Name |
Motorhead |
Height |
|
Naionality |
England |
Date of Birth |
|
Place of Birth |
London, England |
Famous for |
|
After being sacked from Hawkwind in May 1975, following his arrest on suspicion of possessing cocaine at the Canadian border and spending five days in prison which forced the band to cancel some of their North America tour dates, (Lemmy refers to the firing as being for "doing the wrong drugs"), Lemmy decided to form a new band, originally to be called "Bastard". Douglas Smith, the band's manager, advised him that, "It's unlikely that we're going to get on Top of the Pops with a name like 'Bastard'". Lemmy concurred and decided to call the band "Motörhead", inspired by the final song he had written for Hawkwind. The name of the song "Motorhead" is an American slang term meaning someone obsessed with motorcars.
Lemmy's stated aim was to "concentrate on very basic music: loud, fast, city, raucous, arrogant, paranoid, speedfreak rock n roll... it will be so dirty that if we move in next door to you, your lawn will die." On the recommendation of Mick Farren, he recruited Larry Wallis (ex-Pink Fairies) on electric guitar and Lucas Fox on drums. Their first gig was supporting Greenslade at The Roundhouse, London on 20 July 1975. On 19 October, having played ten gigs, they became the supporting act to Blue Öyster Cult at the Hammersmith Odeon.