In 2017 multi-instrumentalist synth pop icon, producer and radio presenter Paul Hardcastle told Prog how he’d started out as a boy racer with a passion for Hawkwind.
“In about 1972 or 73 I used to go to Macari’s in Charing Cross Road every Saturday to muck about on the Korg 700S. I’d drive the guy in the shop mad – he’d kick me out after half an hour. But I did find that if I held this one key down I could make the sound at the start of Silver Machine.
“I thought I was great, so I took my mate in there one day saying, ‘Look, I can do Silver Machine…’ then I couldn’t get the sound! But I found a wind noise, so I told him quite confidently, ‘This is the start of One Of These Days by Pink Floyd!’
I saw Hawkwind play a lot. As soon as an album came out I’d be down Kingsland Road, Dalston, to get it. I became a massive fan, and learned all about Bob Calvert. I could recite everything from Space Ritual to Sonic Attack.
“I had a white MkIII Cortina by this point with the poster to Warrior On The Edge Of Time pasted to the back like a mural. Anyone who got in that car, Hawkwind was all I’d ever play and I’d recruit pals to come to the gigs – seeing Atomhenge was like, ‘woah!’
Hawkwind were the first people to make me think about synthesisers – one of my earliest was a monophonic synth that Simon House used. I even thought about sampling Bob. I had a band in 1987 under the pseudonym LFO, and the first track we put out was Lord Of Light – I even called others Brainstorm and Sonic Attack. A bit cheeky, eh?
After 1990, Hawkwind weren’t the same for me. I missed Del Dettmar and Dik Mik. Our paths never crossed apart from meeting Lemmy in a club in Piccadilly in the 90s, where I talked to him about the bass line on Orgone Accumulator. I think he was a bit shocked, but impressed!
You can hear bits of Floyd and Hawkwind in my music. I can still listen to their albums – a little while ago I re-bought Space Ritual on vinyl, and an old Ferguson stereogram to play it on. It’s just great to have that cover again – it’s one of the greatest albums ever made.”
