Lemmy

Lemmy in his dressing room, Roseland, NYC
Sept 20 '08

"...and then there are GODS...ladies and gentlemen - MOTÖRHEAD!" Thus ended pro-wrestler Triple H's introduction and out trooped Lemmy and his comrades, "greatest drummer in the world" Mikkey Dee and 24 year 'head veteran, axeman Phil Campbell, to waste the Roseland masses who clearly recognize a god (or three) when they see one. Perhaps this is a religion they should teach in schools. Anyway, for the next 90 minutes, Motörhead delivered - AS THEY ALWAYS DO - with élan, power, digital dexterity, humour and VOLUME. 'Rock Out' from the new album (their first to crack the Billboard Top 100 albums, ever), old favourites like 'Stay Clean', 'Metropolis', 'Just Cuz You've Got The Power', 'Killed By Death', 'Iron Fist', 'Ace Of Spades' and (this week's #1 at North Fork Sound) 'Overkill' plus Thin Lizzy's brilliant 'Rosalie' and a killer version of 'Going To Brazil' showed just what a great rock 'n' roll band Motörhead truly are. Forget the metal or punk tags. They're rock 'n' roll like very few are even capable of being, these days. Before the show, Lemmy was kind enough to do the above ID and show me a book of drawings he's been working on. Some of the captions accompanying the images reminded me of a 'piece' he'd done for me on a Gramercy Park Hotel Room Service Breakfast Menu in the late 80s (click on it for a better view)

2 Eggs Fried & Fertile + Scabby Kid's Head

The hospitality in Lemmy's dressing room consisted of 4 bottles of Jack Daniels, some ice, Cokes and a tray of deli meat. He told a joke (which I've forgotten) and said Philthy now has white hair. I told him the station plays Motörhead and his side project The Head Cat plus a lot of Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry etc to which he responded, "Buddy Holly?" Of course. I had my friend Eric Danville with me. He's currently compiling the Heavy Metal Book Of Lists, for which Lemmy has written the foreword, so I took a couple of pix of them together and then we split for the bar.