Life changed forever yesterday and it is very difficult to find words for this.
“I wlll be the watcher, and I will never sleep…” Lemmy, 1993
Words: Steve Göldby
At 1.30am on the morning of Tuesday 29th December 2015 the biggest Motörhead fan I have ever known, Ripsaw, burst into my room, thrust a Motörhead coffee mug into my hand, filled it with Jack Daniels and broke the news. That’s probably how Lemmy would have done it.
We spent the next few hours playing Motörhead albums and drinking in Lemmy’s honour and to his memory and feeling very, very sad in the knowledge that we would never see Motörhead play again.
He was Motörhead and he played rock n’ roll and I really thought he would outlive every one of us. His legacy most definitely will.
The word “legend” is horribly over-used these days but for Lemmy, it is not negotiable.
Motörhead changed everything. My own first experience of the greatest rock n’ roll band ever was in 1979 when the video for ‘Bomber’ was first aired on British TV and it was, and still is, life defining.
Motörhead gave us something to believe in. They transcended not just heavy rock but music itself and one of my favourite stories from the many that have emerged this last few hours is from former England football star Stuart Pearce, whose love of heavy music is well known.
He told a nice story on talkSPORT radio about when The Stranglers were playing with Motörhead and he popped backstage to say hello to them. On the way out of the backstage area he passed by Motörhead’s dressing room and had a quick look in. “It was like Beelzebub’s back yard,” said the former Manchester City manager and he described the decision to walk past the carnage as a “career defining moment” as he pondered on how his life could have been altered if he had entered the lion’s den.
But he was about much more than the well documented hedonistic lifestyle and his music and lyrics are a legacy that will probably never be bettered.
I have often wondered what life would have been like if there had never been a Motörhead. It certainly would not have been as colourful or exciting. I can’t clearly remember a time when there wasn’t a Motörhead.
But that is now the case and we are left with some amazing memories and a lifetime to ponder a true legend whose like we may never see again.
Ripsaw slugged back the last of the Jack Daniels at 7.00 yesterday morning then went to work. That’s probably exactly what Lemmy would have done.
The poster for the forthcoming gig in late January was still on display outside Hammersmith Odeon yesterday afternoon. That gig should still go ahead as a tribute to Lemmy, the very greatest rocker of all time.
Aufstein.
