ARCHIVE
THE HAWKS
Obviously 5 Believers SEVENTEEN
7/10
Proto-indie from Stephen Duffy’s lost Birmingham janglers
Between Duran Duran and Tin Tin, Stephen Duffy formed a band originally called Obviously 5 Believers, before changing their name to The Subterranean Hawks and then just The Hawks because, Duffy jokes, it was easier to fit on the cassette tapes. They released a solitary single – “Words Of Hope” in 1980 – but made other recordings, which are now released for the first time on CD and vinyl. The Hawks came out of post-punk – there’s a Keith Levene tone to the fabulous “Big Store”, “What It Is!” and the deadpan “Serenade” – but otherwise sound a little like Birmingham’s answer to the Bunnymen. The psychedelic tinge to “A Sense Of Ending” and jangle of “Bullfighter” suggests The Hawks would have fit neatly into the coming indie moment – “Something Soon” even reintroduces the harmonica to British pop a couple of years before “Hand In Glove”. After The Hawks split in 1981, Duffy kept the tapes and then collated this collection following a promise to fellow Hawk Dave Kusworth shortly before Kusworth’s death.