Nik Turner, co-founding saxophonist, flutist and vocalist of the pioneering English space-rock band Hawkwind, has died on the age of 82.
“We’re deeply saddened to announce the passing of Nik Turner — The [Mighty] Thunder Rider, who handed away peacefully at residence on Thursday night,” Turner’s household wrote on his private Fb profile. “He has moved onto the following part of his Cosmic Journey, guided by the love of his household, associates and followers. Watch this area for his preparations.”
Born in 1940 in Oxford, England, Turner took two years of saxophone and clarinet classes within the early ’60s. He took an curiosity in free jazz, which emerged within the late ’50s and early ’60s, and sought to include these improvisational stylings into the context of a rock band. He bought his probability in 1969 when he started working as a roadie for a brand new band comprising Dave Brock, Mick Slattery and John Harrison. Turner and fellow roadie Michael “Dik Mik” Davies had been quickly promoted to band members, and the quintet adopted the title Group X, which quickly modified to Hawkwind Zoo and, finally, Hawkwind.
Turner first performed with Hawkwind from 1969 to 1976. This marked the band’s most profitable interval, together with a run of 4 consecutive Prime 20 albums of their native U.Okay., starting with 1971’s In Search of House and ending with 1975’s Warrior on the Fringe of Time. Turner briefly returned to the band from 1982-84, lending a saxophone solo to “Void Metropolis” on 1982’s Select Your Masques and collaborating on a number of reside albums and compilations.
Between his two Hawkwind stints, Turner based the psychedelic-punk hybrid band Inside Metropolis Unit, which launched 4 albums between 1980 and 1985. Shortly after his dismissal from Hawkwind, Turner additionally vacationed in Egypt and recorded himself taking part in flute within the King’s Chamber of the Nice Pyramid of Giza. These recordings had been later integrated right into a full album, recorded with a plethora of musicians below the moniker Sphynx. The ensuing album, Xitintoday, was launched in 1978 and featured lyrics Turner had tailored from the Egyptian E book of the Useless. Lots of the Sphynx musicians additionally appeared on the 1978 protest single “Nuclear Waste,” that includes lead vocals from Sting.
In his later years, Turner continued to tour with varied Hawkwind and Sphynx alumni. He shaped House Ritual, named after Hawkwind’s 1973 reside album The House Ritual Alive in Liverpool and London, in 2000. The band featured a number of principal ex-Hawkwind members and launched a number of reside albums, in addition to two studio LPs, over the following decade.
Hawkwind has featured an unlimited revolving door of musicians over the previous half-century, considered one of its highest-profile gamers being late Motorhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister, whose 1971-75 tenure overlapped with Turner’s. “We misplaced Lemmy’s previous bandmate Nik Turner right this moment,” Motorhead tweeted on Friday. “Play some Hawkwind good and loud! ‘Brainstorm’ right here we go!”
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