Del Dettmar (born 20 April 1947 in

Thornton Heath Thornton Heath is a district of South 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 Coun ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, England) is an English musician, best known as synthesizer and keyboard player with 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 ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gov ...

, and punting tourists up and down the river in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

. Eventually he got a job as roadie with The Pretty Things and subsequently worked as road manager for Edgar Broughton Band, Arthur Brown, Juicy Lucy,

Pete Brown Peter Ronald Brown (25 December 1940 – 19 May 2023) was an English performance poet, lyricist, and singer best known for his collaborations with Cream and Jack Bruce.Colin Larkin, ''Virgin Encyclopedia of Sixties Music'' (Muze UK Ltd, 1997) ...

, and then

Cochise Cochise ( ; Apache: or , ; later or , ; June 8, 1874) was the leader of the Chiricahui local group of the Chokonen and principal nantan of the Chokonen band of a Chiricahua Apache. A key war leader during the Apache Wars, he led an upri ...

. 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 and multi-instrumentalist, best known as the founder, the sole constant member and the musical focus of the space rock group Hawkwind.

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

– Dave Brock biography Brock w ...

) the album '' Doremi Fasol Latido'' and is credited as composer of the tracks "One Change" (''Doremi Fasol Latido''), "Electronic No. 1" ('' Space Ritual''), 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, where he still lives. He recorded two albums with the Vancouver-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 Space Ritual.

References

External links

* * * 1947 births Hawkwind members Living people Musicians from Thornton Heath {{UK-keyboardist-stub