Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Hawkwind Knights of Space, 11 Aug 2008
Firstly this is the 1st review i've done,but I feel I must for this album.
I Have been a Hawk fan since the early 80's and have seen them live so many times i have lost count.I know nothing will ever top Space Ritual but live '79,Canterbury Fayre,Business Trip,Live Chronicles even The 1999 Party all have something better to offer than this album.
If the band did have flu they would have been better off staying in bed.
And i am sorry to say that Mr Dibs should stick to playing bass!
The main reason i bought this album was for the "5 bonus tracks" which unfortunately do not appear.So to say i was disappointed would be a major understatement.
So avoid this and buy one of the above mentioned albums instead.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
...kings of space sadly earthbound..., 14 Sep 2008
Hawkwind releases, whether live or studio, over the last few years have been rather depressing, lacking in the fire, passion and inspiration that made them the greatest band in the world for so many years. So it took me a couple of weeks to sit down and listen to this, the latest of many (many) live albums. However, it was still spinning away, with a few notes scribbled down when the horrific news came through that Hawkwind keyboard player Jason Stuart had died at the tragically early age of 39 from an aneurysm. He had joined the band in 2004, playing live with the band ever since, and on their most recent "Take Me to Your Leader". Which makes "Knights of Space", a double live album recorded at their annual London Christmas gig at the London Astoria on 19 December 2007, an epitaph to Jason.
Shame then, that it comes over as somewhat lacklustre and (shamefully) poorly recorded. It's not that long since the band were getting brickbats from their stoically loyal fanbase for a stream of shoddy 'archive' live releases like "Atomhenge 76" and the trully appalling "Live 1990", an album that stands proud atop a mountain of "Bring Me the Head of Yuri Gagarin" reissues as the worst thing ever to have the name Hawkwind attached to it. You'd have thought, then, that the band might have pondered the wisdom of releasing this. Although, to be fair, it is considerably better than the albums I've just named.
The first CD barely lifts off as the band gently meander through a set of lightweight material from their latter days with songs like 'Space Love' and 'The Awakening' not fit to the lick the boots of true gems like 'Aero Spaceage Inferno' and 'Orgone Accumulator'. Unfortunately, even good songs like those can't quite recover from a poor mix, with the vocals flat and uninspired, and the musical performance struggling to attain the level of competent. Safe to say that this first CD won't be getting many repeat plays.
Which makes the second CD seem an awful lot better than it probably is. 'Masters Of The Universe' and 'Time We Left' are still fighting for life, but once the obligatory Tim Blake vocal croak of 'Lighthouse' is over, the band somehow manage to regain some interest in their own performance. From 'Utopia' onwards there is a spark that is missing from the first three quarters of the album. So we get passable takes on 'Damnation Alley' and 'Flying Doctor' to keep us warm on the cold winter nights.
Mr Dibs is no Alan Davey, and his driving bass and vocals that carried Hawkwind for so many years, is really missed. Even scarier, the swooshes, bleeps and blips that created the entire genre of spacerock are largely absent without leave. It's not a disaster, but if you want to hear 21st century live Hawkwind, you'd be better trying to track down the limited edition issue of "Spaced Out in London", from a few years back.
Apparently, the band were all ill on the night, which, if true, makes this release borderline stupid. "Knights Of Space" is also available on DVD.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
From space rock to pub rock..!, 7 Aug 2008
As a Hawkwind fan for over 25 years,i was eagerly looking forward to this new live release...how disappointed was i.
The usual "space rock" sound has been lost and replaced by a chas'n'dave type pub sing-a-long on the piano.Gone are the swoopy synths and strange sounding blips and beats and all the songs on this 2 cd set sound only half as good as the original versions.
Sorry to say so,but this live cd is nowhere near as good as "the business trip" album of a few years ago which,in my opinion,is one of the best Hawkwind live albums around!
I still totally love this band,but i just don't love this cd.
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![Hawkwind - Knights Of Space [DVD] [2007]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31IyWXfiviL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
See all 12 tracks on this disc
