Hawkwind The Reading Festival August 1975
Had the Hawklords sold out? Here they were headlining the Friday night of a mainstream festival. What about the hippy free festival ideals? Why weren’t they playing outside while we all stormed the fences? No worries, Hawkwind were still as anti-establishment as ever, and anyway why shouldn’t they have headlined a rock festival?
A group of us went to Reading 1975 which took place over the August bank holiday weekend. The festival boasted a strong line-up with Hawkind, Dr Feelgood and UFO on Friday; Yes, Supertramp and Thin Lizzy on Saturday; and Wishbone Ash, John Mclaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Soft Machine on Sunday. Hawkwind headlined on the Friday night, taking the stage after a storming set by the Feelgoods. The Hawklords rose to the occasion and brought the cold Friday to a fitting close. Robert Calvert rejoined the band for the evening, and enjoyed it so much he decided to stay on and woudl return to the fold for the next year or so. I found the following quote of a Feelgoods fan site. It comes from a review of the time andsums things up better than I can: “Midnight on Friday. Hawkwind shambled offstage amid amplified exhortations to “smoke plenty of good dope” having blasted the wax out of every ear for miles around. As they strolled backstage – Nik Turner wreathed in orange hair and smiles, Simon House deadly serious and toting a small child – the audience at the first night of the Reading Festival turned their collars against the sudden cold, shivering. The temperature, never particularly high during the whole day, seemed to have taken a sudden plunge as the last rumbling notes of “Silver Machine” died away. Camp-fires were being stoked into life here and there.” Setlist: Mind Journey; Assault And Battery; Golden Void; Ode To A Crystal Set; Psychedelic Warlords; Wind Of Change; The Awakening; Paradox; Spiral Galaxy; Sonic Attack; Magnu; Opa Loka; Master Of The Universe; Welcome; Brainstorm; Silver Machine.
20 Feb
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