HAWKLORDS: 25 YEARS ON (1978)

Things seemed to be going good, huh? Don't let appearances fool you. House departed to tour with Bowie and, at the end of yet another disenheartening North American tour, Brock threw in the towel and called it quits on Hawkwind.

After a brief respite, he and Calvert regrouped with a new rhythm section (Harvey Bainbridge on bass, Martin Griffin on drums), and a new name: The Sonic Assassins. Steve Swindells (ex-Pilot... "Oh ho ho it's magic, y'know, never believe it's not so.") then joined on keyboards and the name transmogrified yet again to: Hawklords.

The 'lords recorded 25 YEARS ON with King and House fluttering about in the periphery contributing the odd bit here and the nice bit there. This is a challenging album -- the songwriting is strong and you have to commend Brock and Calvert for trying to move in a new direction, picking up some of the power pop/punk/new wave aura of the day.

However, all that having been said, the sound is a bit on the weak side and Swindell's vaguely aspirated sounding keyboards are mixed to the fore to the detriment of the bolloxy drums and guitars to which we'd all rather be listening -- I just keep hearing Pilot's "Magic" throughout no matter how hard I try to focus on the other proceedings.

BLANGA SCORE: 5.