The copyright on this band history is owned by Alan Burridge and Artyom Golew. The text of the history or any part of it can not be used or reproduced in any form without direct permisson of the authors — Alan Burridge and Artyom Golew.

It was the fourth tour of America for legendary seventies space-rockers Hawkwind. The entourage was about to cross the border from Detroit into Canada when Lemmy was busted for possessing amphetamine sulphate. The Authorities thought it was cocaine — and that's why such a big deal was made out of it. In Canada, sulphate is a misdemeanor, whereas coke is a felony. If you're caught smuggling coke across they throw the book on you; but for sulphate, they are not bothered to get you back into the country to face the charges. Lemmy was slung into a windowless cell and chained to the wall with five other guys. He was bailed out for a gig in Toronto and he thought everything was okay as the rest of the band were glad to see him back and to have him to play with them. He sensed no bad feelings from any of them, but before he knew what was happening, he had been sacked and was on a plane back to Britain with his guitar and the amps.

Naturally he was pretty disheartened and at first didn't know what to do; every time he picked up his bass to play something it just came out sounding like Hawkwind. However, he decided to form a band, and perhaps reflecting his frame of mind, decided that it was going to be called 'Bastard'. Within a few weeks his friend and occasional songwriting partner, Mick Farren (former member of The Deviants and writer for a hippy newspaper "International Times" and more recently "The New Musical Express"), had introduced him to a drummer and guitarist in a shape of, respectively, Lucas Fox and ex-Pink Fairies, Larry Wallis.

Manager Douglas Smith persuaded Lemmy to change the name of the band to 'Motorhead'. It was the last song Lemmy had written with Hawkwind, is American slang for 'Speed Freak'... and straight from a sulphate bust nothing could be more fitting.

Lemmy said of the band:

The trio made their debut gig at London's Chalkfarm Roundhouse on Sunday July 20th, 1975. It started with the pre-recorded tape of Adolf Hitler shouts and jackboot stomps, but the hour long set was rather un-together, mainly due to the lack of rehearsal time. Lucas was out of time on a couple of occasions, and when Larry bothered to play, his guitar splattered through a low powered and rather clapped out PA system. They played an awful version of Silver Machine, but Lost Johnny, City Kids, Good Morning Little Schoolgirl, Motorhead and Leaving Here showed a lot of promise for the future.

For a first gig it was received quite well. Some of the crowd came to see the bill toppers, Greenslade (who were in direct contrast to Motorhead's solid rock, a respected jazz-rock band formed by former Colosseum keyboardist Dave Greenslade and bassist Tony Reeves), but Motorhead had a fair following present even at this early stage. Some were Hawkwind fans who had come along to see what Lemmy was into, and some were Pink Fairies followers who had heard Larry's work on the band's 1973 "Kings Of Oblivion" album where the City Kids track was originated. A short tour followed with ten dates in England.

The band was invited to support Blue Oyster Cult at London's Hammersmith Odeon. They were given to use the Cult's PA and Sound Crew which didn't help matters much. Again lack of time together and an awful sound mix was detrimental to the band. The press blew it completely out of proportion and did a good hatchet job on them in the papers and virtually made them a laughing stock; dubbing them 'The Worst Band In The World'. The gig featured the following numbers: Motorhead / Lost Johnny / Silver Machine / City Kids / Waiting For The Man / Leaving Here and Johnny B. Goode.

Despite this setback so early on in their career, the band lumbered on, refusing to give up. Between December 1975 and February 1976, they went into Rockfield Studios in Monmouth and recorded an album for United Artists. Dave Edmunds started producing the album but wasn't really into it, so Fritz Fryer (who was once with 'The Four Pennies', a wimpy beat quartet whose main claim to fame was the tremendous ballad 'Juliet' — a 1964 no. 1 hit single) took over. The album was virtually complete when fat brought Phil Taylor into the band:

(Phil was unable to overdub Lost Johnny because he swallowed some tablets to avoid being caught with them on his person. He woke up three days later in Brixton jail, but the studio time had run out), but there was a complete blank from UA.

Eddie:

So now the line up was firmly fixed with Lemmy, Eddie and Phil. The situation with UA was totally useless, they just sealed up the tapes, put them in a vault and left them to gather dust and cobwebs.

The next person to figure in the Motorhead saga was Jake Riviera (AKA Andrew Jakeman) who was later to make it big as Elvis Costello manager but at this time was sort of would-be svengali figure on the booming Pub Rock scene immediately before Punk/New Wave. Lemmy and Jake would often exchange a few worlds at Dingwalls or wherever and in the Summer of '76 Jake was full of his fab Stiff records label, which he had co-founded with Dave Robinson as an outlet for good bands like the Tyla Gang, Roogalator and the revived Pink Fairies who were getting turned down by the major labels who were all into pursuing the kind of unadventurous cash-crisis release policies that kept Motorhead album on the shelf in UA.

Jake suggested to Lemmy that Motorhead should do a one-off single for Stiff as UA seemed about to ditch them and so the band went down to the Peeble Beach Studio in sunny Worthing to do a quick session. It was all fairly casual — the deal was that Motorhead paid for the studio time and Jake paid for the rest. There was no proper contract and the band was not really being deliberately naughty in recording for another label while they were signed to UA — it was more of a desperate, frustrated act to get some kind of Motorhead record out now that the tracks recorded for UA seemed to be lost forever.

The session saw the recording of one of the very first Kilmister-Clarke-Taylor compositions, White Line Fever along with Tamla Motown number Leavin' Here and this strong coupling looked set to create as much interest as the earlier Stiff label releases and even possibly gain the band an entry in the Top 75. Unfortunately, the proverbial spanner flew into the works and the Stiff single — scheduled as Stiff BUY 9 — had to be cancelled at a late stage as the band were still under the contract to United Artist, and, in typical record company style, although UA did not want to put out their Motorhead album — or anything else by the band — they were not going to allow the band to do any moonlighting with another company. Jake Riviera had no alternative but to withold the Stiff Motorhead single and leave a gap in the catalogue. In fact, the single DID creep out via Europe and the infamous semi-bootleg Skydog label — as always, less concerned with contractual niceties than Stiff had to be — but strictly limited number of copies in specialist shops at 1.50 pounds were not going to spread band's fame on record.

When the fuss blew over and Motorhead officially left UA, Stiff put White Line Fever onto their 1977 "Bunch Of Stiffs" rag-bag compilation and later the same year Leavin' Here popped up as an extra on a compilation album of tracks from the first eleven Stiff singles, "Hits Greatest Stiffs". In 1979 the legendary Stiff BUY 9 had the distinction of being the only single in the history of the record industry to be released for a first time as a re-issue when Stiff put out a boxed set of their first ten singles — and included "Leavin' Here / White Line Fever."

If that single had only formed part of the first wave of Stiff's attack on the record industry two years earlier Motorhead's history might have been a whole lot different.

Depressed yet again on the situation, the trio were on the brink of splitting up; but they really felt that they had to have a vinyl testament of themselves to inflict upon the world. They asked Ted Carroll of Chiswick Records to record them at a gig which they had coming up at the Marquee with The Damned. Ted agreed and must have had a lot of faith in them, as he went to the gig, but didn't bother to record it; instead, he asked them to go into the studio and do a single for the label.

A British tour as support to Hawkwind preceded the recording session at Escape Studios in Kent during the month of June 1977. Ted had given them two days in which to do it, a track a day; but in the time they laid down thirteen backing tracks. Upon hearing the tapes, Ted agreed to them finishing them off for an album, which was what they had hoped for. All but four tracks were released as their Chiswick album and single, they remained in a vault and were later to appear as an EP.

At this time they were co-signed to a management deal with Douglas Smith and a guy called Ludo. The wanted to sign permanently to Doug, as Ludo (who was more into the Motorhead side of the partnership), didn't have the bread to promote them. Now they had something on vinyl this was what they were after. This album showed two fingers up to all those who had smiled condescendly while hearing the world 'Motorhead'. The album opener was killing Motorhead, which differs a lot from the Hawkwind original. It's easy to hear echoes of Lemmy's psychodelic past in The Watcher and Lost Johnny — those two songs were written during those times when Lemmy played in Hawkwind. Iron Horse/Born To Lose is one of the best early Motorhead tunes and it also has a small touch of psychodelic rock, but such rock'n'roll numbers, as Vibrator, City Kids, cover of Yardbids' Train Kept A' Rollin' and a version of old Motown hit Leaving Here showed the direction in which the band was moving — and Motorhead' rude and dirty rock'n'roll began to conquer the first fans.

But legendary sixties manager Tony Secunda (the man behind The Move) came onto the scene. He phoned Lemmy and asked him out to lunch, which in those days was a very good reason for going. He went along and Secunda seemed full of ideas on promotion and management. Eddie wasn't too keen on Secunda being their manager, but Phil and Lemmy talked him into it. Secunda started of with some really good ideas. He had two murals of the logo painted on houses in London, one at Sheperds bush roundabout; the other on Harrow Road off the Edgware Road. (The murals were removed during December 1977. The band had been paying 50 pounds a month for the use of the houses, the sites were taken over by the Notting Hill Housing Trust and they demanded 800 pounds a month for the rent, even though the band had completely renovated the walls before painting them). Secunda the got the band a tour with the Count Bishops as special guests, it was entitled "Beyond The Threshold Of Pain" and coincided with the release of the "Motorhead" album on Chiswick.

However, disaster struck again. Phil got into a fight with Bobs their road manager and broke his wrist. The tour was cancelled after only four dates. The bones mended and the band ended off the year with a series of one-off dates around Britain which took them up to Christmas. But January 1978 had another tour lined up for them.

The press at the time reported that the tour would be filmed by Don Lets who had made a film on the Sex Pistols covering the band both on the road and in the studio. However, during a filming session in the studio, Tony Secunda came barging in, had a blazing row with the band and wrecked all the camera equipment. Consequently all was lost and the project never got off the ground again.

Secunda told them to do a single which resulted in them recording a backing track for Louie Louie, a 1965 hit for The Kingsmen, which has become a stock rock riff, and which Phil had suggested doing. But Secunda's mind was on other things, and everything started to grind a halt. The trio went to see Doug Smith and then tried to buy the management deal back off Secunda, but he wouldn't have it. In the end they just left him and went back to Doug. Secunda got divorced (probably the cause of his lost of interest in the band), declared himself bankrupt and went back to America. But he'd blow out their deal with Chiswick, so again they were left without a record company.

Motorhead were left 'on ice' during April-May 1978. Phil and Eddie did a couple of gigs with Speedy Keen and Billy Rath as 'The Muggers'. Billy had been bassist with both The Heartbreakers and Iggy Pop in the States and together the quartet did two gigs at Chelmsford and Oxford University as support to Wilco Johnson's Solid Senders. For this gigs they played some of Speedy's old numbers and standards like 'Summertime Blues'. The band broke up when Motorhead started working again, Speedy disappeared and Billy went back to New York.

Douglas had secured a recording contract for Motorhead with Gerry Bron's Bronze Records a small but powerful label (run as an offshoot of Bron's management empire), and the band recorded the 'Louie Louie' number, backing it with another of their own compositions — Tear Ya Down. During the October-November 1978 they toured again to promote the single and the EMI/Chiswick re-released the first album; this had an initial pressing of 10.000 in white vinyl and the sleeve displayed th title 'White Vinyl Fever'. Press for the release described it: "Motorhead" is an essential Motorhead. It's album one and it's two fingers up to the music biz liggers who sneered when it first wrecked their speakers in the Summer of '77.

Support band for the tour were the Lightening Raiders who were formed by Duncan (Sandy) Sanderson who was bassist with the Pink Fairies.

During the latter part of the tour Motorhead made their first 'Top Of The Pops' appearance with Louie Louie. It reached number 68 in the charts which gave Bronze the confidence to sign them up to do some more.

December 1978 to January 1979 saw the recording of the "Overkill" album. It reached a five stars rating in "Sounds" magazine and reached number 24 in the charts. The title track was released as a single with the classic Too Late Too Late the flipside — it got to number 40 in the charts.

The album was re-released in green vinyl and the single as a 12 inch pressing, both as limited editions of 10.000 copies. The first Motorhead' album was the album of the '70-ies band, but "Overkill" set standards for the new decade. In every song from the album — in the title track that just killed to death, in the humorous I Won't Pay Your Price, in Damage Case — we already hear the things that began the visit card for the band — rude Lemmy's vocal, accented undistorted bass, simple and easy-to-remember Fast Eddie's riffs and Philthy's driving drum breaks. Even today "Overkill" is considered to be one of the best Motorhead's albums and such songs as Stay Clean, No Class, Meropolis later on represented Motorhead on numerous compilations for a million times and even at this moment, 20 years after the release of the album, these tracks are played live on every Motorhead concert.

These events were entwined with the 'Overkill Tour', for which Girlschool were special guests. The tour aroused considerable interest in the band from BBC Radio. Lemmy was interviewed on 'Rock On Saturday' on April 28th and the band was featured 'In Concert' on May 26th — both on Radio 1. The latter turned out to be somewhat of disaster. Recorded at the Paris Theatre, Lower Regent Street, London; over half of the audience were foreign students whose teachers quickly let them out of the venue virtually before the first number was finished. Also, the power was cut off whilst they were playing Motorhead. Naturally, none of this came over the air, it was all edited out. But all the same it was good to hear band live on the radio, even if the production left a bit to be desired. Eddie later said of the event:

June: he band tour Europe. This was highlighted by the Punkaroka Midnight Sun Festival at Punkah Arijuata in Northern Finland. Motorhead were last on and most of the crowd had gone home, even so, they had a great gig. But...

said Lemmy of the event; so they decided to destroy it, they wanted to make sure no one else would use such a crappy sound system again!

They thought no more of the demolition job until until they were about to leave the country at Helsinki Airport where they were arrested. The entourage spent five days in a Finnish jail before being bailed out; forefeiting all their earnings at the gig to pay for the damage.

Back in England, No Class was lifted from the "Overkill" album and released with Like A Nightmare as it's flipside. It was available in three different picture sleeves, one each of Lemmy, Eddie and Phil.

The "Bomber" album was recorded during the months July and August, but it was interrupted for a day on Friday August 24th when the band were 'Special Guests' of the day for the 1979 Reading Festival. The only hint of what they had been up in the studio was the inclusion of 'Step Down' in the set; the first time the song had been played before the audience.

A swift Continental tour with four dates in Germany was followed by a string of dates across France. The "Bomber" album was released in October. This album turned out to be more slow and groovy, than "Overkill", but such fast hits, as Dead Men Tell No Tales, Stone Dead Forever and Bomber itself became a catalyst of the interest towards the album, and such mid-tempo tunes as Lawman and Sweet Revenge just emphasized the attractiveness of the fast songs. "Bomber" is also notable by the fact that here we can hear Fast Eddie's vocals for the very first time — he sang Step Down from the begining to the end. This album was more successful, than it's predecessor — "Bomber" hitted the charts at number 12 within it's first week of release — that was the result of endless touring.

Upon their return to England, the band rehearsed in Shepperton Studios for a couple of days before embarking upon "The Bomber Tour" with Saxon as guest support band. The tour had the spectacular surprise for all fans of the Bomber lighting rig, a tabular metal construction based upon the design of a Heinkel III bomber. It is magnificent sight to watch this 'aircraft' go through it's manoeuvres during the gigs; so good in fact that its reputation means that it has to be taken wherever the band perform. Tapes are also played to start and end each gig, the Heinkel making a spluttering start revving up and taking off; and to end, the sound of them flying overhead. Through the massive wattage of the Motorhead PA system, it's an experience in itself. This coupled with the rig coming down within inches of Lemmy and Eddie's heads has become a favorite feature of the Motorhead live show.

The first week of the tour brought the United Artists album out of the vaults as "On Parole". It was a great disappointment to the trio as in retrospect they felt that the album was not so good; also, it would had done their career far more good had it been released at the original time. Its release was probably sparked off by the success of the "Bomber" album and UA wanted to cash on the band's escalating success; but more than ever it was thought that Larry Wallis was the main instigator behind it coming out.

But it did them no harm, and the fans found it to be a valid addition to their collections. It also kept a very poor quality bootleg of it at bay.

Motorhead wanted to do a single with The Damned, having it released with their own Bronze label on one side and The Damned Chiswick label on the other. Tracks on which both bands would have played were to have been Ballroom Blitz and Over The Top, but it transpired that the Ballroom Blitz track emerged as the flip side to The Damned's 'I Just Can't Be Happy Today' single. Lemmy explains:

The Bomber track was released as a single with a flipside of Over The Top (not the version recorded with The Damned) with a limited edition pressed on blue vinyl; as indeed was the album. A 'Top Of The Pops' appearance on December 3rd gave the fans another treat during the tour. Gigs being their blood, they slotted in an extra date on December 16th at Hammersmith Odeon as a special Christmas gig. Again Saxon were support, and at the end of the Motorhead gig, the trio invited them onstage for a jam session.

January 1980 was quiet to begin with, so the band amused themselves by being part of a panel of judges at the Kingsbury Bandwagon for the 'Head-bangin' Band of the Year'. Each 'band' had to mime with a cardboard cut-out guitars for the competition. Needles to say, a good time was had by all.

Ever a bunch of road hogs, they were off on their travels again: all the February and half of the March they played in Europe. A 'one-off' gig for British fans, although only three lines of small print advertised gig in "Sounds", the venue was packed out. Their first appearance since the "Bomber" tour and well worth the hundreds of miles that a lot of fans traveled.

They then returned to the Continent for another bunch of gigs in Switzerland and Italy.

"The Golden Years" EP was released during April and charts at number 12 within the first week of release. This long awaited and much overdue live recording by Motorhead is classed by the majority of fans to be the ultimate in their collection; only to be surpassed by a live album! The EP went on to reach number 8 and the band did another "Top Of The Pops" on May 1st playing Leavin' Here. Radio One did little or nothing by way of airplay. First of all they made the excuse that Lemmy's vocals were not high enough up in the mix and that it didn't sound good when broadcast! The trio went back into the studio and re-mixed Levin' Here, spreading the track over the whole side of a 12 inch single to give it best sound quality possible. This was pressed by Bronze especially for the Radio Stations with Stone Dead Forever on the flip side. After all this had been done, the BBC still didn't bother to play it much, reserving airplay for the Top 40 show where it was played by necessity.

Thankfully enough, the band's "Top Of The Pops" appearances have always made up for those shortcomings on BBC radio; but Motorhead never put "Top Of The Pops" before a gig. If they are on tour and are playing the day they are booked to do TOTP, they do the gig. They feel so strongly about the fans down, they would rather miss and audience of 5 million than 500. By the same token, they like to give their fans value for money and where possible, always do an autograph session after each gig. Lemmy looks upon it as an insurance:

On the topic of autographs, fans often wonder what the symbols after Lemmy's mean:

On May 15th the band flew to Lochem in Holland for an appearance in the annual Lochem Festival. Returning home, Radio One "Personal Call" programme is host to Lemmy on May 27th. He was interviewed for an hour by Simon Bates and fans who phoned in with questions. A most interesting insight into Lemmy's life of rock'n'roll and the longest ever radio time yet given to the band or any if its members.

A rather short lived weekly music paper — "New Music News" featured the Klaus Blum comic strip — 'Motorhead-Rock Commando'. This is later expanded into a color comic and is made available to fans on subsequent tours.

July 26th, a major event not only in the life of Motorhead fans, but for the band themselves. They had been invited to appear both the Reading and Castle Donnington Festivals but declined in favor of their own 'Over The Top Heavy Metal Brain Damage Party' at Stafford's Bingley Hall. Fans flocked to the venue from all parts of Great Britain and even some from Europe; to spend a day in sweltering heat to see an impressive list of bands: White Spirit, Vardis, Mythra, Angel Witch, Girlschool and Saxon with Motorhead topping the bill. They brought the gig to a spectacular climax with Lemmy taking a ride into the Bingley heavens in the nose of the Bomber rig. Atrumpet fanfare, the national Anthem and the presentation of Silver Discs for sales of "Bomber" album to Lemmy, Eddie and Phil by 'The Queen' made the gig more than memorable to all who attended.

Between August 4th and September 15th the "Ace Of Spades" album was recorded at Jackson's Studios at Rickmansworth: but as with the "Bomber" album, it was interrupted for a day on August 20th for the band to record a gig at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham. Girlschool were also videod at the venue for the ATV series of programmes entitled "Rockstage".

The press announced that Motorhead and Hawkwind would be headlining a two day "Firemans Ball", to take place in 4.000 capacity marquee tent at Midsummer Common, Cambridge on August 30th and 31st. The gig, in aid of the "Fire Cervices Benevolent Fund" and the "Ida Darwin Hospital for Handicapped Children" was due to have Hawkwind topping the bill on 30th with Girlscholl as special guests, and Motorhead on 31st with Nik Turners Inner City Unit. Unfortunately, it was cancelled by the Cambridge Council as they confused it with the Firemans Annual Dinner and Dance (evening suits, no leather and denims!) and withdrew permission.

Radio One featured Lemmy on "Rock On Saturday" for twenty minutes in which he gave listeners a preview of two tracks from the album — Ace Of Spades and Love Me Like A Reptile. October 13th and 20th see the release of the "Ace Of Spades" album and single. From this day there were no a single concert without Ace Of Spades — this driving rock'n'roll which is dedicated to all who like to gamble, became a visit card of the band. And all the other songs from the album were full of the same might and drive — Live To Win, Jailbait, The Chase..., (We Are The) Road Crew — the album was full of hits and became a real breakthrough for the band — the 4th place in the album charts and the 15th place in the singles charts was the evidence of the fact that the band broke the wall at last and the wave of glory and success gashed out on Motorhead.

The 1980 "Ace Up Your Sleeve" tour, which featured Weapon as special guests, began in October. During the tour, Chiswick dug out the four unreleased tracks from the "Motorhead" album sessions; releasing it on their Big Beat label as the "Beer Drinkers EP". Bronze also released a 12 inch pressing of 'Ace OF Spades/Dirty Love' as a limited edition of 50.000 with a picture sleeve of the band dressed in Father Christmas costumes. They were photographed in this seasonal outfits at the Aylesbury Friars gig on the tour.

On the morning of Friday 27th November, the band and the road crew were subjected to a Police raid. In two instances, doors were broken down on the houses of the members and the hotel where the road crew were staying was also swooped upon. Eleven members were taken in, but out of the trio, only Phil was involved as Lemmy and Eddie spent the night away from home. The eleven were released pending the results of tests on small amounts of substances found. It was believed that the band were 'set up' as there were rumours on the "Ace" tour that someone was out to bust them. Soon after that two gigs in Ireland followed. After the Belfast concert, Phil was inadvertently bounced on his head by a friend whilst they were both drunk at the Europa Hotel where the band were staying. This resulted in three cracked vertebrae in his neck and it was feared at first that the injury may cause paralysis. Phil was rushed to the hospital and then flows back to London, but fortunately the injuries were not as serious as originally thought. He did, however, have to wear a collar type neck support for several weeks and was unable to play the drums. A European tour had to be postponed due to the accident.

But they didn't idle their untimely 'holiday' away. Girlschool were recording their second album, and an EP evolved from the two bands being in studio together. This featured both bands (known for this venture as Motor-headgirl-school) on the Johnny Kidd and the Pirates 1959 hit Please Don't Touch. The flip side also featured a landmark in both bands histories; Girlschool playing Bomber and Motorhead playing Emergency. Due to Phil's injuries, Girlschool drummer Denise Dufort drummed on all the tracks whilst Phil added 'insults and inspiration'. The record was released as "The St. Valentines day Massacre EP" on Friday 13th February 1981 with a limited edition of 50.000 on 10 inch and the rest on the 7 inch, both in picture sleeves.

"Sounds" feature an interview with Motorcycle Irene, photographer for the band in their early days. This two page spread gladdened the hearts of many a Motorhead fan who had thought that Rene had disappeared without trace; as none of her work had appeared since the Louie Louie single. She did in fact a lot of promotional work for various bands under the watchful eye of Doug Smith and his company, Greybray Limited.

Tuesday 17th February. "Please Don't Touch" tears into the BBC charts at number 15 — a far higher placing than the immortal Jognny Kidd's own much re-issued classic version of the song ever achieved. Having only been in the shops for five days it well and truly earned the title of 'Highest Chart Entry of the Week'. Two days later the 'Magnificient Seven' appear on "Top Of The Pops" with the single giving the fans of both bands a treat.

The day also celebrated Motorhead pillaging the "Sounds 1980 Readers Poll", being voted number 1 band plus accolades in the following categories: "Ace Of Spades" — number 1 album. "Ace Of Spades" and "The Golden Years EP" numbers 1 and 6 respectively in the top singles/EP section. Lemmy was also voted number 1 bassist and second to David Coverdale in the "Male Sex Object" stakes. Eddie 7th in the guitarists and Phil 3rd in the drummers section. On a more sour note, the paper also reported that Phil and Motorcycle Irene were remanded on bail after court appearances for the December 'Great Motorhead Police Bust'.

The following day saw the EP moving up the charts to number 5 and also news of the release of a new Bob Calvert single. Released on Flicknife Records, a double 'A' side: "Lord Of The Hornets/The Greenfly and the Rose". Of particular interest to Motorhead and Hawkwind fans as Lemmy, Simon King and Huw Lloyd Langton were guest musicians on the tracks.

Phil makes a welcome comeback to the drum stool for the Motorhead/Girlschool French Tour 1981 in March.

But time for British fans to celebrate his return, not only to the West Runton gig, but the aptly titled 'Short, Sharp, Pain In The Neck Tour' with three dates. The first at Leeds Queens Hall on March 28th was dubbed 'The Headbangers Convention' as it is the base of the Motorheadbangers Fan Club and Phil's home town. This was followed by two gigs at Newcastle City Hall on March 29th and 30th. These were entitled 'Motorbrat Gigs', being for the benefit of fans under 18 who were unable to attend Newcastle Mayfair on the 'Ace' tour, due to the venue having an 'over 18 only' age restriction.

These three gigs were recorded by Vic Maile on the Manor Mobile for what was to be the June 1981 live album "No Sleep 'Till Hammersmith". Support bands for the dates were Tank, The Raiders and French band Trust. Having been dropped for some time from the Motorhead set, mainly due to the wealth of new material, Lemmy, Eddie and Phil had to start Iron Horse/Born To Lose three times as they were a bit rusty with the song. It's always been a much called for number, so it's inclusion on the live album will bring a smile of satisfaction to every Motorheadbanger's face.

After nearly an eight month wait, "Rockstage" was finally televised. The one hour show featured Girlschool for 20 minutes leaving the rest of the time to the band this website is all about.

The band then undertook a highly successful tour of the USA as guests to Blizzard of Ozz.

The live album "No Sleep 'Till Hammersmith" shot to number 1 in the first week of release and the single from it "Motorhead" charted at 15 for one week and 6 for the following forthnight. The first place in the English charts was the true confirmation of that the synonym of Motorhead is the live gig, the band feels like home at the concert halls, and the favorite occupation for the band is to fall the squall of decibels on the fans. Such authoritative specialists, as Dee Snider (Twisted Sister) recomment to listen to "No Sleep 'Till Hammersmith" during the morning jogging — and the good mood and cheerfulness would be guaranteered for the whole day! The mighty and powerful sound, primal rock'n'roll energy, rude Lemmy's vocal, Eddie's riffs and Philthy's drum thunder shows how the real rock'n'roll is ought to be played!

Their annual Summer Festival took place at Port Vale Football Club Grounds (capacity 40.000) on August 1st 1981 where Motorhead topped the bill over: Ozzy Osbourne, Mahogany Rush, Triumph, Riot and Vardis.

The Heavy Metal Holocaust blew 40.000 fans brains into oblivion, mainly with the help of the largest PA system ever used in Britain — all 110.000 watts of it. This was not entirely successful due to the sound 'bounce back' in the stadium, but Motorhead handled the gargantuan double wall of speakers with their well known damage finesse: blowing through all their favourite numbers like Ace Of Spades, Stay Clean, Live To Win, Over The Top, No Class, Fast And Loose and Dead Men Tell No Tales (or Dead Men Smell Toe Nails as Lemmy prefers to introduce it!) were among them. Naturally the Philthy torso was kept in momentum with Overkill and an oldie but goldie — White Line Fever was the first encore of the gig, followed by the ever faithful Bomber and it's metallic namesake cavorting about over the bands collective head. Ever the band for the element of surprise, a real aircraft was in the evening sky bearing a dozen parachutists who endeavoured (one missed the target all together!) to come to land in the grounds using a flare as a guide.

Their latest chart-ripping single and their namesake brought the proceedings to a close and the forty thousand returned home — happy but a little deaf.

In mid-August the band played the Summernight Festival in Nurembourg and returned home for Phil to be fined 40 pounds in court due to the 'Great Motorhead Drug Bust'. It was unfortunate that the Police decided (or were tipped off) to swoop at that particular time as Phil was winding down after their hectic British tour. He did however advice no one to do such things themselves or follow his bad example.

On a brighter note through, it is also rumoured that our drummer is to be married, can't quite imagine it, but these things happen to the best of us!

Motorhead always seem to have an Ace Up Their Sleeve in every sense and an alliance of a single from Lemmy, Cozy Powell, Micky Moody, Bob Young and The Nolan Sisters seem totally impossible. But the track — Don't Do That was released as a single by Bronze Records.