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When I heard the news that Hawkwind was making plans
to tour New Zealand and Australia, I quickly called
Dave Brock and volunteered The Solar Fire Lightshow
and the use of my services. He graciously (whooo hoo!)
accepted my offer and I was soon winging my way to the
other side of the world. After a grueling 20 hours of
plane rides (the seats are definitely not made for large
people) and various airports I arrived safely in Auckland,
New Zealand with the bare essentials of The Solar Fire
Lightshow in 5 large, heavy and slightly smashed cardboard
boxes. Seeking visual efficiency AND economy of shipping
I had only brought the unique-to-me equipment that I
needed to interface with the existing house lights at
each venue and round them out into a good, solid light
show. I hoped everything was OK
After collecting my gear and going through customs,
I was met at the airport by John Attard and Jordan Morris.
John is the English promoter who got the ball rolling
and made the NZ/OZ dates possible by financing a large
chunk of the tour, purchasing the necessary plane fares
and arranging the NZ gig dates with the help of Jordan's
mother Wendy. The Morris's (Andy, Wendy, Rainbow, Jordan
and Cristen) also went deep into their pockets (and
big hearts) to help out with the financing in addition
to putting up the whole band and crew at their Tanglewood
Farm homestead and moving us around NZ.
If you are ever down that way give them a call at (64)
09 8335533 and ask about their more than reasonable
rates for renting a caravan. They will try their best
to help you out. They sure fed us well and took care
of us like we were family! We are very grateful to them
and anyone who was happy to see Hawkwind down under
owe these kind folks and a few others in Australia (more
on them later) a very big thank you because it never
would have happened without them. Ready? All together
now .....1...2...3...... THANK YOU!!!
As we were driving to Tanglewood Farm I was immediately
aware of the sub-tropical humidity in the air and of
the fact that I wasn't upside down. That's right...even
though you are on the bottom of the other side of the
world and you should be upside down, you're not! It
definitely took a little getting used to. Although Orion
is in the night sky, he doesn't quite look the same
and there is no North Star. You have the Southern Cross
instead. As Harvey would later put it, we were "upside
down and backward in a parallel universe". And
what a beautiful universe it is! Sandy beaches, refreshing
water and hilly green country, plus sheep, Sheep and
MORE SHEEP! I just loved it!
NZ is not very crowded and a laid back feeling permeated
the air. Kiwis (as they are wont to be called) are a
freedom loving people and believe in the live and let
live philosophy. I was pleased to see that the "cookie
cutter, track housing, everything looks the same"
way-of-living hadn't yet made big inroads here. I enjoyed
seeing the simpler, square-ish house designs (indicative
of do-it-yourselfers) rather than the pretentious phony
lines of the new homes that we are now mostly seeing
built in the US. It really was like a breath of fresh
air and perhaps more similar to the America of 40-50
years ago. Steve commented that it reminded him a bit
of the Pacific Northwest region of the United States.
Arriving at Tanglewood I meet the band for the first
time since I went to England in October and it was great
to see them all again! For this tour Hawkwind was Dave
Brock (guitar, synth, vocals) Richard Chadwick (percussion)
Jerry Richards (guitar, vocals) Harvey Bainbridge (keyboards,
vocals) Simon House (violin) and my fellow Clevelander
Steve Taylor (bass). A very promising line up! Rounding
out the crew was Kris Tait doing stage visuals and fire
eating (blowing some immense fireballs for being such
a wee lass), sound engineer/equipment tech Lofty McCrusty,
monitor man/equipment tech John Oddy and myself, Jim
Lascko, on lights. On board to help with the merchandising
was Holly House, Simon's charming and capable 14 year
old daughter. It was also my pleasure to meet Asaf Shlomo,
an Israeli living in London who came along with John
Attard to video tape the tour for a possible future
Hawkwind documentary. I found him to be a very knowledgeable,
sensible man and I enjoyed his company.
I discovered that Tanglewood Farm was about 10 acres
(or is that hectares?) of rolling hillside on the outskirts
of Auckland. Scattered around this land were numerous
caravans. These are what they called anything that once
had wheels and was outfitted to live in like a camper.
Some were still running and others were immobile, molded
forever to the ground by the passing of time. From buses
and house trailers to Beverly Hillbilly type shacks
on the backs of old pick up trucks. The one assigned
to me was the classic hillbilly type on the outside
but extremely nice on the inside. It was cunningly made
all of wood and fitted together with care towards matching
the grain and contrasting the colors of the wood in
a manner pleasing to the eye. Very cool! All of the
others were scattered about in various caravans while
Dave and Kris rented a small modern motor home (by this
I mean a caravan that actually MOVES) so they could
go off and enjoy some of the island's sights by themselves.
By the time I arrived Hawkwind had already done 2 shows
in NZ. The reason for this was that if I didn't return
within 30 days of my departure it would cost TWICE as
much money for my airfare to NZ. Doing all of the shows
would have taken closer to 35 days, so it was decided
that they would do without me for the first two dates
and hire a local lightshow instead. Although I wasn't
there to see it, I understand that they did a bang up
job for the first 2 shows (Auckland and Waihi Beach)
and the lights looked great!
Because of the massive expenses involved in taking
a band halfway around the world, I wasn't surprised
to arrive in the middle of a discussion involving the
problem of a low cash flow. I don't know if you can
appreciate how unbelievably fast the money can go when
you are moving almost a dozen people around the world
and putting them up in hotels and eating out in restaurants.
It's like having a vacuum hose in your pocket sucking
out all your money! You have to pay for airfares, air
freight, visas, vehicles, sound system, equipment rental,
food, fuel, hotels and much more. I guess it's the price
you must pay for not licking the grease off of corporate
fingers! We would just have to tighten our belts and
expect only the essentials. It was at this time that
I first heard of the possibility of the South Island
gigs being cancelled. We all hoped that it wouldn't
come to that as we sat and tried to iron out the logistics.
The South Island was supposed to be a virtual hot bed
for freedom loving, laid back, old time, crusty types.
You know... your typical Hawkwind fan! Unfortunately,
it was not to be and we ended up canceling the South
Island leg due to logistic clashes with the Australian
tour. Maybe the next tour!
I spent the next few days recuperating from my flight.
Seeing that I wouldn't have any voltage converters until
we got to New Plymouth I didn't even bother to unpack
my boxes leaving them unopened so they would be easier
to transport. I figured I'll get to my first gig early
and sort everything out then. During this time Andy
took some of us to Long Bay beach. Inside of this big
beautiful bay is where the America's Cup boat races
are held. In fact the cup races were going on during
the time we were there with New Zealand ending up victorious.
The Kiwis were all pumped up and kicking ass, but seeing
that we weren't exactly the yachting set we didn't really
give a shit!
In a few days we were on our way to the first gig in
New Plymouth. Going inland the terrain starts to quickly
climb and the country is hilly. Sheep paddocks abound
and you can see why the lamb chops are so cheap there.
Our first stop was to be a crater lake that used to
be an active volcano that erupted about 5,000 years
ago. The consequent flooding of the crater that was
left resulted in a gorgeous lake that was now home to
a resort community. It was a very pretty and idyllic
spot. The motel we stayed at boasted mud baths and water
slides but we arrived too late, and left too early,
to take advantage of them. We had a lot of driving ahead
of us to get to the gig. The roads in NZ are mostly
of the 2 lane black top type. They necessarily have
to twist and turn as they wind around the hills. This
swerving left, right, left, right, left, right and on
and on and on and on eventually started to make me a
little queasy. Things got even worse when we ran out
of paved road and we had to close all of the windows
to keep the dust out.
After more hours than we thought it would take we arrived
late at the Fitzroy Hotel in New Plymouth. The show
was in a mid sized sports-type bar complete with pool
tables and tv monitors scattered about. I discovered
that I had no voltage converters due to a communications
error on John and Lofty's part. After a brief conversation
with Lofty 2 converters were found locally and were
on their way to the venue. I opened my boxes and discovered
that my projecting kaleidoscope, oil wheel and one overhead
projector was broken in transit. The rest of the night
was a blur for me. Sweating like a pig from too much
salt and beer (that's right - LIKE A STUCK PIG!) I was
so busy straightening out my equipment that I couldn't
even tell you what songs Hawkwind played. All I knew
was that the set list I was given was only good as ass
wipe material because Hawkwind didn't play a few of
the songs - which made all the rest of the songs out
of order. I saw I would have to rearrange the slides
for a more generic lightshow. Chaos reigned!
In addition to these obstacles one of the newly arrived
voltage converters took a crap before the show even
started. White smoke billowed out from it and I had
to do a quick removal and reroute the cords on half
of my equipment. The sound company boys quickly hooked
me up with a couple of emergency power feeds and plug
converters ("no guarantees" they told me)
from a dimmer pack that took the 230 volt NZ power and
"dimmed" it down to 120 volts. This proved
to be a costly mistake as the frequency remained unchanged
and I needed 60hz instead of the NZ 50hz. This resulted
in my equipment overheating and I slowly started to
blow my lightbulbs. Even so, it turned out to be a good
show judging by the audience's response. Kris Tait wowed
them by fire eating and blowing a few huge fireballs
so that the folks up front could feel the heat in their
faces. There was a good size crowd for a Thursday night
and everyone was stomping and cheering loudly for more
when it ended.
We had the first of two gigs the next night at the
St. James Cabaret in Wellington, the capital of New
Zealand. The reason there were two gigs in Wellington
was because Hawkwind had said that they COULD play two
shows there if the audience/fanbase warranted it. What
the ticket sellers heard was that they WOULD play two
shows! Since tickets were sold for both shows before
the misunderstanding was discovered, Hawkwind decided
to play both of them rather than disappoint any fans
who bought tickets for the second show. The St. James
Cabaret was a good size club that had a balcony where
I was able to set up the lights. It was a pretty easy
set up for me and an ideal spot for the lightshow.
The first night was a decent size crowd, but not enough
to warrant opening up the balcony. The house lighting
rig (which looked really nice) wasn't usable at all
because we brought a sound system into the club and
they disconnected the lighting rig from it's power in
order to plug this system in. I sat up there and couldn't
even give the opening act much of a lightshow other
than a simple colorful slide projection or two for a
back drop. I had some trouble the show before with my
bulbs blowing and I had only so many spare bulbs left.
I couldn't risk blowing any on the opening band and
then not have them for Hawkwind. Opening the show was
Inangafunga, a band that I understand was from the South
Island. They laid down some pretty solid grooves and
were very easy to get into. I liked them. Definitely
a hard-core, barefoot, hippy band with at least one
member sporting the obligatory dreadlocks and tattoos.
Check 'em out! Hawkwind came on after them and did a
two hour set. They were in good form and ready to go
as the stage set up went a little easier tonight and
the pressure was off a little. The following is a typical
set list (actually from the final Auckland, NZ Power
Station gig) and it is a sample of what they played
during this tour. It changed a little bit in order and
content from gig to gig as Dave and the boys tried doing
different things
Right Stuff / Coded Languages / Motorway City / Assault
& Battery / Golden Void / new instrumental / Forge
of Vulcan / Assassins of Allah / Spirit of the Age /
Utopia / Poem / Free Fall / Experiment with Destiny
/ Brainstorm / Sonic Attack / Rat Race / Shouldn't Do
That / and then back to Brainstorm again! The encore
was Ejection / Song of the Gremlin / and Welcome to
the Future.
I met Richard Stockwell (from Cranium Records) and
his wife Chrissy at these Wellington gigs as well as
my NZ pen pals Shane Palmer and Des Hunt. It was really
good to see friendly faces and finally meet the people
you have only written to before. After the gig there
was a lot of happy chattering and milling around going
on as the band hung around visiting with folks and signing
record covers, female mammalian protuberances, and other
such things. The second night was similar to the first
except with fewer people (just as we had feared) and
a wee bit darker lightshow. I had blown the bulbs in
3 out of my 4 colored spotlights the night before (making
the stage very dark indeed without the use of the house
lights) and on this night one of my slide projector
bulbs blew up early in the show and shattered the inside
lens right next to it. That was it for that projector!
I unplugged my rigged NZ "120 volt" power
supply and didn't use it again. I had blown every one
of the five spare projector bulbs I had brought by my
third show. I put everything on the one power converter
I had left and tried not to run it all at once. It still
wasn't a bad lightshow as the darkness only enhanced
and defined the 150+ slides of stars, space and alien
civilizations that I brought with me. By the final song
of the evening the power converter finally overheated
and blew an internal fuse from being overloaded. I was
left with only some white strobes which I used for all
they were worth. It seemed to work for the audience
because folks came up to me and commented on how they
liked the "lightning effect" at the end.
The astounding thing to me was that I ended up running
the whole lightshow on one cheap little house extension
cord....and it held out to the end! God sure watches
over us.
After the last show in Wellington we headed back towards
Auckland by way of Rotorua. Wendy had arranged for us
to visit a park there that featured sulfur springs,
geysers, boiling mud and other things indicative of
volcanic activity. It seemed much like an open wound
on the skin of the earth and it made the whole town
smell like rotten eggs. Many of the motels had hot mineral
baths where this boiling water is piped directly into
a wading pool. The one we stayed at had 2 pools and
we soaked in hot water that night, floating around on
our backs and looking up at the stars. Jerry Richard's
was suffering a little because his back was hurting
from riding all day and getting in and out of the vans.
This soaking helped loosen him up a bit and it did him
a world of good! I burned one and had a little vino
- and THAT did me a world of good!
Although the water did feel good on my festering sores
and alligator like skin I couldn't help but wonder what
effect the sulfur smell may have on your lungs over
a long period of time. To me it was like the odor you
get when you strike a match and it flares up as it burns
off the sulfur. It seemed to make my lungs feel "heavy"
after a while. I really noticed this more the next day
when we went to the park and spent a few hours wandering
about the walkways that snaked around the various points
of interest. I took a few photos while there and got
a pretty good picture of Richard standing in front of
a smoking pit. After a while we loaded into the van
and headed for Auckland once again.
On the way home we stopped at Cranium Records. This
is a small record shop owned by Richard and Chrissy
Stockwell. It is attached to their home and laid out
beautifully, all neat and trim. As we walked in and
looked around we saw a whole slew of our favorite artists
featured on the shelves. We all had a ball going through
the records saying "remember this one?" and
"I used to listen to this when I was...."
and other such things as we uncovered goodie after goodie
after goodie! The Stockwell's have a love for good music
and are great supporters of spacerock in New Zealand.
If you ever get a chance to visit their shop, please
do! You sure won't be disappointed in the quality of
music that you will find. I'm sure they would be happy
to do mail order for those things you just can't find
at home. For more info email them at: "Stockwell,
Richard"
Once back at Tanglewood Farm we had a few days to rest
up and then it was off to Australia. Kris Tait was busily
making arrangements all week so that everything would
go smoothly over there. The band was looking forward
to seeing the country and everyone's spirits were high
as we got our equipment ready for shipping. By this
time the cardboard boxes I was using to haul my lightshow
around in started to have the look and feel of finely
tanned buckskin! Andy helped me find some new cardboard
boxes and with the help of a couple of rolls of duct
tape I was once again ready for whatever abuse the ape
like baggage handlers could dish out. So off to the
airport we went.
-Jim Lascko
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