Nik Turner's Space Ritual - The Boardwalk, Sheffield, 7th November, 2004 A year on and the ex-Hawkwind members were back at the Boardwalk doing their spaced out, .....

...OTT 70's trippy thang a band fronted by one of the original frontmen, Nik Turner (who's axed the rubber suits tht he was wearing last year and gone for a more jazzy classy looking black suit and white shirt number - no doubt he was a wee bit cooler as a result on this famous small Shefffield stage. Gathered around him were his old cosmic chums Dave Anderson , Thomas Crimble, Terry and Sam Ollis and Michael Slattery, John Greves on keyboards/synths and dancer extraordinaire Miss. Debbie who's put on a few pounds since the last visit. Set wise it was very much the same as last year -

- old classic like 'Born to Go'; 'Brainstorm'; 'Silver Machine'; 'Watching the Grass Grow' (by Inner City Unit); Sonic Attack and a load more ancient 'Windy numbers that came complete with gallons of dry ice (much to the annoyance of my camera) plus newer bits and pieces such a stack of wacky avante-guarde poetry from Mr. T off sheets of paper and the odd current Space Ritual track like 'Chant' and 'Sonic Savages' that are soon to become available on a studio album.

What was very striking was the fact that it was absolutely packed in here as there were hardly a half full in 2003 - therefore word must have gone round just how good it was so nobody in their right mind wanted to miss out this time around - credit to the crowd for turning up too as no-one went home dissapointed, especially the dude from Bristol who after presenting Nik with some artwork was handed a new just released live Space Ritual CD. Performance-wise they had become a lot tighter to what I remember from 12 months previous and seemed to be enjoying themselves more as well. Miss. Debbie was as splendid as ever with her insane dance moves and even crazier costumes not to mention getting totally starkers towards the end of the night's set - but remember it was all in the name of art before you starting calling it pornographic out there in surf-land.

When the band was done Nik enterntained us with a bit of solo sax playing - piping out splended renditions of '(The Theme from) The Pink Panther' and Glenn Miller's 'In the Mood' and believe me, those in attendence tonight definately were - clapping away to the beat of the tunes and giving an appreciative oy at every relevant moment. Top Entertainment by Top Entertainers.

10/10
By Glenn Milligan