The 40th anniversary reissue of Motorheads seminal first album. Pressed on white vinyl with an embossed silver Mot rhead logo on the cover, just like the original release, plus a fully illustrated inner bag. Englands fervent rejoinder to the MC5 and the Stooges, Motorheads potent brand of full-on, amphetamine- and hard liquor-fuelled rocknroll was openly embraced by the leading lights of the mid-1970s punk explosion in the UK. They were one of the few bands with a past to be accorded any respect at all by the Damned or the Sex Pistols, and would subsequently inspire bands such as Napalm Death, Discharge, Naked City and Metallica. Ian Lemmy Kilmister formed Motorhead in 1975. Rocknroll coursed through every fibre of his being. He was raised on 1950s rocknroll (Little Richard was a big favourite), played in cult 60s band the Rockin Vickers (with the boards manned by Who/Kinks producer Shel Talmy), worked as a roadie for Jimi Hendrix and was a member of Sam Gopals Dream shortly before playing bass with psychedelic space rock merchants Hawkwind. It was Lemmy who sang lead vocals on Hawkwinds Silver Machine, a Top 3 hit in the UK in 1972. A drug bust at the Canadian border in 1975 caused the cancellation of a number of Hawkwind gigs and resulted in Lemmys dismissal from the band. But you cant keep a good man down. Back in London, he formed Bastard with Pink Fairies guitarist Larry Wallis and drummer Lucas Fox. After a friend told him that Bastard wouldnt secure many appearances on Top Of The Pops, Lemmy changed the band name to Mot rhead. The name was the title of his final composition for Hawkwind – a no-holds-barred account of one wild night at the Continental Hyatt Hotel on Sunset Boulevard, which was originally released on the B-Side of their Kings Of Speed single. After Larry Wallis left the band and Lucas Fox was fired, Lemmy and new recruits, guitarist Fast Eddie Clarke and drummer Phil Philthy Animal Taylor, recorded the definitive version of the song with producer Speedy Keen. Other Motorhead anthems, including White Line Fever, Keep Us On The Road and a blistering reading of Johnny Burnette & the Rock n Roll Trios 1956 version of Tiny Bradshaws Train Kept A-Rollin, were recorded in a two-day session at Escape Studios. The album would ensure the band would have a career until Lemmys death in 2015. The maximum rocknroll of Motorhead still takes no prisoners, 40 years on. IAN JOHNSTON
Tracklisting:
Disc: 1
1 Motörhead
2 Vibrator
3 Lost Johnny
4 Iron Horse / Born To Lose
Disc: 2
1 White Line Fever
2 Keep Us On The Road
3 The Watcher
4 Train Kept A-Rollin
