Captain Lockheed & The Starfighters

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Alan Davey is a magician and to think if he hadn't left H/W we may never have got this beautiful work. Side two continues with vocal skits, and it is interesting to note the inclusion of “The Widow’s Song,” which appears in the printed libretto.

Calvert must have felt a strong affinity with them as he too was unreliable, difficult to control and unstable as hell. Recorded live at the Underworld in Camden, this concert finds the band performing Hawkwind’s classic 1974 behemoth Hall Of The Mountain Grill in its entirety plus additional fan favorites!Ejection" (coupled with "Catch a Falling Starfighter") was released as a single, although both songs are slightly different versions to those on the album. Yes, Robert Calvert was the eccentric vocalist with Hawkwind for some years, and this, a play with rock music, was his first solo album. These songs do bear some stylistic similarities to the parent band (big, crunchy, guitar bombast; fluid sax lines; dense, rhythmic underpinnings) to the mothership. It is nowhere to be found on the album, but turned up years later on a crap Hawkwind collection with Calvert femme-vocalising. It's a satirical concept album with both songs and spoken interludes based on the story of the poor quality of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter planes.

The dirge-like “Catch A Falling Starfighter” is surrounded by ghostly electronics as Twink beats a funeral march over the assembled moaning of blackened Starfighter pilots.Apart from Brian Eno on synth, the other musicians are all pretty much Hawkwind members, even Dave Brock plays lead guitar on one track. I was so happy to get this remaster and glad to see that it offered three bonus tracks, including an extended version of "The Right Stuff". Yet another example of great Space Rock from ex Hawks which surpasses recent output from the mothership. What can you say about an album that crosses space rock charge out with Monty Pythonistic skits -- except that it’s hazardous Rock with ever-darkening humour direct from the bi-polar brainpan of Hawkwind’s erratic vocalist/lyricist, Robert Calvert.