If you are looking for a gift for a Hawkwind fan, the honest answer is a print that treats the band as what it actually was for over fifty years: not a fixed line-up, but a revolving collective built around one constant guitarist and a rotating cast of musicians who came, went, and sometimes came back.
My Hawkwind discography tube map plots the studio albums in order, from the self-titled 1970 debut through In Search of Space, Hall of the Mountain Grill and Warrior on the Edge of Time and on to the 2025 releases, as stations on a single line, with every credited musician who played on those records drawn in alongside them. Live albums and compilations are left off. It is a print built for the fan who already knows the line-up history, and a considered present for anyone buying for one.
Why a gift for Hawkwind fans has to start with Dave Brock
When I am researching a new map, the first thing I look for is who never leaves, because that line sets the whole design. With Hawkwind, that is one man. Dave Brock's guitar and vocals call at every single station on this map, from the 1970 debut through to 2025, and he is the only line that does. Almost everyone else around him changes from record to record, sometimes from tour to tour, which is what makes Hawkwind one of the more interesting bands I have mapped: instead of a settled group drawn as a handful of parallel lines, this print carries a genuinely revolving collective, and Brock's line is the single thread that lets a fan follow the whole journey.
The Lemmy Kilmister line: four albums before Motorhead, then a return thirty years later
Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister holds bass and vocal credits across four consecutive Hawkwind studio albums: In Search of Space in 1971, Doremi Fasol Latido in 1972, Hall of the Mountain Grill in 1974 and Warrior on the Edge of Time in 1975. He was sacked the day before that last record was released, after he was held at the Canadian border in possession of what police initially thought was amphetamine sulphate. Lemmy always maintained the real issue was a song he had written during those sessions called "Motorhead," and within months he had used that title for a new band of his own.
What surprised me when I went through the credits is that his line does not stop there. He turns up again as a guest on Take Me to Your Leader in 2005 and Take Me to Your Future in 2006, thirty years after the sacking, which gives him six stations in total and one of the longest gaps on the map.
Nik Turner and the space rock line-up that built the early stations
Nik Turner's saxophone and flute mark the map's earliest stations, the run of records that built Hawkwind's reputation as a space rock act driven by collective improvisation rather than a conventional rock line-up. He was a founding member and ran unbroken from the 1970 debut through Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music in 1976, but by then Dave Brock had lost patience with what he saw as an increasingly chaotic live sound, and Turner was let go along with two other members in the same clear-out. His line does return once, for a saxophone credit on "Void City" on Choose Your Masques in 1982. It is a pattern I see again and again when mapping bands like this: the musicians who define an era are not always the ones who survive it.
Huw Lloyd-Langton's gap and return
Huw Lloyd-Langton is the clearest example on this map of a line that does not run in one continuous stretch. He plays lead guitar on the 1970 debut, then vanishes for a decade. He comes back for Levitation in 1980 and holds a run through Sonic Attack, Church of Hawkwind, Choose Your Masques and The Xenon Codex in 1988, and then appears once more on Onward in 2012.
Mapping a line like that by hand is one of the more satisfying parts of this research, because a list of albums would just show gaps. What the map shows is a musician who kept finding his way back to the same band across four different decades, which says as much about Hawkwind's loose, open structure as it does about him.
Simon House: from Hawkwind's violin line to Bowie's stage
Simon House joined on violin and keyboards for Hall of the Mountain Grill in 1974, adding the electric string and synthesiser textures that shaped the mid-1970s sound, and he was one of the few players to survive the 1976 line-up clear-out that removed Turner and others. He runs through to PXR5 in 1979 and then leaves to join David Bowie's touring band, taking those same violin textures onto a much bigger stage.
He is not gone for good, though. The credits put him back on Space Bandits in 1990 and again on both Take Me to Your Leader and Take Me to Your Future in the mid-2000s, nine stations in all. If the person you are buying for also collects Bowie prints, that crossover is worth mentioning when you give the gift.
"Brilliant idea."
What sizes does the Hawkwind discography map come in?
Every map I print is a Giclée on 230gsm premium fine art paper with a textured matte finish, archival and acid-free, so the colours hold for years. Prices start from £42, and you can choose unframed or a black wood frame.
| Size | UK | USA equivalent | Orientation |
|---|---|---|---|
| A2 | 594 x 420 mm (23 x 16 in) | 24 x 18 in | Landscape |
| A1 | 841 x 594 mm (33 x 23 in) | 36 x 24 in | Landscape |
The studio albums in order and every credited musician across five decades, hand-researched and mapped as a single tube line. Giclée print, A2 or A1, unframed or in a black wood frame.
Related music maps for fans of British space rock and prog
If the person you are buying for likes music built around long instrumental journeys and shifting line-ups, two of my other maps make natural companion pieces to the Hawkwind print. The Pink Floyd Discography Map traces a similar era of British space rock, and the Deep Purple Discography Map shares the same appetite for heavy, musician-driven records. Both sit well alongside a Hawkwind gift for fans who collect more than one of these prints.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the only constant member on the Hawkwind map?
Dave Brock, credited on guitar and vocals at every station on the map, from the band's 1970 debut through to 2025. No other line runs the full length.
Why did the Hawkwind line-up change so often?
Hawkwind operated as a revolving collective rather than a fixed band, and the map reflects that, with musicians such as Huw Lloyd-Langton and Simon House moving in and out across different eras, and others, including Lemmy Kilmister and Nik Turner, leaving for reasons of their own.
How many Hawkwind albums is Lemmy on?
Six. Four consecutive studio albums between 1971 and 1975, then two guest credits on Take Me to Your Leader in 2005 and Take Me to Your Future in 2006, three decades after he was sacked from the band.
Which album is one of the busiest stations on the map?
Levitation, from 1980, carries eleven credited players, which puts it level with the 1978 Hawklords record and among the most crowded stations on the whole map. Take Me to Your Leader in 2005 goes one better at twelve.
What is not on the map?
Live albums and compilations are excluded, which for a band with a live catalogue this size removes a great deal. Only studio records carry stations, and only musicians credited playing something carry a line.
What makes a good gift for Hawkwind fans?
Something that respects how much a genuine fan already knows. This map is researched from liner notes and archives rather than assumed from memory, so the credits are right, which is what makes it a gift for Hawkwind fans that gets framed and kept rather than opened once and put in a drawer.
What frame options are there?
Unframed, or ready to hang in a black wood frame.
What sizes is the Hawkwind discography map available in?
A2 (594 x 420 mm, 23 x 16 in) and A1 (841 x 594 mm, 33 x 23 in), both landscape, plus the 24 x 18 in and 36 x 24 in US equivalents. From £42.
Buying a gift for Hawkwind fans?
Give them the map that gets fifty-five years of line-up changes right, from Dave Brock to Lemmy Kilmister.
Shop the Hawkwind printNot sure which map they would choose? Give an art print gift card instead.
