FOUR decades after they first blew minds and amps with their audacious ‘space rock’, Hawkwind are back on the road.

The legendary performers have just released their latest album Onwards, which at the time of writing is topping the Amazon chart, and will be touring throughout the summer in Britain and Europe, performing small gigs and also bigger festivals.

They are playing the Electric Palace in Bridport on Friday, a town that guitarist and band founder Dave Brock knows well, having lived near Honiton, where he has a farm and studio, for the past 40 tears.

“It will be nice to come back to Bridport,” he said. “We played a charity gig at the rugby club there some years back and we also like it down at West Bay, so it will be nice to get back there.”

Hawkwind was formed by former busker Dave in 1969 and quickly developed a massive fan base. They played outside the perimeter fence at the Isle of Wight festival in 1970 in protest at its entry charges – Jimi Hendrix was spotted in their audience – and the same year also played at the first Glastonbury Festival, not something they would do now.

“Glastonbury has become too massive now and we don’t like doing those sort of festivals,” said Dave.

Electric Palace tickets are £20 standing, £22.50 seated. Call 01308 424901 for full details and bookings.