OUT THERE

A cosmic guide to Space-rock. By Ian Abrahams

S.P.A.C.E.R.O.C.K With Me exhorted Julian Cope on his Interpreter album; Radiophonic Workshop effects merged with B-movie warblings in a gloriously nutty spoof of all the things that Hawkwind, their followers and copycats have blasted through the time-space continuum these last 40 years.

The term ‘Space-rock’ encompasses everything from the early UFO Club experimentalism of Pink Floyd to the cosmic jazz of Sun Ra. It’s described some of Bowie’s sci-fi themed works, Space Oddity and Starman, and been attached to some of the 80s shoegazer bands. It has wings as far apart as heavy rock and free jazz; for a genre possessing a name that appears to sum it up instantly, the actual definition is far from clear.

Its principal protagonists are Hawkwind. They defined the genre with their legendary Space Ritual tour of 1972 and its subsequent distillation to vinyl. They inspired a swathe of bands that would adopt Space-rock to represent their homage to, and influence from, Hawkwind and their ever-present leader, Dave Brock.

This influence doesn’t just extend to British bands, though there is a busy Space-rock community operating here in the UK, extending from the improvised instrumentalism of Ozric Tentacles to the hazy psychedelia of Earthling Society, ecompassing the driving …

by Ian Abrahams
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