On November 10, 2022, Nik Turner, a well-known musician and a founding member of the space rock group Hawkwind, passed away at the age of 82.
Turner’s cause of death is still unknown. He used to play the flute and saxophone. But because of his talents, he worked as a singer and composer. He became well-known for his avant-garde free jazz compositions and stage presence, which featured full makeup and performances in Egyptian-themed attire.
Successful saxophonist and flutist Nik Turner.
When Nik Turner was 13 years old, his family relocated to Margate, a coastal town in Kent. During the summer, he worked at the neighborhood funfair. After completing his engineering degree, he spent a year in the merchant navy.
In 1967, he encountered musician Dave Brock while doing various menial jobs all throughout Europe. The specifics of his family members are still a mystery. His father, though, reportedly worked at a weapons facility near Oxford before his family moved.
In the early 1960s, Nik Turner spent two years studying the clarinet and saxophone. He also met a few jazz musicians in Berlin who taught him the importance of expression over technical proficiency. Turner contributed his time as a roadie to Hawkwind and owned a car as well. This took place not long after the band was formed.
The group invited him to join them when they learned he could play the saxophone. He was involved in a few of their songs. However, not everyone in the band liked his musical style because he allegedly had a habit of playing over other band members. On live albums like Zones, This Is Hawkwind, Do Not Panic, and others, Turner made an appearance. He left the band in 1976.
In 1978, Nik Turner traveled back to England and joined forces with Alan Powell, Mike Howlett, Tim Blake, and Harry Williamson to form the band Sphynx. The group issued the album Xitintoday.
He made cameo appearances in Gilli Smyth’s Mother Gong and Williamson’s Fairy Tales. He founded the Inner City Unit with Dead Fred, Mo Vicarage, Ermanno Ghisio Erba, Trev Thoms, and others. Before breaking up, the band released albums like Pass Out and Maximum Effect.
His next project was Nik Turner’s Fantastic All Stars, a jazz and rhythm and blues band driven by saxophone and Hammond organ. Before releasing an album called Kubanno Kickasso, they performed for a while.
He was requested to record a version of his Sphynx project with original flute-based compositions by Pressurehed and Helios Creed in 1993. The album Sphynx was released in the same year. They carried on with their US tours while putting out another record in 1994 called Prophets of Time.
Members of Hawkwind reunited in October 2000 at the Brixton Academy, where they ultimately settled on the name Space Ritual. In 2003, Nik also had a performance at the first Reggae Festival in Wales. In addition, he continued to perform at other festivals and revived a new iteration of the Inner City Unit.
When Nik Turner joined the Space Mirrors collective as a guest member in 2008, he contributed his flute and saxophone to three of their albums: Majestic-12: A Hidden Presence, Dreams of Area 51, and In Darkness They Whisper.
He was asked to take part in Mr. H’s fourth album, Poets, Balladeers, and Cheats, and he also played the flute for Dodson and Fogg.
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