Motorhead

**Lemmy – Bass & Vocals, Larry Wallis – Guitar & Lucas Fox – Drums – Photo Roger Morton**

After leaving’ Hawkwind and forming the band, Lemmy wanted to call it ‘Bastard’. But their manager Douglas smith didn’t think it was such a good idea and suggested ‘Motorhead’, which was the title of the last number Lemmy had written for Hawkwind, Being American slang for ‘speed-freak’ it was a fitting title, and the outcome is new rock history.

The original Motorhead Line-up consisted of ex Pink Fairy Larry Wallis, Lucas Fox and Lemmy, After a few gigs they supported Blue Oyster Cult but the chemistry within the band was not really gelling and to make matters worse they had to use the Cults P.A, and sound mixer which didn’t help them any. Bad press reviews from the gig made it difficult for the band to be accepted,

At this time they had a record deal with United Artists and recorded an album at Rockfield Studios, Dave Edmunds produced four of the tracks, leaving Friz Fryer (late of The Four Pennies) ta produce the rest.

Phil joined the band at this time, by chance rather than design. He had never really liked Hawkwind, as at the time they were popular he was a skinhead and into reggae, soul music and the like. He had been playing drums for a couple of years and had been taking lessons. He had met Lemmy a few times at the local boozer and had visited him when he was squatting in a house in Chelsea with the Angels.

On one of his visits he heard a rumour that Motorhead had been at Rockfield recording an album and that they weren’t very happy with their drummer. Me didn’t take a lot of notice, as it wasn’t really directed at him; the rumour was just circulating the Angels household.

One day Phil got back to his place and found a note pushed through his door saying “Phil, come over and see Lemmy”. Although by this time he had known Lemmy for about a year and he knew he played drums, they had never really talked about music at all, So, Phil was invited to give Lemmy a Lift to Rockfield Studios in his motor, taking his drum kit with him.

When they arrived they found Lucus hadn’t bothered to turn up, so Phil was in there, with his kit in a studio; in his words “Like a kid in Disneyland”, The first Motorhead track he ever played was ‘Iron Horse, and as soon as he finished the number everyone went crazy about his playing. So that was it: Phil was in, and Lucus was out. But they’d already recorded the United Artists album. Phil had never been in a proper recording studio before, but he was asked to do a drum over-dub on the tracks, which was difficult to do and took a week.

**Philthy Animal Taylor – Drums, Lemmy- Bass and Vocals & Fast Eddie Clarke – Guitar**

They left Rockfield feeling really happy about the album, but there was just a complete blank from U.A., nothing. After joining the band, he and Lemmy got closer and started hanging out together. They would go to U.A. every day, asking when the album was coming out and when they were going to get them some gigs. All they got was a load of bullshit excuses from them, like the sleeve not being quite right or similar bollocks. In the end they looked around and tried to get some gigs off their own back. Larry wasn’t into socialising too much; Phil and Lemmy would drive miles to see him but he never reciprocated. After a while they got fedup and drifted away from him as far as social visits went. Larry was considering a twin guitar line-up due to the amount of over-dubs on the album.

Phil had met Eddie the summer before, they had worked together on a barge, converting it into a houseboat; Eddie had been the foreman. Phil had heard Eddie play and got in touch with him, inviting him to a rehearsal. Larry was late, so they played as a trio for a few hours. Eventually Larry arrived with his minions who carried his amps and guitars. He plugged in, tuned up and started playing ‘The Fool’ at full volume, drowning out the others (at this time he had the best amps). He played for about half an hour, unplugged and went on, not saying a word to anyone. (At this point Lemmy’s story differed: he said Larry just kept playing and they got fed up with it, walking out one by one. Larry came out and asked them what was up. Eddie and Phil were emphatic that what they said was correct, but Lemmy said: “No, what I’ve said is true, as true as I’m a male”. But the end result is the same, Larry just liked to hear himself and blew them off. Anyway, they figured he’d sort himself out and come back and apologise.

Eddie was quite happy playing rhythm guitar, he was pleased to get himself a gig. So the three of them played and found that they worked well together. Eddie tried to be friends with Larry but Larry refused to communicate, he didn’t want to know. He made it difficult, turned himself into some sort of hermit. Eddie has never made his opinions of Larry widely known, as he doesn’t want anyone to think he’s bitching, he’s not; he just wishes Larry would get things together and face up to things.

That’s how Motorhead transformed into its current line-up. No way was Larry forced out, he just didn’t want to be part of the band Phil, Eddie and Lemny would like to make that absolutely crystal clear. Their second contract was with Stiff Records. The band went into a studio in Worthing and recorded ‘Leaving Here’ and ‘White Line Fever’.

They paid for the session themselves Jake Riviera (co-founder of Stiff) paying for the tapes. The single was scheduled for release as BUY 9 but was never issued: it did appear in the boxed set of the first ten Stiff singles and also cropped up on a couple of compilation albums. Around this time the band were about to give up. Having no vinyl testament of themselves they asked Ted Carroll, Boss of Chiswick Records, to record them at a Marquee gig they had coming up.

He agreed, went to see them (but didn’t record i. liked what he heard and asked them to record a single. They were given two days to do it in – a track a day. In those two days in the studio they recorded eleven backing tracks. Ted Carroll told them to carry on and do an album, which was what they had hoped for. This resulted in the ‘Motorhead’ album and the ‘Motorhead/City Kids’ single.

Motorhead’s eponymous first album on Chiswick

When they did the Chiswick single and album they were still with Douglas Smith, but weren’t actually signed to him but to a guy called Ludo. Douglas was helping Ludo out, they were sort of partners. Ludo didn’t have any real bread, so the band did a few gigs with him and then decide: they didn’t want to be with him. So they asked Douglas to sign them instead, but he said he couldn’t do it, he had a lot on at the time. Lemmy got a phone call from Tony Secunda, who asked him out for lunch. In those days a free lunch was alright! Secunda seemed OK, and had some good ideas, so Lenny gave Phil and Eddie the facts an: told them he thought it was a good idea. Eddie didn’t agree at first but came around in the end. So the band signed with Secunda, much to Douglas’ chagrin. Secunda effectively kept the band off the road for a year, telling them that he couldn’t get a record deal. Eventually he put them on a tour: Phil broke his wrist, so they had to cancel after three gigs.

He told them to go away and write a single, they came back without one actually written. So they ended up doing ‘Louie Louie’, which Phil suggested doing. The whole Secunda thing was hopeless every time. it started off well, though: He had two huge murals painted on the side of some houses in London, with the Motorhead logo and ‘Motorhead! on them, on open view to everyone who drove past. He did the promotions ok at first, but seemed to run out of steam. Secunda’s wife divorced him and everything was grinding to a halt. The band went back to see Douglas, to try to buy Secunda out. He wouldn’t have it. In the end they just left him, he declared himself bankrupt and flew back to America. So that’s when the band got back with Douglas Ili Smith. Tony Secunda blew Chiswick out, they had I wanted to keep Motorhead on.

Douglas went around the companies and eventually came up with Bronze, who, among other things, promised Jimmy Miller in the production seat. And although ‘Louie Louie: was done with Tony Secunda it just ended up as a backing track. When they signed with Bronze they re-did it, and made a ‘Top of the Pops’ appearance with the single in October 1978. It reached 68 in the charts, which gave Bronze the confidence to sign the band to record more for them. This resulted in the ‘Overkill’ album being released in early 1979, followed by a further ‘Top of the Pops’ on March 9th with the single of the title track. Later, ‘No Class’ was lifted from the album, coupled with ‘Like a Nightmare’ as its B-side. The band then headed for the studios during July and August, again with Jimmy Miller, and came up with ‘All The Aces’ in the form of the ‘Bomber’ album.