They Play Rock'n'Roll..the Motorhead story

http://www.imotorhead.com/

IF THIS BAND MOVED IN NEXT DOOR YOUR LAWN WOULD DIE.....or so the press kit read when Motorhead got on the pages of that pukey f**kin, metal hating, NME magazine....but I digress....I know I done a Lemmy blog already, but I figured to be only fair that I'd give his fellow motorheadbangers a shout out as well...SO, lets talk Fast Eddie, Philthy, Robbo, Wurzel, Pete Gill Mikkey Dee and Phil Campbell...

It is said that the first look you get at a band is the permanent impression it leaves you with...and the first time I saw Motorhead was on Countdown and the track Molly played was "Iron Fist", turns out Lemmy and et all hate the fkn thing BUT I like it and it provoked me into getting my hands on as much Motorhead product as I could ...the second song I heard/saw was on Donnie Sutherlands "Sounds" one saturday and it was "Louie, Louie"  by this stage I was f**king hooked anyway,  after wearing out a vinyl copy of Iron fist album and deepening the grooves in a copy of Bomber as well....fortunately I had a great source of all things Motorhead, hell, metal in general, Utopia records in Martin Place in Sydney, its somewhere else now, but the underground and I mean that literally, store in Martin Place was just f**king awesome and a great place to hang out and grab your copy of KERRANG and any slab of molten vinyl that you'd heard off (for the most part anyway)....

Anyway, thanks to Utopia, and the guys there knowing my love for a great live album, a copy of "No Sleep till Hammersmith" soon got into my grasp and also around this time I got a whiz bang, you beaut, super awesome MARANTZ stereo and a set of dj quality cans off of Yogi...and with all these tools at my use I sure as hell tried to send myself deaf real quick...didnt work, well, sort of...WHAT?...hehehhe....

For the life of me I dunno how Motorhead havent cracked it for millionaires...shitty management and crappy record deals I guess, but, if anyone deserved to be well off its Lem and the boys...I have done my fair share getting their albums that have grabbed my fancy...great awesome albums along the like of  1916, ORGASMATRON, INFERNO, IRON FIST, ACE OF SPADES, MOTORIZER...now to members other than the great man himself.

I dunno nothing about Lucas Fox and Larry wotever his name was, so I wont say anything about them, if that's o.k, the first line up of the 'Head that got my attention was,  like I said , the one who released Iron Fist and a whole other stack of classic albums...Fast Eddie on axe and Philthy Phil Taylor on tub thumping...both can be considered more than casual users of the drug of choice of the band, the good old get up and go dust, yep speed, hence their waifish figures during this era of the band...Phil had met Lemmy like most other people met Lemmy, while Lem was playing a fruit machine, he asked Phil if he had any change (either that or he bought some goey off him hehehe....)....Motorhead legend dictates that Phil gave Lemmy a lift to rehearsals one day and the drummer wasnt there BUT his kit was , so Phil had a bash and the general consensus by Lemmy and Lucas was that he was a great drummer and I quote" a 'orrible little c**t, his marvellous"...so the Animal got the drum stool...the band wasnt making squat so Phil was painting a houseboat and his foreman on the job was on Eddie Clarke..Phil talked Eddie into having a play because Lem was thinking he wanted twin guitars ala Thin Lizzy..Eddie showed up at rehearsal BUT Lucas didnt show up for about 8 hours and only stayed 20 minutes when he did..so Lem flicked him and went around to Eddies a couple of days later at sparrows fart, knocked on the door Eddie opened up wearing nothing but jocks (cause he had just got to bed) and Lemmy handed him a leather jacket and bullet belt and walked off...So Eddie was Motorheads new axe slinger.

Eddie lasted a fair while but his demise came after Lem did a recording of "Stand by your man" with Wendy O Williams of the Plasmatics, he also was the producer on Iron Fist, he doesnt like it, Lem doesnt like it, dunno what Philthy thinks ...BUT...I like it....So Eddie said "go to buggery" and split...his replacement, Robbo from Thin Lizzy, now  Robbo was a different kind of cat, to be sure, he used to play Motorhead shows in leg warmers and ballet shoes just to piss Lemmy off..needless to say his ploy worked, Lemmy still gets the shits about his dRess sense even today...

So Robbo got sent on his merry way, and Lem ran try outs for the guitar spot...the final two were Phil Campbell and Michael Burston or Wurzel if you like..turned out they got on so well that Lem had decided to meet up and offer both of them the job, just as he was leaving to see the new guitar lineup, Philthy called him and quit, causing Lemmy to quip: "Did I leave them or did they leave me?". Before joining Motörhead, Phil Campbell had met ex-Saxon drummer Pete Gill, and the trio decided to call him to see if he would like to visit London. The try-outs went well and Gill was hired...SO for about 35 minutes Motorhead consisted of only Lemmy...anyway.....Bronze Records thought the new line-up would not make the grade and decided to "nail down the lid" on the group with a compilation album. When Lemmy found out, he took over the project, selecting tracks, providing sleeve notes and insisted that Motörhead record four brand new tracks to go at the end of each side of the album.....The single "Killed by Death" was released on 1 September and reached No. 51 in the UK Singles Chart, the double album No Remorse was released on 15 September and reached silver disc status, attaining the position of No. 14 in the UK Album charts

The band were involved in a court case with Bronze over the next two years, believing that their releases were not being promoted properly, and the record company banned them from the recording studio....The band looked to more touring for income; Australia and New Zealand in late July to late August, a brief tour of Hungary in September, and the No Remorse "Death On The Road" tour....

The band also toured America with Canadian speed metal band Exciter and Danish Metal band Mercyful Fate ..... To celebrate the band's tenth anniversary, two shows were arranged at Hammersmith Odeon on 28 and 29 June, a video of the second show was taken and later released as The Birthday Party. 

The court case with Bronze was finally settled in the band's favour. The band's management instigated their own label, GWR.....Recording took place in Master Rock Studios, London and the single "Deaf Forever" was released on 5 July as a taster for the Orgasmatron album, On 16 August, the band played at the Monsters of Rock at Castle Donington and was recorded by BBC Radio 1 for a future Friday Rock Show broadcast. The performance closed with a flyover by a couple of Second World War German aircraft. Also that day Lemmy was filmed giving his views on spoof metal act "Bad News" for inclusion in a Peter Richardson Comic Strip film entitled "More Bad News" since the band featuring Rik Mayall, Peter Richardson, Nigel Planer and Adrian Edmondson were also performing at Donington. In September the band conducted their "Orgasmatron" tour in Great Britain, supported by fledgling act Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction. In October they toured America and in December were in Germany.

In 1987, during the filming of Eat the Rich — in which Lemmy was taking a starring role alongside well-known comedy actors such as Robbie Coltrane, Kathy Burke, the regulars from The Comic Strip ensemble, and various other musician cameo appearances ,Pete Gill left the band and Taylor returned to appear in the band's cameo as "In House Club Band" alongside Würzel and Campbell. ....The band wrote "Eat the Rich" especially for the film, its soundtrack featured tracks from Orgasmatron and Würzel's solo single "Bess"....Then came probably my favourite Motorhead album..1916...and true to form the boys had producer problems , for instance...When Lemmy listened to one of the mixes of "Going to Brazil", he asked for him to turn up four tracks, and on doing so heard claves and tambourines that Stasium had added without their knowledge. Stasium was fired and Pete Solley was hired as producer. The story according to Stasium was that Lemmy's drug and alcohol intake had far exceeded the limitations of Stasium's patience so he quit....man had some awesome patience then

On 28 March 1992 the band played what would turn out to be Taylor's last engagement at Irvine Meadows, Irvine, California.....The band had been wanting Lemmy to get rid of their manager, Doug Banker, for some time and after an unsolicited visit from Todd Singerman, who insisted he should manage them despite never having managed a band before, the band met with Singerman and decided to take him on board, firing Banker....In the midst of this, the band were recording an album at Music Grinder Studios, in the city's east part of Hollywood during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Three drummers participated in the making of the March ör Die album: Phil Taylor, who was fired because he did not learn the drum tracks on the song "I Ain't No Nice Guy"; Tommy Aldridge who recorded most of the material on the album; and Mikkey Dee, who recorded "Hellraiser", a song originally written by Lemmy for Ozzy Osbourne's No More Tears album. The March ör Die album features guest appearances by Ozzy Osbourne and Slash.

Lemmy had known Mikkey Dee from the time when King Diamond had toured with Motörhead. He had asked Dee to become Motörhead's drummer before, but Dee had declined due to his commitment to King Diamond. On this occasion, Dee was available and met the band to try out. Playing the song "Hellraiser" first, Lemmy thought "he was very good immediately. It was obvious that it was going to work."  Dee's first engagement with Motörhead was on 30 August at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. .... A new producer was sought for the band's next album and eventually Howard Benson, who was to produce the band's next four albums, was chosen. The band recorded at A & M Studios and Prime Time Studios in Hollywood and the resultant album, Bastards, was released on 29 November 1993. The single "Don't Let Daddy Kiss Me" included the song "Born to Raise Hell" which also appeared on the album and would later be re-recorded with collaborative vocals from both Ice-T and Ugly Kid Joe frontman, Whitfield Crane .....It became clear that Würzel was not extending himself and left the band after the recording Sacrifice, Lemmy says it was his Wurz's girlfriend at the time, pulling a Yoko, trying to convince Wurz he was the star.... The upswing was they were back to a trio, BUT Phil said I can handle it and after zooming around the stage at a gig and not missing a note, the band decided to continue as a three-man line-up and a tour of Europe was performed throughout October and the first two days of November. A three-day tour of South America followed the week after. Lemmy celebrated his 50th Birthday later that year with the band at the Whiskey A Go Go in Los Angeles; Metallica played at the event under the name "The Lemmy's".

The Sacrifice album was released on 15 October, the first official album of the band as a three-piece since Another Perfect Day and the best distributed album the band had had for years...During 1997, the band toured extensively, beginning with the first leg of the Overnight Sensation tour in Europe on 12 January at the London Astoria, where the guest musicians were Todd Campbell, Phil Campbell's son, on "Ace of Spades" and Fast Eddie Clarke for "Overkill". The European leg lasted until March  In August, three dates in Europe were followed by seven dates in Britain, which ended with a show at the Brixton Academy on 25 October, where the guest musician was Paul Inder, Lemmy's son, for "Ace of Spades". ....Lemmy recalled that the touring was going particularly well, with some countries like Argentina and Japan putting the band in larger venues, and the English promoters discovered that "they could turn a nice profit with Motörhead shows". In his opinion the three-piece line-up were performing excellently and it was high time they made another live record

In May 2000, the release of We Are Motörhead and the single from it, a cover of the Sex Pistol's "God Save the Queen", coincided with the start of the band's "We Are Motörhead" tour 

Four dates in Japan preceded the band's 25th Anniversary concert on 22 October at the Brixton Academy in London, where guest appearances were made by "Fast" Eddie Clarke, Brian May, Doro Pesch, Whitfield Crane, Ace, Paul Inder and Todd Campbell. The show also featured the return of the Bomber-lighting rig. The event was filmed and released the following year as the 25 & Alive Boneshaker DVD, and the CD of the show, Live at Brixton Academy, was released two years after that.....Lemmy states the reason for the DVD as wanting "to record it for the posterity or whatever it is. I nodded off through the tenth anniversary, we never did anything on the twentieth, so the twenty-fifth made sense.

 On 1 April 2001 the band gave a one song performance for Triple H's entrance at WrestleMania X-Seven and blew the roof off the Reliant Astrodome in Houston....In April 2002 a DVD of some of Motörhead's performances from the '70s and '80s along with some stock footage of the band was released as The Best of Motörhead.  the band were supported by Hawkwind, with Lemmy performing "Silver Machine" on stage with them. ......In April and May 2003, the band continued to promote the Hammered album in the States, and on the three dates Phil Campbell had to miss, his mother having died, Todd Youth stood in for him..... The boys played a tour with Sepultura in support and on the show played on 7 December at the Philipshalle in Düsseldorf the gig was filmed and later released as the Stage Fright DVD...One of my personal favourite gig dvds EVER

Motörhead picked up their first Grammy in the awards of 2005 in the Best Metal Performance category for their cover of Metallica's "Whiplash" on Metallic Attack: The Ultimate Tribute. From March until early May, the band toured the United States, and in June and August were on the "30th Anniversary" tour in Europe. On 22 August, the band were the subject of an hour-long documentary, Live Fast, Die Old, which was aired on Channel 4 as part of The Other Side series of documentaries.....During the show at the Brixton Academy on 19 November, Lemmy joined Girlschool on stage to play "Please Don't Touch". .....

The boys have lent their name to some fairly obscure things, well, given Motorheads lifestyle, the band have a sponsorship deal with the Greenbank B under-10s football team from North Hykeham, Lincoln, putting the band's name as well as War-Pig on the team's shirts; the under-10s run out to "Ace of Spades". Lemmy is old friends with Gary Weight, the team's manager; Weight "sent an email off to them and they came back and said it was a great idea" and hopes the deal will draw inspired performances from his team....Lem also has a sponsorship deal with the UK Roller Derby team the Lincolnshire Bombers Roller Girls....lets see FOOTBALL, WRESTLING & ROLLERDERBY...me and Lem think alike apparently

In November 2009, the band were supported punk and goth rock legends The Damned on the UK leg of their world tour. On The Damned's official website, Captain Sensible is quoted as saying:..."Ha ha ... we're working with Lemmy again are we? Excellent! He's the real deal, the absolute antithesis to all that the likes of Simon Cowell stand for. And for that we should all be grateful. This tour will be a celebration of all things rock 'n' roll ... pity the poor roadies is all I can say!"

In celebration of their 35 years on the road, it was announced on 24 November 2011 the release of The Wörld Is Ours - Vol 1 - Everywhere Further Than Everyplace Else, a live DVD of Motörhead's ..... Motörhead didn't play the final four shows during this tour, since Lemmy has experienced a combination of a viral upper respiratory infection and a voice strain, resulting in severe laryngitis. Lemmy wrote this message on Facebook, "I'm giving my voice a good rest", 

In an April 2012 interview with Classic Rock Revisited, Lemmy was asked if Motörhead were planning to make a follow-up to The Wörld Is Yours. He replied, "We have not started writing any songs yet but we will. We put out an album out every two years. I will continue to do that as long as I can afford an amp."....In  2012, Lemmy told Auburn Reporter that Motörhead will release their next album in 2013 and they had written "about 6 songs so far." On 23 October 2012, Lemmy told Billboard.com that the band had planned to enter the studio in January to begin recording the album for a mid-2013 release.On 28 February 2013, it was announced that Motörhead had begun recording their new album.Motörhead released the live DVD The Wörld Is Ours - Vol. 2 - Anyplace Crazy As Anywhere Else in September 2012.
Style 

Motörhead's overwhelmingly loud and fast style of heavy metal was one of the most groundbreaking styles the genre had to offer in the late '70s" and though "Motörhead wasn't punk rock ... they were the first metal band to harness that energy and, in the process, they created speed metal and thrash metal." Whether they created these genres might be subject to debate, but Motörhead were unquestionably influential.

Lemmy has stated that he generally feels more kinship with punk rockers than with metal bands: Motörhead had engagements with fellow Brits The Damned, with whom he played bass on a handful of late 1970s engagements, as well as having penned the song "R.A.M.O.N.E.S." as a tribute to the Ramones. Motörhead, Lemmy states, have more in common aesthetically with The Damned than Black Sabbath, and nothing whatsoever in common with Judas Priest. Lemmy says he feels little kinship with the speed metal bands Motörhead have inspired:

"They've just got the wrong bit. They think that being fast and loud is the whole thing and it isn't. The guitar solos are not really difficult for a guitar player, it's just playing scales. To feel a solo and bend into it & I mean Hendrix is the best guitarist you've ever seen in your life. And he learned from people like Buddy Guy, Lightnin' Hopkins and people like that inspired Hendrix. To be influenced by something, you're gonna have to play it the same."

The NME stated that their brief solos were just long enough "... to open another bottle of beer", while a 1977 Stereo Review commented that "they know they're like animals, and they don't want to appear any other way. In view of the many ugly frogs in heavy metal who think they are God's gift to womankind these Quasimodos even seem charming in their own way".Motörhead's approach has not changed drastically over the band's career, though this is a deliberate choice: erstwhile Motörhead drummer Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor said that rock icons like Chuck Berry and Little Richard never drastically altered their style, and, like them, Motörhead preferred to play what they enjoyed and did best.

THE WORLD IS YOURS

MOTORIZER

BETTER MOTORHEAD THAN DEAD

KISS OF DEATH

INFERNO

STONE DEAF FOREVER (BOX)

LIVE AT BRIXTON ACADEMY

HAMMERED

THE BEST OF MOTORHEAD

WE ARE MOTORHEAD

EVERYTHING LOUDER THAN EVERYONE ELSE

SNAKE BITE LOVE

OVERNIGHT SENSATION

SACRIFICE

BASTARDS

MARCH OR DIE

1916

NO SLEEP AT ALL

ROCK N' ROLL

ORGASMATRON

NO REMORSE

ANOTHER PERFECT DAY

IRON FIST

NO SLEEP TIL HAMMERSMITH

ACE OF SPADES

BOMBER

OVERKILL

MOTORHEAD

AFTERSHOCK