Motorblog 2

A little something about my favourite rocker's:- In 1975 Lemmy (b. Ian Kilmister, 24 December 1945, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England; vocals, bass) was sacked from Hawkwind after being detained for five days at Canadian customs on possession charges. The last song he wrote for them was entitled 'Motörhead', and, after ditching an earlier suggestion, Bastard, this became the name of the band he formed with Larry Wallis of the Pink Fairies on guitar and Lucas Fox on drums.

Together they made their debut supporting Greenslade at the Roundhouse, London, in July. Fox then left to join Warsaw Pakt, and was replaced by 'Philthy' Phil Taylor (b. 21 September 1954, Chesterfield, England; drums), a casual friend of Lemmy's with no previous professional musical experience. Motörhead was a four-piece band for less than a month, with Taylor's friend 'Fast' Eddie Clarke (b. 5 October 1950, Isleworth, Middlesex, England) of Continuous Performance as second guitarist, until Wallis returned to the Pink Fairies.

The Lemmy/Taylor/Clarke combination lasted six years until 1982, in which time they became the most famous trio in hard rock. With a following made up initially of Hell's Angels (Lemmy had formerly lived with their president, Tramp, for whom he wrote the biker epic 'Iron Horse'), the band made their official debut with the eponymous 'Motörhead'/'City Kids'. A similarly titled debut album charted, before the group moved over to Bronze Records.

Overkill and Bomber firmly established the group's modus operandi, a fearsome barrage of instruments topped off by Lemmy's hoarse invocations. They toured the world regularly and enjoyed hits with 'Ace Of Spades' (one of the definitive heavy metal performances, it graced a 1980 album of the same name that saw the band at the peak of their popularity) and the number 5 single 'Please Don't Touch' (as Headgirl ). Their reputation as the best live band of their generation was further enhanced by the release of No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith, which entered the UK charts at number 1.

In May 1982 Clarke left, citing musical differences, and was replaced by Brian Robertson (b. 12 September 1956, Glasgow, Scotland), who had previously played with Thin Lizzy and Wild Horses. This combination released Another Perfect Day, but this proved to be easily the least popular of all Motörhead line-ups. Robertson was replaced in November 1983 by Wurzel (b. Michael Burston, 23 October 1949, Cheltenham, England; guitar) - so-called on account of his scarecrow-like hair - and Philip Campbell (b. 7 May 1961, Pontypridd, Wales; guitar, ex- Persian Risk ), thereby swelling the Motörhead ranks to four. Two months later and, after a final appearance on television's The Young Ones, Taylor left to join Robertson in Operator, and was replaced by ex- Saxon drummer Pete Gill. Gill remained with the band until 1987 and played on several fine albums including their GWR debut Orgasmatron, the title track of which saw Lemmy's lyric-writing surpass itself.

By 1987 Phil Taylor had rejoined Motörhead, and the line-up remained unchanged for five years, during which time Lemmy made his acting debut in the Comic Strip film Eat The Rich, followed by other celluloid appearances including the role of a taxi driver in Hardware. In 1991 the group signed to Epic Records, releasing the acclaimed 1916. The following year's March Or Die featured the American Mikkey Dee (ex-King Diamond) on drums and guest appearances by Ozzy Osbourne and Slash (Guns N'Roses). The title track revealed a highly sensitive side to Lemmy's lyrical and vocal scope in the way it dealt with the horrors of war. The idiosyncratic Lemmy singing style, usually half-growl, half-shout, and with his neck craned up at 45 degrees to the microphone, remained in place.

On a more traditional footing they performed the theme song to the horror film Hellraiser 3, and convinced the film's creator, Clive Barker, to record his first promotional video with the band. Lemmy also hammed his way through insurance adverts, taking great delight in his press image of the unreconstructed rocker. Wurzel left the band and formed Wvkeaf in 1996. Now recording as a trio, the band released their nineteenth album (Snake Bite Love) in 1998. Since '98 there have been three more studio albums namely (We are Motorhead, Hammered,and the brilliant Inferno) and somewhere in between was the live album (Everything louder than everything else, they will be touring again in november so hopefully i'll get to see them again as last year's gig was awesome, so more of the same please!!

3Steel x