Hawkwind: Sonic Assassins

An entire book dedicated to the obscure British space-rock band Hawkwind may seem like a bit much, but here we get not just a wonderfully detailed history of Hawkwind, but also a subliminal history of the British underground and psychedelic rock scenes from the early 1960s to the present. Central to that history is guitarist and electronic music pioneer Dave Brock, the visionary founder of Hawkwind. The book follows Brock from with his teenaged days busking on the streets of London in the early ’60s with his friend Eric Clapton and proceeds by way of many band interviews, concert reviews and archival graphics to the present. Along the way, Brock’s singular pursuit of creating the ultimate science-fiction rock band finds the many incarnations and rotating musical crew of spaceship Hawkwind blending rock and roll, wild electronic sounds, social commentary and psychedelic multi-media productions into happenings that were the precursors of the heavy-metal, punk, electronica and rave scenes that followed in their wake.