Nik Turner, the British musician best known for his many years with space rock pioneers Hawkwind, has passed away at the age of 82.
Nik Turner, full name Nicholas Robert Turner, played sax and flute during his long stint with Hawkwind, and he was also a key piece of the puzzle when it came to writing the music, as well as one of the vocalists. His time in Hawkwind was marked by weaving elements of free jazz into the band’s sound, and he was known for wearing outrageous costumes, often inspired by the legacy of ancient Greece and ancient Egypt.
Rumors of Turner’s death first started going around on social media yesterday, Friday, 11/10/2022, and around five in the afternoon the following message appeared on his Facebook profile:
“It is with deep sadness that we announce that Nik Turner – fearless lightning rider – has left us, passing away peacefully at home on Thursday evening. He has set off on the next leg of his cosmic adventure, guided by the love of his family, friends and followers. In this new world he has found, we will be treated to his new arrangements.”
Turner joined Hawkwind back in 1969, when the band was just taking shape. He played sax and flute with the London space rock legends in two stretches. The first ran from 1969 to 1976, and Turner came back to Hawkwind once more between 1982 and 1984. Turner also wrote or co-wrote some of the most striking and recognizable songs of Hawkwind’s entire career, such as Master Of The Universe, released on the 1971 album “In Search Of Space”, or Brainstorm, the opener of the 1972 album “Doremi Fasol Latido”.
Turner first hooked up with Dave Brock and Mick Slattery in the embryonic phase of Hawkwind, as their tour manager. He got picked for that job mostly because he owned a van that he used to haul Brock and the guys around. Turner’s unique, free-spirited approach to playing sax and his love of musical expressionism won Hawkwind over, and they welcomed him into the ranks as a musician.
Through his actions, from the sixties all the way to the nineties, Turner was seen as Britain’s ambassador of the “culture in opposition” movement. Turner was also part of the band’s performance at the very first Glastonbury festival in 1970, where he built a pyramid composition on stage. That pyramid went on to become one of the main stage props at later Hawkwind shows.
On one of his trips to Egypt, Turner even performed and recorded inside one of the pyramids, and the recordings were later used as the basis for the 1978 album “Xitintoday”, released under the name Nik Turner’s Sphinx.
Turner is also known for collaborating with science fiction author Michael Moorcock, graphic designer Barney Bubbles and fellow Hawkwind member Robert Calvert, as well as plenty of other artists including Sham 69, The Stranglers and Sting. During his set at the Isle Of Wight festival, Jimi Hendrix called him up on stage, and he also played a sax elegy at Lemmy Kilmister’s funeral in 2016.
The cause of his death is unknown.
