The Text of Festival

Untitled

The Text of Festival is an archive album by Hawkwind consisting of BBC sessions and live performances between 1970 and 1971. It was originally released in 1983 after the band had exited their Active Records contract, and has continuously been repackaged and retitled ever since.

The copyright of the recordings on the first disc is owned by the BBC who were not approached for permission for their commercial use, so the legality of this album is questionable. The source tapes used are not from the BBC, but recordings of the broadcast and the quality leaves a lot to desired. These same low quality recordings have also appeared on The Weird Tapes Volumes 1-8, Hawkwind, Friends and Relations and Hawkwind Anthology.

Track listing

Side 1

1. "Master Of The Universe" (Nik Turner, Dave Brock) – 6:00
2. "You Know You're Only Dreaming" (Brock) – 4:15
3. "You Shouldn't Do That" (Turner, Brock) – 5:52
4. "Hurry on Sundown" (Brock) – 6:20

Side 2

5. "Paranoia" (Hawkwind)
   "Seeing It As You Really Are" (Hawkwind) – 11:50
6. "We Do It" (Hawkwind) – 13:45

Side 3

7. "You Shouldn't Do That" (Hawkwind) – 21:35 [listed as "Sound, Shouldn't, Improvise"]

Side 4

8. "The Reason Is?" (Hawkwind) – 11:35
   "Be Yourself" (Hawkwind) – 5:51 [listed as "Improvise, Compromise, Reprise"]

Personnel

• Dave Brock - guitar, vocals
• Nik Turner - saxophone, flute, vocals
• Huw Lloyd-Langton - guitar (track 4)
• Thomas Crimble - bass guitar (tracks 4-5 and disc 2)
• Dave Anderson - bass guitar (tracks 1-3,6)
• Dik Mik Davies - Synthesizer
• Terry Ollis - drums

Notes

• "Come Home" is listed on the album following "We Do It", but has never been included on any of the releases of this album. It does appear on the Hawkwind Anthology compilation set.
• "The Reason Is?" and "Be Yourself" have never be issued on any of the CD versions.
• Later releases erroneously claim that this recording is from the Cambridge Corn Exchange. There is a recording in existence from The Six Hour Technicolor Dream featuring Hawkwind, Pink Fairies and Syd Barrett at the Cambridge Corn Exchange on 27-Jan-1972, but so far it is unreleased — see FraKcman's Blog.

Sources

• Track 4: Maida Vale, 18-Aug-1970; Broadcast: Top Gear, 19-Sep-1970. Tracks originally broadcast from this session: "Hurry on Sundown", "Seeing It As You Really Are" and "Some of That Stuff" [aka "Come Home"]
• Track 5: Paris Cinema, London, 5-Nov-1970; Broadcast: John Peel Sunday Concert, 15-Nov-1970
• Track 6: Playhouse, London, 19-Apr-1971; Broadcast: Top Gear, 24-Apr-1971 (with Quiver, Gnidrolog); Tracks originally broadcast from this session: "Inwards Out" [aka "We Do It"], "You Know You're Only Dreaming" and "You Shouldn't Do That"
• Track 1-3: Maida Vale, London, 19-May-1971; Broadcast: Sounds of the Seventies, 27-May-1971 (with Wishbone Ash) & 24-Jun-1971 (with Cochise)
• Disc 2: Recorded at Colchester Technical College, 19-Feb-1971 (with Uriah Heep).

Credits

• Cover by John Coulthart
• The album title is a reference to a book by Mick Farren

Release History

Date	Title	Format	Region	Label, Catalogue	Note
July 1983	The Text Of Festival	2x12" vinyl	UK	Illuminated Records, JAMS29
July 1985	In The Beginning	CD	UK	Demi Monde, DM005	sides 1 and 2
Nov 1988	The Text Of Festival	2x12" vinyl	UK, Germany	Thunderbolt THBL 2.068
Dec 1988	The Text Of Festival	CD	UK	Thunderbolt CDTB 2.068	sides 1-3
July 1992	Masters of the Universe	CD	UK, USA, Germany	Thunderbolt, CDTB105	sides 1 and 2
1993	The Text Of Festival	CD	UK	Thunderbolt CDTB 068	sides 1-3
1996	Masters of the Universe	CD digipak	France	Spalax, SPALAXCD14972	sides 1 and 2
January 1996	Masters of the Universe	CD	USA	Magnum America, MACD028	sides 1 and 2
February 1998	Welcome To The Future	CD1 of 4CD	UK	Dressed to Kill, CLP0220-2	sides 1 and 2
February 1998	Welcome To The Future	CD4 of 4CD	UK	Dressed to Kill, CLP0220-2	sides 1-3
March 1999	The Entire and Infinite Universe of Hawkwind	CD1 of 4CD	UK	Dressed to Kill, REDTK98	sides 1 and 2
March 1999	The Entire and Infinite Universe of Hawkwind	CD4 of 4CD	UK	Dressed to Kill, REDTK98	sides 1-3
August 1999	Live 1970 1972	CD	UK	Pegasus, PEGCD197	sides 1-3
September 1999	Year 2000: Codename Hawkwind	CD2 of 2CD	UK	New Millenium Communications, PILOT33	sides 1 and 2
2000	Bring Me the Head of Yuri Gagarin: Live At the Empire Pool 1976	CD2 of 2CD	Germany	Falcon	sides 1 and 2, omits "Master Of The Universe"
October 2002	Cosmic Overdrive	CD2 of 2CD	UK	New Millenium Communications, PILOT 146	sides 1 and 2 only
March 2005	Codename Hawkwind	CD	UK	Neptune Records, TUNECD102	sides 1 and 2 only