NIK TURNER INTERVIEW
10.1.2000
The Mighty Thunder Rider, the ex-Hawkwind
sax & flute player & singer Nik Turner stayed at my place a couple of
nights again in 2000, when he was doing some studio work with my band Dark Sun and Five Fifteen with whom he also played live. We did this pretty massive interview
for Aural Innovations net zine, and Jerry was smart enough to edit it quite a
lot. I just now feel like publishing it in its full-length version, directly transcribed from the tape as it is, so here we
go...
Dj
Astro: So,
what have you been doing lately?
Nik: I’ve been doing some
recording with my band. I’m trying to finish an album, Kubano Kickasso, by Nik
Turner’s Fantastic Allstars. It’s sort of Afro-Cuban, sort of Dance, Latin Rave
sort of music. You know, a bit spacey, quite modern sound, and using some drum
loops and different samples and stuff like that. And I’ve been busking, as
well. I’ve been busking on the streets in Cardiff!
Dj
Astro:
Yeah. Is it cold there, right
now?
Nik: It wasn’t too
bad, no. I was busking there on Christmas Eve, and it was actually quite cold,
but I found quite a warm place to stand, so it’s quite all right, and I had a
little party when I’m busking. I just play; I play alto saxophone and a
tambourine on my foot. I just play all sorts of dance tunes and pop tunes and
the Pink Panther and stuff like that, you know...
Dj
Astro: Have you been playing the theme from the
Simpsons?
Nik: I have been playing it a little bit, yeah. I get a lot of requests
for it from the kids, you know, everybody wants to hear the Simpsons.
Dj
Astro: Heh heh heh...Okay...
Nik: And stuff like that, it’s good, yeah. And, I’ve also been doing
gigs with my band. We played a big New Years Eve event in Bristol, in the city
centre, in front of 50 000 people, or something like that.
Dj
Astro: 50 000?
Nik: Oh yeah, heh heh, it’s quite a lot... They said they had a hundred
and twenty thousand all together there, and the thing‘s going all over the
place, you know, but we were on this really big, we were on the main stage
there, and we played from eleven o’clock till midnight, to one minute before
midnight, and then they had Big Ben and a lot of fireworks, and the sort of
twelve o’clock chimes of the Big Ben. And they had fireworks and then we played
Old Lang Shine, which is a traditional Scottish song that they’d played on New
Years Eve and everybody joins hands and dances around. Then we turned into a reggae dance, and we
sort of played that for about ten minutes. We had to get everybody dancing in
the city.
Dj
Astro: Oh, that must have been great!
Nik: Yeah, it was great. I’ve been doing other gigs as well. I haven’t
been doing very much writing, or any sort of solo projects. I’m working on
writing some songs and stuff like that, and haven’t really done very much about
lately. But it’s an ongoing thing, you know, like that book Kalevala, you know,
I read books like that, and stuff like that, and I get ideas from them really.
I just thought, what a great idea for a song! You know, I read a story
yesterday called The Song Competition or something like that, The Battle of the
Songs or something like that, and the lyrics, the way they are written, they
make quite a nice rap, or quite a nice song. Oh yeah, different things.
Dj
Astro: And you also went to the USA and... Earlier?
Nik:
Yes, I went to... There was this Hawkwind fan based
festival called Strange Daze. It was happening in Ohio I think it was this
year. I went out to play that, and while I was there, I did two other concerts.
I did one concert in Chicago, two days before the festival, then I played at
the festival with my own band in the America, I’ve got American band that I
play with, they’re called Farflung. There’s some of the guys that used to be in
Pressurehed, and they probably still are in Pressurehed, but I played with
them, and including a guy called Steve Taylor, who plays guitar. He called me
the other day he’s going to Australia with Hawkwind, playing bass, so... I
don’t know if that’s happening or...He said it, so...
Dj
Astro: It is happening,
Nik: I think they’re going to New Zealand, I think, that’s right.
Dj
Astro: Yeah, I’ve got some email just today, and I
saw his name in there, so he is coming to play. I think Ron Tree has some
troubles with his visa, or something like that.
Nik:
Yeah, he’s got problems and he has... I mean he’s a
very nice guy, but he’s what you might call fucked up, basically, so...
Dj
Astro: Yeah, that’s too bad.
Nik: Yeah...
Dj
Astro: So, when is the Fantastic Allstars Cubano
Kickasso album coming out? Do you have any idea?
Nik: Well, I don’t know really. I
hope in a probably about two month’s time, I think. I want to finish it as
quickly as I can, because this is going to be a bit like an ongoing thing you
know, if you know how these thing are like...
Dj
Astro:
Yeah... I know. Yeah, I know how it goes.
Nik: When you’re financing them
yourselves, and you’re doing it slowly, and then you sort of think: Oh, I could
do this, I could do that, it’s not going to cost that much more money, but it’s
all time, really, you know, and I’m just thinking, perhaps I should give myself
a deadline, then put it out. And then work on something new.
Dj
Astro: You’re going to release it on your own, or?
Nik:
I think so, yeah, on my own label, yeah. NIKT
records, and through EBS, I think, I’m doing it with their distribution. I
don’t know if that’s Plastichead, or somebody, or who ever their distributor
is, Roadrunner.
Dj
Astro: What was it like to play with Dave and
Hawkwind?
Nik:
Oh, it was actually quite good, really. I phoned...
I mean, it’s all typical really, I phoned them up, and they asked me to do a
couple of gigs with them, and I said I thought I was going to do all of the
gigs. Then it turns out they want me to do two of the gigs, and then I phoned
up the agent, and said oh, I’m only doing two of the gigs, and he said oh, we
thought you’re doing the whole tour!
Dj
Astro: Hahahah... OK...
Nik: ‘Cause he said we’re getting a really good reaction because you’re
on the tour, and so we’re selling it on your name (or something stupid bullshit
like that). . And then I found out I was actually only doing two dates. I
didn’t mind, that’s all right. The last two dates that I played at the
Colosseum in St. Hostel, which is in Cornwall, and the Tredfield Hall in
Croydon, which is by London, and they were both very enjoyable gigs. And the
people liked it as well, it was, you know, all very well accepted by people,
and very good houses, packed houses.
Dj
Astro: Yeah, that’s great.
Nik: People having a lot of fun. Yeah, that’s good.
Dj
Astro: Harvey was also with you, and was Simon
House also...?
Nik:
Yeah, they were both on the London dates, they were
not in Cornwall. But they had done some other dates on the tour as well.
Dj
Astro: How are you and Dave getting along these
days?
Nik:
Well, we’re getting along really well, actually,
you know. I don’t have a problem really, it’s all up to him really, and he was
quite, you know, quite sociable and friendly and, you know, as he got quite
well with it, so there’s no problem, really.
Dj
Astro: Oh, that’s great.
Nik: I don’t really have a problem.
Dj
Astro: You want some more?
Nik: No, I’ll have
some in a minute. Thanks.
Dj
Astro: Okay. Has anything been confirmed about the
Hawks reunion tour/album this year? I mean, with Lemmy, or?
Nik:
Yeah,
well... I spoke to Doug Smith, he’s sort of involved in organising it, and I
spoke to him, and he said they are trying to sort it out with the agency and
the promoter, because they wanna get Motörhead as well to be playing the next
day at same venue, I think. So, I think Hawkwind are playing one day, and then
Motörhead the next, or the other way around, you know, Motörhead first and
Hawkwind the next. And both of the gigs are done by the same agency, I think,
and it’s just a question of sorting that out, and the promoters are doing that,
so it’s definitely happening, as far as I know, in March. It’s just a question
of when, and whence they’ve sorted out the legalities, and everybody is happy,
really. I think that will be with Lemmy, and Dave and Simon House and myself
and... I mean, maybe with everybody that’s ever been in the band, as well, you
know. I think that probably then that will be the nucleus and maybe, I’m not
really sure, ‘cause Richard Chadwick’s playing in the band in the moment. I
mean, he could play drums, I guess, although I personally would prefer if Terry
Ollis was playing drums, you know.
Dj
Astro: Have you seen him lately?
Nik:
I saw him in summer. No, I saw him not this summer,
the summer before. I saw him at festival called the Green Gathering, and he was
with girl who was singing, and she plays guitar. She’s got a really nice voice;
she’s his girlfriend, now.
Dj
Astro: Oh, yeah.
Nik: And he told me he’s been
playing in bands. He’s been playing in a lot of different bands, and he plays
in a blues band, and a jazz band, and lots of different things he’s been doing,
and it all sound very good, really. He’s quite professional about it, and quite
serious about playing, so that’s way I think he would be a good drummer,
really. ‘Cause he’s the original drummer, and... And we’re trying to get
everybody that’s ever been in the band on it as well, and...
Dj
Astro: Except Bob...
Nik:
Huh?
Dj
Astro: Except Bob!
Nik:
Yeah, well,
haha, except Bob... Yeah... He’ll be... I’m sure he’ll be there in
spirit.
Dj
Astro: Yeah.
Nik: But... But to try to get everyone that’s ever been in the band at
the concert, and then to record it, and then, also maybe to make a new album as
well, all studio material, a studio album
Dj
Astro: That
would be really great, I think. There’s only going to be one or two gigs or
something like that?
Nik: I don’t know, it depends, yeah. It sort of looks good, I mean, I
don’t see why we shouldn’t do a world tour, or something like that with it,
really. Because, you know, potentially, well if there’s an audience for it, and
if the band’s got a good credibility and we’ve got a good album, you know, then
we’d got a lot going for it, really, I thought we should be going for it,
really, to get a good album, and to have a really tight show, you know, so it’s
really good and exciting and, you know, appealing to the...I mean, getting the
concert together with everybody that’s ever been in the band is like the fan’s
dream.
Dj
Astro: Yeah, that’s right.
Nik:
And it would
be great if we could do that.
Dj
Astro: I’ll have to be there!
Nik:
Yeah, haha! That’s right! It would be great if we
could do that, because then the follow up would be to actually do something
creditable, you know, and produce a good album, and for the band to be, you
know, really good.
Dj
Astro: Yeah, I know what you mean.
Nik:
Otherwise I just go on what I’m doing, you know. I
think my own band is really good, and I’m quite happy with it, really. I’m not
trying to make my band into Hawkwind, or Hawkwind into my band, but I’d like
Hawkwind to be successful, so that everybody that’s been in it can benefit from
it, really, you know, and me as well, of course!
Dj
Astro: Yeah, of course. So, do you have any other
space rock projects in the pipeline? Or is it just Hawkwind and...?
Nik: Well, it’s my own band, which is sort of developing into that direction
a bit, really, you know. I’d like my band to be... we play space jazz! Hahaha!
And maybe with Latin rhythms, and then we can be like all part of the story
that I’ve been writing about, ahm, about my band, the music that we play having
come from another planet, where the gravity is so heavy that you risk sinking
into the ground unless you jump up and down all the time!
Dj
Astro:
Haha...Okay, well, that explains it!
Nik:
So, this is
all the Latin rhythm, you know... So that people jumping up and down so they’re
not sinking into the ground because of the heavy gravity.
Dj
Astro: I see... Okay. So, this is your second trip
to Finland, what do you think about our country so far?
Nik:
I like it very much, you know, it’s interesting
having come here in the summer, it was very beautiful and, you know, very
lovely and lots of daylight, and coming again in the winter. I’d like to see
more snow here.
Dj
Astro: You will see.
Nik: I’m sure I
will, and I’d like to do that, and, I mean, it’s a very beautiful place, and
there’s so much space, you know, such a lot of wonderful terrain and
countryside and, you know, not many people living there mostly, really, I mean,
it’s lovely, really, just sort of all this, all this space.
Dj
Astro: So you’re maybe willing to come back again?
Nik:
Oh yeah, I’d love to, very much so. I’d like to go,
I mean, I’d like to travel to the far north, if I could, and play somewhere
there.
Dj
Astro: Yeah. Yeah, that would be interesting.
Nik: In this sort of Lapland, or something like that.
Dj
Astro: Maybe we could organise something with some
original Lapland musicians or something.
Nik: That would be great, yeah. Fantastic! I’d be interested to hear
Lapp music, really.
Dj
Astro: I don’t have anything, sorry, but... I’ll
have to... I’ll try to get something before you leave.
Nik: I’d be interested to hear it, because I’ve got no idea what kind of
music they play.
Dj
Astro: They’ve got this original singing style that
they do. That’s quite archaic or something. Sounds ancient!
Nik: Yeah, I can imagine. I imagine it’s medieval, or even before that,
you know, tribal sort of chanting, you know, spiritual chanting.
Dj
Astro: Yeah, It’s even before that. I’ll have to
get some.
Nik:
Yeah, I’d like to hear some, that would be nice.
Dj
Astro: You seem to be very interested in science
fiction, who’s your favourite writer?
Nik: Favourite writer?
Dj
Astro: Yeah, do you have any?
Nik:
God, I haven’t really read a lot. I like Arthur C.
Clark, and I like Isaac Asimov, I’ve read some. I like Michael Moorcock, but he
sort of does some science fiction, and some fantasy, and some realism, and some
sort of speculation, romantic fiction. So, a lot of that’s very interesting.
Dj
Astro: Or
can you name any good sci-fi movies, then?
Nik:
Well, I liked Matrix. I thought it was really
interesting, you know, I’ve seen it quite a few times. My Kids have seen it
twenty times, I think, now that they’ve got a video of it.
Dj
Astro: I still haven’t seen it!
Nik:
They just watch it all the time. And, I like, I
mean I saw, I see quite a lot of science fiction movies, you know. I saw... I
mean, I really like this Terminator series, they’re really good, but I saw
Armageddon I didn’t think that was very good, you know. I thought it was crap,
really. There was a bit no point, you know. I thought it was stupid.
Dj
Astro: I agree.
Nik: I saw Capricorn one, I thought it’s very good.
Dj
Astro: Oh, I haven’t seen that.
Nik: It’s about a Mars rocket that’s under finance, and all the
preparations are made for these astronauts to go to Mars, and just at the last
moment, just about ten seconds before takeoff, they take all the guys off the
rocket ship, and let it takeoff without them, and people think they still in
it, and they take them all into this film studio in Nevada, and then they film
them landing on Mars! Heheheh!
Dj
Astro: Oh shit!
Nik: And I think it’s supposed to be a true story! That was quite
interesting. And, I mean I see generally, I see most of the sci-fi movies that
come out, ‘cause I take my kids to them, you know, it’s a good excuse!
Dj
Astro: Hahaha, I see...
Nik: Taking the children to see, yeah, you know, Men in Black, and Mars
Attacks, all that sort of thing., and Independence Day.
Dj
Astro: How about some older movies, how about
something from the sixties or seventies? Anything?
Nik: Well, I liked all those sort of a, Harry Ha..., what’s his name,
Ray Harryhousen, sort of a animations he did, all these Jason and the
Argonauts, and sort of lot of science fiction... Japanese sort of animated
science fiction films, stuff like that. And, I like The Day The Earth Stood
Still, I think that was a really good film, and I remember seeing a lot of
science fiction when I was a teenager, things like When Worlds Collide...
Dj
Astro: In the fifties...
Nik: Yeah, lots of... Some of them really good and some really crap, you
know. Ex... Rocket ship...ohm.. Ex...
Expedition Moon, or something like that, sort of heavy, European film with Evil
Bartok, and people like that, really. Duff, really. And... And I remember
another really brilliant science fiction movie, I thought, what was it exact...
Oh, you realised Solaris! That’s great, really brilliant, and, well, Blade
Runner, that’s really brilliant. And... I remember it was really good... there
was this really good science... About a moon... about rocket ship going to
another planet. I can’t remember what that was called. I’ve really seen all
those, like Forbidden Planet, that’s really good, you know. They are... I just
remember some from my teenage years, when I was sort of used to go a lot
science fiction movies then as well. There’s one of them that was particularly
good, I can’t remember what it was called. I think it was Expedition Moon.
Dj
Astro: Yeah, that might be it.
Nik: It was in colour, so, I mean, I remember some of these older ones
Rocket... Rockit... Rocket ship XM, I think it was this crappy, sort of black
and white film, you know.
Dj
Astro: That’s from the fifties?
Nik: Yeah, they are all from like the fifties, you know. I mean, I
suppose a lot of them, maybe Ed Wood produced them, or something like that, you
know, I’m not really that up on Ed Wood stuff, except what’s in Plan 9 From
Outer Space I think is Ed Wood, isn’t it? Totally wacky, stupid sort of film,
possibly the worst film ever made!
Dj
Astro: Yeah, it’s funny in a way...
Nik: Yeah, it is quite interesting! Sort of expressionistic, really, a
bit like Cabinet of Doctor Galigary. Weird.
Dj
Astro: So, what other kinds of books do you read? I
mean... Okay, you said you don’t read that much science fiction.
Nik: I’ve been reading... I read books
about mythology, I read books about... I mean, for instance, I’ve read the book
what is Celestial Prophesies, which is about enlightenment, really, you know,
awareness. I’ve reading a book at the moment called Of Water And Spirit, I
think it’s called, by this African guy Malidoma Some, who was brought up in a
tribe ‘till he was four, and then he was kidnapped by the Jesuit priests, and
taken to the monastery for fifteen years, and educated by them, and talked
French, and he forgot his own language, and then he escaped, and he’s always in
touch with his grandfather all the time who’s died when he was young. ‘Cause he
was in touch... They say that small children are in touch with their...
Dj
Astro: Forefathers.
Nik: Forefathers, yeah, ancestors, and so the old people, so the
grandfather is in touch with the ancestors, and so was the small boy, so had
this, he spent a lot of time with his grandfather, who told him lots of
traditional stories and wisdom of that tribe. And when he escaped from the
Jesuits and came back to his tribe, and he couldn’t speak their language
anymore, and he could hardly recognise them, and he had to be initiated back in
to the tribe. Stuff like that, that’s what I’m reading at the moment. That’s
why I’m... I mean... The trouble is, I read about ten books at the same time,
you know, I just read bits of them, and just pick one up, and I say: Oh, I’m
reading that book! I’m reading two about... I’m reading science fiction story,
that’s supposed to be really good, that somebody gave me at a festival. And I’m
reading this another Malidoma, I’m still reading The Celestial Prophesies,
which I’ve read already, but I’m reading it again. I’m reading an anthology of
science fiction with stories like I, Robot, and, you know, stuff by Isaac
Asimov and people like that in it. It’s supposed to be a classic, it’s got The
Day of The Triffids and, you know, stuff like that. And, gossip, I’ve got a lot
of books, I can’t remember what I’m reading. I just got these piles of books,
really, all different subjects, you know. Some science fiction, some mythology,
some spirituality, some sort of speculation, and then I like gangster novels,
as well.
Dj
Astro: Hahahaa... Okay....
Nik: Like Raymond Chandler.
Dj
Astro: So,
ahm, were you inspired by any groups or artists when you started playing sax
and flute and...?
Nik: Well, I was inspired by, I mean, I was inspired by Charlie Parker,
and Roland Kirk, you know, both... Well, Roland Kirk played flute a lot, and
he’s very instrumental and very influential amongst modern flute players,
‘cause he had a very individual style. He’s blind, black guy. You know about
Roland Kirk?
Dj
Astro: No, I don’t think so.
Nik: Well, he’s fantastic gut. He’s sort of... I met him once, and I
wanted him to go to a concert I was playing to, so he could come and play it,
you know. It was when I put the Sphynx album out. I did a concert at the
Roundhouse, I think, in London, and I asked him to come and play too, but he
didn’t come.
Dj
Astro: Oh, too bad.
Nik: Yeah. But he would play like, two saxophones at the same time, or
three, and a flute in his nose, and stuff like that. And he played the flute,
singing at the same time, you know, so he sort of playing the tubes, singing
the tubes playing, you know, and he sort of developed this sort of style, you
know. And he just played things in such a different way, and he was really
influential which is why everybody copies him. And he played the circular
breathing, you know, he played solo that lasted for ten minutes without breathing.
He just sort of...you know, used circular breathing, really fast, you know,
very technical, just mind blowing sort of stops in it as well, you know. Gosh,
I wish I could do that! It sort of makes you work at it. And, I suppose some
artists.... I suppose I’m into Picasso and, you know, sort of surrealism, and I
was into lot of these things, you know, Pre-Raphaelites, and Art Nouveau,
surrealism, expressionism, and German expressionists, pre-war German
expressionists, and Franz Grass, and, I don’t know, lots of different people,
and I used to go loads of art exhibitions as well. I never went into art, I
never studied art, but I was very interested in it. My family is quite
artistic, you know, they sort of do artistic things. My mother used to play the
piano, and she did pottery, and my aunt was painter, and my uncle played the
clarinet, and my brother played the trumpet, and you know, my another aunt is
an actress, she’s in Royal Shakespeare company, you know, so we got theatre,
and cinema, and all this sort of stuff in my family. My grandfather used to
make movies. He used to get everybody in the family into films! Hahaha! And he
used to do theatre shows, these sort of run-around theatre shows, and that sort
of thing, you know, we had all this stuff going around. It’s all inspirational,
really, because it sort of exposed me to a lot of different music, and ideas, I
guess.
Dj
Astro: So, how about during the seventies, when you
were in Hawkwind, what bands did you like?
Nik: Well, I liked John Coltrane still, you know, then, but I used to
listen to Jimi Hendrix, and Iron Butterfly, and quite a lot of
electric...electronicy sort of American bands. Fifty Foot Hose...
Dj
Astro: Oh yeah, I know!
Nik: ...And White Noise, which is an English...David... What his name
is... Lots of different stuff like that. Pop, I says some pop music, sort of
country type, you know, Steve Miller, and all this sort of San Francisco bands
as well, you know. Quicksilver and Jefferson Airplane, and the Grateful Dead,
and all those... All those sort of bands, and Electric Flag, Chicago Transit
Authority. And, what’s that another band I liked then, Blood Sweat and Tears.
You know, I mean, I like good rock music, really, but I tented to really like
stuff with brass in it....
Dj
Astro: Yeah, hahah, of course...
Nik: I’d get more into that, really. ‘Cause it sort of verges on jazz,
really, and funk as well, and I like James Brown and stuff like that.
Dj
Astro: Okay. So, how about now? You still dig the
same music, or?
Nik: Yeah, well I sort of listen more to jazz and Latin music now, and
funk, and... But at festivals, sort of Herbie Hancock and stuff like that,
Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Latin bands, Paquito D’Rivera, I don’t know,
Arturo Sandoval is a trumpet player, who’s really brilliant, Cuban trumpet
player. I listen to quite a lot Cuban, Latin, Jazz, African music as well. I
play with African drummers, and I play also in a band with a Ghanaian keyboard
player, xylophone player, percussionist, bass player, guitarist, and he sings!
But I’m playing in a band with him, and I play saxophone, I’ve got my trumpet
player, who I play with in my band, plays with us, and it’s a really good band,
we play sort of Ghanaian reggae in that band, and I also play with in my own
band with African drummers, quite a lot. I have an African guy who plays with
me in my band, he’s playing percussions. He’s a well known drum teacher and,
you know, he has his own band as well, and he’s pretty cool guy, really. That’s
why I’m involved in all sorts of different types of music, I listen to lots of
different types of music, and, I mean, I listen to classical, as well,
sometimes. I like opera, like Pavarotti, hahaha, he’s got a great voice! Lots
of different stuff. I suppose I’m just influenced by everything, really, lots
of things coming on, and I listen to really sort of basic music as well, you
know, I listen to Charlie Parker, and lot of, sort of people that are dead, you
know, jazz musicians and stuff like that. Quite inspirational, really. Coleman
Hawkins, that’s the... Guys like that.
Dj
Astro: Ahm, yeah. So, if you weren’t a musician,
how would you support yourself and your family? Any idea?
Nik: Well, I mean, I did study engineering, so I might’ve been doing
that, although that’s not really what I’d like to be doing. I guess I’d
probably might like to be designing musical instruments, that rather than sort
of, you know, designing ships or machinery.
Dj
Astro: Okay. So, you used to work in this circus
before Hawkwind.
Nik: Yeah, I have been doing that.
Dj
Astro: Would you like to tell something about it?
Nik: Well, it was a rock’ n ’roll circus, really, it was a sort of in
1967 in Holland. There was a great big marquee that holds about two or three
thousand people, and we had... I mean I’ve got involved in it when I was living
in Amsterdam, and some friends of mine were involved in running it, and they
invited me to work on it, and I wasn’t playing music there, I was actually
putting up the circus tent and working in the bar, and stuff like that. And, we
were doing it every day, you know, we take the tent down at one o’clock in the
morning and then we put in the lorry, and we drive to the next place, you know,
and there’s about six of us did that. A huge tent, with nine poles in the
middle of it, you know. It’s like a great big circus tent. And... So I did that
for a summer, really. Living in a back of a truck, or, you know, living in
caravans, you see.
Dj
Astro: Was... Dave was playing there, wasn’t he?
Nik: Well, they had lots of bands playing there, they get bands from
Amsterdam, ‘cause we go around all these sort of provincial towns, but they’d
have bands from Amsterdam coming out to play, and Dave’s band was one of the
bands that were playing in it, you know, The Famous Cure.
Dj
Astro: Did you know him earlier?
Nik: No, I didn’t know him. That’s where I met Dave, really. We met in
there, and we sort of kept in touch. When he went back to England, I stayed in
Holland, and then I went to, I think I went to Berlin after that, or the next
year, or something like that, and spent the winter in Berlin. I met all these
sort of free jazz musicians.
Dj
Astro: You were playing with them already, or...?
Were you playing in Berlin?
Nik: I didn’t play with them, no. I did play the saxophone, but I didn’t
play with them, I just met them, and hung out with them a lot, and used to go
to jazz clubs with them, and we used to get stoned together, and, you know,
used to go to... It was all psychedelia then, you know, so... I met the Tangerine
Dream, you know, Edgar Froese. I used to go to this night club, I mean I
suppose I used to sort of go, I would go to a night club, and then I would meet
the people who ran it, and, I mean they sort of thought I was pretty groovy, I
guess, and they sort of take me to some other place that they were going to,
and met with all these musicians and stuff like that, you know.
Dj
Astro: Yeah, I see.
Nik: So, I was sort of hanging out with these guys from the Tangerine
Dream just to do that association, and then I met Amon Düül as well, those
people, just to going to a gig in a squat, Karl Untz I think they called it.
This was sort of a number one squat in Berlin, or something, at the time. And I
met all these different musicians, and sort of underground people, you know,
taking LSD and, I wasn’t taking LSD particularly, I was sort of around, but it
was quite nice because they sort of, you know, were really sociable towards me,
and if they were going somewhere, they invited me to go with them, so I’d go to
a party, or something like that. And I used to go to sort of jazz... They had
the Blue Note, jazz club, in Berlin, which is where Eric Dolphy used to play,
and stuff like that. And I used to go hang out there with them, and they always
used to play all this really wild, weird, wacky music, hahahahaha! So, that was
quite an inspiration for me...
Dj
Astro: Yeah, it must have been!
Nik: So, from as a result of that, and, you know, meeting...having keep
in touch with Dave, and then he was getting his other band together, and I was
sort of involved with that, and I’d been inspired by this sort of free jazz
thing, I thought I would like to play free jazz in a rock band, you know. That
was what Hawkwind was for me, really. I had the opportunity to do that.
Dj
Astro: Okay. So, what else have you been doing for
living, except playing and the circus thing and...
Nik: Well, I did ...I worked as an engineer for a short time. I went on
a ship into Australia and back, one trip, and I was an engineer on a big
passenger ship, and it was quite good, but there was so much drinking, and I
really loathe that, you know, people were drunk all the time, and I just got
bored with it, you know. It was all right for a couple of weeks, but after
that, they were still going on, all the time, and I got bored with that. And I
also worked for London transport, that’s the bus company in London, and in the
development office, and was sort of, just testing busses, really, that’s sort
of what it was. Other than that, I’ve worked for myself. I used to live in a
seaside town, by the sea, and I used to work there, have a business selling
buckets and spades and some hats and some glasses. But I used to... same time I
was selling psychedelic posters as well, and sort of incense, and all sorts of
psychedelic things, as well. You know, ‘cause that was at that time, the same
period of time. I’ve just done a lot of crappy jobs as well, you know,
labouring, and working as a car park attendant, hahaha. Working on the beach selling deckchairs, and
lots of, sort of, you know, crap jobs like that, and... Then working for myself
a lot, really. I suppose I’ve been sort of self employed, mostly.
Dj
Astro: Yeah, you had your own record company in the
eighties.
Nik: Yeah, well I was running a record label, and managing the band, and
playing in the band, and driving the van for the band, and mostly equipment was
mine, and I was getting the gigs for the band, because I had built a name, so,
you know, it was a foot in the door, or something like that, for the band, so,
that was quite real good. And I also worked... I was musical director for a
circus, as well, for a bit, for a season. You know, a big, proper circus in
London, in the park.
Dj
Astro: When was that?
Nik: It was probably about 1984 or 5, or 83. Something around that time.
That was interesting. It was interesting learning other sorts of music, really,
you know. Playing circus music, you know. Daadadadaadadadadadadadadada
daddadadadadadaddadaadaa daddadadadadadaddadaadaa, all that, you know, it’s
great fun, really! Other things I’ve...yeah, music, really, is mostly what I’ve
done. I haven’t really done much else, you know.
Dj
Astro: In the beginning, I mean with Hawkwind, were
you really high on acid all the time, in the beginning?
Nik: Well, yeah, I think so, yeah. Probably.
Dj
Astro: It must have been quite chaotic!
Nik: Yeah, well, in a way it could’ve be seem to be, but I don’t think
it was, really. You know, I’m one of these people... ohm...pardon me... I don’t
let drugs get in the way of taking care of business, really, if you know what I
mean?
Dj
Astro: I see, yeah...
Nik: I’d rather make sure that everything is covered, and proper, and in
its place, and together, before I relax. And, you know, I mean I don’t really
sort of ever taking lots of drugs. Drugs represent relaxation to me, they don’t
represent an occupation, or... Do you know what I mean?
Dj
Astro: Mmm, I see.
Nik: I don’t... I’ve never had any problem about them, really, myself,
in that respect. I’ve never been involved in drugs, or felt the need to become
involved in drugs, or dealt them, or had any involvement with them other than
very superficial. And I’ve never... I mean friends of mine have become very
involved in drugs, and a lot of them had died, and I think they missed the
point, really, you know. The drugs are something like, they are spin-off from
being musically creative, and achieving some sort of creative kind of
satisfaction. They shouldn’t be a distraction from all that. So, I don’t see
drugs as being anything else than, you know, recreational thing, which you
don’t get involved in, you know. You might participate in it, but you don’t
become a slave to the drugs. That’s what a lot of people do.
Dj
Astro: Yeah, I know, I know.
Nik: To the detriment, you know, I just think... I mean I like to be
healthy, and then I like fresh air, and clean water, and good, healthy food,
and a healthy living style, you know I like to go swimming, and I like to do,
you know, healthy outdoor things. You know, I don’t like sitting in the cold,
damp basement, you know, high on drugs. I don’t find it attractive at all! I
find it rather sad, actually.
Dj
Astro: So, how important were drugs to the music of
Hawkwind?
Nik: Well, I think maybe drugs were a sort of a theatrical direction, or
something that the audience were able to identify with.
Dj
Astro: Because they were high!
Nik: Yeah, we were playing to an audience that were, you know, probably,
I mean there was like of alternative audience of people, plus they were taking
drugs, I guess. You know, and so in a way, I mean, if you take away the drugs,
you wouldn’t make that much difference, really. It’s just that in a way it gave
everybody a sort of common, sort of thing they were into. I mean, people
weren’t all into taking heroin, or cocaine, or anything else, they were all
taking LSD. I’d say everybody was taking LSD, some people were taking speed,
but they were on sort of another trip. And I think the people were taking LSD
at a time when there was no evidence that there was any danger about taking
LSD, and it wasn’t sort of something... I mean, it was almost something that
was illegal, because the government wanted to control it, not because they
thought it was harmful, particularly. It was just, you know, antisocial,
really. There was so many people taking LSD, and they’re saying: Oh, I don’t
wanna join the army. No, I don’t wanna pay taxes. Why should I pay for this
government, they’re shitting on me, you know. And they make aware in that
respect, so in way, sort of, you know, people would, this all alternative
society was taking LSD, and it was almost like opening their eyes to sort of
realities they weren’t aware of. And I suppose if you have a whole group of
people doing it, just like the Grateful Dead would in America, you know, they’d
have The Electric Coolaid Acid Test, you know, when everybody got high on acid,
and the band would as well, and they’d all sort of... It’s like a sort of
spiritual communion, really. You know, everybody’s sort of on the same trip,
and have, you know, getting high together. There’s no sort of negative aspects
to it. It’s all sort of very positive and progressive.
Dj
Astro: Yeah, it’s also quite religious, maybe,
also.
Nik: Yeah, I think so. I mean, you know, you may look upon it as people
getting kicks, but on the other hand, it’s a bit deeper than getting kicks.
Dj
Astro: Yeah, I think so, too, yeah.
Nik: Because it does affect people in a much more spiritual way than
just sort of, you know, getting high, or up on speed, or something like that.
And it wasn’t that it did people harm, I don’t think, honestly, you know, I mean...
Well, can you say what does people harm? You look around, in sort of Britain,
you see like a lot of captains of industry, are all people that used to take
LSD, you know. It’s like in America, you know. It’s sort of these film
directors... I was reading... I’ve got this book that Mika has lent me, it’s
about Easy Riders and something rather. It’s about the film directors in
Hollywood, you know, because the Hollywood film industry had reached a bit of a
slump. These guys made Easy Rider, which was like a really success, and made
the people in Hollywood realise, that there was a lot really young, creative
directors around. I mean, all those young creative directors were being taking
LSD! ‘Cause that’s what everybody took, you know. That’s what they were all
about, really. So, I suppose, I mean in a way, LSD probably had a
very...probably had an effect on creative people, in as much as it took them in
a direction. You know, I’m not saying these people wouldn’t have been creative
without LSD, they were creative, anyway, but they may’ve not all gone it that
direction, they might have all gone, you know, in various directions, or... You
Know, it was a movement, really, as such, you know, but I don’t think it
actually had, I mean, it had some permanent, probably negative effect upon
certain people who had a real problem themselves anyway. You know, in their own
psyche, they already had problems, and I think the LSD enhances those problems,
perhaps, in a negative way, because I’ve...you know, to experience paranoia is
not very pleasant, and some people experienced, you know, psychosis and paranoia as a result of taking
LSD. Those, I mean, I wouldn’t say a lot of people, but only a few, who
actually have had that experience and have had to have some sort of psychiatric
treatment as a result of it, but I would say, that those people already had
psychiatric problems. It’s just that the LSD magnified it, and sort of,
probably took them to a place where they had a real problem getting back, and
you know, feeling normal. So, it’s a bit of a mood point, really, isn’t it?
This is sort of, you know, drugs, just because they’re illegal, doesn’t mean
that they’re harmful, and you know, it’s like cannabis, you know, they are
making it more or less legal in many places, and, I mean if you compare the
affects of cannabis and the affects of alcohol, I mean alcohol is absolutely an
antisocial, dangerous drug, and yet it’s socially accepted, you know, while
cannabis is probably a very sociable, very calming, and probably quite
therapeutic drug, for people to take, and yet it’s illegal! Hahahahahahah...
Dj
Astro: Yeah, it’s sick.
Nik: Yeah, it’s crazy, you know, the sort of parameters and the sort of
criteria that governments actually are guided by, or controlled by, or... It’s
all about money, in the end, isn’t it?
Dj
Astro: Yeah. So, do you have any idea, what would
the music of Hawkwind be like without, let’s say, acid, or any drugs?
Nik: Well, it’s quite interesting that you say that, because, I mean I
read this article in Mojo magazine, in which Lemmy said: Oh, Hawkwind was not
a, we were not a peace and love band, we were always on speed. Lemmy was on
speed, DikMik was on speed, and I don’t know who else he said was on what, but
he obviously had a very different view from the band that I had! Because I
thought Hawkwind were very much a sort of a peace and love band. That was what
I would... That was my view of it, and as far as I was concerned, that was also
the view of quite a lot of people that were involved with the band, and they
were involved with the band, because it was like that. You know, they weren’t
involved with the band because it was a bunch of speed freaks, well that was
obviously what Lemmy saw it has, because he and DikMik were speed freaks, but
people like Barney Bubbles, who was a creative director of the band, who
created a lot of the imagery, an a presentation, stage presentation, and the
public image of the band, I mean, he was very spiritual guy, who saw the band
as, you know, a peace and love band. He even did a peace and love poster, you
know, with was like... You know, so I just find it a bit difficult to see, what
Lemmy means, really, because he got into the band because of the band was like
it was, he didn’t make the band into something that he wanted it to be. He was
actually only in the band about two years, so it’s a very different, you know,
how he sees it, it’s obviously a very different band to the way that I saw it,
or how Dave saw it, or probably many of the people that came to the band...to
see the band, and probably most of the people that made the band successful,
sort of, you know what I mean? I thought it was a bit weird, really, isn’t it?
How people see things like that. Because...what was your question?
Dj
Astro: Oh, where was I? What kind of music would you
been doing without drugs?
Nik: Oh, probably very similar music, because, I mean I think I got
involved in listening to people like Stockhousen, and very interested in
electronic, accessible electronic music, I mean, I did listen to sort of John
Gage, and stuff like that, as well, Philip Glass, I think. But I found a lot of
that music really hard to take, really, I mean, I knew people that played that
sort of music, sort of we called it squeaky doh, or squeaky gate music, I
think, in school, in classical circles, there is all that sort of expressionist
sort of music. I find a lot a bit hard to take, really, but I do find a lot of
it, in a music concrete very interesting. The ideas are very interesting, but I
like dance music very much, so.... So, what I would say, is, you know, that the
band would probably be, or would probably have been very similar without drugs,
I mean it might not have stayed together for so long, but I think that perhaps
it wouldn’t have been successful, as well, on a commercial level, ‘cause I
think Hawkwind’s success was created, because the band had a very strong
grassroots following, of the people that, you know, lived on the street, that
were, you know, underground, or whatever you might call them. I suppose, you
know, people that were in the underground, identified with Hawkwind, because
Hawkwind was a bit like them. That sort of thing, and playing music, that they
felt they could play. It was very accessible music, you know, it was very
simple, but quite effective. Very sort of, lot of very trancey sort of music.
And I think without drugs, I think the band would still have had a lot of
appeal, because they have...because there was quite a imaginative, you know,
side from the drugs, it was sort of quite introspective, and spiritual, and
sort of spacey as well, you know, sort of science fictional overtones.
(side A of tape ends)
Nik: Yeah, it was sort of...
Dj
Astro: Bob was old friend of yours, or...?
Nik: Robert Calvert, yeah, was a friend, an old friend of mine, and I
think his involvement with the band just by virtue of what he was into. You
know, you can’t say...it’s difficult to say, well, would Robert Calvert have
been to science fiction, if he hadn’t taken LSD, or if he hadn’t taken speed,
or morphine or whatever else he might have taken, I mean it’s all very
speculative, that sort of thing, but he was involved with the band because he
was a friend of mine, and he became involved because I was in the band, and he
thought that would be great to become involved in it, and he had a lot of crazy
ideas, so in a way, he sort of gave the band the sort of science fictional
direction, as did Michael Moorcock. He would give it a sort of sword and
sorcery direction, as well. So, you could say that we would still have had all
these influences, and there’s no reason then, why it shouldn’t have been just
as successful, because there still was all these people that were into that
sort of things. I mean, you’ve got lots of science fiction enthusiasts who’ve
never taken drugs in their lives, you know, just purely imaginative people, who
sort of...
Dj
Astro: And also space rock fans!
Nik: Well, that right, yeah. Yeah. So, sort of... Yeah, I think the band
could, would, could quite likely have been as successful, if you’d still have
this underground of people that were like the band, which they did, you know.
Dj
Astro: So, you think that was the whole point? I
mean...
Nik: I think that was the logic, point of the logic stand. It was the accessibility
of the band. The fact that we’d do a gig in London, and I’d, you know, if I
went down Portobello Road the day before the gig, I’d have everybody there
would wanted to come to the gig, and I would say yes, so I ended up with a
guest list of about three hundred people, and then if we’re doing a gig, and the
promoter would say: well, you can’t have this guest list, and I’d say: well,
I’m not going on stage unless you let them all in. And that was what sort of
happened. So, the band had a really good credibility with the people.
Dj
Astro: And you wouldn’t get any money for the gigs?
Nik: Well, we still get paid, you know. But it made the band very
attractive to people, as well, because we were so accessible, and open, and
available. And... You know, I think they created this sort of accessibility of
the band, that, you know, we weren’t pop stars, we could be, we were just like
the people that came to the shows, which people liked, I think. They could
identify with that, you know, that we were just like them, and we were
available to them, if they wanna come and talk to us, we would talk to them,
and if, you know, we would see them we’d talk to them, you know, hahaha!
Dj
Astro: Yeah, that’s great.
Nik: I think that Hawkwind’s success was actually primarily based on
upon it’s grassroots following of having done lots of concerts, playing lots of
benefits, playing anywhere for nothing quite lot of a time, for any worthwhile
course, and...and generally being seen to be genuine, really, you know.
Dj
Astro: I see. So, you have met some very
interesting people during the years. Anybody special, that would come to mind?
I mean...
Nik: Interesting people?
Dj
Astro: Yeah.
Nik: Well, I’ve met a few people. I met.. I mean, I was a very good
friend of Michael Moorcock, which I still am. He’s actually very interesting
guy. But in the sort of seventies, when I was in America, I met Timothy Leary.
I visited him in Vacaville psychiatric prison where he was being held by the
American government on all really about basically about his views on LSD,
really. But they arrested him on spurious charges of being part of the Black,
the White Panthers, or the Black Panthers. Black Panthers, was it?
Dj
Astro: Yeah.
Nik: I don’t know. And they arrested him on, sort of, for possession of
two seeds of marijuana, I think, somewhere, you know, and put him in a
psychiatric prison of an unlimited, sort of section, sort of thing, so he was
in... When I visited him, he had his hands chained to his waist, you know, just
to inconvenience him, really, but making out they did it so he didn’t hurt
himself, which was all total bullshit.
Dj
Astro: So, he wasn’t mentally ill?
Nik: No, not at all. No, no, he was very sane guy. I sort of had quite
long conversation with him about the elements, really. About elemental...
Atomic numbers and stuff like this, you know, so...
Dj
Astro: Sounds interesting...
Nik: Chemistry, you know. ‘Cause he likened the human race to sort of,
you know, particles of chemistry. Chemical particles, each one with a
different... Everyone was presented by a different element, you know, a chemical
element with a different atomic number, and sorting different numbers,
molecules, hahahaha... So, it was a bit like DNA sort of thing, really, because
I’ve read a book about DNA which he’d written. That is quite interesting. But
yeah, people, who else did I meet? I mean, I met people like the Jefferson
Airplane band, you know, went around to their house, and had tea with them, you
know, when they were rehearsing, and I met Jerry Garcia, I met the guys from
the Grateful Dead, I mean I met sort of bands, you know, lots of different
bands, I suppose, you know. You do sort of come into contact with them. Frank
Zappa and Captain Beefheart, Doctor John, I don’t know, Randy California from
Spirit. Lots of bands, I guess, you know, that I played with or did tours with,
or... Who do you think are important, really... Yeah, but people that I felt
were important, yeah, you know, I mean there’s a painter called Felix Topolski
that I thought was quite an interesting guy, he’s not alive now, but he’s like
grandmaster painter, you know, in Britain, he’s a Polish guy. He’s got all sort
of paintings on the walls of Buckingham Palace, and stuff like this. People
like him. I don’t know, I missed out on meeting quite a lot of people,
hahahahaha! I just missed Jimi Hendrix, he died the next day, I think, or
something like that. Oh, I can’t remember.
Dj
Astro: Okay. So, how was it like to tour over UK
and Europe and US in the seventies?
Nik: It was very exciting, and I enjoyed it. I found it a bit of a
strain in some respects, I was sort of doing a lot of meditation and stuff like
that at the time, you know, to keep myself straight. And I was drinking quite a
lot as well, at the time, and I just found that a bit boring, really, drinking.
I was glad when I stopped doing it. Yeah, very exciting, meeting excited
people, meeting quite a lot of creative people. I mean it’s like when I was in
America, I think the last tour I did in America was in Eugene, and I met this
guy from the band called The Seeds, Sky Saxon, you know, he was a total trip,
he’s sort of terrible character, sort of junkie, sort of casualty, really, and
his awful girlfriend. But also at the gig was this guitarist from Canned Heat, whose
name is Henry Fasten, I think he’s dead now, actually. He died recently. He was
a really great guy, I really enjoyed him. And then, also at the gig was this
writer, who’d written the script for this television, science fictional
television series called Space Precinct. You know that?
Dj
Astro: No, I don’t know it.
Nik: Well, it was shown in England. It’s an American series. That was
quite interesting, and, I mean, he thought my show was wonderful. He gave me a
copy of his book, and he said it’s the best band he’s ever seen! Hahahah, wow!
Dj
Astro: Great!
Nik: Yeah, it’s quite nice, really. Sort of quite flattering, ‘cause I
think people like that must see so much. There’s so much coming around all the
time, you know. Well, maybe he doesn’t see every band that comes through, but I
was quite flattered that he came to see my band, and then he enjoyed it so
much, you know, he thought it was wonderful. It’s good when you have people
like that, creative people, it’s like Michael Moorcock, you know, he’ll come to
my gigs, and he’ll get on stage with me and do some poetry reading. And it’s
nice that people that you respect enjoy what you do. You know what I mean?
Dj
Astro: Yeah, I know.
Nik: It’s not people just flattering you, or being psycho fanatic, you
know, ‘cause you’re famous and they’re not, and they want to be seen with you,
you know, or have their picture taken with you, or something like that, which
you get a bit as well. I mean I tend not to get too much of that, I tend to be,
I try to be real with people, and talk to people on a real level, rather
than... You know, it’s difficult, really, you know, when you’re a sort of a fan
of somebody, and you like their music, say, you know, you say: Wow, I really
like your album, I really like your music, and, oh, thanks, that’s nice. What
do you say then? Hahahahah! You got any drugs?! Hahahhaha.. I don’t know,
really. You know, it’s like I’m A fan of Miles Davis, you know, and if I went
to see him, I’d say: Wow, I really like your trumpet playing, Miles, you know,
it’s great. I really like your albums,
you know, kind of blue, or something like this, you know. I mean, at the end of the day, I mean it’s
probably just enough that you like what they do, ‘cause they’re probably happy
that people genuinely do like it, you know. That’s how I feel about it, really.
I don’t expect great intellectual conversations from people who sort of like my
music, you know. They probably do other things, really, they like other things
as well, so my music’s not the only thing they like! So yeah, it’s very
interesting.
Dj
Astro: How about now, is it any different? Okay,
you haven’t been touring, not any massive tours over USA, but some gigs,
anyway, in the Europe with the Moor, and...
Nik: That’s right.
Dj
Astro: Is it any different today, than in the
seventies?
Nik: Oh, well, I mean, what I was doing in the seventies with Hawkwind,
was very much more high profile. We had a lot of publicity, we had a record
company that was probably sponsoring us to do certain things, and we’re getting
lots of press for the band, and we would get quite a lot audiences. But doing
tours with the Moor, where you’re working with agents that aren’t very
powerful, probably, haven’t got a lot of cloud, and haven’t got very much
money, big budget or something like that, everything’s very much more low key,
so we do a gig in a club that holds a hundred people, or something like that,
and there might be fifty people there, or something, you know. I mean, I just
enjoy it. I still enjoy it, you know, even if it’s not huge crowd, it’s not
particularly the huge crowds I enjoy. You know, what you, what I find, anyway,
is that I enjoy the fact that there’s a huge crowd, because it means that I’m
successful, and I can afford to do it, whilst, you know, if you have small
crowds, it still is enjoyable, but you don’t have the fact that you’ll get
financial reward, and you can afford to do it again, you know, and that is a
problem in certain respects. It’s not free to tour, you know, it costs money to
tour, so you need some sort of financial success in order to be able to afford
to do it. So there’s that sort of thing about it, but then, having said that,
it doesn’t bother me that I’m not staying in big hotels, or anything else like
that, you know, I don’t care. I’m not, hahaha, I’m not that bothered about that
sort of thing. I like things to be much more real and much more sort of
communicative level, really.
 |
| Inner City Unit |
|
Dj
Astro: Okay. So, you used to have this punk, or whatever,
band, this Inner City Unit, in the eighties. Would you say it was your band, or
were you just like one of the other members?
Nik: No, it was my band, really. It’s my... It was a sort of a result of
the Sphynx band, which I had, which was another of my bands, I suppose, ‘cause
it was my name, and my ideas, and my, I wrote most of the songs. But the Inner
City Unit band was a sort of spin-off from that. It was basically formed with
some of the musicians that I was working with in Sphynx. And then we got
together, and wrote a lot of songs. On a creative level it was a whole band,
really, although I wrote quite a lot of the songs myself, but it was pretty
open to everyone to contribute material that they wanted to, and it would be,
we played it. It’s just as well as all the other songs, I mean, we played a
couple of Hawkwind songs, as well. But, yeah, I suppose that was my band,
really, in a way. I suppose the band, I mean now, is my band, because, the
thing is, about, you know, the music business, is such as, because I was in
Hawkwind, then people know me from that, so I’ve got, you know, if Nik Turner
is playing a gig, it’s Nik Turner from Hawkwind, who’s playing a gig in some
other band, or something. It’s still my band, it’s not all the guys in the band
you’ve never heard of, because if it was that, then probably because nobody
heard from them, they wouldn’t come to see the band, so and to sort of, you
know, you have to content with the music business aspect of the fact that I’ve
got a name, in the music business, or...
Dj
Astro: Does it bother you, I mean... You don’t get
tired of being Nik Turner’s Fantastic Allstars?
Nik: No. No, not really. Because I enjoy the music, really.
Dj
Astro: Yeah, and that’s the most important thing.
Nik: I don’t even... It doesn’t even bug me if I go busking, you know,
just me on my own, you know, I don’t mind. I play, I like to play music,
really. I like to play music that I enjoy, and that people enjoy. I’m not
trying just to play music that people enjoy, although there is certain
satisfaction in that, if you just produce music that people enjoy. I’ve got to
like it myself, as well!
Dj
Astro: So, how successful, do you think, was Inner
City Unit?
Nik: I think it was actually very successful. It could have been a lot
more successful, if the band had stayed together, but, I mean, the problem with
it was, because it was my band, I was doing all the work, I was getting gigs,
it was me who was getting the gigs, because if I phoned up a promoter and said:
Hello, this is Nik Turner, he’d say: Oh yeah, great, when do you want the gig?
Whilst if the band, somebody in the band phoned up, and said: Hello, this is
Fred Blocks, I’m playing in Nik Turner’s band, well, they would still get some
gigs, but weren’t doing it, you know, they were letting me do all the work, and
then they were complaining I wasn’t getting enough gigs! You know, well I
think, they ought to be getting some gigs, as well, but they weren’t, you know.
They just liked to complain about me, not getting enough of them, for them! Too
much, like I was their slave, you know, and that’s what happened, really, in
the band, you know. They complained about not having enough gigs, and they all
left.
Dj
Astro: Oh, so that was the reason.
Nik: Yeah. Mmmm. At the time, the bass player, Fred, was sort of having
nervous breakdown, so I said to him: look, you know, you’d leave the band now,
if you want to, and have a rest, and come back later. And he said: all right,
I’ll do that. So he said I’m leaving, and then the guitarist and the drummer
said: oh, if he’s leaving, so are we! So they went off and formed another band
with Bob Calvert, hahahaha!
Dj
Astro: Oh yeah. Was that The Starfighters?
Nik: Yeah. Well, it was The Maximum Effect.
Dj
Astro: The Maximum Effect, okay.
Nik: Yeah, they did a couple of gigs with him, so.
Dj
Astro: That was only a short period of time?
Nik: Mmm. Yeah. The Starfighters was another band that Robert got
together from people that lived in the town he was living in, which was in
Ramsgate, Kent. It was just people that lived around there. But they never
really got that far. I think the people he was, he had in his band were a bit
too wild, and drug oriented sort of thing, you know. They did skatty and taking
lot of speed, and sort of, you know, not being where they should be, and, I
don’t know really. It sort of seems a bit like that, to me.
Dj
Astro: So, was it more fun in Inner City Unit than
in Hawkwind? I mean, did you enjoy it as much or more, or…?
Nik: I think I did, yeah. I think I try do enjoy everything I do,
really. You know, I don’t do sort of thing: oh, this isn’t, you know, this
isn’t very interesting. If it’s not interesting I try to make it interesting,
you know, one way or another, you know. Doing crazy things, or you know, making
the music more exciting, or something.
Dj
Astro: Okay, you returned to Hawkwind in the
eighties for a couple of years. Was it any different than before, in the
seventies? Had something changed?
Nik: Yeah, I think so.
I think probably because Dave was controlling it more, really. I think in the
seventies Dave wasn’t really controlling it to that degree. I think that in the
seventies the band was a lot of quite creative people, who came together in
this band, you know. We were playing our music, really, which was like a
product of the musicians, I felt. I also felt that in the eighties it was more,
Dave was controlling who was in the band, and there were a lot of people in the
band that weren’t really allowed to be creative, perhaps, I don’t know, really.
Who was in the band? Alan Davey, Harvey was playing keyboards then, Danny
Thompson was playing drums, Huw Langton was playing guitar, and…
Dj
Astro: That’s it!
Nik: And that was it, yeah, and… I mean, Huw’s a very nice guy, but he’s
an alcoholic as well, you know, and he’s a sort of a Jehovah’s Witness as well,
you know. There’s a lot of, you know, weird, a bit weird, little things, touchy
things, you know, involved in the situation.
Dj
Astro: Did you take as much dope as in the
seventies?
Nik: Well, I didn’t take acid or something like that, you know, I gave
that up, really. I wasn’t really that much into drugs. I smoked a bit of pot, I
suppose, that’s all. I didn’t really do anything else. And I think I drunk a
bit at the time, but not much. I didn’t really, I mean, you know, nothing
terribly exciting or dangerous!
Dj
Astro: Okay! So, why did you leave, or…
Nik: ‘Cause I’ve got the sack. I was sacked from the band again, you
know.
Dj
Astro: Why was that?
Nik: Well, I would say it was a sort of a conspiracy, really, you know,
which Dave initiated. Because we were working on the Black Sword tour at the
time, and I’d read all of Michael Moorcock’s books, ‘cause I was writing lyrics
based on the books, you know, and I said to Dave: oh, you’ve read the books?
And he said: no, I think they’re really boring. And I said the same thing to
him, he said: oh, I’ve read one of them, I can’t be bothered to read the
others. And I spoke to Huw Lloyd-Langton, I’ve said: have you read these books?
And he said: oh, I can’t. They are really boring, I can’t be bothered to read
them, and I’d read all of them, you know? I was writing songs about them. Well,
I think that, you know, I think, probably, that Dave saw that I was going to be
writing a lot of songs, and didn’t like that, probably, you know, he had all
these other old songs that he wanted to use that he had written, that sort of thing. This is what happens in a
band, you know, when people become a bit more aware what’s going on in the
band, they see that if they can write all the songs, then they get all the
royalties from the publishing, you know, for the record. And then, all are
faking to get somebody in to play, to be paid
a session fee, then they don’t have to pay royalty to them, when they,
you know, when they’re on the record, and these sort of things start coming up.
So I think, that really, probably the reason that Dave, sort of manipulated the
situation was that he didn’t want me to be writing a lot of material.
Dj
Astro: Oh, that’s too bad.
Nik: Because I was writing songs that were actually about the books,
whilst they ended up using some stuff like Needle Gun, which has like nothing
to do with the Elric. It might be Jerry Cornelius, but it has nothing to do
with Elric, and there were a lot of other songs that weren’t anything to do
with Elric. Dave would say: oh, I’ve got this song, that I’ve wrote, that I
haven’t used, this will do. You know, there was that sort of attitude about it,
and I didn’t really think that was very good. I thought these stories, these
songs ought to be about the book, you know. I’d read the book, so I was writing
songs.
Dj
Astro: Have you used the material, later on?
Nik: No, I didn’t use it. I’ve written… The only thing I’ve done with it
was a… Michael Moorcock’s sixtieth birthday was last month, and his agent wrote
to me saying that they are going to put together a book of well-wishing
information from all Mike’s friends for his birthday, you know. So they’re
gonna publish it hardback in limited edition, and so they wanted everybody to
write a few words, you know, saying…talking about Michael, or taking to him, or
wishing him well, or whatever, so…
Dj
Astro: So, you used some of those lyrics?
Nik: I used those lyrics, yeah. I gave, I said here’s some lyrics that
are inspired by Mike, and I’ll never use them, so, you know, I’d like him to
have them, have a copy of them. So I put them in…I gave them into those, and
they are in this book, I think they’re gonna put out some paperback versions,
which they’re going to give to them people as well.
So…
Dj
Astro: Are they going to sell it?
Nik: Mmm?
Dj
Astro: Are they going to sell that book?
Nik: I don’t know, actually, what they’re going to do. Maybe they will,
I don’t know. If it’s interesting enough, I guess. If they see there’s
commercial, maybe they will sell it. So…
Dj
Astro: I think Michael, he sells quite a lot of
books, anyway.
Nik: Yeah, I think so. So, that’s why I thought about… But then, so I
was writing all these songs, and then I went away, went home, and then I had
heard that there was a meeting happening. Well it was a meeting with the
management, which I think I wasn’t invited to, or something, you know. It was
all starting then, you know. And then I was told I’ve been sacked. So, and I
said oh, what’s happening. I said to Dave: oh, what’s happening? He said: the
band has decided to sack you. I said: oh, really? I said: oh, I’d like to talk
to them about it, you know. So I went there, and they all had different stories
about, you know, Harvey was saying, well, you know. Basically what they were
saying, was what Dave’d told them to say! ‘Cause the drummer said to me: well,
I don’t mind if you’re in the band. He said: Dave phoned me up and told me that
I ought to say that I didn’t think you ought to be in the band, but I don’t
mind you being in the band, I get on very well with you, we have a good time
together! So I’ve got it from they, you know, and they all said different
things about me. Huw Langton said he thought I was trying to turn the band into
a punk band. Alan Davey said that his mates didn’t think I ought to be in the
band, hahahahaha...
Dj
Astro: Oh, that’s interesting!
Nik: It’s crazy, isn’t it? And Harvey said, well he didn’t mind if I was
in the band. It was not a problem to him. He did actually tell me that Dave had
phoned him up and told him to say that he didn’t think I’d been taking enough
interest in the band, ‘cause I had missed a lot of rehearsals. Well, I was
writing songs, and I thought: well, I don’t need to rehearse two chords,
particularly.
Dj
Astro: Yes, I know what you mean.
Nik: So, it was sort of bit like that, really. The management had sort
of instigated it as well, you know. It’s crazy business that the management
company that I’d set a deal up for the band with. I had negotiated the deal for
the band with this management company, and they would have been managing the
band, and as soon as they began the managers, I think they probably saw me as a
trouble maker, really, you know, ‘cause I didn’t really want to sort of lick
their asses and go along with their bullshit. So I left the band then. And I
concentrated then on... Oh, I don’t know, well I did put back on Inner City
Unit, for a bit, with a new band, with slightly different line up. And we did
another three albums, I think, or three or four albums. And we had, the band
was really successful, then. We did gigging in London; we’re just packed
anywhere we played.
Dj
Astro: Oh really? I didn’t know.
Nik: Yeah, we had really good audiences, really big audiences everywhere
we went. Playing loads of sort of colleges, we had agency that would be getting
us work, we had quite a lot going for us, really. It was a bit sad that the
band should all leave. I suppose I could’ve carried on, but at the time I was
living in country, and Inner City Unit was a London-based band, the whole idea
of it, and the whole, you know, feel of it was London-based. We were living in
London, I was living in Belsize Park, I knew all these people that were living
in squats. If anybody was going to break into a squat, and start a squat, we’d
going to play there. You know, these people would come around to me and say:
oh, we’re gonna, starting a squat down the road, would you come and play? And
we would say: all right. And we just go and play, you know. So we would do
that, we did a lots of things like that, we’re just really accessible to
people. We did benefits. We did all the things that Hawkwind used to do, you
know. Because we were available to do them, and people knew where I lived, and
where I was, and you know, that we would do these gigs, if they wanted us to.
So we played loads of stuff like that, we played squats, we played protest
gigs, you know, on a back of a lorry, at a huge CND rally, you know, driving
down White Hall, you know, amongst all the police, you know, playing the Death
March, you know, the huge crowd of people behind us, you know, huge protest
sort of things we were doing, you know. With this plastic barbed wire draped
around the lorries, so it looked like barbed wire, you know. And the police
freaking out at us, you know. That we would best join the main procession, and
they said: oh, you have to leave the procession; we don’t want any bands or
vehicles on it. So we drove down Nights Bridge in the rush hour, in the
Saturday afternoon shopping, with this great big PA on the lorry, and we all
dressed up as brain surgeons, and playing the Death March, you know, the huge
crowd of people is going: daadaadadaadaadadaadaadaadaadaa, Oi! Daadaadadaadaadadaadaadaadaadaa,
Oi!
Dj
Astro: Hahahahahahahahahah!!!
Nik: The huge crowd of people behind us, you know, driving slowly along
the road on the shopping area, in the extremely high class shopping area!!!
Stuff like that we did, so, you know we were (coughing).
Dj
Astro: Were you arrested then?
Nik: No, not quite. They stopped us, and the police pulled us off the
lorry and threatened to arrest us, but we sort of said, oh well, you know,
we’re part of this protest gig, you know! What was a protest gig if you’re not
gonna protest?
Dj
Astro: Hahahahaha, I see!
Nik: About something!
Dj
Astro: You were organising some free festivals at
Stonehenge at some point?
Nik: Yeah, I was involved in that, yeah. I used to set up my stage
there. I had this pyramid stage that I had built when I was doing the Sphynx
show, which I had constructed to go around all the festivals. And then, so I
used to take that to Stonehenge every year, and put it up. A bit like the main
stage, a big pyramid!
Dj
Astro: What was it made of?
Nik: That’s aluminium, and canvas on the top of it, with a little
scaffolding, really. It was all designed it particular dimensions, exactly the
same dimensions as the Great Pyramid.
Dj
Astro: Do you still have it?
Nik: ...But a lot smaller. Ah, I actually haven’t got it, but a friend
of mine borrowed it some time ago, and hasn’t given it back to me, so I’ll have
to try and retrieve it, and I’m sort of getting on that pace. But I used to put
the stage up there, and I used to manage the stage quite a lot. Just the sort
of, you know, make sure bands went on and off and stuff like this, and I was
involved in that side of it, and playing there with quite a lot of bands, on
that stage, and in other places around Stonehenge, and lots of other places to
play. Lots of bands playing all over the place in different stages they made,
and stuff, you know.
Dj
Astro: What does Stonehenge mean to you?
Nik: Well, it means quite a lot, really. It’s a very spiritual place,
and it’s a very ancient place, and nobody knows how it was built. It was sort
of built out of these megalithic stones, these monoliths. And they all came
from a long way away, so nobody knows how they got there, either, you know.
It’s a bit like the Great Pyramids, or that sort of thing. But at the end, it’s actually a very
spiritual gathering place, and they used to have these wild orgies and
festivals there, in sort of ancient times. And it’s also possibly a solar calendar,
a temple, and there’s a lot of very symbolic sort of stuff around Stonehenge, which is sort of zodiacs, and
stuff like this, you know, the signs of the zodiac in the ground, you know, in
the very large area, you know, this sign is five miles long sort of thing, you
know. And there’s a lot of stuff like that all around Stonehenge. So they used
to, sort of, have these very wild orgies, and I think that’s what, it was, the
gathering of all the tribes, and that what it was when we were there, as well,
as having been there, you know, two thousand, three thousand years ago. So,
it’s a sort of quite... Yeah, it’s quite a spiritual and powerful place,
really.
Dj
Astro: How large crowds were there at the festival?
Nik: At Stonehenge? By the festival?
Dj
Astro: I mean in the seventies, or eighties.
Nik: Probably, gosh, I don’t know. Probably about twenty thousand,
thirty thousand people, something like that.
Dj
Astro: Oh, that much!
Nik: Yeah, a lot of people, really. All living in cardboard houses, and
canvas houses and... Yeah, a lot of people. Really lot of people, and it was
big, it was very big. Not as big as Glastonbury, but much more fun, really.
Dj
Astro: Yeah, Okay. So, you’re obviously fascinated
by Egyptian mythology. Why’s that?
Nik: Ahm, I just find it quite mysterious and magical, really, I think.
You know I think it’s mysterious, it’s unknown and it’s unexplained, and
there’s a lot of very powerful symbolism and mythology, and very archetypical
mythologies about the Gods, the Egyptian Gods. I mean, I’m very interested in
mythologies, really, I guess, and religions, you know, world religions and
mythologies, and how similar mythologies are in different, from different
races. How you have similarities in many of them. You can see it’s the same
story in all of them, but just, you know, different aspects of that same story
with a lot of the same imagery and same sort of situations that happen, that
you can hear in other mythologies and, you know, like Hinduism and Islamic and
Buddhist and all different religions, as well, really.
Dj
Astro: So, it’s not only Egyptian mythology that
you’re into?
Nik: No. It’s not only Egyptian, yeah. I’m into all mythologies, really.
Maybe because I’m interested in the origins of Man, I guess, you know, and that
sort of thing. I find it quite fascinating, and I suppose it’s just, you know,
it’s all probably about the quest of wanting to know why we are here, really.
To understand, you know, what the, what we are here for, and possibly what
human potential is, what we can do.
Dj
Astro: And where’re we going.
Nik: Yeah, that’s right. I mean there’s a lot of things that are going
that you can see that are related to this, and you know, it’s like movies and
all sorts of things and creative things, that had to do with similar sort of
ideas. I mean, like movies are sort of, you know, going in the same direction,
in this sort of metaphysical, and mythological, and science fictional and, do
you know what I mean? Sort of thing. Suddenly sort of trying to see all in, you
know, as being part of the whole, and all being into locked and ought together
and to do with each other, you know, magic, and mythology, and spirituality,
and science fiction, and sort of speculative ideas of why we’re here, and what
we should be doing. Or what we could be doing, or where we come from, or where
we’re going, hahaha...
Dj
Astro: Yeah, I see.
Nik: The mysteries!
Dj
Astro: So, do you really believe in UFOs?
Nik: Yeah.
Dj
Astro: Okay. Have you ever seen them?
Nik: Well, not really, I wouldn’t say conclusively that I’ve seen UFO...
Dj
Astro: Or experienced...
Nik: ...Or I’ve experienced abduction.
Dj
Astro: Have you experienced anything surely out of
this world?
Nik: Well, it’s difficult to say, really, you know, you sort of... It’s
very easy to say: oh, have you experienced something out of this world, and
then sort of see something as, well, when I was out walking one day, I had a
mystical experience, I mean...
Dj
Astro: What was it like?
Nik: If you sort of say this, then, I mean, one has these experiences
all the time. Do you know what I mean? You don’t say: oh, I just had a mystical
experience. You know, I suddenly felt I was somewhere else, I mean... It’s the
sort of thing that happens all the time, and you just think, well, is this
real? You know, I’ve been walking down the street, and I looked at somebody,
and I know exactly what the person is thinking. And then I sort of think I
don’t really want know what they are thinking, you know, it’s not an interest
to me, really! Hahaha, you know. And you sort of feel, you can actually touch
their minds, and so you start to think is that real or not, or is this
something we can all do, or you know, is it quite a normal thing. And I sort of
look at people, and I think: well I know what they do, and I know what they’re
thinking, and I’m thinking, well I don’t really want to know what they’re
thinking, you know. So one has this power to do certain things, and you just
think, well, I’d rather be using it for something else, you know. So, I
wouldn’t say I’ve had sort of... I mean I’ve had dreams, that sort of seem to
me like mystical experiences or extraterrestrial experiences, or things like
that, you know, but I haven’t had sort of experience walking down the street
and seeing bright light in the sky, and then suddenly it sort of, you know,
seeing blinding flash, or something like that, you know. It’s a bit like, I
mean, it’s like that film, you know, I saw this film about the X-files last night,
and I can’t remember, it’s called the Abduction, I think. And I just thought: I
don’t like that sort of presentation of alien intelligence. You know, these
aliens come to earth and see man as sort of some species that’s gonna, you know
they come down here and: oh, that must be he’s brain, let’s take a part and see
how it works, you know, and suddenly this drill comes down and pours holes in
his teeth, and this other drill comes down and drills into his stomach, and...
You know, and he sort of thinks, and he’s sort of screaming all the time, and
you think, well, I don’t really think that’s what alien abduction is like,
really. I just tend to think that any alien that comes to this planet is an
enlightened being, who’s not coming here to experiment on us, because they
think we’re a lower form of life. I think they come here to help us, and to get
our help, or you know, to be positive really, rather than what these alien
abductee sort of characters are represented as in these sort of things as the
X-files. As if alien intelligence is...
Dj
Astro: Something negative.
Nik: Yeah, something very negative.
Dj
Astro: Something to be afraid of.
Nik: Yeah, that’s right, and I don’t like that.
Dj
Astro: Yeah, me neither.
Nik: I think it’s a very negative sort of representation. I want it to
be, I want these people to be really intelligent, and show us the way of
travelling the speed of light, you know, in a nice way. Not everything’s, you
know, dirty, and somebody trying to make some money out of it, and commercial
and crash, and sort of materialistic, you know, ‘cause I don’t think that’s
what it’s like. I don’t think that people that’ve travelled a million light
years, are gonna be like that, they are not gonna be like us! You know, that’s
making everybody seem like us, you know.
Dj
Astro: Yeah...
Nik: You know, the Star Trek, you know. Find a new planet and conquer
it, and I don’t like that, I think it’s crap.
Dj
Astro: So, do you believe in life after death?
Nik: Yeah.
Dj
Astro: Yeah.
Nik: Well, I believe in reincarnation, really, I think. You know, I
don’t have any reason not to believe it, if you know what I mean. Apart from,
perhaps, not experiencing it, hahahahah! If I felt I hadn’t experienced it,
then I wouldn’t believe it, perhaps, but I think, you know, we do experience
it. Everything points towards it.
Dj
Astro: Do you remember something from your past
lives, then?
Nik: Well, not particularly, I mean I, you know I...
Dj
Astro: Some flashes, maybe?
Nik: Well I think, possibly, yeah. I mean it’s difficult to know. I was
interviewed by this guy who’s writing for one of the most popular English newspaper,
that’s called The Sun.
Dj
Astro: Yeah, I know.
Nik: About reincarnation. And he was interviewing different people, and
I was one of the people he interviewed. He interviewed this other very famous
judge, his name is Chris Mashumbrey, I think, who’s an intellectual sort of
person who believes in reincarnation. He interviewed all these sort of really
wacky people, or actually quite creditable people that actually believed in
reincarnation. And it’s quite an interesting article, and he interviewed me, as
well. And my attitude was that I did what I did, because I felt like it, not
because I thought: oh, I’ve had experiences in the past life, or I’m drawn to
this because I’m conscious that I was here before. I mean, I think I was drawn
to this, well probably that I was there before, but it’s not something that’s
saying to me: oh, I remember, you know, I’m going there because I’ve been
there, because I believe I’ve been there before, I didn’t go there for that
reason. I went to... About a curiosity, really, you know, because I was
interested in the subject, and interested in the culture. Interested in the
mystery. You know, and that’s what I felt, really. You know, well I might have
been living in Egypt in, you know, tenth dynasty, or something like that, but I
don’t sort of consciously think: oh, that’s where I was living, you know. I
think well, maybe I was. I don’t say I wasn’t, but I, you know, I’m not saying
I was, but I’m quite open to having been, you know, so... I’m rather optimistic
about things, rather than a pessimist.
Dj
Astro: Okay. Do you consider yourself as a
successful musician?
Nik: Yeah, I think so. Yeah. I mean, only in as much as I had some... I
think I had creative satisfaction for what I do. I don’t really consider myself
particularly materialistically successful, ‘cause I’m still hard up, you know,
I haven’t got a lot of money. I’m still driving a car that’s a wreck, and
still, you know, going busking ‘cause I need to pay my phone bill, you know,
and things like that. But then if I can go busking, and say Cardiff, I went
busking when they had the rugby world championship finals on with France and
Australia, and I was there busking, and I could have like fifty people all
dancing to what I was playing, with a saxophone and a tambourine, and I can
earn 450 pounds in a day, just playing my saxophone. Well, on one level, that’s
quite a lot of success! Hahahahah...
Dj
Astro: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Nik: That’s sort of successful in a creative way, that you can actually
do this, and you are capable of , you know, being able to produce something
that people will give you money to hear. To me that is success, really.
Dj
Astro: Yeah, that’s right.
Nik: But it’s just that to me it’s also success that people are happy
with what I’m doing, apart from the money, I mean, the money is quite a, sort
of, quite pleasant by product, of creating music successfully, really.
Dj
Astro: Have your music ever brought you a lot of
cash?
Nik: Has it ever brought me a lot of cash? Well that’s one... I mean,
music hasn’t really ever brought me very much cash. I suppose when we... When I
was in Hawkwind in the seventies, and we were sort of successful with Silver
Machine, I was probably doing all right. I was probably getting two hundred
pounds a week, you know, that’s what I was getting, regularly, rather than a
big lump of money, and then maybe I was getting a record royalty of, you know,
a thousand or two thousand pounds every six months, you know, which was from
record sales. So, I suppose the money I was getting, two hundred pounds a week,
was the fact that we were doing tours, where we were earning loads of money,
and then we were using that, we were getting paid that money, when we weren’t
working, so we were being paid all the time.
Dj
Astro: That maybe was a wise move!
Nik: Yeah, I think so. So, that was probably the most successful... most
money I made, I took record, out of
music, really.
Dj
Astro: So, what’s the best thing about being a
musician?
Nik: Well, I think the creative satisfaction you get from communicating
enjoyment to people, and getting a positive reaction from people, and... Playing
dance music is quite good, because you get positive reaction from people, and
people are enjoying themselves, and you are helping them to enjoy themselves.
So I find that the most satisfying thing, really. You know, communication with
people. And I think because music is, I think it’s a very spiritual thing. I
think it’s a healing force, really. I think music is a healing medium, and I
think it has to be enjoyable, you know, has to be fun. Then it’s enjoyable and
it’s satisfying, and it’s not hard work, and you sort of enjoy doing it, and
you sort of feel it’s worthwhile.
Dj
Astro: So, how about the worst thing. I mean, any
negative sides to being a musician?
Nik:
Well, the
music business is a pretty negative thing, and some of the sort of attitudes that
musicians have are pretty negative, as well. I find, I mean there’s a sort
of... There’s a sort of... One thing I don’t like about the music scene is like
if you’re in a band, I mean I suppose that the sort of concept of being in the
band is a bit of a, a sort of, I don’t know, it’s not probably very practical
sort of thing. But if you’re in a band, you can be in a band, and then suddenly
you’re not in it anymore, ‘cause somebody says: oh, you’re sacked! You know,
well, that’s not really right, I don’t think, you know. I think that people, I
mean I think for one thing that people should have respect for each other, but
you’ve got a situation perhaps where people are taking too many drugs or drinking too much or things like that,
where they obviously have not really got
the respect that they ought to have for the other musicians, because I think if
you’re in a band, you actually, you own it to the other musicians to actually
do your best in a creative situation, because, you know, we’re all working together,
and the thing is only as strong as its weakest link. So, you know, I think that
there’s sort of some of the bad aspects. Sort of disloyalty of the situation,
where you can be dismissed from the band at a moment’s notice. And probably,
the sort of influence of drugs, as well, on people, the negative influence of
drugs on people that perhaps haven’t got a very strong will power, and are not
really strong in themselves, and not really very confident in what they’re
doing musically, which is another thing about music, really. You’ve got to feel
confident in what you’re doing. Otherwise it’s a very, sort of, nebulous thing,
and very fragile thing.
Dj
Astro: There’s a lot of stress, and...
Nik: Yeah, that’s right, worrying about it. I mean, but I just think, well,
I just play as well as I can, you know, I’ve practised to do that, and I won’t
sort of just got out of my head on drugs and do nothing, but, you know, waste
myself. I’d rather, you know, present music as... (tape cuts)
Nik:
What was the
question?
Dj
Astro: I
think we dealt with that already. Well...what’s...some of the negative points
of...
Nik:
Negative
points of the music business, yeah. Well, the drugs that people take, and the
fact that music business being such a tenuous and fragile sort of thing for the
creative musician. People can be not that confident in what they’re doing, and
perhaps not even that good, and take loads of drugs, and be real victims and
die, and still be exploited by the music business. Probably the music business
prefer a few people to die, ‘cause they can sell their records, and they can
sort of make them, you know, make loads of money out of it. Thinking about Bob
Marley, you know, the record company’s laughing all the way to the bank, and
Jimi Hendrix, you know. These people they just... They just become very
exploited, and by the business that doesn’t really give a fuck, basically, I
mean the music business is controlled by accountants, really. They know what
sold last week, and they, you know, put money on something that sounds like it
this week. They don’t take risks. So, yeah, those are the sort of bad aspects
of music business. The fact, the lack of sort of loyalty amongst musicians.
(phone rings)
Dj
Astro: Sorry...
Nik:
Yeah, I think those are the bad aspects, but then
that’s always been the bad aspect of the music business, really. It’s like, you
know, a lot of people like Charlie Parker, you know, was a junkie, people are
allowed to be junkies. People are allowed... I mean, there was a time, when,
with Hawkwind, if you wanted an article in the NME, the New Musical Express,
the press office said: well, all you got to do is to give the journalist a bag
of heroin, and he’ll write an article, and we’ll print it. And I think that was
going on quite a lot in the music business.
Dj
Astro: In the seventies.
Nik:
Yeah, that sort of thing has happened a lot, you
know. I just think those are the sort of sad aspects. And then also the fact
that there are a lot of really good musicians around, who are not at all
successful, whilst there are a lot of really bad musicians, who are extremely
successful!
Dj
Astro: Yeah, I know what you mean...
Nik:
It’s all a
bit out of balance, really, anyway.
Dj
Astro: So, how long do you think you’ll keep on
rocking and continuing your career as a musician?
Nik: I don’t know,
really, I think, probably, I don’t know what else to do, hahahaha, so, so I
can’t really put a time limit on it! I suppose it depends on how long I’ll
live, really, or how, you know, if I had a terrible accident, I suppose I’d
stop playing the saxophone perhaps, if I wasn’t no longer capable of doing it.
But, you know, at the end of the day, I’ve been involved in the music business
for quite a lot of time. I’d like to remain involved in the music business, but
in a nice way, really, you know. I’d like to be one of the nice guys! I don’t
wanna be one of the assholes, you know! So I’d like to help musicians, and
maybe to do production as well, and carry on playing as much as I can, really.
I don’t see any reason to stop. I could probably get a proper job! Hahahahhah!
Dj
Astro: So, you live on a farm in Wales, would you
mind telling something about it, and your normal, everyday life?
Nik:
My normal everyday life?
Dj
Astro: Well, it’s music, of course...
Nik:
Well, yeah, it’s music, but probably...
Dj
Astro: ...But something about the farm?
Nik:
...Probably,
I mean we have these festivals there, sometimes. My girlfriend has sort of
African, Celtic festivals there in the summertime. We’ve got a bit of land, so
we can have a big marquee and a few people camping there, and stuff like that.
We have these African/Celtic things, we have people doing workshops in African
culture, dancing, drumming, singing, and the same in Celtic things, you know.
And, that’s what happens there, that’s the only thing we do there. I mean, I’ve
got a few caravans that people rent from me, and we’ve got kids there, I take
kids to school in the morning, pick them up at night, half the time, not
always, sometimes. So I get up at seven o’clock every morning, usually, I have
a routine, you know, hahahaha... All that sort of thing, I do some rehearsal,
perhaps. I’ve got a studio there, do a bit of recordings sometimes. Yeah,
that’s more or less what I do, really. I don’t go out a lot, I go to parties,
and if I’m playing, I’ll go to a party, otherwise I won’t go to a party, ‘cause
there’s no live music I won’t go much to see, you know. I’ll go to a live music
parties and I play. Well, I don’t drink, so I get bored hanging around parties
where everybody’s trying to get drunk, you know, so...
Dj
Astro: Yeah,
I see.
Nik:
I’d just
sort of rather be doing something else, you know. Yes, sort of quite exciting,
quite interesting. I have wild raves there, sometimes, you know!
Dj
Astro: Yeah. You’ve got a lot of friends in that
area?
Nik:
No, not a lot. I mean I know loads of people. I
mean I suppose I know thousands, millions of people, hahaha, you know, but
there are a few people that I have quite close association with, and I spend
time with. But I don’t go to the pub, or do things that like that, so, I mean,
most of my social life is tied around playing music, you know, musicians I work
with, and all my friends are musicians, really. Because I don’t go to the pub,
so I don’t really have much in common with a lot of people that go to the pub,
so I tend to, you know, be with people that are at my house, and, or at
somebody in my band’s house, or, you know, I tend to be involved with
musicians, and that’s all, really, mostly.
Dj
Astro: Okay. Is there anything you would like to say
to the Finnish fans, or the fans in general?
Nik:
Yeah, buy my records! Hahahaha! Learn to play a
musical instrument, get a band together, spread the spiritual, healing force of
music.
Dj
Astro: Okay. Okay, maybe that was it.
Nik:
Yeah.
 |
| Nik Turner w/ Dark Sun in Hamburg Hawkfan Meeting in 1997. |
Nik has been musically active ever since and even released a couple of excellent solo albums on US based Cleopatra Records lately. Check out his latest adventures on his web page at:
