Del Dettmar (born 20 April 1947 in
Thornton Heath,
Surrey,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
) is best known as synthesizer and keyboard player with the English
space rock band
Hawkwind
Hawkwind are an English rock band known as one of the earliest space rock groups. Since their formation in November 1969, Hawkwind have gone through many incarnations and have incorporated many different styles into their music, including ha ...
from 1971 to 1974.
After leaving school he had a number of jobs including working in a bank, digging potatoes on
Jersey
Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label=Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependencies, Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west F ...
, and punting tourists up and down the river in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge beca ...
. Eventually he got a job as roadie with
The Pretty Things and subsequently worked as road manager for
Edgar Broughton Band,
Arthur Brown,
Juicy Lucy,
Pete Brown
Peter Ronald Brown (born 25 December 1940) is an English performance poet, lyricist, and singer best known for his collaborations with Cream and Jack Bruce. Colin Larkin, ''Virgin Encyclopedia of Sixties Music'', (Muze UK Ltd, 1997), , p. 80 ...
, and then
Cochise.
He was recruited as road manager for Hawkwind by their manager Doug Smith. While attending to his road manager duties, he also sat out front at gigs operating a synthesizer and mixing the band. He was brought into the band proper to replace a temporarily absent
Dik Mik in May 1971. He co-produced (with
Dave Brock) the album ''
Doremi Fasol Latido
''Doremi Fasol Latido'' is the third studio album by English space rock band Hawkwind. It was recorded at Rockfield Studios and released in 1972. It reached No. 14 on the UK album charts.
New members
The rhythm section of Dave Anderson and T ...
'' and is credited as composer of the tracks "One Change" (''Doremi Fasol Latido''), "Electronic No. 1" (''
Space Ritual''), and "Goat Willow" (''
Hall of the Mountain Grill'').
He left Hawkwind in June 1974 to emigrate to the East Shore of Kootenay Lake, in B.C.
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...
, where he still lives. He recorded two albums with the
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. Th ...
-based experimental group
Melodic Energy Commission in 1979 and 1980 (with help from fellow ex-Hawkwinder
Paul Rudolph).
Aural Innovations #5
- Melodic Energy Commission
(Review/Interview) He is an occasional contributor to the band Space Ritual.
References
External links
Entry at Discogs
*
1947 births
Hawkwind members
Living people
People from Thornton Heath
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