In Search Of Space

The simple and effective formula of space-rock has been invented at the dawn of the seventies by the Hawkwind, a band that emerged from the Ladbroke Grove scene in London. With catchy hard rock riffs, hypnotic 4/4 rhythms, long guitar's and horns' improvisations and a background of spacey electronic noise, they have crossed several decades without losing the affection of their many followers. Some of their science fiction lyrics have been written by the underground poet Robert Calvert, or even by the great British writer Michael Moorcock. Silver Machine has been their greatest success, it made them earn enough money to put on a trippy light show that is still typical of their concerts. This clip is from the Top Of The Pop's archives; you'll notice Lemmy, future founder of Motorhead, on bass and vocals, and the handsome dancer Stacia, that used to perform with them in those years.
In the nineties space-rock even "landed" on MTV, with this Ozric Tentacles' clip, a song taken from their 1993 album Jurassic Shift. The Ozric are the most popular among the bands that gave birth in the eightes to a sort of British neo-hippie scene, gathering in free concerts and festivals in places like Stonehenge. Their music is quite complex, they play long instrumental jams with jazzy and ethnic-new agey influences, maybe more similar to Daevid Allen's Gong than to Hawkwind. They also have a mind blowing light show, as you'll see in the video.
I saw both these bands in concert and I have to say that, in both cases, it's been a trip with no need of chemical substances!
My only criticism about Hawkwind and Ozric Tentacles is that they both made too many records, and they all sound very similar, so they ended up being boring. But it's well worth catching these videos to see these freaks in action.

Hawkwind - Silver Machine (1972)
Ozric Tentacles - Vita Voom (1993)

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Mirco