Beer Drinkers and Hellraisers

Ian Fraser ‘Lemmy’ Kilmister. 1945 – 2015.

The mighty godfather of brutal bass bashing has sadly passed away, and what a true legend he was.

Lemmy was me and my metal mates gateway drug into the so called New Wave of British Heavy Metal via Motörheads stone cold classic Overkill album – Stay Clean, Damage Case, Metropolis, No Class, all bullet belt bruisers. But Overkill was just the beginning for us, we were spoilt for choice thereafter… Bomber, school disco lynchpin the Ace of Spades, Beer Drinkers and Hellraisers, St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (with the ever classy Girlschool – don’t you kiss me baby cause I’m shakin’ too much), and that’s before we even realised that Lemmy was responsible for Hawkwinds earlier space bass eruptions, come on, Lemmy gave us Silver Machine, Lost Johnny and The Watcher for starters.

I was lucky enough to meet Lemmy twice at the Ipswich Gaumont in 83 (in teenage autograph hungry headbanger mode – he autographed my Iron Fist 7 inch, red vinyl no less, and was a proper gent in a pre-selfie era) and some time later at the Cambridge Corn Exchange (on the Orgasmatron tour I think). In hindsight, neither line-up would be deemed classic now, Fast Eddie Clarke had recently moved on only to be replaced by pretty boy Brian ‘Robbo’ Robertson of Thin Lizzy fame. It was a short lived affair (some say doomed) but it holds a special place in my metal memory and their sole collaboration, the Another Perfect Day album, is still one of my favourite long players of the era.

I think I ended up seeing Motörhead about half a dozen times thereafter and they always delivered, a yearly highlight of what we used to refer to as ‘gig season’. My last encounter was a guest slot with Hawkwind at Brixton and his stretching out of Space is Deep is as good as I’ve ever witnessed.

I can’t quite believe old Lemmy has gone, he was seemingly immortal, the last of the true old school hellraisers and the reason I picked up a bass guitar. So here’s to Lemmy, let’s raise a glass of Jack Daniels. Devil’s grip, the Iron Fist.

Posted by: Forte