Nik Turner

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Nik Turner, 1974

Nik Turner (* 26. August 1940 in Oxford , Oxfordshire , England as Nicholas Turner ) is an English musician (saxophone, flute, vocals) and a songwriter . He was best known as a member of the space rock band Hawkwind .

biography

Born in Oxford, Turner moved his family to Margate , Kent, at the age of 13 . During summer jobs he befriended Robert Calvert . After his training he went to the merchant navy for a short time. He then traveled through Europe, financed through odd jobs. In Haarlem he met Dave Brock . In Berlin, Turner was enthusiastic about free jazz . In the early 1960s he had saxophone and flute lessons and occasionally played in his brother's band, but only now did he feel ready to play "free jazz" in a rock band.

1969-76 and 1982-84: Hawkwind

Brock founded Hawkwind in 1969, and Turner, who owned a van, initially worked as a roadie for the group. However, because of his passion for the saxophone, he was soon accepted into the band. He brought more members to the group, including Calvert.

Turner wrote some of her best-known songs for Hawkwind, including Brainstorm and Master of the Universe . In 1976, however, he was kicked out of the band by Brock.

In 1982 Turner was invited by Brock to take part in the recording of the Hawkwind album Choose Your Masques and the tour that followed. The renewed cooperation lasted two years until it was again expelled.

1977-86: Sphynx and Inner City Unit

After Hawkwind left for the first time, while on vacation in Egypt , Turner was given permission to record three hours of flute in the King's Chamber of the Great Pyramid of Cheops . Back in England, Steve Hillage reworked the tapes. A group called Sphynx was put together to play music to accompany the flute recordings. The group included Alan Powell from Hawkwind, Mike Howlett and Tim Blake from Gong, and Harry Williamson. Turner wrote texts based on the Egyptian Book of the Dead . The result was published in 1978 as Xitintoday on Charisma Records . Sphynx played at major festivals, including the Deeply Vale Festival (recordings of which were later released on CD) and the Glastonbury Festival (partially recorded and broadcast by the BBC). They also had their own festival “Bohemian Love-In” at the Roundhouse .

With Williamson and Sting , Turner recorded the protest song Nuclear Waste in 1978 ; the band called themselves "Radio Actors". As a guest musician, he supported the band "Mother Gong" with the recording of their album Fairy Tales (1979). With some of the musicians involved, Turner founded the group Inner City Unit (ICU), which released two albums, Pass Out in 1980 and Maximum Effect in 1981 , before Turner returned to Hawkwind. After his second departure from Hawkwind, he revived ICU. Two more albums were released in 1985, New Anatomy and The President Tapes , and the EP Blood and Bone .

1987 until today

This period is marked by numerous projects with befriended musicians. Turner recorded two albums with Twink , which were released in 1995 and 1996 as a throwback to earlier jam sessions with Hawkwind and the Pink Fairies under the names "PinkWind" and "HawkFairies". Turner also worked with bands like "Anubian Lights" which released several albums. He also had his own projects such as "Nik Turner's Fantastic All Stars", whose only album Kubanno Kickasso! Came out in 2001. Turner also produced several solo albums in the 1990s, including a 1993 re-recording of 1978's Sphynx music.

On October 21, 2000 Hawkwind celebrated their 30th anniversary with the "Hawkestra" festival, in which Turner also took part. Exactly a year later, Turner organized a revival of the 1972 "Greasy Tuckers Party," which Hawkwind had been a part of. Turner subsequently performed with a band he named xhawkwind.com. Thereupon Dave Brock took legal action against Turner to forbid him to use the name "Hawkwind". The band then got the new name "Space Ritual", which is still active today. Since 2008 Turner has played several times with the group "Space Mirrors".

Discography

See Nik Turner's recordings with Hawkwind there.

Solo albums and collaborations

  • 1978: Nik Turnerʼs Sphynx - Xitintoday (Charisma, CDS4011)
  • 1993: Nik Turner - Sphynx (Cleopatra, CLEO21352)
  • 1994: Nik Turner - Prophets of Time (Cleopatra, CLEO69082)
  • 1995: Nik Turner - Space Ritual 1994 Live (Cleopatra, CLEO95062) and video DVD (Cherry Red, CRDVD136) - live
  • 1995: Pinkwind - Festival of the Sun (Twink Records, TWK CD2) - live
  • 1995: Anubian Lights - Eternal Sky (Hypnotic, CLEO96032)
  • 1996: Hawkfairies - Purple Haze (Twink Records, TWK CD5) - live
  • 1996: Anubian Lights - The Jackal and Nine EP (Hypnotic, CLEO 9666-2)
  • 1996: Nik Turner - Past or Future? (Cleopatra) - live
  • 1997: Nik Turner - Sonic Attack 2001 (Dossier, 8480) - compilation of Cleopatra material
  • 1998: Anubian Lights - Let Not the Flame Die Out (Hypnotic, CLP 0346-2)
  • 2000: Nik Turnerʼs Sphynx - Live at Deeply Vale (Ozit / Morpheus) - live 1978
  • 2001–2001 A Space Rock Odyssey - double live CD of the first two appearances of Space Ritual (Ozit / Morpheus CD 0055)
  • 2001: Nik Turnerʼs Fantastic All Stars - Kubanno Kickasso (Ozit / Morpheus, niktcd334)
  • 2013: Nik Turner - Space Gypsy (Cleopatra)
  • 2014: Space Invaders & Nik Turner - Sonic Noise Opera (Nasoni Records)

As a guest musician

  • 1974: Robert Calvert - Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters (United Artists, UAG 29507)
  • 1975: Robert Calvert - Lucky Leif and the Longships (United Artists, UAG 29852)
  • 1975: Michael Moorcock & Deep Fix - New Worlds Fair (United Artists, UAG 29732)
  • 1979: Mother Gong - Fairy Tales (Charly, CHRL 5018)
  • 1981: Robert Calvert - Hype (A-Side, IF 0311)
  • 1981: Mother Gong - Robot Woman
  • 1981: Sham 69 - The Game (Polydor, 5033)
  • 1982: Catherine Andrews - Fruits (Cat Tracks, PURRLP2)
  • 1982: The Astronauts - Peter Pan Hits The Suburbs (Genius)
  • 1982: Big Amongst Sheep - Terminal Velocity (Rock Solid)
  • 1983: Underground Zero - The Official Bootleg
  • 1994: Psychic TV - Pagan Day (Cleopatra)
  • 1994: Helios Creed - Busting Through the Van Allen Belt (Cleopatra, CLP 9465-2)
  • 1995: The Stranglers - The Stranglers & Friends Live in Concert - live 1980
  • 1995: Sting and the Radioactors - Nuclear Waste (Voiceprint, BP181CD) - recorded in 1978
  • 1996: The Moor - Flux (Bishop Garden Records, BGR 03.1996.01 RM)
  • 1997: Nigel Mazlyn Jones, Guy Evans and Nik Turner - Live (Blueprint, BP250CD) - live
  • 1999: Dark Sun - Ice Ritual (Burnt Hippie records, BHR-004)
  • 1999: 46000 Fibers - The 5th Anniversary Concerts: Set 3 (TRI 3/3)
  • 1999: Babylon Whores - King Fear (Necropolis Records)
  • 2001: Blue Horses - Ten Leagues Beyond World's End
  • 2003: The Jalapeños - Tear It Up (3D Discs 0002)
  • 2004: Spaceseed - Future Cities of the Past Part 1 (Project 9 Records)
  • 2004: Michael Moorcock and the Deep Fix - Rollercoaster Holiday (Voiceprint, VP351CD) - Demos from 1975
  • 2005: Muzak - Saturnia (Elektrohasch, ATHG-4127)
  • 2009: Space Mirrors - Majestic-12: A Hidden Presence (Sleaszy Rider, SR-0082)
  • 2011: Space Mirrors - Dreams of Area 51 vinyl split single w / Acid FM (Monsterfuzz, 002)
  • 2012: Space Mirrors - In Darkness They Whisper ( Transubstans Records , TRANS097)
  • 2012: Dodson and Fogg - Dodson and Fogg (Wisdom Twins Records, WTR01)

Different artists

  • 1983 Field Marshal Slug; Punk Sax Live Genius - live
  • 1985 - Hawkwind, Friends and Relations Volume 2 - "The Man with the Golden Arm"
  • 1995 - Saucerful of Pink: A Tribute to Pink Floyd - " Careful with That Ax, Eugene "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Allmusic, see web links
  2. ↑ a b c The Egos Have Landed ( Memento from May 25, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ), on Starfarer's Hawkwind Page (English)
  3. ↑ a b Nik Turner's website, see web links
personal data
SURNAME Turner, Nik
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Turner, Nicholas (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English bass guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer
DATE OF BIRTH August 26, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Oxford , Oxfordshire , England