HW: Poll results

[Doug Pearson]

Here are the unscientific results of the "favorite Hawkwind year" poll.
Since some people were a bit vague about the actual year they were voting
for, I broke the results into "phases" of the band's history, and in a few
cases, had to split one person's vote between two phases.  Sorry, but votes
for Huns, Visigoths and Vandals had to be disqualified, since they had all
broken up prior to 1969.

1969/71 (in the beginning)         0
1972-75 (the Lemmy years)          4.5
1976-78 (the Calvert years)        4.5
1979-81 (Huw metal years - 1)      0
1982-84 (return of Nik)            0
1985-88 (Huw metal years - 2)      0.5
1989/90 (Bridget & Simon)          6
1991-94 (the trio)                 1
1995/96 (Alien4/Love In Space)     1
1997-99 (the present)              1.5

declined to state/any and all      2
hasn't happened yet                1


The discussion also brought out some other opinions regarding certain band
members (which I've grossly oversimplified relative to many folks' succient
reasoning):

likes Bridget          12
hates Bridget           3

likes Nik               3
likes Nik's flute       2 (but not much of the sax/craziness)
hates Nik               2

likes Rizz              4
hates Rizz              8

likes Ron               6
likes Ron as frontman   6 (but not as bassist)
hates Ron               4

Despite some strong disagreements in these categories (does that mean that
these four people are the all-time "most controversial" members of
Hawkwind?), there were a few things that just about everyone seemed to
agree on:
Alan's bass playing is missed.
Simon House is the top Musician to ever play with Hawkwind.
Richard Chadwick is a great drummer and probably the best thing about the
current band.

(me, I like all of Nik, Bridget and Ron very much, but NOT Rizz - I love
deep, spacey dub Reggae, but IMO Hawkwind have never pulled that style off
well enough to challenge masters of the genre like Lee Perry and King Tubby
- but neither has any other spacerock band that I'm aware of - as of yet
there are no "Beastie Boys of Dub")

        -Doug
         ceres at sirius.com