Hype.

 

Hype.

Introduction.

In terms of Robert's art practice and body of work 1981 was a busy and significant year, the play The Kid from Silicon Gulch was staged and his first post Hawkwind album, Hype, was released. A companion piece to the book of the same name it was subtitled, 'Songs of Tom Mahler', one of the main characters in the book. 

In a 1996 interview with Knut Gerwers, Jill Calvert comments ‘I was not with him when he wrote Hype. He was married to Pamela (Townley) at the time, and I think probably that was the period of his life where he was trying to be the most mainstream. He was trying to be a rock star, or he certainly was early on, about the time he married Pamela, trying to be a mainstream writer’ (J. Calvert and Gerwers 1996: no pag.). Robert and Pamela got married in November 1977 and divorced three years later (Banks 2024: 227). That would place the writing of the book and album within this period. The book was published on 5/11/81 (goodreads n.d.: no pag.). 

Hype appears to have its roots in the pulp fiction genre that ‘emerged in the early 20th century’ and was ‘characterized by its sensational stories, vivid characters, and fast-paced plots’ (library.fiveable.me n.d.: no pag.). Pulp fiction, presented in magazine form, was ‘often associated with fast-paced, sensational tales of adventure, crime, and the supernatural...all wrapped up in colorful, action-packed covers’ these ‘pulp magazines laid the foundation for much of modern genre fiction’ (screamingeyepress.com n.d.; no pag.).

As detailed in the Introduction of Robert Calvert: Through His Work, mainstream British society of the late 1970s/early 80s was a time when racism and sexism were prevalent and normalised. To a degree punk had challenged these tropes. Formed contemporaneously with punk was Rock Against Racism (formed 1976) and the Anti-Nazi League (formed 1977), these were set up to directly oppose the influence of the far right NF (wikipedia n.d.: no pag.). Through the 1970s the National Front was a significant presence on the street though less so at the ballot box (wikipedia n.d.: no pag.). By the late 70s its significance had declined in part due to the activities of the ANL and RAR but also due to the repositioning of the Tory party (Beckett 2009: 442-7). In the 1979 General Election their vote was less than half of that in 1974 (Beckett 2009: 447).

The Race Relations Act had been passed in 1965 to outlaw discrimination however it had been partial, for instance it did not cover boarding houses or apply to NI (wikipedia n.d.: no page). In 1975 the Sex Discrimination Act was passed (wikipedia n.d.: no page). It made it ‘unlawful to discriminate on the ground of sex when offering employment, access to training and promotion, or in relation to dismissal’, however there was ‘no reference to sexual harassment or harassment on the ground of sex’ (genderequalitiesat50.ed.ac.uk. n.d.: no pag.). Despite these Acts being passed mainstream British society was still overtly sexist and racist and in the book these traits are brought to the fore by Robert whose value system had been formed in the counterculture which, while it had its blindspots around sexism, was anti racism.        

Book. 

On Radio One’s news programme, Newsbeat, there was the following feature in 1981;

‘Now pop news. Former Hawkwind singer, Robert Calvert has launched a project which brings the concept approach to rock music back with a bang. He’s written a novel called Hype about the rise to stardom of a rock singer called Tom Mahler, released an album of the same name, sub-titled ‘Songs of Tom Mahler’ and takes the whole package on the road next month so we asked Robert how his Hype concept came together.’ 

‘Well, it started as a novel about how the music business operates, considerably exaggerated I might add, it is meant to be entertainment, and as I had invented a rock singer I had to, to make it convincing, invent songs for him, that he had written and then I found that I actually starting hearing the songs in my head and this led to composing the songs then recording them and eventually releasing both the novel and the album of the novel at the same time.’  

          ‘You say it’s exaggerated but you do know the world you portray and you portray a world where anything goes, like male violence, sexual corruption, how seriously are we supposed to take it?’

 

‘Yes, urm, I’d like people to take it as just a good read, it’s entertainment but in fact it’s about a world that exploits sexuality and I think it would be impossible to write a book about an industry like the music business without dwelling rather heavily on this subject.’

‘What do the music business make of it, I mean have you had any reactions yet?’

‘Extraordinarily enough all the reactions I’ve had from people in the business who’ve read it is one of absolute delight in being portrayed in this way, in fact a number of people, who I won’t name, have actually laid claim to being the character that the sort of villainous hero of the book is based on, who by the way is an executive of a record company not a rock star. They want to be Tony Cahn.’

‘How much do you actually identify with the rock star in the book, Tom Mahler, I mean when you take these songs on the road are you going on the road as Robert Calvert or Tom Mahler?’

‘This is a good question, it’s a fictional world really and how much I’m going to get buried in it I don’t know yet, I don't mind if I am, I don't mind if people actually believe there is a Tom Mahler Band. But the band in fact is a band called Bethnal who were, in my opinion, one of the best new wave bands who didn’t, unfortunately, make big news owing to problems with their management which makes them an appropriate band to have used on the album because that is what happens to the Tom Mahler Band in some ways but fortunately they survived’ (Newsbeat 1981: no pag.).

In 1972 as a member of Hawkwind Robert was asked;

‘But do the group see themselves as any different from others? Bob Calvert replied: “I suppose if the underground has any meaning at all we’re part of it, simply because we don’t see ourselves as part of the music industry or aligned to the profit motive which is what that industry is about’ (Johnson 1972: no pag.).

In a recording, Ramblings at Dawn dated 1982, Robert says;

‘I have written a book called Hype about the music business and it isn`t based on my own experiences as such. It is, a lot of it is, derived obviously from stuff I picked up from hanging around record companies a lot.

I've drawn characters who are recognizable types but not individuals from these experiences, but the actual storyline of the book and the events in it are not based on my own experiences but are fiction. It's going to be published by New English Library in September and there`s an album included…the novel and the album complement each other in this way,the book describes what happens to a young band who get very badly used by a record company in an internal power struggle between two over-ambitious individuals, who use this band as a pawn or counter in an elaborate game of spy vs. spy almost. But it's not a comedy actually. I wanted it to be a comedy. When I had initial talks with NEL about doing the book I had very much in mind doing it almost like P.G. Woodhouse would/might have written about the music business, had he known about it. In the way he wrote about Hollywood in the Twenties, I wanted to write about the music business in the 80s or at least the late 70s. But they talked me round to… seeing the potential of writing a thriller about the business which I ended up doing but it has got elements of black humour, sarcasm and humour in it, although the plot is very much a sort of fast moving, thriller type plot.

The album is the songs of the band themselves who are called the Tom Mahler Band. Mahler as in the composer… and that`s going to be released the same time as the book’ (Calvert 1982: no pag.).

On aural-innovation.com the following interview is reproduced;

‘Hype is a fictional look inside the music industry, centred around a rock star called Tom Mahler. The book is a superb example of pop literature; a fast highly accessible read which is literally unputdownable. Where it jumps ahead of the growing family of rock business exposés, however, is in the simultaneous release of an album Hype performed by Calvert and featuring the musical talent of Bethnal, with the songs of the book`s hero. 

‘The way the record came about, was because when I was writing the book I had to keep inventing songs to make it credible. Every time I thought of a song-title it seemed necessary to quote a line from it, and suddenly it took shape as a song. This bloke Tom Mahler actually did become quite real to me at one point. I didn't actually plan to do an album of the book until I was about a quarter of the way into it. It came to me that I'd have to record his songs. One excuse for doing it...I`m not comparing the literary worth to Boris Pasternak...but Pasternak, in Dr. Zhivago quotes a collection of Zhivago's poems, and I'd often felt that it was an interesting idea to invent somebody who does something, and then do it - it gives it another dimension of fictional reality.’ 

Q: ‘The book blurb describes you as having been there and made it back again. Do you feel you've returned to sanity?’

‘In a way I do feel as though having absolutely stopped any sort of work with Hawkwind at all is a kind of coming back to sanity and reality. I just couldn't go on performing ‘Silver Machine’ over and over again or ‘Master of the Universe’ and all that stuff for the rest of my life. It's not insanity, it can lead to insanity, in my case it has done actually. On one or two occasions I have got very ill over it. (...) The book is not about the band`s situation as much as the actual types who work in the business itself, who are for the most part horrifying examples of humanity. (....) The music business is a world of its own, divorced from everyday reality entirely, and yet it has quite a big influence on it, this is the alarming thing’’ (Calvert on Gerwers n.d. no pag.).

As can be seen from the quotes above Robert viewed the music industry as ‘divorced from reality’, profit driven, sexually exploitative and heavily populated by ’horrifying examples of humanity’. As a member of Hawkwind he commented ‘we don’t see ourselves as part of the music industry’ and his post Hawkwind comments show that same sense of distance. It is important to view the book through this lens, to see it as a diatribe against a world whose motivations and modus operandi Robert found offensive. Within the book the portrayal of the music industry is almost wholly negative. In the text Robert includes a short passage that highlights one of the key problems of the industry while another passage highlights the constant struggle of the socially conscious artist in the industry. 

The music industry is represented as being competitive, individualistic, macho and instrumentalist in its view of people. Within this Lockean world of permawar there are shifting alliances that temporarily serve individuals' purposes.  

The main character in the book is a record company executive Tony Cahn, the character is constructed by Robert to be both intellectually and emotionally unintelligent, someone who operates by instinct and appetite rather than rationality or empathy. Early in the book he is represented as not being aware of the word ‘anachronism’ (p. 13), he is unsure whether Symes is being mocking when, critiquing Mahler's lyrics, she sardonically comments that women like to feel insignificant (p.38), he observes Hitler was a vegetarian as an implied challenge to the validity of vegetarianism (p. 43), he claims to have some affection for a hamster (that he has named after a work rival), then feeds it to his snake (p. 105-7). Prior to the release of the book the UK had been in recession throughout 1980 and into 1981 (Beckett 2015: xii, 18). Yet Cahn seems unwilling/unable to accept that a recession would affect people’s disposable income thus creating recession in the music industry (p.23, 121). In short, Cahn is constructed  as an embodiment of Kaufman’s observation that ‘a new breed was coming up…guys who seemed incapable of saying what they meant. Of only getting results by deception and confidence trickery.’ not ‘business men at all but conjurers and manipulators of circumstances’ (Calvert 1981: p. 71). Cahn has some sort of low level emotional life - he likes Weingarth (p.62) and experiences jealousy, a sense of shortcoming and sadness having watched his lover be more satisfied by Symes (p.174) - and realises that all he can ‘offer was power. The more power he acquired, the more power he would have to offer…like being on a treadmill…until his power to do so gave out…’ (Calvert 1981: 174). As Gang of Four observed in the track ‘Natural’s Not In It’; ‘Your relations are of power’ (Gang Of Four 1979) 

Throughout the book Cahn is in conflict at work with a colleague, Gifford, however his nemesis is a feminist, Virginia Symes. Symes is given one of the important speeches in the book, via a gig review of the Tom Mahler Band. In the review she observes ‘Let’s by all means have songs about the act of love in all its variations. But let them be double-sided and human, not this form of one-sided onanism that treats women as blow-up dolls with fully working parts. I think it was Arthur Koestler who defined evil as the use of human beings as objects. Isn’t it time that this attitude was stamped out of human consciousness altogether? For songwriters like Mahler it’s as if the feminist movement had never existed. As rock music, in spite of recent signs of its imminent demise, still exerts the most powerful influence on the attitudes of the young, rhymsters like Mahler are a dangerous force’ (Calvert 1981: 90). In this passage Robert has a militant feminist perceptively identify one of the central ills of both the music industry and capitalism more generally, the reduction of people to objects to be used as a means to someone else’s ends - instrumentalism. He also has her call out Mahler’s earlier misogynistic lyrics commenting ‘For songwriters like Mahler it’s as if the feminist movement had never existed’.

The other set piece speech is given by Tom Mahler, who is constructed as a flawed, complex, conflicted character. ‘When he’d started out, Mahler had been a committed artist, with a social and political conscience’ however in order to get a record deal he had had to compromise, writing humorous songs, telling himself that he would ‘go along with them for now, but as soon as I get established, I’ll do what I really want to do. Write songs that reach people and say something useful about their lives’ (Calvert 1981: 153). This desire to write songs about social issues is reignited by a conversation with squatters he stays with near Great Western Road having been thrown out by his girlfriend (p. 139-141). Further on in the book Mahler’s image is being revamped by the record company and one scene can be understood as representing the difficulties for any artist wanting to express social/political concerns. As he starts to speak about the unsustainability of consumerism, observing that ‘Capitalists are just…psychopaths, with a kingsize greed complex’ and that the future under capitalism will be ‘total ruin, ecological collapse’ Sammy, the Press Officer for the record company, starts to seduce him, however he carries on, decrying the effects of burning oil, ‘that craps up the atmosphere’ and the profit motive that enables investment ‘in industries that are ultimately going to devalue the whole planet’ (Calvert 1981; p. 4, 159-60). He keeps talking while her sexual activity increases (p.160).

This passage can be read as concisely highlighting the tension between the politically aware artist and the corporate world. Here Tom Mahler is preoccupied with social and political themes while Quentin, representing the corporate world, is preoccupied with image and the utilisation/deployment  of sex.  

In these two passages the book’s critique of the music industry and by extension capitalism is made clear. Indeed Robert’s description of the late ‘70s music industry turned out to be far more applicable to the UK in general as Thatcher’s neoliberal ‘revolution’ progressed and certain sections of ‘80s ‘yuppie’ Britain came to increasingly resemble the competitive, individualistic, macho world depicted in Hype. 

Within Hype there are few people who express any empathy or affection, Abner Kaufman excepted (p.69). The book is littered with various sex scenes but almost all involve power asymmetries, ulterior motives and humiliation. There is a preoccupation with female physicality and descriptions of women are almost invariably sexualised although this may be due to the reader often apprehending the world through Cahn, the character’s male gaze and the genre of fiction the book falls within. 

Within the book there is an incongruous use of ethnic stereotypes in the narrative (‘oriental impassiveness’ and ‘raised his shoulders in the jewish manner’(p. 70, 30)). These comments seem odd in light of Robert’s overt anti racism, (he refused to return to apartheid South Africa, and in 1976 he spoke of his concern at seeing a black person being beaten up by the police (Barton 1976: no pag.)). However, these comments may be consistent with the genre in that time period or may point to blindspots in the counterculture and/or Robert. As detailed above Britain was a society in which racism had been normalised and Robert, despite a couple of lapses, methodically attributes the same racism to the music industry through the internal and external dialogue of the characters (p. 40, 67, 71, 80, 86, 172).

The book is a scything takedown of a reactionary, toxic form of masculinity. Its stance on feminism is also interesting as the character Symes, who seems to be a feminist and orchestrates a retaliatory (though thwarted) sexual assault on Cahn after his sexual assault/attempted seduction of her, delivers one of the most incisive passages in the book and proves to be a more satisfying sexual partner than Cahn (p. 44-8, 90, 173-4). Later in the book a conversation between Mahler and Anna includes a light hearted reference to ‘women’s lib’ that points to ‘a new division of labour’ that had ended Mahler’s girlfriend’s responsibility for the ‘heavy jobs’ (Calvert 1981: 108). Within the framework of the book Symes is constructed as one of the few people to reject, out-think, outperform and outwit Cahn. Another person who rejects Cahn is his wife who leaves him.   

Within the book there are references to contemporary and historical culture/art; Fear Of Music by Talking Heads is played as is Peter Gabriel’s new album which would have been Gabriel 3 (p. 101, 109). The Day of the Jackal and the 1962 Luis Bunuel film, The Exterminating Angel, are referenced as is the book The Untouchables (p. 149, 140, 85). The 1970 art piece Table by Allen Jones is also referred to (p. 163).

In one prescient passage Robert draws on his knowledge of the nascent computer industry having Cahn visit ‘Wingfield Marketing and Promotions’ where data is being collected on individuals inputted for computer analysis with the results being used for the subsequent manipulation of individuals (p. 58-63). A practice that, in slightly more sophisticated form, is now experienced (and reluctantly) accepted by anyone using the internet. 

The book concludes with Cahn travelling to see the Chairman of APR in the USA. (The front cover of the book, by Alan Craddock, is a depiction of this apex of the record company, the residence of Bauerstein, the American Chairman of APR Records (p. 134-7)). He is given a huge budget for promotion and APR throws money at a press/ad campaign to hype Tom Mahler to fame. In a sense it works however this top down publicity does not translate into sales. However, Mahler’s assassination, while playing live and about to start singing a new song called ‘Black September’, leads to huge merchandise and record sales with Cahn ending up as MD of APR Records in the UK (p. 195-8).

As can be seen from the above Robert was someone who was offended by, and had a sense of alienation from, the music industry due to its ‘profit motive’, sexual exploitation and the fact that it was heavily populated by ’horrifying examples of humanity’. It is important to remember this when reading Hype as it enables the reader to understand the book as a critique of this world and not an affirmation of it. While the book was written prior to 1981 the competitive, individualistic world it depicted became increasingly recognisable in wider society as the ‘80s progressed and the economic and cultural effects of neoliberalism became increasingly established. Although probably unintended, this increasing social relevance means the book can be seen as part of Robert’s prescient description and analysis of life in neoliberal Britain first expressed as part of the Hawklords project. While Hype is an uncomfortable read at times it is important to contextualise it both historically and within Robert’s oeuvre and to remember Robert’s view of the world it was set in.     

Album. 

Littered through the book are references to lyrics and tracks by the Tom Mahler Band (p. 5, 57, 89-90, 97, 164, 180, 195, 197). As Robert said on Newsbeat ‘as I had invented a rock singer I had to, to make it convincing, invent songs for him, that he had written and then I found that I actually starting hearing the songs in my head and this led to composing the songs then recording them and eventually releasing both the novel and the album…at the same time’ (Newsbeat 1981: no pag.).

As Robert also mentions in the Newsbeat interview musicians on the album included ex-members of Bethnal (Csapo, Michaels and Dowling) who had supported Hawkwind in 1977. Also on the album are Simon House, Nik Turner, Trev Thoms, Michael Moorcock, Pete Pavli and Jaqui (wikipedia n.d.: no pag).

Consisting of 12 tracks the album was described by Banks as a ‘collection of well-turned, catchy powerpop, but with a few proto- electronic tunes too, mostly notably the moody synth noir of ‘Flight 105’ and the spiky urban paranoia of ‘The Luminous Green Glow of the Dials on the Dashboard (At Night)’...’ (Banks 2021: no pag.). A reviewer on progarchives.com described it as ‘charming’ and possibly of interest to those whose ‘tastes lean toward the literate, slightly low-fi new wave of the '80s’ (Connolly 2005: no pag.).

In the opening track ‘Over My Head’ the narrator is preoccupied with the physical attractiveness of his companion and therefore uninterested in/unable to concentrate on her conversation about global politics and the arts, this track is quoted by Symes in her take down of Mahler in her review (Calvert 1981: 89-90).

Second track, 'Ambitious' is about someone's partner who has become obsessed with success, as defined by the capitalist system, and the accompanying trappings of material wealth. This single minded pursuit of fame, power and wealth is disrupting their relationship and the narrator fears that when fame and riches have been achieved by his partner she will ditch him (Calvert 1981).

That relationships go through difficult patches, include tensions and can get stuck in a negative loop with no idea of how to break out of that cycle is looked at in ‘It’s the Same’. On a similar theme of relational tensions ‘Sensitive’ is about the difficulties of living with someone who is constantly dissatisfied and critical of their partner’s behaviour (Calvert 1981).

‘Hanging Out on the Seafront’ is about exactly that and fits into the first few paragraphs of Mahler’s intended autobiography (Calvert 1981: 187-91). It may also draw on Robert’s early experiences in Ramsgate (Abrahams 2017: 44).

‘Evil Rock’ seems to be an example of subversive affirmation, in this case the US right wing’s concerns about the perils of rock music! (Calvert 1981)

‘We Like to be Frightened’ runs through several horror film characters including Jekyll and Hyde, Frankenstein and Dracula, the narrator commenting that unless it's a horror film his girlfriend isn't interested in going to the cinema (Calvert 1981).

‘Teen Ballad of Deano’ is about the a young man who commits a robbery at gunpoint and then spends the next week evading the police until eventually he is caught at a roadblock (Calvert 1981)

‘Flight 105’ is a tale of attempted drug smuggling, the protagonist waiting for the arrival of his accomplice who fails to make it through airport security (Calvert 1981).

‘The Luminous Green Glow of the Dials of the Dashboard (At Night)’ is a description of driving through the darkness, comparing it to the experience of being a pilot flying ‘nuclear missions’ (Calvert 1981) 

The last two tracks are ‘Greenfly and the Rose’ and the excellent ‘Lord of the Hornets’. These two tracks seem to have started out as part of a separate project which involved Simon King, Lemmy, Huw Lloyd-Langton and Steve Swindells according to Getts (Getts 1980: no pag.).

Abrahams describes the album as ‘a bright, humorous and poppy selection of songs’ observing that ‘Although some pieces appear underworked, others are among his best compositions’ (Abrahams 2017: 202) .

Show.

Abrahams also reports ‘At one time there was a possibility that Hype would become a stage musical. Steve Swindells explains 'Bob and Jill had this amazing ground floor maisonette in an old Victorian house near Ladbroke Grove…I used to go and hangout with them. (Bob had) written songs to go with the book, and he asked me if I’d try singing some. Bob had this brainwave, to turn it into a musical, and said ‘I want you to star in it’. He had an actress, who had worked a lot with Stephen Berkoff,  all these proper actors who were very snooty with me. We had a week of rehearsals, and then I got double pneumonia; soon after that the production fell apart. I moved out of the area, and we lost touch’ (Abrahams 2017: 202). 

However, in Robert’s show at The Arts Theatre in June 1981 he did play ‘Evil Rock’, ‘Lord of the Hornets’ and ‘We like to be Frightened’ (setlist.fm n.d: no pag.). At a gig at the Marquee in January 1982 he played two tracks from Hype, ‘Hanging Out on the Seafront’ and ‘We like to be Frightened’ (setlist.fm n.d: no pag.).

Robert had intended to do a run of shows built around the music of Hype and Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters in January ‘82 at the Arts Theatre near Leicester Square, the show also included other tracks drawn from various albums and poetry (Banks 2025: no pag. and setlist.fm n.d.: no pag.). However the run failed to happen and the show was only performed twice, once for the press and once for the public (Clerk 2006: 178). The musicians involved included Rat Scabies, ex-members of Bethnal and The Sadista Sisters (Banks 2025: no pag.). The Hype tracks performed on 21 January 1982 were ‘Teen Ballad of Deano’, ‘Evil Rock’,’Over My Head’, ‘Hanging Out on the Seafront’ and ‘We like to be Frightened’ (setlist.fm n.d.: no pag.). 

Conclusion.

As can be seen from the above Hype is a fascinating historical document in which Robert critiqued an industry he felt ran on very different motivations to his own. Its depiction of the toxic masculinity of record company executive Cahn obviously and worryingly rang true for various men within the industry as Robert observes ‘all the reactions I’ve had from people in the business who’ve read it is one of absolute delight in being portrayed in this way, in fact a number of people, who I won’t name, have actually laid claim to being the character that the sort of villainous hero of the book is based on, who by the way is an executive of a record company not a rock star. They want to be Tony Cahn.’ This tends to confirm Robert’s conclusion that many of those in the record industry of the late 70s/early 80s were ‘horrifying examples of humanity’. The book depicts this and inadvertently sounds the alarm over the wider development of similar attitudes within certain sections of British society as the neoliberal ‘80s continued. Interestingly although the ‘70s UK counterculture had blindspots around sexism and feminism Robert included within the story a gay feminist as the nemesis of Cahn having her deliver a central passage about the perpetuation of misogyny within the music industry and the dangers of instrumentalism.  

The accompanying album took shape as Robert was writing the book, as he commented ‘as I had invented a rock singer I had to, to make it convincing, invent songs for him, that he had written and then I found that I actually starting hearing the songs in my head and this led to composing the songs’. The tracks cover a wide range of subject matter from the ‘Lord of the Hornets’ to relational difficulties to drug smuggling!

According to Newsbeat and Steve Swindells there were plans to turn the book and album into a musical and tour however due to illness this never happened although Robert did continue to play tracks from the album.

Bibliography.

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