The Fat Angel Sings

Released in September 1974, the album is regarded as one of the band’s finest and featured a new line-up of the band, which saw the departure of Robert Calvert and Dik Mik, but the arrival of keyboard player and violinist, Simon House. After the success of their Space Ritual tour, Hawkwind were keen to explore new possibilities for their music. The result was the eclectic and much-loved “Hall Of The Mountain Grill”, now released as a nine-disc box set including three live shows from 1974. 

Featuring such classic tracks as ‘The Psychedelic Warlords’, ‘Wind of Change’, ‘D-Rider’, ‘You’d Better Believe It’, ‘Lost Johnny’ and ‘Paradox’, the album was formed of studio recordings and over-dubbed live recordings made at concerts at Edmonton Sundown in London in January 1974. ‘Hall of the Mountain Grill’ was another UK Top Twenty hit for the band. At the start of 1974 Hawkwind were very much a band on the up. They’d just completed their first North American tour, with thousands of fans attending every show, and on returning home had immediately embarked on The Ridiculous Roadshow, playing to sold-out concert halls around the UK.

Dave Brock said it was so named “because all our tours are just so silly and disorganised” – but they’d become a serious force to be reckoned with in the British rock world since the success of “Silver Machine” in 1972.

The US shows marked the retirement of the Space Ritual set they’d been playing for over a year, and they wanted to move away from the science fiction image they’d acquired, particularly as space age poet Robert Calvert had temporarily left the band. drummer Simon King said, “Some might talk of the space image as a serious trip, but we’re really a fun band. We enjoy playing more than anything else.”

The first sign of this looser, lighter approach to their material had come out the previous August. “Urban Guerilla” had Calvert raving about making bombs in his cellar. It had ended up being withdrawn after a series of IRA attacks, but musically it was upbeat and catchy, even a little rootsy. The single’s B-side, Brainbox Pollution, really rang the changes, with a central riff that was pure old-school rock’n’roll. Used as The Ridiculous Roadshow’s opener, it set the tone for the rest of the set, with other new songs including “You’d Better Believe It” and “It’s So Easy”.

 Brock, in particular, was still interested in the possibilities of electronic music and the potential of adding new colours to their sound. Synth player Del Dettmar had already was moving to Canada once his paperwork came through; and after future soundtrack composer Michael Nyman was briefly considered as his replacement, ex-High Tide and Third Ear Band violinist/keyboardist Simon House was recruited – a decision that would have a profound impact on Hawkwind’s next album.

King had already anticipated how it would turn out: “I’d like to see an album with two distinct parts. The first would be a recording of our new live material. The other side would be very much a studio job, something not really suited for stage. We’d be able to utilise synthesisers, tapes and electronic devices to the full.”

The recording of their next album began in May 1974 at Olympic Studios in Barnes, and concluded the following month.

The first song to emerge from the sessions was The Psychedelic Warlords (Disappear In Smoke), released as a single in August. A Brock composition dating back to 1972, it’s an angry protest song propelled by a fabulously funky riff. On the B-side was a live version of It’s So Easy taken from the January 26 show at Edmonton; given its singalong chorus, many believe it would have made a better A-side – but Brock had apparently gone off it.

Two other live tracks would appear on the album: You’d Better Believe It and Paradox, an aggressive yet melancholic song with a classic stun guitar riff. As with It’s So Easy, the songs were overdubbed significantly by House, who included a bluegrass fiddle hoedown added on the former and sweeping Mellotron on the latter.

The album, punningly titled “Hall Of The Mountain Grill” in honour of both Edvard Grieg and the band’s favourite Portobello Road café, was released on September 6th, 1974. Leading off with the full-length version of The Psychedelic Warlords, it segues into the dramatic, faux orchestral “Wind Of Change“, which gives definitive notice of Hawkwind having moved into new territory. Once again, House makes a major contribution on Mellotron and violin. As Brock understates: “I suppose it was quite proggy, in a way.”

All those tracks were Brock compositions, and he also wrote the edgy psych rock number “Web Weaver”. But it’s the contrasting songs from Hawkwind’s other members that give the album its uniquely eclectic vibe. Nik Turner’s “D-Rider” (as in ‘Dragon Rider’) is strangely weightless, both surging and floating. Turner said: “I wrote it while I was tripping in the woods near Clearwell Castle playing my oboe. It was basically a fantasy, sort of mixing mythology and astrology – ‘Our course determined by our stars.’ It’s introspective and cosmic; I really like that song.”

House’s instrumental title track is an exquisitely sinister pocket symphony, and proof that Hawkwind could now hold their own with their progressive contemporaries if they so desired. Lemmy was a big fan of it, but less keen on his own contribution, the swampy biker rock of “Lost Johnny” (with lyrics by journalist Mick Farren). “It was crap, the Hawkwind version,” he told Carol Clerk in The Saga Of Hawkwind. “But “Hall Of The Mountain Grill” is the best studio album I did with Hawkwind. I was quite to the front.”

Dettmar’s swansong, the proto-ambient track “Goat Willow”, reflected his desire to move in a more experimental direction. After an attempt to remove the frame from a piano led to him nearly being knocked unconscious by a piece of flying wood, he decided to base his piece around an African kalimba, with harpsichord from House, flutes from Turner and piano from Lemmy.

Resolutely ambivalent, Brock said of the album: “Some of it’s all right and some of it isn’t.” Contemporary reviews weren’t exactly glowing either, with the press increasingly critical of Hawkwind’s refusal to conform to standard rock band criteria.

A deluxe nine-disc limited-edition boxed set of the classic 1974 album by Hawkwind, “Hall of the Mountain Grill”, is being released by Britain’s Cherry Red Records on August 29th, 2025. The boxed edition houses seven CDs and two Blu-ray discs, including original album newly remastered from the original master tapes. The original album is presented with new mixes from the original 16-track master tapes by Stephen W. Tayler along with bonus tracks drawn from studio outtakes and rare singles, and previously unreleased full concerts at Edmonton, London (January 1974) and the 1999 Party at Cleveland, USA, in March 1974 and a new mix of the 1999 Party in Chicago.

Hawkwind were staging events rather than just gigs. It was particularly true of the London shows they played at Edmonton Sundown on January 25th and 26th, 1974. Dedicated to “Timothy Leary, a jailed philosopher,” his partner Joanna Harcourt-Smith introduced the shows with enthusiasm, having declared that Leary considered Hawkwind to be “the most highly evolved band on the planet.” Calvert also made a guest appearance, delivering an astonishing poem about Leary called America.

But the most fun was had by the audience, many of whom had entered a mask-making competition, with a first prize of “a weekend on the road with Hawkwind” – though as Lemmy quipped to Canadian magazine Beetle, “Second prize was two weekends on the road with Hawkwind!” He added: “There was one kid who had a TV set over his head with all sorts of lights and things flashing on and off. I thought he was going to be electrocuted.”

In March the band returned to the US, with The Ridiculous Roadshow transforming into The 1999 Party. It was a bigger tour than the previous year’s, consolidating their established base in the Midwest and also playing further afield, including a show in Nashville in the middle of a tornado.

The boxed set also features two region-free Blu-ray discs of a high resolution 5.1 up-mix of “Hall of the Mountain Grill” and a 5.1 mix of Hawkwind Live in Cleveland May 1974.

From the announcement from Cherry Red: Released in September 1974, the album is regarded as one of the band’s finest and featured a new lineup of the band which saw the departure of Robert Calvert and Dik Mik, but also the arrival of keyboard player and violinist Simon House.

Featuring tracks as “The Psychedelic Warlords,” “Wind of Change,” “D-Rider,” “You’d Better Believe It,” “Lost Johnny” and “Paradox,” the album was formed of studio recordings and overdubbed live recordings.

This limited-edition deluxe boxed set includes two full previously unreleased concerts. The first was recorded at Edmonton, London, in January 1974, a benefit concert for imprisoned LSD advocate Timothy Leary, which featured a guest appearance by Robert Calvert and Joanna Harcourt-Smith, Leary’s partner. The second is a full concert recorded at the Allen Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio, on March 22, 1974. In addition, the set also includes Stephen W Tayler’s new mix of the full 1999 Party concert at the Auditorium, Chicago, on March 21st, 1974.

This new edition has been newly remastered from the original master tapes and cut at Abbey Road studios and fully restores the original LP artwork. It also features a bonus 12-inch 45 rpm EP featuring four tracks issued as singles in 1974.
This edition has been newly remastered from the original master tapes and features an additional seven bonus tracks drawn from rare singles and studio out-takes. It also includes an illustrated booklet with new essay.

The CD Boxset  7CD/2Blu-ray Limited Edition Box Set

This limited-edition deluxe box set comprises seven CDs and two Blu-Ray discs and features a brand new remaster of the original album with seven bonus tracks drawn from studio out-takes and rare singles along with two full previously unreleased concerts mixed by Stephen W Tayler. The first was recorded at Edmonton, London in January 1974, a benefit concert for imprisoned LSD advocate Timothy Leary, which featured a guest appearance by Robert Calvert and Joanna Harcourt-Smith, Leary’s partner. The second is a full concert recorded at the Allen Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio on 22nd March 1974. In addition, the set also includes Stephen W Tayler’s new mix of the full 1999 Party concert at the Auditorium, Chicago on 21st March 1974.

The set also includes two Blu-Ray discs featuring a stunning 5.1 Surround Sound up-mix of ‘Hall of the Mountain Grill’, (the multi-track master tapes sadly lost) and a 5.1 Surround Sound mix of Hawkwind’s concert at the Allen Theatre in Cleveland from the original 16-track master tapes.

The set is completed with an illustrated book with new essay, making this boxed set the definitive release of this legendary album.