Robert Calvert - Ramblings at Dawn

Robert Calvert - Ramblings at Dawn

In memory of Robert Calvert: 1945 - 1988

In 1982 I was a precocious 18 year-old who had already been broadcasting on community FM radio for several years. I approached Robert Calvert, a great hero of mine, and at the time recently lead singer of Hawkwind, with the aim of producing a radio documentary about his music.

Bob sent me a 90 minute tape, which he had made at his house sometime earlier, seemingly in response to someone else's questions, perhaps originally intended to be transcribed into a fanzine. For whatever reason, that didn't come about, and I ended up with the tape, which I then used to create 'The Robert Calvert Special', a radio production consisting of three 45 minute episodes, which originally broadcast on 7 CAE FM in Hobart Tasmania, in August 1982. A very great deal of this material was never used in the original production however, and is made available here for the first time.

It's very embarrassing for me now to listen back to my adolescent voice, and I also regret the suggestion of my engineer, that we orchestrate the thing to sound, at times, like a 'live' interview, with both Bob and myself in the same room. As a result, I have completely excised all of my vocal parts, and all of the music from this version. What you have here is the complete, unedited master tape from which the special was made. Bob wrote 'Ramblings at Dawn' on side A, and 'Further Ramblings' on side B.

The sound quality is not outstanding. Bob was using a portable tape recorder, with a single mic plugged into one channel. The volume levels fluctuate considerably, and to compensate for that, I have tended to set them a little low, as the highs are rather dramatic. Nevertheless I'm assured it's quite acceptable as far as a spoken word recording goes. I have used a highpass filter to eliminate some of the bass which tends to creep into real audio files. Still, for those curious, Bob's voice is just a little less bottom-endy than this on the original tape. You will also find that the quality improves somewhat after the first file.

I have not edited the tape in any way at all, except to divide into segments which seem topically discrete in one way or another. They appear, however, in exactly the order he recorded them.

Despite my aforementioned embarressment about the original production (copies of which are in circulation, and which you may have heard. I assure you I subsequently developed a radio voice which I was more pleased with :) I am glad I was an audacious teenager back in 1982, because the product of it was the only substantial audio documentary on Robert Calvert still in existence.

Sit back, do some downloading, and enjoy the unique pleasure of an unfettered journey through the mind of a man who I still consider to be one of the great un-sung geniuses of rock music.

A couple of notes: You will need a realaudio player to listen to these files. Get one from here for free, if you don't have one already. Secondly, the copyright situation in regards to these recordings is somewhat clear to me. In Australia, at least, there is no performance copyright on spoken word pieces, and interviews are regarded as the property of the interviewer, if the subject of the interview granted permission for the recording. However, since Bob effectively interviewed himself, as far as I am concerned, the copyright of all of this material resides with Bob, his next of kin or the executors of his estate. I feel confident that I am using it in the spirit for which it was originally intended - for broadcast. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Tim Gadd, Tasmania, June 2000

Part

Contents

Time

Size

Part 1 Days before Hawkwind
Margate and funny hats
First gig with Hawkwind
"Co-pilots of Spaceship Earth" 5.00 m 613 kb

Part 2 Meeting Hawkwind
Space Rock
On time, space, and memory 4.03 m 498 kb

Part 3 Silver Machine
Doremi Fasol Latido
Space Ritual and combining rock music and poetry 4.52 m 614 kb

Part 4 Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters 4.53 m 601 kb

Part 5 Urban Guerilla
The subjectivity of coincidence
On being banned by the BBC, and having a Special Branch file 6.43 m 825 kb

Part 6 Sucess of Capt. Lockheed
Thoughts on Peter Hammill
On tailoring one's vocal style
The cancellation of the Lockheed tour 7.49 m 958 kb

Part 7 The original (1973) Cricket Star
On Reggae and ethnic cults 2.42 m 331 kb

Part 8 On Bowie
Unfinished TV collaboration with Marc Bolan
On Bertold Brecht
Car crashes, and more on the nature of coincidence 5.25 m 666 kb

Part 9 Astounding Sounds Amazing Music and funkiness
On 'socially aware lyrics'
On obsessional working
The sacking of Nik Turner, Paul Rudolph, Alan Powell
Thoughts on post-Calvert Hawkwind 7.06m 870 kb

Part 10 Books which have influenced him
International success of Hawkwind
The effect of Simon House leaving the band
The Hawklords album 4.01 m 494 kb

Part 11 Days of the Underground - reasons for writing
and the people behind the lyrics
On quitting the band, and contractual obligations 6.32 m 678 kb

Part 12 On humour, sarcasm and irony
Getting very wasted with Lemmy
Bad scenes in Hawkwind, and nearly being 'turked' by Simon King
Hawkwind as the Roman Senate
Bob's pick for the Best Hawkwind Line-up Ever 5.59 m 735 kb

Part 13 Music he fancies nowadays (1981)
Early bands, before Hawkwind
Writing versus music, and delayed adolesence
Rock music as literature 7.39 m 938 kb

Part 14 More about social and political relevance
Meanings in lyrics
Fantasy and SF
Content of poems versus songs
Sociology and political specialisation 4.59 m 611 kb

Part 15 Cricket Star (the 1980 flexi)
Lord of the Hornets
A guest appearance by Charlie! 3.13 m 396 kb

Part 16 1981 stage shows with Jill Ritchie and Pete Pavli
Overseas theatrical performances of Capt. Lockheed
Stand-up comedy, theatre and fringe festivals 4.42 m 576 kb

Part 17 Hype - the novel and album and P.G. Wodehouse 3.28 m 425 kb

Part 18 Plans for the future
The Kid From Silicon Gulch, and stagework
Dawn 4.21 m 535 kb

Finally, this is not meant to be in a definitive biographical page about Robert Calvert, nor an introduction to him; just a resource, mainly designed for those already familiar with him. For the definitive site on the life and work of Robert Calvert, please visit Knut Gewer's page. It's huge, and here is literally days of exploring to do there. I want to thank Knut also, for permission