Motörhead

Members

• Lemmy Kilmister
  Bass, Lead Vocals
  Jun 1995 – Dec 2015
• Phil Campbell
  Guitars
  Jun 1995 – Dec 2015
• Mikkey Dee
  Drums
  Jun 1995 – Dec 2015

Formation facts

• After two decades of almost constant personnel turnover, the Lemmy, Phil Campbell and Mikkey Dee trio became Motörhead's stable final lineup in June 1995. Motörhead's official history credits this configuration with 1,449 shows, and it remained intact through Lemmy's death twenty years later. The consistency allowed the band to build an unusually productive late-career run, recording ten studio albums from Overnight Sensation through Bad Magic while touring relentlessly around the world.
• Motörhead's relationship with WWE turned the band into part of Triple H's identity. The group recorded "The Game," "King of Kings" and Evolution's "Line in the Sand," and performed Triple H's entrance live at WrestleMania X-Seven and WrestleMania 21. Phil Campbell later said he believed the wrestling connection helped explain why younger generations kept appearing at Motörhead concerts. A collaboration outside the band's normal music world had become a remarkably effective way of introducing Motörhead to fans who were not alive during Ace of Spades.
• Motörhead's only Grammy victory came from playing someone else's song that had been deeply influenced by Motörhead in the first place. At the 2005 Grammy Awards, the band won Best Metal Performance for its cover of Metallica's "Whiplash." The Recording Academy lists four Motörhead nominations and one win. The result created an unusually neat circle of influence: Metallica had long acknowledged Motörhead as a formative inspiration, and Motörhead finally received its Grammy by interpreting a Metallica song.
• Motörhead played its final concert in Berlin on December 11, 2015. Lemmy, whose health had become increasingly fragile, still completed the European tour. He died on December 28, and Mikkey Dee immediately rejected the idea of replacing him, saying that Lemmy was Motörhead and that there would be no more tours or records. Unlike bands that continued after losing their defining member, Motörhead's forty-year history ended with the man who had created it and remained its only constant musician.

Studio albums

• Bad Magic (Aug 2015)
• Aftershock (Oct 2013)
• The Wörld Is Yours (Dec 2010)
• Motörizer (Aug 2008)
• Kiss of Death (Aug 2006)
• Inferno (Jun 2004)
• Hammered (Apr 2002)
• We Are Motörhead (May 2000)
• Snake Bite Love (Mar 1998)
• Overnight Sensation (Oct 1996)

Members

• Lemmy Kilmister
  Bass, Lead Vocals
  Aug 1992 – Jun 1995
• Phil Campbell
  Guitars
  Aug 1992 – Jun 1995
• Würzel
  Guitars
  Aug 1992 – Jun 1995
• Mikkey Dee
  Drums
  Aug 1992 – Jun 1995

Formation facts

• The transition from Phil Taylor to Mikkey Dee produced one of Motörhead's strangest recording situations. March ör Die was made during the 1992 Los Angeles riots and features three drummers: Taylor plays on "I Ain't No Nice Guy," session veteran Tommy Aldridge recorded most of the album, and Dee plays "Hellraiser." Lemmy had previously tried to recruit Dee, but the drummer had stayed with King Diamond. This time he accepted. Dee played his first Motörhead concert on August 30, beginning the partnership that would last for the rest of the band's career.
• By the Sacrifice sessions in 1995, the four-piece was coming to an end. Motörhead's official history says it became clear during recording that Würzel was no longer himself, and he left after the album was completed. Rather than recruit another guitarist, Lemmy, Phil Campbell and Mikkey Dee chose to continue as a trio. On June 13, 1995, the lineup that would carry Motörhead through the rest of its existence was born. A personnel loss therefore returned the band to the three-piece format that had defined its classic years.

Studio albums

• Sacrifice (Mar 1995)
• Bastards (Oct 1993)
• March ör Die (Jul 1992)

Members

• Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor
  Drums
  Mar 1987 – Mar 1992

Formation facts

• The title track of 1916 was one of the sharpest departures Motörhead ever made. Instead of speed and distorted bass, Lemmy wrote from the perspective of a young soldier dying in the First World War, specifically invoking the Battle of the Somme. He later said the song had even been used in schools when teaching the war. The album then earned Motörhead its first Grammy nomination, for Best Metal Performance, proving that one of the band's most restrained and historically minded records could gain recognition far outside its usual rock-and-roll lane.
• The 1916 sessions went through an abrupt production change after Lemmy heard a mix of "Going to Brazil." Producer Ed Stasium had added claves and tambourines without the band's approval. According to the version Lemmy later told in his autobiography, he asked for the extra tracks to be brought up in the mix, heard what had been added, and fired Stasium. Peter Solley completed the album. Even when Motörhead was making one of the most varied records of its career, there were limits to how far someone else could alter the band's sound without asking.

Studio albums

• 1916 (Jan 1991)
• Rock 'n' Roll (Aug 1987)

Members

No members recorded for this formation.

Formation facts

• When Motörhead needed a guitarist in 1984, Phil Campbell was still delivering frozen chickens for a living when the call came telling him to learn a large batch of Motörhead songs. The auditions eventually came down to Campbell and Michael "Würzel" Burston. Lemmy had expected to choose between them, but liked what he heard when they played together and hired both instead. Pete Gill joined on drums after Phil Taylor left, turning a band famous as a three-piece into a four-man lineup with twin guitars.
• The new four-piece spent years unable to release a proper studio album because of Motörhead's legal battle with Bronze Records. While the label issued compilations and parts of the press treated the band as finished, Motörhead kept touring and refining the new lineup. The dispute was finally resolved in 1986, allowing Orgasmatron to become the first full studio statement by Campbell, Würzel and Pete Gill. Lemmy called it Motörhead's best album since Ace of Spades, a comeback made after years in which the band could play but could barely record.

Studio albums

• Orgasmatron (Jul 1986)

Members

• Lemmy Kilmister
  Bass, Lead Vocals
  May 1982 – Nov 1983

Formation facts

• Fast Eddie Clarke's departure came in the middle of Motörhead's 1982 North American tour. Tensions had already been growing, but the breaking point was the band's unlikely recording of "Stand By Your Man" with Plasmatics singer Wendy O. Williams, a project Clarke strongly disliked. He walked out, and former Thin Lizzy guitarist Brian Robertson was recruited within days so Motörhead could finish its commitments. One unexpected country-song collaboration had helped end the lineup responsible for Overkill, Bomber and Ace of Spades.
• Brian Robertson did not try to imitate Fast Eddie Clarke. He brought a more melodic and elaborate guitar approach to Another Perfect Day, producing one of the strangest records in Motörhead's catalog. The album was poorly received by many fans at the time but was reassessed much more favorably later. The musical differences were only part of the friction: Robertson resisted playing several Motörhead standards and became famous for taking the stage in satin shorts and ballet shoes. By November 1983, his one-album experiment with Motörhead was over.

Studio albums

• Another Perfect Day (May 1983)

Members

• Lemmy Kilmister
  Bass, Lead Vocals
  Mar 1976 – May 1982
• "Fast" Eddie Clarke
  Guitars, Vocals
  Mar 1976 – May 1982
• Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor
  Drums
  Mar 1976 – May 1982

Formation facts

• By April 1977, Motörhead was broke enough that the trio planned a farewell show at London's Marquee Club. Lemmy asked Chiswick Records founder Ted Carroll to record what might be their final performance, but the mobile recording cost was too high. Carroll instead offered two days of studio time for a single. Motörhead drove to the studio after the show and, rather than record two songs, cut essentially an entire album. Lemmy later said that once Motörhead came out, the band was suddenly on its way.
• "Overkill" grew from Phil Taylor experimenting with a new double-bass drum kit. Fast Eddie Clarke remembered Taylor playing both bass drums together, making such an arresting sound that Clarke and Lemmy simply joined in and built the song around the rhythm. The effect reached far beyond Motörhead. Lars Ulrich has said hearing Taylor's double-kick opening in 1979 blew his head off and made him want to play that way himself. The technique became a basic ingredient of the thrash and speed metal that followed.
• "Ace of Spades" took shape during the 1980 sessions at Rockfield Studios with producer Vic Maile, who helped sharpen the song's instantly recognizable arrangement. Lemmy approached the lyric almost as an exercise in cramming gambling terminology into one song and recalled writing much of it in the back of a van. What emerged became so synonymous with Motörhead that it eventually overshadowed nearly everything else the band recorded, even though Lemmy himself grew tired of having to play it every night.
• In June 1981, Motörhead achieved its highest chart position not with a studio album but with No Sleep 'til Hammersmith. The live record entered the UK Official Albums Chart at No. 1, giving the band the only British chart-topping album of its career. Lemmy later said Motörhead had always been at its best in front of an audience, which made the breakthrough unusually appropriate. At the peak of the Clarke/Taylor era, the record-buying public had effectively made a Motörhead concert the biggest album in Britain.

Studio albums

• Iron Fist (Apr 1982)
• Ace of Spades (Oct 1980)
• Bomber (Nov 1979)
• Overkill (Oct 1979)
• Motörhead (Aug 1977)

Members

• Lemmy Kilmister
  Bass, Lead Vocals
  Dec 1975 – Feb 1976
• Larry Wallis
  Guitars, Vocals
  Dec 1975 – Feb 1976
• Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor
  Drums
  Dec 1975 – Feb 1976

Formation facts

• Motörhead recorded On Parole in 1975, but United Artists was unimpressed and refused to release it. By the time the label finally issued the album in 1979, Larry Wallis had long since left and Motörhead had already broken through with the classic Lemmy, Fast Eddie Clarke and Phil Taylor lineup. An album recorded near the beginning of the band's existence therefore became its fourth released LP, arriving only after Overkill and Bomber had proved that the band its original label rejected could sell records.
• Lucas Fox was Motörhead's original drummer and began the On Parole sessions, but Phil Taylor replaced him before recording was finished. Taylor then re-recorded Fox's drums on virtually the entire album. One track escaped the overhaul: "Lost Johnny." Taylor was arrested for drunk and disorderly behavior and could not get back to the studio before Motörhead's recording time expired, leaving Fox's performance on the released record. The album captures the transition between Motörhead's first two drummers rather than one clean lineup.

Studio albums

• On Parole (Nov 1979)