MOTÖRHEAD IMMORTALISED IN WEST HOLLYWOOD AS THE IRON MAIDENS HEAD STAR-STUDDED ULTIMATE JAM

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Two days of solid partying provided many memorable moments as an impressive cast of rockers gathered at the Whisky A Go-Go for Ultimate Jam Night, the long-running free weekly music program founded by Quiet Riot’s Chuck Wright, for a Tribute To Lemmy.

After what was a sensational night of high octane and quality music, the party then moved just a few minutes walk down West Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard for the unveiling of a life-size bronze statue at Lemmy’s favourite Los Angeles bar, the Rainbow Bar And Grill.

Dirty Machine, who combine abrasive lyrics, sonic experimentation, DJ spins and brash drumming along with elaborate staging, opened up proceedings at Ultimate Jam Night before Kraterface, classic Metal with a bit of Bon Scott thrown in, really fired up a storm.

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Tracii Guns, Frankie Banali and Matt Starr

Then it was the turn of the rotating House Band and as you can see from the videos below, the quality of offer was super-impressive with Mr Big’s Matt Starr, Frankie Banali, Ben White from Magnetico, Tracii Guns from LA Guns, Survivor’s Walter Ino, Morbid Angel’s Tim Yueng, the Okai sisters from Tabitha, Ira Black, Chas West, Sean Nichols from Adler’s Appetite, Phil Varone from Skid Row and Saigon Kick, Budderside’s Patrick Stone, Brian Ferry guitarist Jacob “Quist” Quistgaard, Rex Brown from Pantera and Kill Devil Hill, The Butcher Babies’ Carla Harvey, Mark Zavon, Steve Wilson from the Dead Kennedy’s, Lynch Mob’s Sean McNabb, Steve Dawson and most of The Iron Maidens.

Lemmy recorded a version of Iron Maiden’s ‘The Trooper’ some years ago and this is readily available on YouTube. Lemmy sang the track with Phil Campbell and Suicidal Tendencies’ Rocky George on guitar, Chris Slade of AC/DC on drums and Ultimate Jam Night founder Chuck Wright on bass so it was quite fitting that Courtney Cox, Nikki Stringfield and Kirsten Rosenberg with interim drummer Nikki Lane Taylor were present at the Whisky. Check out the ladies giving it some on ‘Iron Fist’.

Hella Rock Festival

One of the highlights of the evening was a rousing and emotional rendition of ‘Mama I’m Coming Home’, the Ozzy Osbourne classic that Lemmy wrote the lyrics for, which was brilliantly sung by Adler’s Appetite vocalist Sean Nichols, as you can see here. The second video is dUg Pinnick from Kings X and Tracii Guns performing Thin Lizzy’s ‘Jailbreak’.

The Tribute ended with Matt Starr, Chuck Wright, Walter Ino and Tracii Guns playing ‘Sympathy For The Devil’, the Rolling Stones track that is also the final track on Motörhead’s 22nd and final studio album ‘Bad Magic’.

Ultimate Jam Night takes place at the Whisky every Tuesday and it’s free entry. With quality like this on offer and no cover charge, the word “Ultimate” is highly appropriate here.

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Stefano Mike with The Iron Maidens

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Rex Brown with Trippy The Clown

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Courtney “Adriana Smith” Cox

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Rex Brown with Carla Harvey from Butcher Babies

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Tracii Guns

Hirax vocalist Katon De Pena was instrumental in organising the Lemmy statue at the Rainbow Bar And Grill. Katon told noisey.vice.com: “For me it was about, this is someone I look up to and I want to do something for him. I feel like I need to pay him back for stealing so much of his music.”

So Katon brought the idea to the iconic club’s owners, the Maglieri family, who gave it their blessing.

Katon crowdsourced over $22,000 for the statue while Maglieri searched for the right people to create the monument. He commissioned a company called Big Statues with local artist Travis Moore ensured every detail was correct. “We had to get opinions of Lemmy’s best friends, his management people and his widow (girlfriend), because it had to look like him. I even went and talked to the guy that made his boots.”

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Bob DeCastro of Fox 11 interviewing UJN’s Lisa Morton Woodard

Around twenty people worked on the statue and it took around five months to build and Travis added: “I think it looks a lot like him. It’s a compelling image. I think it will offer some closure. I think Lemmy is finally home.”

Katon said that any money left over from the Kickstarter campaign will be donated to the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up And Shout Cancer Fund. “All of us hate cancer and know survivors and some people who have it, plus Dio was a friend of his. That’s the right thing to do.”

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Durga McBroom, Lemmy and Paul

Motörhead manager Todd Singermqan was the first to touch the statue after it was unveiled and once the ceremonials were completed, the drink started to flow.

“I lost my virginity to a Motörhead song – ‘Jailbait'”, said Liquor Locos guitarist Joe Ramirez while Todd, clearly moved by events, said: “I look at him no differently than Johnny Cash, The Beatles and so on. He was real. He didn’t bullshit. The way he went on stage was the way he was at home. Go find that today.”

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Got my eyes on you

Lemmy’s girlfriend, Cheryl Keuleman, said the Rainbow was his “favourite place in the world”.

“The Rainbow was Lemmy’s home. One of Lemmy’s worst fears was that when he died, the world would forget about him. He’s now immortal. No one ever will forget about him because he was a god. He was a man, but he was a god.”

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Your touch has turned to gold

Someone famously graffitied a London wall with a parody of an expression previously bestowed on Eric Clapton in the 70s, the words “Lemmy Is God”.

And you can bet your life that the man who once sang “don’t save no knee-pads for me up there” would have a wry smile at his now celestial status. Holy Communion would most definitely be… interesting…

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Easy on the ice…

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Creator Travis Moore with Jessy Lotti

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I am Mars, the god of war

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A thousand names…

“We are the ones you need, the ones that you despise
We are the ones who wanna poke you in the eye
We are the future, baby, used to be the past
We are Motörhead and we don’t have no class…”

Photo credits and massive thanks to Ron Lyon, Paul Inder Kilmister, Lisa Morton Woodard and Vanessa Giner.

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