> BRIAN TAWN

on
Robert Calvert

Brian Tawn

> Many memories of Robert Calvert
spring immediately to mind at the
mention of his name.
The rivetting command of his voice as he performed "The Black Corridor" during Hawkwind's Space Ritual.

The many guises he adopted when performing onstage.
Calvert still on a high, after a gig, brimming over with energy and a welcoming figure to all and sundry. Calvert on a low after putting too much into too many gigs, worn out and listless, a stranger to all.

The strongest memory of all springs from 1986 when he phoned me to tell me that he'd been invited to perform at the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Hall in London.

Certainly, he'd played far larger venues when he was with Hawkwind, but only as a part of a rock band.
The Queen Elizabeth Hall is a centre of the arts, a part of London's South Bank complex. To perform here was to be recognised as an artist of worth.

He was so excited as he phoned people and passed on the news. I hadn't spoken to him for many months, but he made up for it on that night.
He chatted enthusiastically on for an hour, bursting with the news. He was delirious with joy beyond control.
He was like the little boy who wanted a train set for Christmas and was given the London Underground.
All the information he needed to give me, in order that I could pass it on via Hawkwind Feedback newsletters, could have been given to me in three or four minutes, but he talked for an hour, in an endless stream that barely gave me a chance to get in a word.

Now there was a happy man! <


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