of rest before our last gig and did very little except go for drinks in the evening with Hugh, our Chinese guest, who was really good company. I was almost regretting turning down the chance to play two extra gigs and had to remind myself that I didn't have the money to cover the costs particularly as we would have had to spend a couple of nights in hotels. But, we had had quite a lot of requests for a CD and we had quickly had one produced out of demos I had and a friend, Rick, of Feel The Quality Records, who had put out a couple of my recordings, said he would like to come with us to get a recording of our live set and would also man a stall selling our merchandise. And act like we had a 'crew'. So Derby was looking like it could be a great laugh.