OFFICIALLY PUBLISHED TODAY: Sideways Through Time, the revised & expanded edition, the most comprehensive oral history of Hawkwind in the 1970s ever! More details here: daysoftheunderground.com/sideways-throu… Buy it here: strangeattractor.co.uk/shoppe/sideway… Launch event: thehorsehospital.com/events/allhail… Thanks!

Peter Hammill at Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone in Rome, 14 November 2024. A great look, half-poet, half-prophet... (pic by Ginevra Baldassari)

Holiday reading sorted. @JoeBanksWriter @ClassicRockMag Going to be a good week and a lot warmer than Yorkshire or Hull

Unlikely VdGG fans... In 2020, Peter Hammill guested on Jakko Jakszyk’s album Secrets And Lies. Jim Christopulos - co-author of Van der Graaf Generator: The Book - interviewed Jakko about the experience, which led to this hand puppet related revelation!

Published in Germany in 1979, Tanz Der Lemminge, the first biography of Amon Düül II - in fact, still the only full biography of the band. For those of us who can't speak German, we can at least look at the pictures...

Peter Hammill has just released a remixed version of his 2004 album Incoherence. He posted about it on Sofa Sound: sofasound.wordpress.com/2024/11/08/inc… but signed off with the following zinger! "I’m currently working on a number of new tunes and hope to have an album finished early in 2025."

Something else I reviewed for @ProgMagazineUK, an album of demoes that neo-prog should-have-beens Trilogy made for various majors in the early 80s, alas to no avail. Includes this superb track, stand out on the, err, legendary Fire In Harmony compilation: trilogyuk.bandcamp.com/album/hidden-m…

I've been a little remiss in flagging what I've reviewed in the current @ProgMagazineUK, but the reissue of Steven Wilson/Mikael Åkerfeldt's Storm Corrosion album definitely deserves a mention. Even if you're not a big SW/Opeth fan, it's rather special... youtube.com/watch?v=manW5v…

I'm not leaving here just yet, but have started double-posting at bsky.app/profile/joeban… So if you'd prefer to read my ramblings there, please go ahead and follow me... (and note new Hammill-based theme 😉)

Released last Friday, the new Doremi boxset, with Stephen Tayler's remix looking under the hood of the grimy cosmic engine. Again, it's a must hear, plus a knockout version of 'Brainbox Pollution'. Here's what I said about 'Brainstorm' in DOTU: daysoftheunderground.com/extract #hawkwind

Saw Heretic last night. Surprised by how positive most of the reviews have been. It starts strongly, but its ideas produce diminishing returns, until a deeply underwhelming ending. Hugh Grant is great, but the material just isn't as clever as it thinks. Wanted to like it more...

Amusingly, the official bootleg of last Sunday's All Hail Hawkwind! event is currently no. 1 in the Mixcloud Space Rock chart. Here's the link to listen to it if you want to keep it on the top spot! daysoftheunderground.com/post/all-hail-…

On the left, a Jerry Cornelius illustration by Mal Dean graces the cover of New Worlds 194 (Sept 1969); on the right, the original illustration as revealed by Richard Glyn Jones after some Photoshop tinkering. It is of course a parody of that 'orrible Blind Faith LP sleeve...

Book Review | @JoeBanksWriter - Sideways Through Time: An Oral History of Hawkwind in the 1970s by @timforster42 "The great thing about this book is the way the interviews have been internally structured and themes brought to the fore." echoesanddust.com/2024/11/joe-ba…

Here's your Friday starter for ten... Who's this louche rock god strutting their stuff on bass geetar in 1975...? It's none other than VdGG's mild-mannered organ maestro Hugh Banton, who was also a bit of a whizz on four strings too. (pic by Benoît d'Hostel, Nantes, May 75)

Still buzzing from watching @TheHawklords last week . Currently revisiting the original lineup .@Albums2Hear Whilst reading @JoeBanksWriter Excellent reissue " sideways through time " @hawkbinge @MrDibs23

Upcoming events at the ICA, August 1969, including King Crimson, Edgar Broughton and J.G. Ballard... (more details about The Assassination Weapon here: jgballard.ca/deep_ends/assa…)

Went to see Steve Coogan in Dr. Strangelove last night. It's pretty funny and imaginatively staged, though Coogan is definitely the best thing in it. I particularly liked him as Captain Lionel Mandrake, his performance like a cross between Reggie Perrin and Robert Calvert...

Just to add to today's feeling of terror and déjà vu, I've just seen that the Nationwide 'Hexham Heads' film that traumatised a generation - well, certainly me - has finally resurfaced. Its weird description of a werewolf haunting is still triggering... youtube.com/watch?v=J4WXop…

Happy birthday to Mr Peter Hammill! 76 today... And if you're in Italy, he's going to be in your neck of the woods very soon...

Huge thanks to everybody who came to the All Hail Hawkwind! event yesterday. For those who couldn't make it, here's the official bootleg of the panel discussion featuring myself, Allan Jones, Malcolm Garrett & Cathi Unsworth, hosted by Travis Elborough: daysoftheunderground.com/post/all-hail-…