Centigrade 232 is an album of poems by English writer and musician Robert Calvert

Robert Calvert

Robert Calvert was a writer, poet, and musician.-Biography:Born Robert Newton Calvert in Pretoria, South Africa, Calvert's parents moved to England when he was two years of age and later attended school in London and Margate. He began his career by writing poetry and in 1967 formed a Street...

, recorded in 1986 and released in 2007. The poem Centigrade 232 was set to music by Spirits Burning

Spirits Burning

Spirits Burning is a musical collective that has released a combination of ambient, jazz and full-on space-rock with input from many of the genre's luminaries, most notably Gong's Daevid Allen and members of Hawkwind. Spirits Burning is overseen by American composer/producer Don Falcone.-History:In...

 in 2001. Some titles were set to music by Hawkwind

Hawkwind

Hawkwind are an English rock band, one of the earliest space rock groups. Their lyrics favour urban and science fiction themes. They are also a noted precursor to punk rock and now are considered a link between the hippie and punk cultures....

 and issued as The Brock/Calvert Project in 2007.

Overview

Calvert had regarded himself first and foremost as a poet and writer and his original involvement with the English rock group Hawkwind

Hawkwind

Hawkwind are an English rock band, one of the earliest space rock groups. Their lyrics favour urban and science fiction themes. They are also a noted precursor to punk rock and now are considered a link between the hippie and punk cultures....

 from 1971 was as a lyricist and narrator of "space-age poetry" at gigs. It was later as a solo performer and his second spell with Hawkwind from 1976 that he had become more recognised as being a singer and front-man of a rock band, but he continued actively writing poems and plays during this time.

In 1977 a collection of his poems were compiled and published by Quasar books, the title being (allegedly) the temperature at which writing paper burns "signifying the writer destroying his rough drafts". This is an allusion to the Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury

Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...

 novel Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 is a 1953 dystopian novel by Ray Bradbury. The novel presents a future American society where reading is outlawed and firemen start fires to burn books...

and possibly the film

Fahrenheit 451 (1966 film)

Fahrenheit 451 is a 1966 film directed by François Truffaut, in his first colour film as well as his only English-language film. It is based on the novel of the same name by Ray Bradbury....

 thereof, 451 degrees Fahrenheit being equivalent to 232 Centigrade/Celsius.

Some of the poems are pieces he had performed with Hawkwind during the Space Ritual

Space Ritual

The Space Ritual Alive in Liverpool and London is a 1973 live double album recorded in 1972 by UK rock band Hawkwind. It is their fourth album, reached #9 in the UK album charts and briefly dented the Billboard Top 200, peaking at #179....

show, such as "The First Landing On Medusa" which was performed as "The Awakening". Others would be adapted into Hawkwind songs, such as "The Starfarer's Despatch" and "The Clone's Poem" which were combined into "Spirit of the Age". The poem "Circle Line" won the Capital Radio Poetry Award in 1975. The book received a launch party at Battersea Arts Centre, London, which also featured performances from Cream

Cream (band)

Cream were a 1960s British rock supergroup consisting of bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce, guitarist/vocalist Eric Clapton, and drummer Ginger Baker...

 lyricist Pete Brown

Pete Brown

Peter Ronald Brown is an English performance poet and lyricist.Best known for his collaborations with Jack Bruce, Brown also worked with The Battered Ornaments, formed his own group Pete Brown & Piblokto!, and worked with Graham Bond and Phil Ryan. Brown also writes film scores and formed a film...

 and Gong

Gong (band)

Gong is a Franco-British progressive/psychedelic rock band formed by Australian musician Daevid Allen. Their music has also been described as space rock. Other notable band members include Allan Holdsworth, Tim Blake, Didier Malherbe, Pip Pyle, Gilli Smyth, Steve Hillage, Francis Moze, Mike Howlett...

's Daevid Allen

Daevid Allen

Daevid Allen , sometimes credited as Divided Alien, an Australian poet, guitarist, singer, composer and performance artist is co-founder of psychedelic rock groups Soft Machine and Gong .-Biography:In 1960, inspired by the Beat Generation writers he had discovered...

 and Gilli Smyth

Gilli Smyth

Gilli Smyth is a musician who performed with the bands Gong, Mother Gong and Planet Gong as well as several solo albums and albums in collaborations other members of Gong...

.

In 1986 Calvert started issuing cassette tapes of his work under the imprint of Harbour Publications. One of these tapes was the full recitation of the Centigrade 232 collection. Other releases comprised recitations of the unpublished Earth Ritual poems collection and two music tapes, Blueprints from the Cellar Volumes 1 and 2, which contained home demos of songs, some of which would be released in completed form on the albums Freq

Freq

Freq is a 1985 album by English singer and musician Robert Calvert.It was recorded during the time of the UK miners' strike and in between the songs it features snippets of field recordings by Calvert with miners on a picket line, with Calvert displaying his sympathy for their cause.The lyrics...

and Test Tube Conceived

Test Tube Conceived

-Side 1:#"Invitro Breed"#"The Rah Rah Man"#"Telekinesis"#"I Hear Voices"#"Fanfare for the Perfect Race"-Side 2:#"On Line"#"Save Them From the Scientists"#"Fly on the Wall"#"Thanks to the Scientists"#"Test-Tube Conceived"-Personnel:...

.

Calvert's Centigrade 232 tape recitation was first used with music on the second Spirits Burning

Spirits Burning

Spirits Burning is a musical collective that has released a combination of ambient, jazz and full-on space-rock with input from many of the genre's luminaries, most notably Gong's Daevid Allen and members of Hawkwind. Spirits Burning is overseen by American composer/producer Don Falcone.-History:In...

 album Reflections In A Radio Shower, released in 2001. Don Falcone

Don Falcone

Don Falcone is an American musician and producer. Originally a poet-performer in Pennsylvania, he relocated to San Francisco at the beginning of the 1980s. He was a member of Thessalonians and the original Melting Euphoria...

 took the original recording of Calvert reading his poem Centigrade 232 and integrated it into the track Drive-By Poetry. Lines from another Centigrade 232 poem appear on the CD's opening track Second Degree Soul Sparks.

In October 2007, Voiceprint Records

Voiceprint Records

Voiceprint Records is a company and record label based in England, founded in 1990 by Rob Ayling. They specialise in re-releasing old material, especially progressive rock, but also have new releases, all under the Voiceprint and other imprints....

 re-issued Centigrade 232 in a package containing both a reprint of the 1977 book and a CD of the 1986 recitations.

Voiceprint Records label head Rob Ayling passed a copy of the cassette tape of Calvert's recitations to Dave Brock

Dave Brock

David Anthony "Dave" Brock is an English singer-songwriter and musician. He plays electric guitar, synthesizer, bass and oscillators. He is best known as being one of the founders and musical focus of the English space rock group Hawkwind...

 and asked him to set some of the titles to music. The music was played by the then current line-up of Hawkwind, but some titles were lost at the mixing stage delaying the release until August 2007.

Centigrade 232

All titles by Robert Calvert
The First Landing on Medusa

1. "Swing"
2. "Ode To A Crystal Set"
3. "The First Landing On Medusa"
4. "Ode To A Time Flower"
5. "Some Sketches Of A Hand"
6. "The Starfarer's Despatch"
7. "Song Of The Gremlin"
8. "The Pause"
9. "The Clone's Poem"
10. "Centigrade 232"
11. "Fahrenheit 451"
12. "The Naked And Transparent Man Gives Thanks"

Buster Keaton And The Virgin Sperm Dancer

1. "Dance Steps"
2. "Lines For A Conception Card"
3. "Lady With A Looking Glass"
4. "The Siren"
5. "Buster Keaton And The Virgin Sperm Dancer"
6. "Your Time"
7. "A Refusal To Mourn The Removal, By Surgery, Of Two Benign Tumours"
8. "Circle Line"
9. "An Unposted Letter"

The Urban Mountaineer

1. "The Clerk"
2. "Cleaning A Rapidograph"
3. "A Letter Of Complaint To The Council"
4. "Fly On The Screen"
5. "The Recovery"
6. "Nail Biter"
7. "Mountaineering In Suburbia"
8. "The Last Kitten"
9. "Caterpillar"
10. "Snowfall"
11. "Insomnia"
12. "Storm"
13. "Overslept"
14. "The Day We Hunted Birdsong"
15. "Fountains In The Park"
16. "Coots"
17. "Ragworm In A Rock Pool"
18. "Shell"
19. "Beachcombing"

Ragworm In A Rock Pool

1. "Seagulls (1)"
2. "Seagulls (2)"
3. "Recollections Of A Seaside Love Affair"
4. "The Drowned Man"

The Red Baron Regrets

1. "Churchill's Secret Rock Deal"
2. "The Red Baron Regrets"
3. "John Keats At Margate"
4. "Voodoo Child (In Memory Of Jimi Hendrix)"
5. "The Legend Of Ezra Pound"

The Brock/Calvert Project

All words by Robert Calvert. All music by Dave Brock

Dave Brock

David Anthony "Dave" Brock is an English singer-songwriter and musician. He plays electric guitar, synthesizer, bass and oscillators. He is best known as being one of the founders and musical focus of the English space rock group Hawkwind...

, except 9 and 11 by Brock and Jason Stuart

1. "First Landing on Medusa"
2. "The Siren"
3. "Ode to a Timeflower"
4. "Small Boy (The Swing)"
5. "Centigrade 232"
6. "Dance Steps"
7. "The Naked and the Transparent Man Gives Thanks"
8. "The Cupboard"
9. "Long Time Friend"
10. "Letter of Complaint to the Council"
11. "Locked In"
12. "Some Sketches of a Hand"

Personnel

• Robert Calvert
  Robert Calvert
  Robert Calvert was a writer, poet, and musician.-Biography:Born Robert Newton Calvert in Pretoria, South Africa, Calvert's parents moved to England when he was two years of age and later attended school in London and Margate. He began his career by writing poetry and in 1967 formed a Street...
  
   – recitation
• Dave Brock
  Dave Brock
  David Anthony "Dave" Brock is an English singer-songwriter and musician. He plays electric guitar, synthesizer, bass and oscillators. He is best known as being one of the founders and musical focus of the English space rock group Hawkwind...
  
   – guitar, synths, keyboards, vocals
• Jason Stuart – keyboards
• Alan Davey
  Alan Davey (musician)
  Alan Davey is best known as the former bassist with Hawkwind. He is now the bass player and vocalist for Gunslinger as well as Hawklords, Meads of Asphodel, and Thunor.-Early musical career:...
  
   – bass
• Richard Chadwick – drums
• Trixie Smith – vocals

Release history

• 1977 – Quasar Publications – book
• 1986 – Harbour Publications – Cassette tape
• 2001 – Gazul Records (GA 8647.AR) – Spirits Burning
  Spirits Burning
  Spirits Burning is a musical collective that has released a combination of ambient, jazz and full-on space-rock with input from many of the genre's luminaries, most notably Gong's Daevid Allen and members of Hawkwind. Spirits Burning is overseen by American composer/producer Don Falcone.-History:In...
  
  Reflections In A Radio Shower CD
• October 2007 – Voiceprint Records (VP403CDMO) – CD and book
• August 2007 – Voiceprint Records (HAWKVP42CD) – The Brock/Calvert Project CD