Hawklords 25 Years On 1978 vinyl First pressing Including booklet EX/EX SKU: Chartham TJR 06 Sep 24 HW25YO Style: Leftfield, Prog Rock Condition: Used EAN: Not Applicable ISBN: Not Applicable

Hawklords 25 Years On 1978 vinyl LP First Pressing including booklet EX/EX

The allbum sleve inner sleeve and vinyl itself are all in excellent conditon

25 Years On is the eighth studio album by the English rock band , released in 1978. The band released it under the name "" for legal reasons, as there was a dispute over ownership of the name "Hawkwind" at the time. It reached No. 48 on the UK album charts. It was originally titled 25 Years On and the first 25000 were pressed as this until the band decided to simply call it Hawklords. Subsequent re-releases have reverted to the name 25 Years On and the band also now use this name on their website.

A new remix and surround mix of the album by  was released in 2023 by Atomhenge records as part of the Days of The Underground boxed set.

Background and recording

Hawkwind had self-imploded on a US tour earlier in the year leaving only ,  and  to embark on this project. They were joined by  who had played bass in Devon group Ark who in turn had performed with Calvert and Brock as the , and by keyboardist  who had been in . During the Devon recording session King returned home to London and was replaced by Martin Griffin (also from Ark), but King subsequently returned giving the band two drummers.  had left the earlier band to join  but contributed violin to the sessions, as did noted British jazz trumpeter . Road manager Les McClure also has a cameo.

The music is perhaps as far removed from  as the band would ever get, these tracks being tightly arranged pieces more in tune with New Wave of the time rather than the band's history.[] Lyrically this is Calvert's most diverse dealing with themes such as telepathy ("Psi Power"), skydiving ("Free Fall"), Australian drug misuse ("Flying Doctor"), heroic bravery ("The Only Ones") and espionage ("The Dead Dreams of the Cold War Kid"). There is a light-hearted playfulness to these tracks, with only the lyrics of "The Age of the Micro Man" hinting at the bleak cold futuristic factory workers concept that Calvert and  put together for the stage show of the album.

"" and "" were released as singles but are slightly different versions than those that appeared on the album.

New acoustic versions of "Flying Doctor", "Psi Power" and "The Age of the Micro Man" were included on  (2018), produced and arranged by  with additional orchestrations.

On 31 March 2023, Atomhenge Records (via ) issued a new  mix and surround mix of the album as part of Days Of The Underground (The Studio & Live Recordings 1977-1979) 8/2 boxed set. This set also included the Hawklords live album and previously unissued video recordings of "PSI Power" and "25 Years".

Tracklist 

A1 Psi Power 06:05 A2 Free Fall 03:40 A3 Automoton 01:31 A4 25 Years 05:02 B1 Flying Doctor 05:32 B2 The Only Ones 04:14 B3 (Only) The Dead Dream Of The Cold War Kid 03:48 B4 The Age Of The Micro Man 03:46