Hawkwind are an English rock band known as one of the earliest space rock groups. Since their formation in November 1969, Hawkwind have gone through many incarnations and have incorporated many different styles into their music, including hard rock, progressive rock and psychedelic rock. They are regarded as an influential proto-punk band. Their lyrics often cover themes of urban life and science fiction.

Many musicians, dancers and writers have worked with the band since their inception. Key members of Hawkwind have included Nik Turner, Huw Lloyd-Langton, Del Dettmar, Lemmy, Simon King, Robert Calvert, Michael Moorcock, Simon House and Ginger Baker, but the band are most closely associated with their singer, songwriter and guitarist Dave Brock, who founded the band and is the only remaining original member.

Hawkwind are best known for the song "Silver Machine", which became a number-three UK hit single in 1972, and they had further chart singles with "Urban Guerrilla" (another top 40 hit) and "Shot Down in the Night". The band had a run of twenty-two of their albums charting in the UK from 1971 to 1993, and another nine between 2012 and 2024.

Dave Brock and Mick Slattery had been in the London-based psychedelic band Famous Cure, and a meeting with bassist John Harrison revealed a mutual interest in electronic music, which led the trio to embark upon a new musical venture together. Seventeen-year-old drummer Terry Ollis replied to an advert in a music weekly; Nik Turner and Michael "Dik Mik" Davies, old acquaintances of Brock, offered help with transport and gear, but were soon pulled into the band.

Gatecrashing a local talent night at the All Saints Hall, Notting Hill, they were so disorganised as to not even have a name, opting for "Group X" at the last minute, nor any songs, choosing to play an extended 20-minute jam on the Byrds' "Eight Miles High". BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel was in the audience, and was impressed enough to tell event organiser Douglas Smith to keep an eye on them. Smith signed them up and got them a deal with Liberty Records on the back of a deal he was setting up for Cochise.

The band settled on the name "Hawkwind" after briefly being billed as "Group X" and "Hawkwind Zoo".

A session took place at Abbey Road Studios to record demos of "Hurry on Sundown" and other tracks (which were eventually included on the remastered version of the group's debut album Hawkwind), after which Slattery left. He was replaced by Huw Lloyd-Langton who, during his former employment in a musical instrument shop, had known Brock (who at the time was a busker) and sold guitar strings to him.

Pretty Things guitarist Dick Taylor was brought in to produce the 1970 debut album Hawkwind. Although it was not a commercial success, it did bring them to the attention of the UK underground scene, which found them playing free concerts, benefit gigs, and festivals. Playing free outside the Bath Festival, they encountered another Ladbroke Grove–based band, the Pink Fairies, who shared similar interests in music and recreational substances; a friendship developed which led to the two bands becoming running partners and performing as "Pinkwind". Their use of drugs, however, led to the departure of Harrison, who did not partake, to be replaced briefly by Thomas Crimble (about July 1970 – March 1971). Crimble played on a few BBC sessions (which were eventually collected on the album The Text of Festival) before leaving to help organise the Glastonbury Free Festival 1971; he sat in during the band's performance there. Lloyd-Langton also quit, after a bad LSD trip at the Isle of Wight Festival led to a nervous breakdown.