Nik Turner (26 August 1940 – 10 November 2022) was an English musician, best known as a member of space rock pioneers Hawkwind. Turner played saxophone and flute, as well as being a vocalist and composer. While with Hawkwind, Turner was known for his experimental free jazz stylisations and outrageous stage presence, often donning full makeup and Ancient Egypt-inspired costumes.
Nicholas Robert Turner was born in Oxford into a family with theatrical leanings. When Nik was 13 the family moved to Margate, where he worked on the local funfair during the summer holidays. There, he met Robert Calvert, another future member of Hawkwind. The young Turner fell in love with rock’n’roll and idolised James Dean; he completed an engineering course then briefly worked for the Merchant Navy. He took clarinet and saxophone lessons and wandered around Europe for a while, picking up jobs here and there, and while he was working for a travelling rock’n’roll circus at Haarlem in the Netherlands he met Dave Brock, who was playing at the circus.
Back home, Brock was forming Hawkwind, and Turner, who had a van, was heading for a job as roadie. But at a rehearsal he mentioned that his saxophone was in the van outside. “The guys suggested I bring it in, and have a blow, and they were impressed enough to invite me to join the band, as well as be the road manager.” When they heard that there was a gig down the road in Notting Hill, they arrived uninvited and were given a 15-minute slot.
They played a song based on a John Coltrane riff. “It was very well received,” Turner recalled, “the organisers ultimately offering us a record deal, airplay and work.” They established themselves as a thrilling live act at free festivals, and the Pretty Things guitarist Dick Taylor produced their 1970 self-titled debut album, which declared the era of space rock open: “We are trying to levitate [people’s] minds,” as the sleeve notes put it.
Indeed, a series of mind-bending albums followed, such as In Search of Space, Space Ritual and Warrior on the Edge of Time, as well as the hit single Silver Machine, on which Lemmy sang lead vocal (Turner claimed credit for persuading the future Motörhead frontman to switch from electric guitar to bass for Hawkwind, and played a saxophone eulogy at his funeral). Many of their classic songs were written or co-written by Turner, including Brainstorm and Masters of the Universe. Turner was realistic about his own contribution. “It’s the overall feel rather than the individual parts of the music that we’re interested in,” he said. “I don’t have any illusions about my technical ability.”
Hawkwind went on to become one of the greatest live attractions of the 1970s, their stage show enhanced by the frequently disrobed exotic dancer, the 6ft Miss Stacia – as well as Turner’s costumes, often inspired by Ancient Egypt. But his vision of a free jazz/rock hybrid led, in a sense, to his dismissal from the band in 1976 after colleagues complained that he persisted in playing over them. He travelled to Egypt, where he persuaded the authorities to play the flute inside the King’s Chamber of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Back home he got together with Steve Hillage and other members of Gong – fellow travellers of inner space – in an outfit named Sphynx to augment the recordings, with Turner intoning words from the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Their efforts culminated in the 1978 album Xitintoday.
Brock invited Turner back in 1982 to sing lead vocals on a forthcoming Hawkwind tour, but sacked him again two years later. Between his Hawkwind stints Turner had formed a psych-rock outfit, Inner City Unit; he reassembled them for a couple of albums, then toured for several years with the jazz-inflected Nik Turner’s Fantastic All Stars. In 2000 he joined some of his former Hawkwind colleagues in the band Space Ritual, but when they began calling themselves Xhawkwind, Dave Brock sued successfully for the naming rights.
In March 2013 Turner turned up at the SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas playing an official gig at Rebels Honky Tonk bar billed as Nik Turner (ex-Hawkwind) playing predominantly Space Ritual songs. He also guested on stage with The Soft Moon at Hotel Vegas the previous night. Turner also played saxophone and narrated "Brainstorm" on the Warfare album (2017 High Roller Records). In March 2019 he appeared in Austin, Texas, with ex-Hawkwind members Alan Powell and Michael Moorcock in an event called Hawkfest, At the Laugharne Weekend 2019, Damo Suzuki played the Fountain Inn with his all-star Sound Carriers which included Euros Childs and New Order drummer Stephen Morris. Nik Turner joined them at the end of their set.
Nik Turner, who spent his last years in Carmarthenshire died in Cardiff, Wales, November 10 2022 at the age of 82. (Edited from Wikipedia & various sources)