An account of the English rock band Hawkwind shows them to be one of the most innovative and culturally significant bands of the 1970s. Fifty years on from when it first formed, the English rock band Hawkwind continues to inspire devotion from fans around the world. Its influence reaches across the spectrum of alternative music, from psychedelia, prog, and punk, through industrial, electronica, and stoner rock. Hawkwind has been variously, if erroneously, positioned as the heir to both Pink Floyd and the Velvet Underground, and as Britain's answer to the Grateful Dead and Krautrock. It has defined a genre—space rock—while operating on a frequency that's uniquely its own. Hawkwind offered a form of radical escapism and an alternative account of a strange new world for a generation of young people growing up on a planet that seemed to be teetering on the brink of destruction, under threat from economic meltdown, industrial unrest, and political polarization. While other commentators confidently asserted that the countercultural experiment of the 1960s was over, Hawkwind took the underground to the provinces and beyond. In Days of the Underground, Joe Banks repositions Hawkwind as one of the most innovative and culturally significant bands of the 1970s. It's not an easy task. As with many bands of this era, a lazy narrative has built up around Hawkwind that doesn't do justice to the breadth of its ambition and achievements. Banks gives the lie to the popular perception of Hawkwind as one long lysergic soap opera; with Days of the Underground, he shows us just how revolutionary Hawkwind was.

Hawkwind's fusion of agit-prop and improvised space rock-including Lemmy and lyrics by Michael Moorcock-made them intriguing outsiders in rock. For over 30 years, Hawkwind have successfully existed outside the traditional music business, and spawned a fanatical fanbase. This high quality, authoritative biography contains dozens of new interviews with band members and over 100 rare illustrations, many published for the first time. With a cover designed by Hawkwind's own sleeve artist Peter Pracownik and full co-operation of the all the key protagonists, this authoritative, high-quality biography is the definitive account of one of the UK's most innovative bands.

Hawkwind emerged in 1969 from Ladbroke Grove, the heartland of London’s counterculture, to become a ‘people’s band’ supported by bikers and hippies alike as they staged free gigs, benefits and protests and welcomed the involvement of any number of creative people – writers, poets, dancers – from within their community. They insisted upon all these things even with the Top Three success of 1972’s enduring anthem Silver Machine and the pioneering Space Ritual projects. They have had more line-up changes than their only remaining founder member Dave Brock, can remember. Motorhead’s Lemmy and legendary Cream drummer Ginger Baker were just two of the musicians sacrificed along the way as the band went head to head with the police, customs, the taxman – and each other. With the memories of many of those who were there, this is the story of an extraordinary 35-year career, the music and the band, whose fans still loyally turn out for conventions and are rewarded with ‘private festivals’, set against a background of sex, drugs, madness, writs, rage and revenge.

BIO BY COSMIC DARREN: THIS HISTORY REPEATING MUSIC IS THE GREATEST MUSIC EVER CREATED. AS DESCRIBED BY THE GRATEFUL DEAD QUOTE FROM 1972: DEAD THE POWER OF PSYCHEDELIAS PARTICULARLY LSD (REFERENCE HAWKWIND) THE FUNDAMENTAL CHARACTER OF THE PSYCHEDELIC EXPERIENCETHE MUSIC THAT EMANATED FROM THE DEAD ON THAT DAY; IS ARGUABLY SOME OF THE MOST POWERFUL PSYCHEDELIC MUSIC EVER CREATED AND, IN TURN, IS ALSO SOME OF THE MOST VISIONARY MUSIC THIS PLANET HAS YET WITNESSED (REFERENCE OZRIC TENTACLES). COSMIC DARREN BELIEVES THE GRATEFUL DEADS MUSIC WOULD REFERENCE EYES OF THE WORLD, BIRD SONG, CHINA CAT SUNFLOWER/I KNOW YOU RIDER, I NEED A MIRACLE, THE MUSIC NEVER STOPPED, HELP ON THE WAY/SLIPKNOT/FRANKLINS TOWER TO NAME A FEW, QUITE POSSIBLY THE MOST POWER MUSIC I HAVE EVER WITNESSED AT A GRATEFUL DEAD CONCERT WHILE SHARING THE EXPERIENCE WITH THE GRATEFUL DEAD, HAWKWIND, BLUE OYSTER CULT, JERRY GARCIA, GRAND FUNK, AS WELL AS MANY OTHERS. EXPERIENCING MUSIC IN THIS FASION IS A FORGOTTEN ART. THIS WORLD DOES NOT RESPECT CLASSIC ROCK SUCH AS THE GRATEFUL DEAD, HAWKING, CAPTAIN BEYOND, THE JAMES GANG, GRAND FUNK, AND OTHERS IN ARRESTING MUSIC, AS WELL AS LIFE DURING WARTIME. PLEASE HANDLE WITH CARE THE MUSIC YOU ARE ABOUT TO EXPERIENCE. LISTEN WITH CAUTION. PARENTS DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOURE KIDS ARE LISTENING TO? TAKE HOME TIME AND LISTEN (CTA).

Always enigmatic and outside of the mainstream, most people associate Hawkwind with 'whoosh' noises, ‘Silver Machine’, Lemmy and 'Space Rock' music. From the beginning, Hawkwind have been trailblazers, even when they have explored blind alleys and cul-de-sac’s, and have never been afraid to innovate and mutate into strikingly different musical arenas. The band have a unique history in the world of rock music and have inspired not just other bands but also an entire sub-genre of music: Stoner Rock. Hawkwind's stated aim was to be a substitute for mind-expanding drugs. Instead, they used music, poetry, lights, projections, theatre and dance in an assault on the senses. Albums such as X In Search Of Space and Warrior At The Edge Of Time as well as classic live album Space Ritual set a template for their astonishing take on rock music. This book is a track-by-track analysis of every studio album and major live release to date. Beginning with the highly-regarded early albums of the 1970s, it continues through the hard rock hardships of the 1980s and the sometimes awkward musical dalliances of the 1990s, finishing on the unexpectedly triumphant return of the band in the 2010s. It presents an illuminating companion to the extraordinary recorded works of a band no-one thought would achieve any longevity. Duncan Harris started as a music journalist and interviewer in the 1980s, writing for fanzines and magazines. He contributed to the Rough Guides to Music series and, until recently, maintained a long series of reviews for the website The Dreaded Press. One of his proudest achievements is to have interviewed graphic novel guru Alan Moore in the late 1980s, just after the rise of Watchmen. Amongst other subjects, Alan and Duncan had a long talk about Hawkwind. Duncan lives in Wiltshire with his adorable wife, dog Willow and two cats named Loki and Lilith.