20 Facts About Nik Turner

Nicholas Robert Turner was an English musician best known as a member of space rock pioneers Hawkwind.

Nik Turner played saxophone and flute, as well as being a vocalist and composer.

Nik Turner was born in Oxford in August 1940 to a theatrical family, although his father was working in a munitions factory.

Nik Turner went on to complete an engineering course and then undertook one voyage in the Merchant Navy.

Nik Turner then set about travelling around Europe picking up menial jobs, and it was during a stint as a roustabout in a travelling music circus in 1967 that he made the acquaintance of Dave Brock in Haarlem, the Netherlands.

Nik Turner had two years of clarinet and saxophone lessons in the early 1960s but never considered himself good enough to pursue them seriously.

Nik Turner, owning a van, had originally offered his services as a roadie to the newly formed Hawkwind.

Nik Turner became an active and vocal member of the band, pulling in friends such as Dik Mik, Calvert and Barney Bubbles, and involving the band in community and charity projects, sometimes to the chagrin of the others.

Nik Turner was a member of the band during their most commercially successful and critically acclaimed period, writing or co-writing some of their most popular songs such as "Brainstorm" and "Master of the Universe".

On returning to England, Steve Hillage cleaned up the tapes and assembled the Sphynx band featuring Hawkwind's Alan Powell, Gong's Mike Howlett and Tim Blake, and Harry Williamson to record music augmenting the original flute tracks while Nik Turner adapted lyrics from the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

In 1993 Nik Turner was approached by Pressurehed and Helios Creed to record another version of his Sphynx project using the original flute tracks, resulting in the album Sphynx.

Disagreements between various participants led to any restaging of the event being unlikely, but Nik Turner did stage a further event under the banner The Greasy Truckers Party featuring members of the Hawkestra' on 21 October 2001 at the London Astoria.

Nik Turner made an impromptu appearance during the first Reggae Festival of Wales in 2003, joining the Goldmaster Allstars and Jamaican vocalist Alton Ellis.

Nik Turner resurrected another version of Inner City Unit with Thoms, performing irregular gigs.

In 2008 Nik Turner was invited to Space Mirrors collective as a guest member.

Nik Turner provided flute for Dodson and Fogg, a folk rock project released in 2012.

In October 2012, Nik Turner entered Berryhill Studios in Monmouthshire, and performed an improvised alto saxophone session on seven of Mr H's compositions, which were released in the spring of 2013.

In March 2013 Turner turned up at the SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas playing an official SXSW gig at Rebels Honky Tonk bar billed as Nik Turner playing predominantly Space Ritual songs.

Nik Turner guested on stage with The Soft Moon at Hotel Vegas the previous night.

Nik Turner played saxophone and narrated "Brainstorm" on the Warfare album.