Joe Banks
@joebankswriter.bsky.social
'Hawkwind: Days Of The Underground' - a MOJO, Uncut, Prog & Shindig book of the year. Visit www.daysoftheunderground.com.
'Rock And Role: The Visionary Songs Of Peter Hammill + VdGG' out 04/12/25. Pre-order: https://kingmakerpublishing.com/rock-and-role/
'Rock And Role: The Visionary Songs Of Peter Hammill + VdGG' out 04/12/25. Pre-order: https://kingmakerpublishing.com/rock-and-role/
Saw Sleeper last night @tpfilmclub.bsky.social. It's one of those films that's not as funny as when you saw it as a teenager, and Woody Allen's charms have diminished substantially, but spotting the SF film refs is diverting - lots from THX 1138, but also Fahrenheit 451 and 2001...
November 12, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Saw Sleeper last night @tpfilmclub.bsky.social. It's one of those films that's not as funny as when you saw it as a teenager, and Woody Allen's charms have diminished substantially, but spotting the SF film refs is diverting - lots from THX 1138, but also Fahrenheit 451 and 2001...
I don't really follow modern literary fiction at all, but I was pleased to see David Szalay win the Booker Prize last night with his novel 'Flesh'. I haven't read it, but his 2008 debut 'London And The South-East' is a terrifically funny/dark satire which I highly recommend...
November 11, 2025 at 12:38 PM
I don't really follow modern literary fiction at all, but I was pleased to see David Szalay win the Booker Prize last night with his novel 'Flesh'. I haven't read it, but his 2008 debut 'London And The South-East' is a terrifically funny/dark satire which I highly recommend...
How did Hawkwind get their name? The official line from 1972... (Melody Maker, 5 Feb 72) @breakfastruins.bsky.social
November 10, 2025 at 10:07 AM
How did Hawkwind get their name? The official line from 1972... (Melody Maker, 5 Feb 72) @breakfastruins.bsky.social
Whoop, the first review of Rock and Role: The Visionary Songs of Peter Hammill and Van der Graaf Generator is here, and it's a cracker from @mikebarnesjourno.bsky.social in MOJO...
November 8, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Whoop, the first review of Rock and Role: The Visionary Songs of Peter Hammill and Van der Graaf Generator is here, and it's a cracker from @mikebarnesjourno.bsky.social in MOJO...
Happy birthday, Peter Hammill (pic by Paul Denby)
November 5, 2025 at 10:37 AM
Happy birthday, Peter Hammill (pic by Paul Denby)
Hooray, have been looking for an image of this Hawkwind piece for a while, from short-lived monthly inky Album Tracking. Chas de Whalley was your typical 70s hack, but Calvert is more than a match for him. Don't think I've seen this version of the Atomhenge promo pics before...
November 4, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Hooray, have been looking for an image of this Hawkwind piece for a while, from short-lived monthly inky Album Tracking. Chas de Whalley was your typical 70s hack, but Calvert is more than a match for him. Don't think I've seen this version of the Atomhenge promo pics before...
A couple of amazing pictures from Theo Joosten showing the fall of the wall at the Isle Of Wight festival 1970. More here: www.facebook.com/groups/stone...
November 3, 2025 at 10:34 AM
A couple of amazing pictures from Theo Joosten showing the fall of the wall at the Isle Of Wight festival 1970. More here: www.facebook.com/groups/stone...
Clip from NME's 'What's On' guide, 23 Sept 1972, featuring proto-metal heroes Bodkin and Iron Claw, alluding to both bands' lack of success in securing industry attention. But they finally had their day during the archival recordings boom of the 90s/00s... 1/2
October 31, 2025 at 11:13 AM
Clip from NME's 'What's On' guide, 23 Sept 1972, featuring proto-metal heroes Bodkin and Iron Claw, alluding to both bands' lack of success in securing industry attention. But they finally had their day during the archival recordings boom of the 90s/00s... 1/2
The days of the underground clearly hadn't reached Hitchin according to this piece on Principal Edward's Magic Theatre from Zigzag, Nov 1969. Hawkwind's dancer Stacia was a big fan of PEMT and you can see the influence from the picture...
October 30, 2025 at 5:56 PM
The days of the underground clearly hadn't reached Hitchin according to this piece on Principal Edward's Magic Theatre from Zigzag, Nov 1969. Hawkwind's dancer Stacia was a big fan of PEMT and you can see the influence from the picture...
Hawkwind interview from Music Scene, December 1972, with some terrific pictures by Pennie Smith...
October 30, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Hawkwind interview from Music Scene, December 1972, with some terrific pictures by Pennie Smith...
Sad news. Pete drew this terrific pic of Michael Moorcock, as featured in Hawkwind: Days Of The Underground @breakfastruins.bsky.social
October 30, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Sad news. Pete drew this terrific pic of Michael Moorcock, as featured in Hawkwind: Days Of The Underground @breakfastruins.bsky.social
Now exiled to Iceland and Ireland, and brutally reactionary. The SF element is fairly perfunctory, in what's basically a slight but entertaining ripping yarn. Kornbluth is perhaps best known for The Space Merchants (with Frederik Pohl), but while there's some zingy writing, this is a lesser work 3/3
October 26, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Now exiled to Iceland and Ireland, and brutally reactionary. The SF element is fairly perfunctory, in what's basically a slight but entertaining ripping yarn. Kornbluth is perhaps best known for The Space Merchants (with Frederik Pohl), but while there's some zingy writing, this is a lesser work 3/3
With taxation replaced by 'protection' money, though serving essentially the same purpose, and the Syndic of the title overseeing a sexually permissive, laissez-faire society. But following a series of assassinations, the plot revolves around a naive but capable hero infiltrating the ex-US govt 2/3
October 26, 2025 at 12:27 PM
With taxation replaced by 'protection' money, though serving essentially the same purpose, and the Syndic of the title overseeing a sexually permissive, laissez-faire society. But following a series of assassinations, the plot revolves around a naive but capable hero infiltrating the ex-US govt 2/3
Latest entry on my slow tour of classic SF is a bit of an oddity, C.M. Kornbluth's The Syndic (1953). It's an alt future vision of America where big government has been ousted by organised crime syndicates as the glue holding the country together. There's clearly an element of satire here... 1/3
October 26, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Latest entry on my slow tour of classic SF is a bit of an oddity, C.M. Kornbluth's The Syndic (1953). It's an alt future vision of America where big government has been ousted by organised crime syndicates as the glue holding the country together. There's clearly an element of satire here... 1/3
Re-watched The Thing last night @princecharlescinema.com. What a strange and extraordinary film it is, a nihilistic gauntlet throw in the age of ET, which utterly refuses to conform to traditional Hollywood storytelling. And those effects are still something else...
October 20, 2025 at 7:35 AM
Re-watched The Thing last night @princecharlescinema.com. What a strange and extraordinary film it is, a nihilistic gauntlet throw in the age of ET, which utterly refuses to conform to traditional Hollywood storytelling. And those effects are still something else...
Just popped up on the Sounds FB group, Alan Moore's priceless interview with Hawkwind from Nov 1982, inc Dave Brock being kicked out of RCA's offices... (and yes, it's *that* Alan Moore)
October 19, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Just popped up on the Sounds FB group, Alan Moore's priceless interview with Hawkwind from Nov 1982, inc Dave Brock being kicked out of RCA's offices... (and yes, it's *that* Alan Moore)
The whole book is in many ways a sleight of hand. Priest's main theme throughout his career is the nature of reality, but given his often flat and detail-intensive style, The Glamour can feel like J.G. Ballard writing Philip K. Dick, with a dash of Ian McEwan thrown in. 3/4
October 18, 2025 at 2:36 PM
The whole book is in many ways a sleight of hand. Priest's main theme throughout his career is the nature of reality, but given his often flat and detail-intensive style, The Glamour can feel like J.G. Ballard writing Philip K. Dick, with a dash of Ian McEwan thrown in. 3/4
I came to it after his previous book The Affirmation (1981), which also has memory and unreliable narration at its core, and which I was blown away by. The Glamour feels like a further move away from SF towards literary fiction, sometimes self-consciously so, but... 2/4
October 18, 2025 at 2:36 PM
I came to it after his previous book The Affirmation (1981), which also has memory and unreliable narration at its core, and which I was blown away by. The Glamour feels like a further move away from SF towards literary fiction, sometimes self-consciously so, but... 2/4
My slow tour of classic SF advances with a re-read, Christopher Priest's The Glamour (1984), a novel about memory and the phenomenon of non-corporeal invisibility... I read it as a teen, and it's one of those books where the central idea has stayed with me my entire life. 1/4
October 18, 2025 at 2:36 PM
My slow tour of classic SF advances with a re-read, Christopher Priest's The Glamour (1984), a novel about memory and the phenomenon of non-corporeal invisibility... I read it as a teen, and it's one of those books where the central idea has stayed with me my entire life. 1/4
Random picture found online... (from US mag Rock Scene, May 1979)
October 17, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Random picture found online... (from US mag Rock Scene, May 1979)
Bless my cotton socks, I'm in the news... (from the new issue of Prog - oh, and that should be 'Kingmaker Publishing'🙃)
October 17, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Bless my cotton socks, I'm in the news... (from the new issue of Prog - oh, and that should be 'Kingmaker Publishing'🙃)
I've been revisiting and greatly enjoying Legend Of A Mind, the Decca underground comp from 2002 which was a serious spur to my, err, progressive renaissance as a music fan. Many terrific tracks, such as this by Bill Fay, possibly prompting his rediscovery? www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIIp... 1/3
October 17, 2025 at 9:49 AM
I've been revisiting and greatly enjoying Legend Of A Mind, the Decca underground comp from 2002 which was a serious spur to my, err, progressive renaissance as a music fan. Many terrific tracks, such as this by Bill Fay, possibly prompting his rediscovery? www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIIp... 1/3
Saw canine perspective horror Good Boy last night. It's a film that wants to have its dog biscuit and eat it ie. in the way it combines health allegory with supernatural scares, but it looks and sounds great, and Indy the dog is absolutely terrific. Sure to become a cult hit.
October 16, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Saw canine perspective horror Good Boy last night. It's a film that wants to have its dog biscuit and eat it ie. in the way it combines health allegory with supernatural scares, but it looks and sounds great, and Indy the dog is absolutely terrific. Sure to become a cult hit.
Also popped into the Edward Burra exhibition, who I knew even less about. His work inspired by the Spanish Civil War and WWII is grotesque and quite disturbing, while his later landscapes are often uncanny and deeply hauntological. Both shows are on until this Sunday 2/2
October 13, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Also popped into the Edward Burra exhibition, who I knew even less about. His work inspired by the Spanish Civil War and WWII is grotesque and quite disturbing, while his later landscapes are often uncanny and deeply hauntological. Both shows are on until this Sunday 2/2