It’s kind of ironic that The Darkness banned Lemmy from going backstage after he labelled them a ‘novelty act’ recently. For this Sunday night gig looked sold out – and I don’t think that would have been the case eighteen months ago, before The Darkness paved the way for some much needed rock nostalgia in our lives. You might hate The Darkness. But for a fart like me I’m having the time of my life watching all the old wrinklies coming out of the woodwork. And if nothing else The Darkness have paved the way for many ‘classic’ acts to do just that. 

But this isn’t about the bloody Darkness (who goodness knows get enough column inches as it is). It’s about a band that simply refuses to die. That simply refuses to jump on any bandwagon, and that still sees a future for itself many moons from now. Why else would Lemmy say ‘don’t forget us’ towards the end of this gig?  

Talking of band’s that time forgot I was amazed when my fellow gig goer (Mr Steve Atkinson, no less) told me that Sepultura were the support band. I remember stumbling (or should that be staggering) upon them at Donington way back in the nineties. They were on the edge of making it big then, but somehow seemed to disappear back up their amazon’s in the blink of an eye. They didn’t do it for me that day, but I have to say that the 21^st century version were much more like it.  

There was an animalistic element to their set that got right to the heart of this kind of music. The drumming, in particular, was very tribal – all Amazonian rain forest – and the singer virtually primeval in his delivery. (Think Predator, beating his chest half way up a big tree; with Arnie bricking himself close by, and you’ll get the drift.) Trouble is I didn’t recognise any of their soddin’ songs! So I was just left with the feeling that: yeah, they were really good. And yeah, I might check out their latest album. Which is why bands play support shows, I suppose. 

But of course I was here to see the ‘Head’. And my god doesn’t time fly. I fell out of love with this band after watching a pissed up Bryan Robertson at Preston Guildhall make a complete arse of himself (and the band) over twenty years ago. Since then their career has had more patches than an ex-smoker. More ups and downs than a Slumberland. And to be honest I simply lost interest in them. But for some reason, this summer I was compelled to buy Inferno, the bands latest opus, and I’m glad I did. This was more like it. Motorhead, as the good lord intended.

So having decided that I must go and see them, what was it like down memory lane? Well firstly the band to their credit aired a fair bit of Inferno, but only after dusting off a few crowd pleasing classics first. Stuff like Over The Top will always be a homage to the Fast Eddie days but guitarist Phil Campbell proved more than capable of doing the business, no matter what the era. Now slimmed down to a three-piece again the band were clearly enjoying themselves. 

Lemmy shone, in only the down-to-earth way he can shine. The guy is a rock icon but never gets bogged down in clichés. His aforementioned plea of ‘don’t forget us’ is ample evidence that even after forty-odd years in the business he’s still taking nothing for granted. Amazing really. Lemmy will be 59 on Christmas Eve but somehow has always looked about forty – even when he was twenty! 

It has to be said that the set list was a tour de force. Covering everything any discerning Motorhead fan could want. But I’m happy to say that one of the highlight’s was Life’s A Bitch from Inferno. Proof that the band will be around for a bit yet. As Lemmy announced the last song of the evening there was an audible groan. Then he went on to say that: ‘afterwards, we’ll pretend to go off…come back on again, and f***** play…oh, you lot know the drill by now…’.  Brilliant stuff. 

For the encore they got the acoustics out for some blues (I kid you not). Then slayed us all with the  Ace of Spades and an incredibly noisy Overkill. The band then left the stage to rapturous applause and a wall of feedback. Great to see the noisy gits back in business

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