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Bedouin

What can I say about Alan Davey's band? I've seen them play live a few times, mostly supporting Hawkwind and they've always been tight, loud and impressive. First time was down at Club West One Four in London which is a tiny venue and tragically very few people in the audience. The bonus for us was that we got to sit on a sofa at the back of the dance floor so that it felt like we were sitting in someone's front room with a beer on the coffee table and a punishingly loud band 10m in front of us. They finished up with a cover of Motorhead's Overkill which would have given Lemmy a run for his money and left me dazed for hours.

Tragically Bedouin are no more, with Alan apparently preferring to concentrate his efforts on Hawkwind. Their style was very different. Hard rock with arabic interludes and overtones, reflecting Alan's interest in Middle East culture and music. Although the Hawkwind influence was clearly discernible.

Their early albums are far more mellow than their live shows. Captured Rotation and Bedouin are genuine masterpieces and must-haves for any Hawkwind fan.

In case you didn't know, this band have a 66% link to Hawkwind. Alan Davey (bass) is now the second longest-serving member of the crew of the Starship Hawkwind of all time (he joined in 1984), and Danny Thompson (drums) provided rock solid drumming for HW for a large part of the 80s. These two guys were born to play together and it shows during their gigs. Never seen one of their Motorhead tribute sessions, but I can imagine they were as good as the real thing.

Links

The band's offical website. http://www.bedouin.info

Sound files

• You can download a sampler of the song Vision Quest from the album As Above So Below by following the links to the album on the band's website
• The Call from the album Captured Rotation (1996)
• Space Rock Cafe from the album Bedouin (1987)
• Alwan by a band called Al Yaman from the Czech Republic. This has no link whatsoever to Bedouin, other than the fact that Bedouin have opened my eyes to music with an arabic influence. I heard this track in a music shop in Prague and bought the album on the spot - I love the trippy, spaced out feel to this song.