''Warrior on the Edge of Time'' is the fifth studio album by the English rock 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 ...

. Many of the lyrics are by

Michael Moorcock Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is an English writer, particularly of science fiction and fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has wo ...

, and the album is loosely based on the

concept A concept is an abstract idea that serves as a foundation for more concrete principles, thoughts, and beliefs. Concepts play an important role in all aspects of cognition. As such, concepts are studied within such disciplines as linguistics, ...

of Moorcock's novel '' The Eternal Champion''. It was the band's highest-charting studio album on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

, where it peaked at number 13, and was their third and last album to make the US ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' chart, where it peaked at number 150. Reviews have been mixed, with ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. In January 2001, it was merged into "long-standing rival" (and IPC Media sister publicatio ...

'' panning the album and particularly criticizing the vocal work while the

All Music Guide AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the data ...

has praised the album for features such as the songwriting. This would also be the last album to feature the band's bassist Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister, who was fired from the band one day before the album's release.

Background

Throughout 1974, Hawkwind heavily toured the UK, Europe and North America with their set being composed predominantly from that year's ''Hall of the Mountain Grill'' album. Unusually for them, no new material had been introduced with the exception of some

poems based on his Elric fictional character, which appeared on the 1974 live album '' The 1999 Party''. In December through to February, the group embarked upon a series of UK dates known as "A Dead Singer" tour after the Moorcock story published in the accompanying tour programme, with support from Dr Feelgood (Wilko Johnson: "Us and Hawkwind were a great bill. We had just been signed by United Artists, Hawkwind's label. UA wanted to give us a little experience in the larger venues. That was where I first met and made friends with Lemmy, who turned out to be a good pal.").). Given that the band owed one final single to

United Artists United Artists (UA) is an American film production and film distribution, distribution company owned by Amazon MGM Studios. In its original operating period, it was founded in February 1919 by Charlie Chaplin, D. W. Griffith, Mary Pickford an ...

to conclude their recording contract, during a mid-tour break they entered

Olympic Studios Olympic Studios was a British independent recording studio based on Church Road, Barnes, Church Road, Barnes, London, Barnes, London. It is best known for its recordings of many artists throughout the late 1960s to the first decade of the 21st ...

on 5 and 6 January where they recorded Brock's "Kings of Speed" (which featured lyrics written by Moorcock originally intended for inclusion on his '' New Worlds Fair'' album), Lemmy's " Motorhead" and House's "Spiral Galaxy". The first two were selected as the

A-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of vinyl records and cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a single usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or ...

and B-side respectively, and the single was released on 7 March. On resuming their UK tour,

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 ...

expressed disillusionment with the band's popularity commenting that "it's getting to be like a war", preferring his life with his wife Sylvie and their two children on their ten-acre Devon farm, trading under an alias in a community which knew nothing of his association with rock music. He revealed the growing disharmony within the band, "you wouldn't believe some of the scenes that go on backstage. All the fucking rows, people losing their temper." He was particularly critical of Turner on both a musical level ("Some nights I've unplugged my guitar and marched across the stage to sort Nik out. He keeps playing the saxophone when I'm singing and I've told him a thousand times not to do that") and personal level ("Nik's really gullible, you know. He knows so many people and they always used to take him for a ride. It's so easy because he's not very sussed out"). He was also critical of Lemmy listing a catalogue of on-stage problems with him, and he "lives that ells Angelsfantasy. It's what he'd like to be, but he can't", but he's "quite a good front man, though". Of the forthcoming Eternal Champion project, Brock revealed that he wanted

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, ...

for the title role, and it would be "a complete fantasy trip on every level... and if we did it, that would be the end f Hawkwind. The next contract the group signed was a North American deal with

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

subsidiary

Atco Records ATCO Records is an American record label founded in 1955. It is owned by Warner Music Group and operates as an imprint of Atlantic Records. After several decades of dormancy and infrequent activity under alternating Warner Music labels, the com ...

. With a scheduled North American tour for April and May, "Atlantic... needed an album to co-incide with our visit". For the only time in the 1970s, the group were due to record without having prepared new material in a live environment, which led to concern that "we're going to be really pushed just to get an album together". The band entered

Rockfield Studios Rockfield Studios is a residential recording studio located in the Wye Valley just outside the village of Rockfield, Monmouthshire, Wales. It was founded in 1963 by brothers Kingsley and Charles Ward. Recording studios Rockfield is a two-stu ...

in March, King explaining "we laid all the backing tracks down in about three and a half days. Then, after we had a couple of days off, we went down to Olympic and added bits here and there, dubbed over vocals and mixed it all. That took about three days, and it was finished." The band "gave

he songs He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

their debut on two British gigs at

Yeovil Yeovil () is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Somerset, England. It is close to Somerset's southern border with Dorset, west of London, south of Bristol, west of Sherborne and east of Taunton. The population of the bui ...

and

Dunstable Dunstable ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, east of the Chiltern Hills, north of London. There are several steep chalk escarpments, most noticeable when approaching Dunstable from the north. Dunstable is the fou ...

2 and 13 April, then headed to North America for a tour at the end of April into May, during which Paul Rudolph replaced Lemmy. The album was released by ATCO on 9 May and licensed to United Artists for a UK release. The group promoted the album with tours in Germany and France in June, the UK in July and August including headlining the

Reading Festival The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading, Berkshire, Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend ...

and appearing at Watchfield Free Festival. At the beginning of the year, Turner, House, Powell and King had contributed to Michael Moorcock and The Deep Fix's '' New Worlds Fair'', which also featured a guest appearance from Brock. In April, Moorcock, House and Turner contributed to the recording of

Robert Calvert Robert Newton Calvert (9 March 1945 – 14 August 1988) was a South African-United Kingdom, British writer, poet, and musician. He is principally known for his role as lyricist, performance poet and lead vocalist of the space rock band Hawkwind ...

's ''

Lucky Leif and the Longships ''Lucky Leif and the Longships'' is a 1975 record album by Robert Calvert, produced by Brian Eno. It is a concept album dealing with how American culture might have been different had the Vikings managed to colonise the continent. The album ...

'', produced by

Brian Eno Brian Peter George Jean-Baptiste de la Salle Eno (, born 15 May 1948), also mononymously known as Eno, is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, visual artist, and activist. He is best known for his pioneering contributions to ambien ...

and arranged by Rudolph.

Songs

:''See also the article " Kings of Speed".'' The lyrics of "Assault and Battery" quote from

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include the poems " Paul Revere's Ride", '' The Song of Hiawatha'', and '' Evangeline''. He was the first American to comp ...

's poem " A Psalm of Life". The song is a popular live number, being performed occasionally over the years, and has appeared on numerous live albums, sometimes under the title "Lives of Great Men". It was included as part of the live show for ''The Chronicle of the Black Sword'' concept, appearing on the album '' Live Chronicles''. "The Golden Void" segues from "Assault and Battery", and the two songs are often performed live as a pair as on the albums '' Palace Springs'' (1991) and '' Canterbury Fayre 2001''. The song is also a popular live number and has appeared on live albums, sometimes under the title "Void of Golden Light", as on 1994's '' The Business Trip''. "The Wizard Blew His Horn", "Standing at the Edge" and "Warriors" are

poems based on his

Eternal Champion The Eternal Champion is a fictional character created by British author Michael Moorcock and is a recurrent feature in many of his speculative fiction works. General overview Many of Moorcock's novels and short stories take place in a shared ...

literary figure. The poems are recited to atmospheric soundscapes provided by

Simon House Simon House (29 August 1948 – 25 May 2025) was an English composer and classically trained violinist and keyboard player, perhaps best known for his work with space rock band Hawkwind. Career Before his time with Hawkwind, House played in H ...

, and the percussionists Simon King and Alan Powell. The band had been performing them on stage during 1974, versions appearing on '' The 1999 Party'' live album. "Opa-Loka" is an instrumental that features a

motorik Motorik is the 4/4 beat often used by, and heavily associated with, krautrock bands. Coined by music journalists, the term is German for "motor skill". The motorik beat was pioneered by Jaki Liebezeit, drummer with German experimental rock b ...

rhythm and is strongly influenced by the music of

Neu! Neu! (; German for "New!"; styled in block capitals) were a West German krautrock band formed in Düsseldorf in 1971 by Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother following their departure from Kraftwerk. The group's albums were produced by Conny Plank, w ...

. It was performed live, but when

joined the band at the beginning of 1976, he would recite the poem "Vikings on Mars" over the top of it, the song evolving into "Uncle Sam's on Mars" on the 1979 album ''

PXR5 ''PXR5'' is the ninth studio album by the English space rock group Hawkwind, released in 1979. It reached No. 59 on the UK album charts. A new remix and surround mix of the album by Steven Wilson was released in 2023 by Atomhenge Records as pa ...

''. Powell, who had lived in Florida in 1970, named the piece after the place

Opa-Locka Opa-locka () is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. Spanning roughly , it is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 16,463, up from 15,219 in 2010. Opa-locka was founded ...

. "The Demented Man" is a Brock number played on

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

. (Also listed as "The Demented King".) The lyrics of "Magnu" are based upon

Percy Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822) was an English writer who is considered one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame durin ...

's poem "Hymn of Apollo". Live versions of the song appear on the albums '' Choose Your Masques: Collectors Series Volume 2'' (1982), '' The Friday Rock Show Sessions'' (1986) and ''Canterbury Fayre 2001''. The first six lines of Magnu are nearly word for word identical to a magical chant that appears in an old Slavic folk-tale, "The History Of Prince Slugobyl; Or, The Invisible Knight", used to summon the magical horse, Magu (sic), first published in English translation in 1896 in "Fairy tales of the Slav peasants and herdsmen." "Spiral Galaxy 28948" is a Simon House instrumental, the title being his date of birth (28 September 1948), except his birthday is actually 29 August 1948 - a typo mixup between '289' and '298'. It was performed live in 1975 after the release of the album, and again during 2001 when House had temporarily rejoined the band, a version appearing on the album ''Canterbury Fayre 2001''.

Cover

The original album sleeve unfolds into a large

shield A shield is a piece of personal armour held in the hand, which may or may not be strapped to the wrist or forearm. Shields are used to intercept specific attacks, whether from close-ranged weaponry like spears or long ranged projectiles suc ...

-shape, revealing that the silhouetted Warrior is standing at the edge of an apparently bottomless chasm. The landscape on the other side of the chasm is a mirror image, with another setting sun, a closer inspection of this entire image reveals a helmeted face. The reverse of the cover depicts a

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

shield bearing the 8-rayed emblem of Chaos, as described in Moorcock's books.

Critical reception

Allan Jones in ''

'' (10 May 1975) was critical in his review of the album despite it being "probably Hawkwind's most professional record" due to the advance in their "technical proficiency", specifically the contributions of Simon House. The compositions are in the "standard Hawkwind traditions of sweeping synthesiser passages contrasting ethereal space with the violence of monotonous bass and rhythm guitar", and of the poems he says "If Moorcock feels qualified to describe any of these pieces as poetry, then that's his problem" and that they are delivered "with all the emotion of

Davros Davros () is a fictional Character (arts), character from the long-running British science fiction on television, science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. He was created by screenwriter Terry Nation, originally for the 1975 serial '' ...

being exterminated by renegade

Dalek The Daleks ( ) are a fictional extraterrestrial race of extremely xenophobic mutants principally portrayed in the British science fiction television programme ''Doctor Who''. They were conceived by writer Terry Nation and first appeared in th ...

s".

Geoff Barton Geoff Barton (born July 1955) is a British journalist who founded the heavy metal magazine ''Kerrang!'' and was an editor of '' Sounds'' music magazine. He joined ''Sounds'' at the age of 19 after completing a journalism course at the London Co ...

in ''Sounds'' assessed it as "includ ngmost of their traditional characteristics (leaden guitar, ritualistic chanting, wailing moogs, SF lyrics) but in a much more mature and varied setting", and that "Simon House's influence is strongly felt" making it "rather fuller, more interesting than usual".

Band reaction

Michael Moorcock: "''Warrior on the Edge of Time'' was a concept of mine. What Dave tends to do is he says 'Do us a concept' or 'I've got this rough concept, can you work it out?' I do it, then Dave has a different idea and the whole thing shifts away, so that's the way it works. It's a perfectly good way of working – it tends to give Dave a bit of a start or whatever. I was doing a lot of my 'Eternal Champion' stuff on stage, so it seemed automatic to do that because there were so many numbers I could fit into that. I was only in the studio about an hour to do the stuff I did, and it was one of those weird things I didn't get the session fee either." Lemmy: "The album was a fuck-up from start to finish. That 'Opa-Loka' was a lot of fucking rubbish. I wasn't even on that. That was the drummer's thing, that track... We were kind of complacent anyway. If you have a hit album, you're complacent, and if you have two you really are in trouble. With them, they had four, 'cos they had ''

In Search of Space ''In Search of Space'' (also known as ''X in Search of Space'' or ''Xin Search of Space'') is the second studio album from Hawkwind, released in 1971. It reached No. 18 on the UK Albums Chart. Background Bass player John A Harrison left just ...

'' before me... There's great stuff on all them albums. 'The Golden Void' was a beautiful track, but by then I was well out of favour."The Saga of Hawkwind, Carol Clerk Dave Brock: "There was some good stuff on that album. I think we peaked then, in 1974/75." Simon King: "I suppose I’m two-thirds happy with this one. For me that’s not bad as I was only half happy with the last one! Warriors is a different musical thing because it’s Simon House’s first real contribution: on ''

Hall of the Mountain Grill ''Hall of the Mountain Grill'' is the fourth studio album by space rock band Hawkwind, released in 1974. It is regarded by many critics as a career highlight. Overview The group's fourth studio album, it was the first by a new line-up that inc ...

'' he was too new to be able to have that much influence, and now, of course we’ve got Alan as a second drummer, which has meant a lot of changes."

Track listing

* The Atomhenge edition lists ''Assault And Battery / The Golden Void'' as one track.

Personnel

;Hawkwind *

– Dave Brock biography Brock w ...

– guitar, keyboards, vocals, bass guitar ("Opa-Loka") *

Nik Turner Nicholas Robert Turner (26 August 1940 – 10 November 2022) was an English musician best known as a member of space rock pioneers Hawkwind. Turner played saxophone and flute, as well as being a vocalist and composer. While with Hawkwind, Tur ...

– saxophone,

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

, vocals ("Standing at the Edge", "Dying Seas") *

Lemmy Ian Fraser Kilmister (24 December 1945 – 28 December 2015), better known as Lemmy Kilmister or simply Lemmy, was a British musician. He was the founder, lead vocalist, bassist and primary songwriter of the metal band Motörhead, of which he ...

(Ian Kilmister) – bass guitar, vocals ("Motorhead") *

– violin,

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which causes a length of magnetic tape to contact a Capstan (tape recorder), capstan, which pulls i ...

VCS3 The VCS 3 (or VCS3; an initialism for ''Voltage Controlled Studio, version #3'') is a portable analogue synthesizer with a flexible modular voice architecture introduced by Electronic Music Studios (EMS) in 1969. EMS released the product ...

, keyboards * Simon King – drums, percussions * Alan Powell – drums, percussion ;Additional personnel *

– vocals ("The Wizard Blew His Horn" and "Warriors")

Credits

*Recorded at

, March 1975. Produced by Hawkwind, engineered by

Dave Charles David Charles is a British drummer, recording engineer & record producer. He often appears under both names on the same album, e.g. Help Yourself's ''The Return of Ken Whaley'', where Dave Charles is credited with drums and vocals Allmusic cre ...

. Mixed at

, engineered by Phil Chapman and Steve Owen. *"Kings of Speed", "Motorhead" and "Spiral Galaxy 28948" recorded at

, 5 and 6 January 1975. *Sleeve designed by Eddie Brash (a pseudonym used by

Barney Bubbles Barney Bubbles (born Colin Fulcher; 30 July 1942 – 14 November 1983) was an English graphic artist whose work encompassed graphic design and music video direction. Bubbles, who also sketched and painted privately, is best known for his distin ...

) and Comte Pierre D'Auvergne (a pseudonym used by Pierre Tubbs).

Charts

Certifications

Release history

*May 1975: United Artists Records, UAG29766, UK vinyl – original copies came in gatefold foldout sleeve with inner sleeve. Later pressings retained the inner sleeve but had a normal single LP sleeve based on the outer part of the gatefold. *May 1975: Atco Records, SD36-115, USA vinyl *Jan 1981: Liberty Records, UAG29766, UK vinyl *Oct 1992: Dojo Records, DOJOCD84, UK CD *May 1993: Griffin Music, 55421 3931-2, USA CD * 27 May 2013: Atomhenge ( Cherry Red) Records, ATOMCD1035, UK CD. * 27 May 2013: Atomhenge ( Cherry Red) Records, ATOMCD31037, UK 2CD+DVD. * 27 May 2013: Atomhenge ( Cherry Red) Records, ATOMBOX1001, UK 2CD+DVD+vinyl.

CD masters

In a 2011 interview Nigel Reeve, custodian of Hawkwind's

United Artists Records United Artists Records was an American record label founded by Max E. Youngstein of United Artists in 1957 to issue movie soundtracks. The label expanded into other genres, such as easy listening, jazz, pop, and R&B. History Genres In 1958 ...

archive at

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

, explained that ''Warrior on the Edge of Time'' had originally been released on a separate contract with United Artists, and its rights were no longer held by EMI; hence, it was omitted from EMI's remastering and release of Hawkwind's United Artists catalogue in 1996. The album was released in the UK on CD for the first time in 1992 on the Dojo label, mastered from vinyl. A second version was released in 1993 on the Canadian label Griffin Music, mastered from a first-generation copy of the original master. This master was the Atco tape used for the 1975 North American vinyl release, and included the single mix of "Kings of Speed". The Atco master used by Griffin was originally created at Olympic Studios and didn't have any fades on the tracks. A set of accompanying notes written by Dave Brock in 1975 were used to recreate the original fades when Griffin created its digital master. No EQ was used when the Griffin digital master was created. The transfer was done to match the original vinyl as closely as possible. In May 2013, Cherry Red reissued the album, along with a new stereo and 5.1 mix by

Steven Wilson Steven John Wilson (born 3 November 1967) is an English musician. He is the founder, guitarist, lead vocalist, and songwriter of the rock band Porcupine Tree, as well as being a member of several other bands, including Blackfield, Storm Corrosi ...

, on the Atomhenge label managed by

Esoteric Recordings Esoteric Recordings is a UK independent record label specialising in 1970s progressive rock, folk, psychedelic, and jazz-rock reissues as part of Cherry Red Records. Its releases include both catalogue reissues and new works from artists who ...

. It was also confirmed that the original master tapes were used.

References

External links

Collectable Records
– Original foldout cover and inner sleeve
Indie music label Cherry Red rocks on at 35
Robert Plummer, BBC, 27 May 2013 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Warrior On The Edge Of Time Hawkwind albums 1975 albums United Artists Records albums Atco Records albums Liberty Records albums Albums recorded at Rockfield Studios