''Space Bandits'' is the sixteenth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

space rock Space rock is a music genre characterized by loose and lengthy song structures centered on instrumental textures that typically produce a hypnotic, otherworldly sound. It may feature distorted and reverberation-laden guitars, minimal drummin ...

group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic ide ...

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 hard ...

, released in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

. It spent one week on the

UK albums chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

at #70. By mid-1989, the group's line-up had changed once again. Guitarist

Dave Brock David Anthony Brock (born 20 August 1941) is an English musician. He plays electric guitar, keyboards, bass and oscillators. He is a founder, sole constant member and musical focus of the space rock group Hawkwind.Allmusic– Dave Brock biogr ...

, keyboardist

Harvey Bainbridge Harvey Frederick Bainbridge (born 24 September 1949, Dorset) is an English bass and keyboard player. He is best known as the bass player and keyboard player in Hawkwind. Career Bainbridge's first musical group was when he was at school. A gro ...

, and bassist Alan Davey remained. Drummer Richard Chadwick had just established himself, while lead guitarist

Huw Lloyd-Langton Richard Hugh "Huw" Lloyd-Langton (6 February 1951 – 6 December 2012) was an English musician, best known as the guitarist for the rock band HawkwindStrong, Martin C. (2003) ''The Great Rock Discography'', Canongate, , p. 466 at various times. ...

had left, his position occasionally being filled by former keyboardist

Simon House Simon House (born 29 August 1948 in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England) is a British composer and classically trained violinist and keyboard player, perhaps best known for his work with space rock band Hawkwind. Career Before his time with Ha ...

providing lead lines on violin. In addition, singer

Bridget Wishart Bridget Wishart (born 25 February 1962) is an English vocalist, musician and performance artist. She was a member of English rock band Hawkwind from 1989 to 1991. Wishart was the first woman to sing lead vocals in Hawkwind, and is the band's on ...

had started to perform with the group. This new line-up recorded a 60-minute live performance at Lenton Lane television studios, Nottingham on 25 January 1990 for broadcast on the

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

late-night series ''Bedrock'', later released as the video '' Live Legends''. The group entered

Rockfield Studios Rockfield Studios is a residential recording studio located in the Wye Valley just outside the village of Rockfield, Monmouthshire, Wales. It was originally founded in 1963 by brothers Kingsley and Charles Ward. Facilities Rockfield is a two- ...

in April through to June to record this album, produced with Paul Cobbold. "Black Elk Speaks" features a sample of

John Neihardt John Gneisenau Neihardt (January 8, 1881 – November 3, 1973) was an American writer and poet, amateur historian and ethnographer. Born at the end of the American settlement of the Plains, he became interested in the lives of those who had been ...

reading from his book ''

Black Elk Speaks ''Black Elk Speaks'' is a 1932 book by John G. Neihardt, an American poet and writer, who relates the story of Black Elk, an Oglala Lakota medicine man. Black Elk spoke in Lakota and Black Elk's son, Ben Black Elk, who was present during the tal ...

'', the testimony of

Black Elk Heȟáka Sápa, commonly known as Black Elk (December 1, 1863 – August 19, 1950), was a ''wičháša wakȟáŋ'' ("medicine man, holy man") and ''heyoka'' of the Oglala Lakota people. He was a second cousin of the war leader Crazy Horse and f ...

as given to Neihardt. The group undertook a 25 date UK tour in October and November to promote the album, although House had left the group by then. This was followed by 18 North America dates in December, the Oakland Omni Theatre show on 16 December being recorded and released as ''

California Brainstorm ''California Brainstorm'' is a live album by the British space rock group Hawkwind, recorded during their North America tour in 1990, and released in 1992 in the USA on the Iloki label. In 1994 it received a UK release by Cyclops, which inclu ...

''. Still supporting Space Bandits, 1991 commenced with perhaps the most surprising Hawkwind tour in the band’s history, without Dave Brock. Brock’s temporary replacement was former Smart Pils guitarist Steve Bemand (who had played with Chadwick and Wishart in the Demented Stoats). The tour began in Amsterdam on 12 March and took in Germany, Greece, Italy and France before wrapping up in Belgium on 10 April after 24 dates.Sonic Assassins, Chapter 17 – Ian Abrahams (Published by SAF publishing; )

Track listing

;Side one #"Images" (

, Alan Davey) – 9:34 #"Black Elk Speaks" (

, Brock) – 5:15 #"Wings" (Davey) – 5:22 ;Side two #

"Out of the Shadows" (Doug Buckley, Brock, Davey) – 4:57 #"Realms" (Davey) – 3:26 #"Ship of Dreams" (Brock) – 5:13 #"T.V. Suicide" (

) – 5:20

Atomhenge CD bonus tracks

"Snake Dance" reviously unreleased(Davey, Brock, Buckley) – 7:55 #"Out of the Shadows" ive(Davey, Brock, Bainbridge,

) – 4:26 #"Images" ingle version(Wishart, Brock, Davey) – 6:04

Personnel

;Hawkwind *

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

–

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

, vocals (track 4,6) * Alan Davey –

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

, vocals (track 3) *

–

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

– keyboards, vocals (track 7) * Richard Chadwick –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

Credits

*Recorded at

, April to June 1990. *Produced with Paul Cobbold. *Sleeve by

Joe Petagno Joe Petagno (born January 1, 1948) is an American artist known principally for creating images used on rock album covers for bands such as Led Zeppelin, Nazareth, Black Oak Arkansas, Sweet, Hawkwind, Motörhead, Roy Harper, Marduk, Bal-Sagoth, ...

Release history

*September 1990: GWR, GWLP103, UK *February 1992:

Castle Communications Castle Communications, also known as Castle Music, was a British independent record label and home video distributor founded in 1983 by Terry Shand, Cliff Dane, and Jon Beecher. Its video imprint was called Castle Vision. The label's producti ...

, CLACD282, UK *July 1999:

, ESMCD738, UK CD digipak *September 2010: Atomhenge ( Cherry Red) Records, ATOMCD1025, UK CD

External links

Atomhenge Records

References

{{Authority control 1990 albums Hawkwind albums Albums with cover art by Joe Petagno Albums recorded at Rockfield Studios