Motörhead

In five years, Motörhead’s classic Lemmy/Philthy/Fast Eddie line-up took the band from rock’s mangiest underdogs into an era of sold-out tours, No.1 albums and hit singles. This perfectly matched band of brothers thrived on volatility, but when tensions came to a head and Eddie walked out in May 1982, a stand-in was needed fast. Within a week, ex-Thin Lizzy hellraiser and wah-wah wizard Brian ‘Robbo’ Robertson had joined Motörhead on a US tour, but this was not the guitarist anyone was expecting – even before Robbo cut his hair into a dyed-red bouffant, and revealed a problematic penchant for wearing headbands, mesh vests, satin shorts and ballet shoes onstage. “All that shit about being dressed differently, all the wearing of stupid shorts, it was just to get at me,” Lemmy later explained to

“Or make sure everybody knew he wasn’t in Motörhead, just a featured guest artist, doing us a favour from the great heights as a Thin Lizzy guitar player.”

Worse, Robbo’s narky attitude extended to refusing to play muchloved hits live; punters screaming for Ace Of Spades, Overkill, Motörhead or Bomber in 1983 went home disappointed. This line-up’s sole artistic collaboration, the daringly polished and melodic Another Perfect Day LP, gradually settled into its status as a bold Motörclassic, but the ensuing Another Perfect Tour arrested Motörhead’s momentum, compromising earlier successes. Dates and attendances were down on previous jaunts, while the stage show was drastically reduced, the iconic Bomber lighting rig scrapped. By the end of the year Robbo was gone, and Philthy soon followed to join him in a new band, Operator, which never materialised. Lemmy was left to pick up the pieces, and win back some approval from a fanbase almost cut in half by the controversies of 1983.

“All that shit about wearing stupid shorts, it was just to get at me”