Phil James

This was an excellently entertaining read, but I suppose even then it's one for the fans. The stylistic choices work really well and should be repeated in other band biographies. A mixture of discography, timelines, album breakdowns, interviews and the all important essays putting the band in context(s).

Hawkwind are seen in relation to Science-Fiction, hard-rock, end of/or continuation of the counterculture, post-punk, krautrock/electronica and as an alternative to mainstream music business.

Now something on Gong and family?

I probably would have enjoyed this more if I had never seen the wonderful British TV comedy “Upstart Crow”. I only managed to get the families voices and faces out of my imagination half way through, but Shakespeare remained to the end with the grinning face of David Mitchell.

The author passed away while I was reading this. A fascinating, science based overview of the site, not without poetry in the descriptions.
I'll re-post the obituary from the Quietus
https://thequietus.com/articles/28150-aubrey-burl-obituary

One of the most entertaining reads I've had in a long time. It reminds me of “Midnight's Children” by Salman Rushdie. That one I read almost 40 years ago so I suppose I was ready for another to equal it.

I must firstly state that Cloud Atlas is one of my all time favourite books so there was going to be the risk of comparison from the beginning. But having read and been impressed by Doerr's “All the Light We Cannot See” I knew to trust a master storyteller and try to put comparisons to one side.
For maybe until half way through the book the storylines and characters weren't compelling and the comparison was deadly. How to compete with David Mitchell's satire, mystery and gothic horror/Science-fiction, but I should have trusted Anthony Doerr.
IT IS WORTH IT!
Characters deepen, storylines connect up and it is not at all predictable. By the end he took me somewhere else from the experience of Cloud Atlas, more optimistic even with the horrible realities, and fully winning it's place on my shelves not far from David Mitchell's works.