Motörhead on track

Book excerpt: Motorhead were arguably the greatest rock and roll band in history, but it took many years to win that accolade. As a result, this is the story of the band that refused to die. The band had to deal with wayward producers, hostile record companies, a couple of false starts and even the ignominy of being proclaimed the Worst Band in the World by the NME! Famed for their loudness and their singular anthem, ‘Ace Of Spades’, Motorhead not only proved inspirational for a host of newer bands but also, accidentally, created two sub-genres of heavy music - speed and thrash metal. Not bad for a band who announced themselves with: ‘We are Motorhead, and we play rock and roll.’ at live gigs. This book covers every studio album, combined with many rarities and the more significant solo work from Lemmy. Beginning with the highly regarded trio of albums that ended the 1970s, the book continues through the line-up hardships and turmoil of the 1980s to the occasionally awkward musical experiments of the early 1990s. It finally closes with the band’s triumphant two-decade-long career revival, making this book an essential companion to the entire studio output of a unique and iconic band. Duncan Harris started as a music journalist and interviewer in the 1980s, writing for fanzines and magazines. He contributed to the Rough Guides music series and, until recently, maintained a long series of reviews for the Internet website The Dreaded Press. This book is the result, a labour of love for an iconic band. Duncan continues to live in Wiltshire, UK, with his remarkable wife, their dog Willow and their cat Lily.