FORGET the world.

The universe is Hawkwind's oyster and the stars the band are inspired by are not on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.

London's space-rock pioneers have recorded almost 30 sci-fi influenced albums and have even worked with NASA in their bid to boldly go where no band has gone before.

And after 45 years Hawkwind have no plans to turn off the warp drive just yet.

Founding member Dave Brock told Weekend that the Hawkwind's music is usually inspired by what he is reading at the time.

The seven-piece band are currently working on When The Machine Stops.

He said: "It’s an interesting story written by E.M. Forster in 1909 and it’s exactly what is going on now.

"It’s about people living on computers so it’s amazing to think the author visualised this would be occurring 100 years later.

"I thought it was a really interesting concept because people do just live in their rooms while their computer does everything for them.

"When you think about it, around that era you had Twenty Thousands Leagues Under The Sea and all these stories by guys who could foresee the future."

Hawkwind's psychedelic progressive sound has also been used on numerous films like Universal Soldier and Any Given Sunday.

Dave added: "We’ve done a few soundtracks to major films. It’s a pity we didn’t do Gravity. We could have done a wonderful soundtrack to that!

"We’ve done a lot for NASA over the years as well. We did soundtracks for the Mars Landings and stuff like that. In fact we’ve got a signed picture from Buzz Aldrin."

Dave said that even after 45 years it is important for him to keep being creative.

"You wouldn't want to become a tribute to yourself," said the 73-year-old whose music has inspired the Sex Pistols and Henry Rollins.

"For us, we constantly write new stuff and try and do different things because it’s like painting pictures with sounds.

"If you were an artist you wouldn’t keep painting the same picture. It would get boring.

"I suppose what really gives me the most satisfaction is being able to keep going.

"It’s a bit like old blues musicians. When I was young, and Muddy Waters came over to Britain, I thought what a fantastic thing to see one of the great icons of blues.

"Now a lot of bands have gone into their 60s and 70s and in a way it’s like all those old blues musicians.

"People still want to go and see what they’re like.

"We do our own little festival in Devon called Hawkeaster and we get lots of different bands there which makes it interesting.

"It’s quite difficult for young bands to play because years ago there used to be lots of free festivals.

"Bands used to just turn up and that’s what we did in 1969. We used to play outside festivals on a flat back lorry.

"We did it at Glastonbury, we did it at the Isle of Wight and it’s very difficult for bands to do those kinds of things nowadays.

"Either they get arrested or moved on."

So the band, who once had Motorhead's Lemmy within their ranks, help the next generation wherever they can.

Dave added: "Quite often students who are making films for their exams get in touch with us and ask if they can use our music and we just say go ahead and do it.

"Because when they go through the publishing companies they just want loads of money and put up obstacles for the poor guy doing it."

Hawkwind, whose biggest hit was UK number three Silver Machine, are also renowned for their live shows with dancers, projections and psychedelic lighting.

So expect quite a performance when they dazzle a Parr Hall crowd tonight, Thursday.

Dave said: "Our contortionist Eloise is a fantastic dancer who does all these amazing aerial movements.

"With the dancers we have to work out the backing tracks and choreography and all these things so it all takes quite a lot of organising. It's like putting on a whole show on top of the gig."

- Hawkwind play at Parr Hall tonight, Thursday, with support from Focus.

Tickets are £22.50 and are still available. Visit pyramidparrhall.com or call 442345.