Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music

Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music
Studio album by Hawkwind
Released	27 August 1976
Recorded	February–March 1976
Studio	Roundhouse, London
Genre	Space rock progressive rock hard rock[1]
Length	38:31 47:33 (reissue)
Label	Charisma
Producer	Hawkwind, recorded by Mark Dearnley.[1]
Hawkwind chronology
Warrior on the Edge of Time (1975) Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music (1976) Quark, Strangeness and Charm (1977)
Singles from Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music
"Kerb Crawler" Released: 16 July 1976

Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music is the sixth studio album by the British rock band Hawkwind, released in 1976. It reached No. 33 on the UK album charts.

The title makes references to old science fiction magazines (Astounding and Amazing Stories), the concept being that each piece of music (and its title) would be interpreted as an individual science fiction story. The record cover is a parody of the cover of these magazines, while the inner sleeve carried small ads, with each band member having their own product (e.g. Dr Brock's cure for piles, Paul Rudolph's Manly Strapon, and Simon King's Pleasure Primer). The cover was double-sided, one side illustrated by Calvert's childhood friend Tony Hyde,^[2] the other by Barney Bubbles signed as Grove Lane, with initial print-runs having either as the front cover. Bubbles original design was to have been Steppenwolf looming over the city.^[3]

This album marked the start of a new era for Hawkwind, having left the management of Douglas Smith for Tony Howard and changed record companies from United Artists Records to Charisma Records. Musically, the dirty heavy metal lead bass guitar playing of Lemmy was replaced by the cleaner, formally trained bass playing of Paul Rudolph. All members of the band were now contributing to the writing and arrangement of the music leading to more width in style, and the recording and production is better defined than previous albums.^[4]

The greatest change is in the return of Robert Calvert, this time as a permanent vocalist rather than the peripheral poet role he occupied on Space Ritual. Not only did he bring crafted lyrics to the band, but he was intent on turning live shows into a piece of music theatre with specific characters for him to act out, Calvert explaining in a 1976 interview that "We're writing numbers now with visual ideas in mind, rather than trying to think of things to impose on numbers we've already got. We're trying to get the visual side of the band focussed on individuals rather than on screen projections. Nik, Dave and myself are, in some parts of the show, playing the parts of actors... All in all, it works up to quite a nice piece of theatre, spontaneous theatre that is."^[5]

The group performed at Cardiff Castle on 24 July as "special guests" to Status Quo, featuring also Strawbs, Curved Air, Budgie and MC John Peel.^[6] They promoted the album with a 17-date British tour from 15 September through to 5 October, with support from Tiger featuring Nicky Moore and Big Jim Sullivan, and the Atomhenge stage set designed by Larry Smart of Exploding Galaxy.^[7] Soundboard recording from these concerts have been issued on Weird Tape Volume 5 (1982) and Atomhenge 76/Thrilling Hawkwind Adventures (2000). After the tour, the group dismissed Turner and Powell, recorded the single "Back on the Streets" and then undertook another 8 date tour in December.