Quark, Strangeness and Charm
| Quark, Strangeness and Charm | ||||
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| Studio album by Hawkwind | ||||
| Released | 17 June 1977 | |||
| Recorded | Rockfield Studios, February 1977 | |||
| Genre | Space rock | |||
| Length | 36:54 (original) | |||
| Label | Charisma (Europe), Sire (North America) | |||
| Producer | Hawkwind | |||
| Hawkwind chronology | ||||
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| Allmusic |   |
Quark, Strangeness and Charm is the seventh studio album by the English space rock group Hawkwind, released in 1977. It spent 6 weeks on the UK albums chart peaking at #30.
This is Hawkwind's seventh studio album, hence "The Hawkwind Part 7" title on the inner sleeve. It is the band's first album without co-founding member Nik Turner, and drummer Alan Powell had also departed. In addition, Adrian "Ade" Shaw from Magic Muscle replaced Paul Rudolph during the recording session.
Robert Calvert starts to dominate proceedings with his science fiction inspired lyrics, whereas the music is lighter and more commercial than with their previous offerings.
At the end of 1976, after their Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music album and tour, the group were reduced to a five-piece following the departure of saxophonist Nik Turner and drummer Alan Powell. They recorded the single "Back on the Streets", and undertook an eight date tour of England in December which featured embryonic versions of this album's tracks "Spirit of the Age", "Hassan I Sabbah", and "Damnation Alley".
The group entered Rockfield Studios to record this album in January and February 1977, self-producing the album with help from resident engineer Dave Charles. However, Paul Rudolph left during the recording sessions having been given an ultimatum to "apologis[e] for something or leaving. I chose the latter, not fully understanding the situation". Guitarist Dave Brock expanded on his leaving with the explanation "You get an idea and you like things to be a sort of unit and we were in the studio and he was in a chair playing his bass and we were doing a high energy number!", while singer Robert Calvert added that he "was always carping about not doing [numbers influenced by Science Fiction] and it affects you". The 2009 2CD re-issue of the album includes early versions of tracks with Rudolph's contributions.
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