I've been experimenting with improving
(AI-splitting and re-mixing) some sound-board
and assorted demo-level concert and other rare,
non-album, non-commercial tracks, and present
them here for fan interest only. I've written
up my workflow, in case others want to
have a go!
1973, 1974
I'd experimented with remixing various tracks
from Doremi,
Space
Ritual, and Hall
of the Mountain Grill, but these pale
compared to the new official remasters, so do
see the links to the various CherryRed box sets.
Expensive, but worth it!
1975, Farmhouse Sessions
The raw jam track 'Dawn' is on the extended
Warrior releases, so it's from that era,
recorded in mid/late 1975 with Paul Rudolph on
bass and guitar and swapping the same with Dave
Brock in each 'half'.
The original mix (if you can call it that) is
terribly muddled and unbalanced, so I worked my
magic and... well, see what you think. Very
trippy! (It's also the only item on this page
with two drummers, as Simon had Alan Powell with
him. Simon House and Nik Turner complete the
line-up.)
I suspect the track name came from the building
feel... it certainly sounds like it should have
come from Hawkwind playing as the sun rose at a
festival...!
1977 Rockfield
The Quark,
Strangeness and Charm line-up (Calvert,
Brock, Shaw, House, King) demoing Fahrenheit
451, which exists only as a poor quality demo,
but here with general noise removed, boosted
bass guitar, bass drum, widened stereo, and
far-panned de-emphasis of the vocal from Bob
(which was good but horribly distorted). Well, I
think I've made it work better anyway!
Also here is what I think should have been
added to close/bookend the album - a remaster of
a long-unreleased take on part of Spirit of the
Age with a fabulous feel.
1977, Leicester
Hawkwind's 'The Iron Dream' (the only track of
theirs wholly credited to Simon) was a tacked on
track on Quark,
Strangeness and Charm and, live, tacked
onto Uncle Sam's on Mars. And rarely that
memorable. But they nailed it in Leicester,
1977, here it's remixed slightly:
Summer 1979, Rockfield
Dave Brock, Harvey Bainbridge, Steve Swindells,
and Simon King in rehearsal to try out some of
Steve's material (Dave wanted Swindells to be
the new front-man, post-Calvert). Demo quality,
but I've again remixed as best I can to bring
out the elements:
1979, Huw Lloyd Langton, Simon King, and Nic
Potter (Jawa)
See my Jawa page for downloads
of remixes of the Jawa demos, originally
digitised by me on behalf of Huw (RIP) and
Marion.
Live Seventy Nine
The Live 79
tour, the official album cuts off Silver Machine
after a minute with a big explosion. One reason
for this is that on the tour, they medley this
with an as-yet-unreleased 'hero' track,
Levitation, and they didn't want to spoil that
for the upcoming titular album. Also, there
probably wasn't room on the side of vinyl!
So the live Silver Machine would have to be
faded out or, as happened, blown up! Here I'm
using the Complete 79
full recording, with all its MANY
audience-recorded flaws, remixed as best I can
for clearer vocals, drums, and guitar. It rocks
along very nicely! (Note that there's not much
Tim Blake on the audio - Harvey did comment at
the time when they remixed for Live Seventy Nine
that for some parts, all they found on his
channel was some bleeps and whooshes and
effects, rather than actual keyboards!)
Also, I've had another stab at PXR5, very rare
on Hawkwind bootlegs, and spoilt by massive EQ
changes on Complete 79, plus Tim's performance
of New Jerusalem, here bass enhanced to correct
the original EQ.
And, for extra cool, some remixes from the same
band in 1980 playing in Folkestone much the same
set., reworked from a soundboard cassette from
45 years ago...
1980, Steve Swindells (plus Huw Lloyd Langton,
Simon King, and Nic Potter)
Steve's album Fresh Blood (long since deleted
(but remastered
and
released on CD in limited numbers, plus
digital versions, see also my
full
review) was missing the full version of
'Shot Down in the Night', so here it is,
freshened up a bit from the vinyl from 34 years
ago. Also, a B-side to the single edit of 'Shot
down' that I'd never heard before and is very
rare. Also remixed and freshened up.
2020, EBB
The Erin Bennett Band covering
1975 Hawkwind in style, filmed in rehearsal
with a single camera. The sound is already
very good, but I wanted to give it the full
stereo treatment, including hearing what the
drummer, Anna
Fraser, was doing, so here goes. Do check EBB out,
they're fantastic, by the way:
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