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Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Show From a Band You've Probably Never Heard of
Review: Excellent Live Show from a band most people have probably never heard of. Hawkwind has actually been in continuous operation since 1969 with Guitarist/Vocalist Dave Brock the one constant through countless personnel changes. Hawkwind never made much of an effort to crack the U.S. Market (Most of their albums were never even released in the U.S.) but the band is fairly well known in Europe. This version of Hawkwind (Dave Brock - Vocals/Guitar, Alan Davey - Vocals/Bass, Harvey Bainbridge - Keyboards/Vocals, Simon House - Violin, & Richard Chadwick - Drums) is made up of excellent musicians who can just flat out play. The bands sound is hard to categorize but it is somewhat like progressive hard rock . Kind of like Yes meets Guns n Roses with an Electric Violin thrown in. This concert rocks from beginning to end and the bands use of flashing lights, video backdrops, fog, strobes, guest dancers and fire eaters (You read correctly) adds to the visual presentation. The video quality is excellent and the sound is very good although the overall level is somewhat low (You have to turn up the volume on your TV or Sound System although the sound is clear with no hum). The only reason I gave this 4 stars is that the concert is under 52 minutes in length and there are no extras on the DVD. I would recommend this though for fans wanting to hear excellent music performed by first rate musicians. Songs: Lives of Great Men, Golden Void (Void of Golden Light), Out of The Shadows, Night of The Hawks, Back in The Box, Utopia, Ejection, Damnation Alley.
Rating:
Summary: Cool band, pointless sideshows
Review: I confess I didn't know much about Hawkwind when I saw this DVD, but they are at the least interesting, and at the best inspired. I do have a quibble or two though. I have to agree with another reviewer that "the truly abysmal 'guest' vocalist (Wishart)" utterly sabatoges the music when she is onstage. Her voice is flat and she sings (if you could call it that) as if she has a tin ear. Ugh. Then there is the "interpretive dance" of the flat-footed, arhythmic "ballerina" who not only upstages the band but who actually seems not to be familiar with the music. Yeech. And one final production quibble: it certainly doesn't do much for the viewer's eyesight or the clarity of the picture to have a blinding yellow strobe behind the band facing the camera. Finally, while Classic Rock Legends is to be commended for releasing this and other concert DVDs, the lack of liner notes is a deplorable oversight. There is no mention of band members, let alone a summary of the band's history to that point. You'd think with a release such as this that it would be the band that would be celebrated, not the production company.
Rating:
Summary: Great band ok DVD
Review: This is one of rare Hawkwind releases that you actually can see the band clearly... I've heard rumours this is why some band members hate this release! Personally I like to see them though there is some sacrifice in that the usual fantastic Hawkwind lightshow is mostly lost as a consequence making it untypical of Hawkwind live.
Big complaint:- the final track "Wind of Change" on the VHS release is omitted from the DVD!
Still we have great sound, great musicians ( the return of Simon House on Violin adds wonderfully). However the thing is dragged down from 5 stars to 4 by the truly abysmal "guest" vocalist (Wishart) who does her damnedest to ruin the few numbers she squawks on. Thankfully the rest of the band are on fire so she fails. The numbers totally free of her presence are by far the best!
Nevertheless an essential purchase.
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