Unknown Guitar Heroes

Yet another installment on musical subjects, in this case, unknown guitar heroes. In this case, Huw Lloyd Langton and Andy Powell.

 Langton is best associated with the space-rock band Hawkwind. By now Hawkwind are most known, if at all, for being the band Lemmy – Motorhead bassist/singer and another of these Ozzy-like godfathers of metal – was in before forming Motorhead. Hawkwind made one of the most collossal mistakes of the history of mankind in dumping him following a drug bust in Canada on the Warrior on the Edge of Time tour in 1975. In addition to Lemmy, Hawkwind was also "home" to a curvacious stage dancer Stacia, the eccentric Bob Calvert, and British science fiction/fantasy author Michael Moorcock. They still record, still tour England, and remain on good terms with Lemmy. Hardly a Motorhead interview fails to mention Hawkwind.

 Anyhow, back to Langton. He played on several Hawkwind albums scatttered over their career, but the highlights are: the first album (simply titled Hawkwind) from 1969, Levitation (a fantastic comeback album of 1980 with, of all people, Cream’s Ginger Baker on drums), The Chronicle of the Black Sword concept album (1985), and lastly, a fantastic trip called The Xenon Codex (1989) – before returning to the same obscurity he enjoyed from 1969-79. (Unfortunately he’s not on any of the same albums as Lemmy).

 Langton has a heavy sound, but melodic – somewhat like Don Felder, Dave Murray, and David Gilmour. Like Gilmour does in Pink Floyd, he serves as a solid rock base amidst a chaos of psychedelia, somewhat standing outside of the mess, as opposed to Jerry Garcia, who is part OF the mess the Dead create in their extended jams.

 I say "unknown" with respect to him because he seems to be off the radar except to Hawkwind fans. Aside from Hawkwind he seems to only pursue a solo career; he has seven solo albums.

 Similarly, Andy Powell is only associated with Wishbone Ash. Indeed, at this point, he is the only original member of the band left. Neither Ted Turner (second guitarist), Martin Turner (no relation to Ted, bassist), nor Steve Upton (drums) have any apparent interest in remaining in Wishbone Ash, though they did reunite briefly between 1989 and 1992 for Nouveau Calls and Here to Hear. Formerly with long wavy hair and cleanshaven, now Powell effects the "bald w/goatee" gothic look, though keeping the glasses and trademark Gibson Flying V.

 Powell’s style is similar to Langton’s, and similar to his erstwhile bandmate, Ted Turner. Though Powell, even today, always works with another guitarist, both sharing lead guitar duties in Wishbone Ash; and he has knack for finding excellent partners on lead guitar. As they are now, they’re no longer playing Merriweather Post Pavilion, as they did in the 70s – they play Jaxx, to sparse crowds. They come on the stage with the house lights on, plug into half-stacks or combos, and proceed to blow away the 20-30 people (in a venue that could probably accommodate 200) who had the extremely good judgment to show up and witness the show. The newest albums are OK, but the classics are definitely the starting point, particularly the original Powell-Turner-Turner-Upton lineup of the first four albums and live album: Wishbone Ash, Pilgrimage, Argus (their Dark Side of the Moon, and even BEAT that album in 1973 in a contest for best album of the year in the UK), Wishbone IV, and Live Dates.