Robert Calvert

Robert Calvert is best known as the on-off frontman of influential rock group Hawkwind. Robert was born in 1945 in Pretoria, South Africa. His family moved to Kent in England in 1947. He grew up wanting to be a fighter pilot but ended up a writer, an enthusiastic participant in the 1960s London psychedelia subculture. After meeting Hawkwind co-founder Dave Brock in 1970, Robert joined the underground icons as resident poet, reading his work amid strobes and light cascades on stage. Seeking a break from touring, Robert left Hawkwind in 1973 and recorded two solo albums, Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters (featuring Brian Eno and Arthur Brown) and Lucky Leif and the Longships (produced by Eno). In 1975 he rejoined Hawkwind as their frontman and main lyricist, staying on for three years before leaving for the second time in 1978. Through the end of the 70s and into the 80s up to his death from a heart attack in 1988 he produced numerous poetic and musical works, as well as short stories and novels. Robert is believed to have been bi-polar and spent much of his adult life in states of mania, depression or recovering in mental institutions.