Del Dettmar (born 20 April 1947 in

Thornton Heath Thornton Heath is a district of Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Croydon. It is around north of the town of Croydon, and south of Charing Cross. Prior to the creation of Greater London in 1965, Thornton Heath was in the Co ...

, Surrey,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

) is best known as synthesizer and keyboard player with the English

space rock Space rock is a music genre characterized by loose and lengthy song structures centered on instrumental textures that typically produce a hypnotic, otherworldly sound. It may feature distorted and reverberation-laden guitars, minimal drummin ...

band

Hawkwind Hawkwind are an English rock band known as one of the earliest space rock groups. Since their formation in November 1969, Hawkwind have gone through many incarnations and have incorporated many different styles into their music, including hard ...

from 1971 to 1974. After leaving school he had a number of jobs including working in a bank, digging potatoes on

Jersey Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label= Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west France. It is the l ...

, and punting tourists up and down the river in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

. Eventually he got a job as roadie with

The Pretty Things ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

and subsequently worked as road manager for

Edgar Broughton Band The Edgar Broughton Band, founded in Warwick in 1968, were an English rock band. Career The band started their career as a blues group under the name of The Edgar Broughton Blues Band, playing to a small following in the region around t ...

Arthur Brown Arthur Brown may refer to: Entertainment * Arthur William Brown (1881–1966), Canadian commercial artist * H. Arthur Brown (1906–1992), American orchestral conductor * Arthur Brown (musician) (born 1942), English rock singer * Arthur Brown, ak ...

, Juicy Lucy, Pete Brown, and then

Cochise Cochise (; Apache: ''Shi-ka-She'' or ''A-da-tli-chi'', lit.: ''having the quality or strength of an oak''; later ''K'uu-ch'ish'' or ''Cheis'', lit. ''oak''; June 8, 1874) was leader of the Chihuicahui local group of the Chokonen and principa ...

. He was recruited as road manager for Hawkwind by their manager Doug Smith. While attending to his road manager duties, he also sat out front at gigs operating a synthesizer and mixing the band. He was brought into the band proper to replace a temporarily absent Dik Mik in May 1971. He co-produced (with

Dave Brock David Anthony Brock (born 20 August 1941) is an English musician. He plays electric guitar, keyboards, bass and oscillators. He is a founder, sole constant member and musical focus of the space rock group Hawkwind.Allmusic– Dave Brock biogra ...

) the album '' Doremi Fasol Latido'' and is credited as composer of the tracks "One Change" (''Doremi Fasol Latido''), "Electronic No. 1" (''

Space Ritual ''The Space Ritual Alive in Liverpool and London'' (commonly known as ''Space Ritual'') is a 1973 live double album recorded in 1972 by UK rock band Hawkwind. It is their fourth album, reached #9 in the UK album charts and briefly dented the ...

''), and "Goat Willow" ('' Hall of the Mountain Grill''). He left Hawkwind in June 1974 to emigrate to the East Shore of Kootenay Lake, in B.C.

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, where he still lives. He recorded two albums with the

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

-based experimental group Melodic Energy Commission in 1979 and 1980 (with help from fellow ex-Hawkwinder Paul Rudolph).Aural Innovations #5
- Melodic Energy Commission (Review/Interview) He is an occasional contributor to the band

References

External links

Entry at Discogs
* 1947 births Hawkwind members Living people People from Thornton Heath {{UK-keyboardist-stub