A Traveller Of Time And Space

The good rocketship Hawkwind have launched their 36th studio album into the progosphere! On Stories From Time And Space, the group have lost none of their sense of injustice about the world. Bandleader Dave Brock reveals the drive behind their new music, why he's continuing to fight for an alternative society and responds to recent concerns about his health.

- Julian Marszalek

Ask any musician what the highlight of their recent tour might be and the answers will invariably range from positive crowd reaction to the new material, through to a hospitality rider that includes a decent feed as much as libation, perhaps Wi-Fi that works or even just good old camaraderie in the tour bus.

For Dave Brock, linchpin of the venerable space rock institution that is Hawkwind, it's all of these things and more, not least as the six-date tour that he recently completed in support of the band's 36th album, Stories From Time And Space very nearly didn't happen.

"It was quite hard going because prior to that, I had just come out of hospital," recalls Brock as he talks to Prog from his farmhouse in Devon. "I got Covid earlier on in February and I was really ill. It affects your breathing a lot and, you know, singing and all that was quite difficult. It knocked my heart out of sync, so I had to go to hospital. I've had all the checks." Much like the stoic generation of which he's a member, 82-year-old Brock isn't one to dwell on what might have been or what he had to go through to get match fit, so we'll draw a discreet veil over his recuperation. Instead, he's more interested in how the tour developed and how his enforced hospitalisation actually brought out the best in his bandmates - that'll be guitarist-singer Magnus Martin, keyboardist Tim 'Thighpaulsandra' Lewis, bassist Doug Mackinnon and longtime drummer Richard Chadwick.

"I started getting better as I went along," Brock reassures airily. "The band had been rehearsing without me for all of March. And because they didn't know if I was going to be able to do it or not, they'd been practising all their vocals. The good thing was, all of them can sing. Some of them say they can't sing, but they really can. So, when I came back, we had really good backing vocals!”