Been looking forward to this one … Motorhead, Damned and Girlschool. Missed Girlschool due to work, but caught half the Damned’s set. I only had the one Damned album – their first – a cracker – I was hoping to hear some of it, but the set was focussed on later material – in Ru’s words ‘the poncy stuff’. Best songs had to be Love song and Smash it Up. Eloise was played pretty heavy and wasn’t quite as bad as it could have been. Captain Sensible made a comment that tonight was about Rock and Roll and two fingers up to Simon Cowell. Another quip ‘better than the Sex Pistols eh?’. He was carried off still playing at the end wearing his trademark berry and weird glasses.

Surrounded by nodding meatheads for Motorhead, possibly long haired rockers in a previous life, Motorhead’s set was not hit friendly – they were playing what they wanted to play and this was no greatest hits tour. For the first part of the set I was stood next to the only man in a white shirt in the gig, who was trying to dance in a very packed space (Academy fuller than I’ve ever seen it). His buttocks were rubbing up and down on my pint holding arm, and it was generally a little disconcerting. After a while he decided he needed to be more part of it, and headed off into the mosh pit. Playing with Mikkey Dee (drums) and Phil Campbell (lead), Lemmy didn’t appear to have aged since the last time I saw them maybe 15 years ago. Saw the following set list on the web for them for this tour :

1. Iron Fist, 2. Stay Clean, 3. Be My Baby, 4. Rock Out, 5. Metropolis, 6. Over The Top, 7. One Night Stand, 8. I Got Mine, 9. Guitar Solo, 10. The Thousand Names Of God, 11. Another Perfect Day, 12. In The Name Of Tragedy, 13. Just ‘Cos You Got The Power, 14. Going To Brazil, 15. Killed By Death, 16. Bomber. Encore: 17. Whorehouse Blues, 18. Ace Of Spades, 19. Overkill

Not 100% sure they stuck to this though as didn’t know all these songs. Highlights for me were: I got mine, Killed by Death, Bomber, Stay Clean, Overkill. We got the guitar solo and also an astoundingly loud drum solo by the ‘greatest drummer in the world’ (Lemmy’s words). My ears are still popping. It was long and insane – and while my initial reaction was ‘oh no’ – the solos brought the other two members of the band forward and you could see how they fitted into the band … you didn’t feel like you were going to see just Lemmy.

There was the odd track that was a bit of a plodder and I started thinking of dodging off to get another pint, but you couldn’t because you didn’t know what the next track was gonna be – it could have been a track you had been wanting to hear for the last 10 years.

I guess for me it was the speed freak numbers that made my day – for these Motorhead hadn’t slowed down at all, the screaming guitars were as fantastic as ever. They played a couple of covers – which I didn’t know – I guess they would have been a bit different for the fans who had been to all their tours over the years.

The encore started off with Mikkey and Phil coming out with acoustic guitars sitting on stools, and with a bit of played up embarrassment Lemmy sang a bluesy number – they were all smirking along doing this – not the greatest track but it gave the gig another dimension – then back to the thunderous rock and roll. Ace of Spades – was well Ace of Spades but Overkill was phenomenal – Lemmy kept holding his finger up ‘one more time’ and they would play the loop at the end of the track again one more blinding time. Amazing.

I’d wanted to see Motorhead again ‘before Lemmy croaked’ – but I think he’s probably gonna outlast us all … and in case I didn’t say it – it was a bloody brilliant gig, Lemmy did the shooting us with the guitar thing at the end

Another review here