This is your captain speaking ... your captain is dead
Rather sadly It’s time to bid Nik Turner a sad space adieu as he sets off on the next phase of his ever-evolving, eve-revolving journey through the multiverse.
Co-founder of Hawkwind, intergalactic voyager, pyramid-based flautist etc. my memories of Nik are a little different. I remember going to his house with my parents and one of their friends when I was about 9 or 10 – being an antisocial little bleeder I spent almost the whole time outside mostly, exploring the nearby farmland and woods. I can also remember Nik busking in Carmarthen and my parents’ really enjoying his rock and roll band when they caught him locally.
In the time honoured way of rock and roll, he seemed to have got into Hawkwind mostly because he owned a van. His vocals and rudimentary sax playing were a bonus. I love the BBC Hawkwind documentary Hawkwind – Do Not Panic and Nik is an amusing presence throughout; unless you happen to be Dave Brock, which most of us are not.
So let us forget all the Hawkwind squabbles, squalls and squonking, all of which are detailed forensically in any number of ‘Wind books, as well as forgive him his regrettable tendencies towards performance art and just concentrate on the passing of a true master of the universe.
Onwards to further!
1158 Down (still).
