Heavy Metal legends in the making, Motorhead, turned up the decibels at High Wycombe Town Hall on Friday 29th September 1978. The date was arranged to promote their new single ‘Louie Louie’, released as one-off for Bronze Records. A John Peel session had also been recorded for BBC Radio 1 on 18th September 1978 and popularity for the band was very much on the rise at the time of their Town Hall appearance – much of this also credited to their cross-over with the punk scene.
A quick look at their history reveals that lead singer and bassist Ian ‘Lemmy’ Kilmister, had formed Motorhead in the summer of 1975 following his departure from Hawkwind. The name of the group had been taken from the final song he had written with Hawkwind. By the time of the Town Hall gig, the Motorhead line-up and settled to a three piece with 32 year old ‘Lemmy’ on bass, Phil Taylor (24) on drums and ‘Fast’ Eddie Clarke (27) on guitar.
Going back to Lemmy’s time with Hawkwind, the group played High Wycombe Town Hall at least three times during the earlier 1970’s, however, their latter of these appearances, on 14 August 1971, is the only date that would coincide with Lemmy’s arrival in their line-up. A few months later he took lead vocals on the Hawkwind classic ‘Silver Machine’.
Several Hawkwind covers appeared in the early Motorhead set-lists, including the inspiration for the name of the group, ‘Motorhead’. At the time of publication of this article, there was no confirmation of the set-list at the Town Hall but a recording of the gig at Wolverhampton on 23rd September 1978 exists with the following tracks:
- Motorhead (Hawkwind cover)
- I’ll Be Your Sister
- Leaving Here (Edward Holland, Jr. cover)
- Lost Johnny (Hawkwind cover)
- The Watcher (Hawkwind cover)
- Keep Us on the Road
- Louie Louie (Richard Berry cover)
- Tear Ya Down
- Iron Horse/Born to Lose
- White Line Fever
- Instro
By the time this article was published to mark the 40th anniversary of Motorhead’s appearance in High Wycombe, all three of the original band members had passed away.
‘Philthy Animal’ Taylor passed away on 11th November 2015 (aged 61)
‘Lemmy’ passed away on 28th December 2015 (aged 70)
‘Fast’ Eddie Clarke passed away on 10th January 1978 (aged 67)
For your listening and viewing pleasure
Louie Louie – Motorhead – BBC Top of the Pops – October 1978
Motorhead – Motorhead – official audio – 1978
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