Joe Banks

HIs idiosyncratic vision defined the band for almost half a century until his death in 2015. But he’d assembled a new line-up to lift the baton, who addressing their weighty expectations with transitional 2016 album Rejoice! I'm Dead!

Events around their 1970 self-titled debut album included turning a radio testing device into a musical instrument, impressing influencer John Peel and using subsonics to make drunk people physically sick

Dave Brock’s band didn’t steal the Beatle’s instrument – but in their early days they were involved in a wide range of nefarious incidents some distance from the world of “peace and love”

The guitarist has been a fixture in Dave Brock’s band for nearly a decade, but his history with the space rockers goes much further back. Now he’s released his debut solo album too

They may have existed on the periphery of the prog world, but their influence is a fascinating example of cultural cross-fertilisation

With the help of The Who and Jimi Hendrix, and a helmet he found outside his hotel room, the bandleader acquired a nickname he’s now carried for nearly 60 years

He wrote his band’s breakthrough single and created the concept they’ve continued to develop, But after a series of increasingly alarming episodes he was dead by the age of 43

Their bassist quit, then the band split after one more record. Nearly four decades on, their ambitious post rock album is regarded as a masterpiece

A change of line-up, a change of style and Timothy Leary’s plans for a concert suspended in the air helped made their 1974 album a classic

Astonishingly, Kristin Hersh and her band were still in their teens when they released their first collection of fractured narratives and multipart, chorus-free arrangements

Bruised and battle-weary after a punishing live schedule, in 1975 Hawkwind weren’t in the best place ahead of recording their fifth studio LP. But what emerged was a stunning tour de force of science fantasy-inspired progressive space rock