Lemmy

On This Day 23/09/1987 Motorhead

On this day, 23 September 1987, heavy rockers Motörhead played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall on the group’s Rock ‘N’ Roll tour.

The band had recently released their eighth studio album Rock ‘N’ Roll, released in August 1987. It is their last album with the GWR label, as more legal issues embroiled the band with yet another label. Reaching only No. 34 in the UK Albums Chart, Rock 'n' Roll was, in that respect, the worst performing of all of Motörhead's top 40 chart hits.

It would see the return of 'classic line up' drummer Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor, albeit only for a few more years before being fired.

Also in 1987, Motörhead appeared in the Peter Richardson film Eat the Rich, which starred the regular cast of The Comic Strip and Motörhead frontman Lemmy himself in a small part as "Spider". The band supplied six songs for the soundtrack as well. As the band was about to film their cameo, however, drummer Pete Gill was fired and Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor rejoined after having quit in 1984. In his autobiography White Line Fever, Lemmy states the sacking of Gill was a long time coming.

"Peter was his own worst enemy, he was another one who wouldn't just be content in the band. He went up against me on a couple of decisions, and he was making Phil and Wurzel upset too. I got tired of him moaning, so when he kept us waiting while he hung around in the lobby of his hotel for twenty minutes while he read the paper or something, that was the proverbial last straw. I know it sounds trivial, but most flare-ups in families are, aren't they? And a band is a family."

Rock 'n' Roll was produced by the band and Guy Bidmead at Master Rock Studios and Redwood Studios in London. In the Motörhead documentary The Guts and the Glory, guitarist Phil Campbell states, "I like it. It's not a great album but... there's things on there I like, a lot of good things I like."

Campbell adds that the studio manager informed them that the studio they were recording in was owned by Michael Palin, and Motörhead – who were all huge Monty Python fans – invited Palin to come down and do a recitation for the album. Palin showed up dressed in a 1940s cricketer outfit, with a V-necked sweater and his hair all brushed to one side. Lemmy remembers Palin walking in and saying, "Hello, what sort of thing are we going to do now, then?" and Lemmy answering "Well, you know in The Meaning of Life, there was this speech that began 'Oh Lord — .'" Palin replied "Ah! Give me some cathedral!" and went in and recorded the 'Oh Lord, look down upon these people from Motörhead' speech.

On This Day 15/02/1973 Hawkwind

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On this day, 15 February 1973, space rock band Hawkwind played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre.

Formed in 1969 Hawkwind have gone through many incarnations and have incorporated many different styles into their music, including hard rock, progressive rock and psychedelic rock.

They are also regarded as an influential band with theit lyrics favouring urban and science fiction themes.

Hawkwind are best known for the song "Silver Machine which became a number-three UK hit single in 1972, but they scored further hit singles with "Urban Guerrilla, another Top 40 and "Shot Down in the Night.”

The band had a run of twenty-two of their albums charting in the UK from 1971 to 1993.

Hard rock musician Lemmy of the band Motörhead gained a lot from his tenure in Hawkwind. He remarked, "I really found myself as an instrumentalist in Hawkwind. Before that I was just a guitar player who was pretending to be good, when actually I was no good at all. In Hawkwind I became a good bass player. It was where I learned I was good at something."

Members

Dik Mik

Dave Brock

Del Dettmar

Lemmy Kilmister

Simon King

Nik Turner





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