GIG REVIEWS

Motorhead
@ Leeds University
14th Oct '03
www.vanguard-online.co.uk

 Admit it, you've always wanted to hear Motorhead play the Pistols' God Save The Queen. And tonight that dream came true - Lemmy straining up, headed tilted back to the microphone, shouting out the words with his neck muscles held rigid to breaking point.

Tonight Motorhead went out of their way to shout up their punk credentials. With the number of bikers in the audience, they really didn't need to but Lemmy is a sensitive fella and this is a touchy subject. We were treated to 'Ramones' a tribute to the band that went on to be played by them too. With the knobs turned up to twelve, speed and noise were what it was about. Tempos were blistering and dynamics were nil; everything was 'louder than everything else'. The first thing Lemmy said when he arrived on stage was 'we're Motorhead and we're going to fuck you up'. The band battered their way in the loudest way possible through a slew of old and new tracks from Love Me Like A Reptile to Killed By Death to Overkill. The sound was solid and vital, propelled by a drummer who looked like the Magic Roundabout's Dougal in a spindryer. He went on to give us the ubiquitous drum solo followed by Lemmy doing some solo bass blues of the very grimiest texture. They topped this with some ultrasonically paced rock and roll.

The onslaught was relentless yet an hour and a half just flew past. It was so loud that the only possible response was jerking around rapidly (or, as the guy next to me did, stripping off your shirt and headbanging).

It's good to see a band that doesn't trot out all its greatest hits material and one that seems determined to engage with the audience on a higher level than 'Leeds, are you ready to rock and roll' (though plenty of that goes on too). Lemmy and the guitarist both go for some chat, some jokes and some slagging with the hecklers. It's more than obvious that Lemmy has no intention to settle down with a pension plan and when he encores with Ace Of Spades the burning intensity persuades us to believe him when he tells us 'that's the way I like it baby, I don't want to live forever'.

Ross McGibbon