Seventeen-year-old drummer Terry Ollis replied to an advert in a music weekly; Nik Turner and Michael "Dik Mik" Davies, old acquaintances of Brock, offered help with transport and gear, but were soon pulled into the band.

[10] A session took place at Abbey Road Studios to record demos of "Hurry on Sundown" and other tracks (which were eventually included on the remastered version of the group's debut album Hawkwind), after which Slattery left.

Although it was not a commercial success, it did bring them to the attention of the UK underground scene, which found them playing free concerts, benefit gigs, and festivals.

This album offered a refinement of the band's image and philosophy courtesy of graphic artist Barney Bubbles and underground press writer Robert Calvert, as depicted in the accompanying Hawklog booklet, which would be further developed into the Space Ritual stage show.

Dettmar also indicated that he was to leave the band, so Simon House was recruited as keyboardist and violinist playing live shows, a North America tour and recording the 1974 album Hall of the Mountain Grill.

At the beginning of 1975, the band recorded the album Warrior on the Edge of Time in collaboration with Michael Moorcock, loosely based on his Eternal Champion figure.

Fed up with his erratic behaviour, the band dismissed the bass player[19] replacing him with their long-standing friend and former Pink Fairies guitarist Paul Rudolph.

After a tour to promote the single and during the recording of the next album, Rudolph was also dismissed, for allegedly trying to steer the band into a musical direction at odds with Calvert and Brock's vision.

[21] Adrian "Ade" Shaw, who, as bass player for Magic Muscle, had supported Hawkwind on the Space Ritual tour, came in for the 1977 album Quark, Strangeness and Charm.

On 23 December 1977 in Barnstaple, Brock and Calvert had performed a one-off gig with Devon band Ark as the Sonic Assassins, and looking for a new project in 1978, bassist Harvey Bainbridge and drummer Martin Griffin were recruited from this event.

However, during the recording of Levitation King quit and Ginger Baker was drafted in for the sessions, but he chose to stay with the band for the tour, during which Blake left to be replaced by Keith Hale.

Lloyd Langton Group drummer John Clark did some recording sessions, and in late 1983 Rick Martinez joined the band to play drums on the Earth Ritual tour in February and March 1984, later replaced by Clive Deamer.

Hawkwind's association with Moorcock climaxed in their most ambitious project, The Chronicle of the Black Sword, based loosely around the Elric series of books and theatrically staged with Tony Crerar as the central character.

Drummer Richard Chadwick, who joined in the summer of 1988, had been playing in small alternative free festival bands, most notably Bath's Smart Pils, for a decade and had frequently crossed paths with Hawkwind and Brock.

This band produced two albums, 1990's Space Bandits and 1991's Palace Springs and also filmed a one-hour appearance for the Bedrock TV series with dancer Julie Murray-Anderson, who performed with Hawkwind between 1988 and 1991.

The original business plan was to hold three consecutive US tours, annually, from 1989 to 1991, with the first losing money, the second breaking even, and the third turning a profit, ultimately bringing Hawkwind back into recognition across the Atlantic.

In 1996, unhappy with the musical direction of the band, bassist Davey left, forming his own Middle-Eastern flavoured hard-rock group Bedouin and a Motörhead tribute act named Ace of Spades.

Hawkestra—a re-union event featuring appearances from past and present members—had originally been intended to coincide with the band's 30th anniversary and the release of the career spanning Epocheclipse – 30 Year Anthology set, but logistical problems delayed it until 21 October 2000.

The 2000 Christmas Astoria show was recorded with contributions from House, Blake, Rizz, Moorcock, Jez Huggett and Keith Kniveton and released as Yule Ritual the following year.

Recorded by the core band of Brock/Davey/Chadwick, contributors included new keyboardist Jason Stuart, Arthur Brown, tabloid writer and TV personality Matthew Wright, 1970s New Wave singer Lene Lovich, Simon House and Jez Huggett.

[38][39] One of the documentary's opening narratives states that Brock declined to be interviewed for the programme because of Nik Turner's involvement, thus indicating that the two men had still not reconciled over the xhawkwind.com incident.

In October 2008, Niall Hone (former Tribe of Cro) joined Hawkwind for their winter 2008 tour playing guitar, along with returning synth/theremin player Tim Blake.

[42] During and since the Blood of the Earth support tours, Hone's primary on-stage responsibility shifted to bass, while Mr. Dibs moved to a more traditional lead singer/front man role.

Dead Fred's last live appearance was at Eastbourne Winter Gardens on 1 April; Hone took on keyboard and synth duties until Blake returned for the summer shows.

The trio of Brock, Chadwick and Wheaton recorded the album Into the Woods, released on 5 May 2017, with additional contributions from Dibs, Magnus Martin (whose band Tarantism had supported Hawkwind on many occasions) and Big Bill Barry.

Batt conducted a series of concerts titled In Search of Utopia – Infinity and Beyond featuring the band and Docklands Sinfonia Orchestra in October and November, with Arthur Brown guesting.

Accompanying the CD version, and sold as a separate vinyl LP, was Acoustic Daze which included tracks from the Road to Utopia minus the additions of Batt and Clapton.

Brock would continue work with remote contributions from Martin, and the album Carnivorous (an anagram of coronavirus) was released in October 2020 under the name Hawkwind Light Orchestra to reflect the reduced personnel.

[56][57] When the group returned to live performances post-COVID in late 2021, the line-up featured Brock, Chadwick, Martin and new members Thighpaulsandra on keyboards and Doug MacKinnon on bass, replacing Blake and Hone respectively.

[59][60] Hawkwind have been cited as an influence by artists such as Al Jourgensen of Ministry,[61] Monster Magnet,[62] the Sex Pistols (who covered "Silver Machine"),[63] Henry Rollins and Dez Cadena of Black Flag,[64] Siobhan Fahey,[65] Ty Segall,[66] The Mekano Set,[67] Ozric Tentacles.