HAWKWIND The Text Of Festival (2009 UK 8-track double LP pressed on 180gram Purple Vinyl, gatefold sleeve. The exact source of these recordings is a mystery; like some ancient space debris found floating inthe cosmos, nobody is quite sure how they came to be. The best assumption is that they were somehow gleaned from a radio using the most primitive of recording devices. This is testament to their originator as the sound quality, though not up toBBC standards, is certainly very good. This LP really shows Hawkwind at a formative stage, some of the tracks recorded before they were fully one year old - it was only in August 1969 that Group-X [as they were first called] had subjected an unsuspecting audience at the All Saints Hall in Ladbroke Grove to what was to become their trademark charged throbbing outbursts. This is reflected in a tendency to have long jamming passages in the tracks, a technique they perfected during their 'Space Ritual' phase. Essentially the album is in two parts, the first seven tracks coming from their first ever BBC sessions recorded between August 1970 and May 1971, while the second half comprises part of a recorded gig at Colchester Technical College in February 1971)