Archive: Motörhead roundup, October 2016

On 19 October 2016, MetalTalk felt it was time for another round-up of all that is happening around Motörhead, and there was more than plenty to talk about. In fact, since the band stopped playing, there seemed to have been more to say than ever.

There are some very obvious reasons for this, and whether they are right or wrong, it all goes to show that Lemmy, Phil, Mikkey, Eddie, Philthy, Wurzel, Brian, Pete, Larry and Lucas created a legacy that will live on for many generations yet.

Phil and Mikkey were reunited onstage once more in September when the Lemmy 500, the V8 Thunder Cars racing rally season finals and the Legends Super Cup took place in Ljungbyhed Park, near Thulinvägen in Sweden.

Aside from the racing, there was live music, with Saxon headlining the whole event, and just as it happened at the Golden Gods Awards in London on 13th June, Phil and Mikkey joined Saxon’s Biff and Nibs Carter for a run-through of Motörhead songs.

We’ve monikered this band, Saxönhead, and you can see what happened at Hammersmith Odeon in June. Saxönhead got eighteen minutes on stage at Ljungbyhed Park and played Born To Raise Hell, Ace Of Spades and Overkill. Mikkey tweeted the headline picture above just after the show, commenting: “Great fun at the Lemmy 500, nice to see Phil again.”

Here’s a fan-filmed video of Saxönhead’s complete performance. Let’s hope they do this again many more times.

As you are almost certainly aware by now, Mikkey is now the permanent Scorpions drummer and the German legends are keeping the Motörhead flame burning by performing Overkill at each gig on their current world tour.

Hella Rock Festival

Mikkey does the full drum solo during the performance, and here’s a video – fan filmed again – of Overkill by The Scorpions in Paraguay on 18th September.

Another big Saxon/Motörhead connection takes place during October and November when Saxon hit the road in the UK for the latest leg of their Battering Ram World Tour, supported by Fastway and Girlschool.

Fastway is, of course, Fast Eddie Clarke’s post-Motörhead band that enjoyed huge success in America in the ’80s and ’90s and with half of Saxönhead, Fast Eddie and all of Girlschool on the road together, there’s bound to be lots of Motörhead related stories to emerge.

Four months before Lemmy died, he gave one of his last interviews to Matty Sweeney for Guitar Moves at the Rainbow in LA. Matt spoke at length to Lemmy about his love for the signature Rickenbacker bass guitar, auditioning for Hawkwind, his mother’s love for lap-steel and how seeing the Beatles in the ’60s changed his life.

Here’s the interview in full. It’s one for bass guitar connoisseurs, but there are also plenty of great anecdotes, and Lemmy’s personality most definitely shines through.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=G14VN_H8mUk

Newly formed Motörhead tribute band Speed Freak have very sadly lost their frontman, Ian Clarke, 29, who was found dead in his apartment in Brentwood, Tennessee. Bandmates Brian Tyler and Michael ‘The Hammer’ Hughes discovered Clarke after he didn’t show up to their weekly band rehearsal.

A teary-eyed Tyler said: “He basically became Lemmy overnight. At first, it fuckin’ rocked, you know. Every bar in town wanted to book us. The chicks really dug it. His prosthetic mole even passed as the real thing.”

“It was overkill trying to keep up with him and the speed,” Hughes added. “I’d try to calm him down with shots of bourbon, but he’d just counter it with more speed. He’d grumble something like, ‘C’mon man, this isn’t fucking Hawkwind!’ By the end, I was doing lines every other song just to keep up.”

Hughes checked himself into a rehabilitation center immediately following the untimely death of his bandmate.

motorhead

Hughes claimed Clarke initially consumed several grams of amphetamine daily along with half a gallon of Jack Daniels, but he later switched to vodka and orange juice, exactly what Lemmy did after he said in 2014 that the JD and coke was “interfering with my diabetes”.

“After two weeks, he could barely stand up without railing a line,” Hughes said. “How the fuck did Lemmy live so long? What a legend. Ian couldn’t even do it a full month, and he was basically a part-timer.”

Clarke’s widow, Ronda Wilkins, maintained he was a supportive husband and father even when binging on speed and booze. “It wasn’t an issue at home,” she said. “If he was too hammered to pick up [daughter] Clara from preschool, he’d just blast a few bumps and be right back to father of the year.”

Bill Stutes, Clarke’s former manager at One Short Life Insurance, said the singer broke several company sales records during his last few weeks. “He would just talk incessantly until you bought in. But that was last week, and now he’s useless,” said Stutes. “Dead men sell no sales.”

Speed Freak have announced that they will continue, playing only dry venues under the name Söberhead.

motorhead

And for those of us who want to keep riding with the driver and have absolutely no intention of getting on the wagon, Camerons Brewery of Hartlepool have announced the release of Motörhead Road Crew beer later this year.

Camerons have worked closely with Phil and Mikkey to produce the American style session pale ale which will be available in keg, cask and bottle and have an ABV of 4.5% and 5% in bottle.

Mikkey said: “I’m proud to have been able to develop this beer with Camerons. The trials we have tasted have been great. We wanted this to be an exciting and refreshing brew which is for you, our Road Crew.”

Phil added: “It has been great fun working with the guys from Camerons on this beer. This is going to be an excellent beer for all Motörhead and rock fans around the world to enjoy.”

Camerons Chief Executive Chris Soley says he was delighted to work with the pair as it was his mission to do justice to the Motörhead name and Lemmy. He said: “Our primary objective was to create a fantastic tasting beer underpinned by the Motörhead branding. Although still in the trial phases of the Road Crew beer, we’re confident that what we’ve started so far will achieve this.”

motorhead

If you prefer something a little stronger than a pint however, how about a Motörhead Kush marijuana cigarette?

You can get a packet of five legalised Motörhead Kush joints from californiafinest.com and they say it has a very unique taste, scent, look, feel and high and that it’s rolled with the finest Californian bud and good for stress relief, anger, Bipolar, nervous conditions, Alzheimer’s, migraines, headache, vomiting, depression, Parkinson’s Disease and chronic pain.

It’s probably pretty good for lying around, getting stoned and listening to Motörhead albums too.

The compamy sales blurb says: “Toke once for liftoff then toke twice for complete relaxation. This bud is the real deal in modern marijuana. It’s Indica-dominant nature makes it a very good candidate for late night smoking when falling asleep is not a problem.”

We contacted California Finest to see if they would send us a sample pack for review but the bad news is that Motörhead Kush is only available on prescription in the USA and completing the purchase application form is a nightmare as the amount of personal information they are asking for is, well, impersonal.

But rest assured, we will find a way of obtaining a pack and we’ll let you know how it was when we’ve tried it.

motorhead

Lemmy is the latest subject of pop culture toy manufacturer Funko, who have announced that they are releasing a Pop! Vinyl figure of the late Motörhead frontman on November 7th and is available for pre-order via Amazon right here

Funko have previously released figures of Jimi Hendrix, Kiss, Ozzy Osbourne, Johnny and Dee Dee Ramone, Johnny Rotten and George Harrison among others.

motorhead

Lemmy, along with David Bowie, is also the subject of a new colouring book aimed at adults. ‘Motörhead: Color The Ace Of Spades’ is produced by Feral House, who say this about the Lemmy book.

“It features drawings from many of his fans as well as many personal stories of his life and work with the bands Hawkwind and Motörhead and the litres of whiskey he consumed at West Hollywood’s famous Rainbow Bar.

“Included in the book is work by Joe Petagno, who painted the cover of Motörhead’s renowned ‘Orgasmatron’ album.”

Motörhead Music’s first signing, Barb Wire Dolls, have been in the UK this last week for their tour to promote latest album ‘Desperate’, and MetalTalk’s Johnny Main was at the Glasgow gig on Sunday night.

Johnny had a chat with Isis Queen before the show and you can have a listen to what was said, along with the full review of the night with some seriously good pictures of Barb Wire Dolls right here.

Barb Wire Dolls in Glasgow, Sunday

December 28th this year is bound to be an emotional day as it will be the first anniversary of Lemmy’s passing and one event to honour Lemmy’s memory will take place at Mezz in Breda, The Netherlands.

Organisers Jeroen de Bont from the band Dr Worst, Jeroen Haamers from Batmobile and Hugo de Graaf from Outlaws In Charge have booked the six hundred capacity venue and the band Snaggletooth are confirmed to play, as well as others to be announced.

Tattoo artists will be on hand to ink Motörhead and Lemmy designs and many other artists will display their work.

All proceeds from this event will go to a charity yet to be decided, most likely a cancer or diabetes fund in Holland.

One permanent tribute to Lemmy that is rolling on at full speed is Motörheadache, the best Motörhead tribute around. We’ve said on here before that they are the closest you will get to the real thing and there’s plenty of opportunity to check them out in the coming weeks, the highlight being the first ever Motörheadbängers Ball in November.

Rob Campbell, Lemmy from Motörheadache, told us: “Hundreds of Motörheadbängers from all over world will be meeting in the Wiliam Morris pub at Hammersmith on 18th November for the first ever Motörheadbängers Ball which takes place 18th to 20th to celebrate the life of Lemmy and Motörhead. The Motörheadache gig is at 02 Academy, Islington on Saturday 19th and there will be an after show party and another drinking session for Motörheadbängers on Sunday before we all go home.”

There’s no charge for the Motörheadbängers Ball. It’s just a massive meet up of like minded people. Tickets for the gig are available here.

And finally, until next time, the UK’s Daily Star recently published a ludicrous story about Lemmy selling his soul to the Devil in exchange for rock’n’roll fame and glory and most other prominent British newspapers are now picking up on this nonsense.

To be fair to the low grade British tabloid, they did pour scorn on the conspiracy theory and rightly so because it goes on to explain that Lemmy made a “blood sacrifice pact” with the Illuminati and that he didn’t die but rather “ascended into the heavenly realm”, along with David Bowie and Prince.

The conspiracy theory was put forward by someone calling himself The Watcher and his ‘evidence’ is weak and frankly laughable.

From “if we moved in next door, your lawn would die” to “ascended into the heavenly realm”, the story of Motörhead is far from complete. This train is gonna keep on rollin’ for a long, long time yet…

“We were a blues band, really. Although we played it at a thousand miles an hour, it was recognizable as blues – at least to us it was; probably it wasn’t to anybody else.”
Lemmy, ‘White Line Fever’ autobiography

Sleeve Notes

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