Now this is a very good album, Robert Calvert's first solo offering and it hits right in the middle of the Hawkwind sound of the 70's. Whilst it's Calvert's solo album he's helped along by messers Lemmy, Brock, Turner, King, Dettma and Authur Brown. In fact you name them, if they were in/around Hawkwind back in the early 70's then they are one this album.
And it's because of the cast list that I guess it sounds so very Hawkwind-like. Probably the main thing missing to make it "stock" Hawkwind fare is the lack of spacie/whooshie sounds. Similar, in some ways, to Freq in that it follows the song/talkie-bit/song/talkie-bit format. Again it's a concept album, this time around the German/US(?) debacle of purchasing a collection of fighter planes for the new Germany: the "Star Fighter". Sadly for those involved the Star Fighter was a bit of a "pup" and had problems staying in the air (big problem if you're a pilot!).
So Captain Lockhead charts the German process of the purchase and crash-and-burn life of the Star Fighter project. It's a very clever album, where the songs have one or two Hawkwind staples: "The Right Stuff" and "Ejection" are just classics from the hard-rocking phase of Hawkwind. But you see the otherside of Calvert's genius in "The Song of the Gremin" and "Hero with a Wing".
The first time I heard this album, I'd been lent it by a grown up friend of mine back in the late eighies. Since then I finally bought it sometime back on CD and it is still right up there. When compared to the rest of my Calvert collection, it's got very little in common song structure wise, as this is as close-to-Hawkwind-without-being-Hawkind as you can get.
It's one hell of a debut album. How do you follow it? No wonder he suffered depression!
