With this cracking two cd set, the 40th anniversary edition of one of my favourite albums, I am transported back in time some 43 years, to the heady days of 1979, the pre-digital, pre-Internet days, when the world was a very different place. I was still at school attending gigs while only having to worry about school results, and discovering new bands every week, especially heavy metal bands, through radio shows like the ‘Friday Rock Show’, and ‘Sounds’ music paper, though I was more open minded than most, paying more than a little attention to the punk rock sounds of the day, that I tuned into on John Peel’s show every now so often, something I didn’t tell my metal -head mates, as music fandom was almost tribal back in those days. It’s strange when you think about it years later.
I discovered ‘Overkill when it came out, bought it on cassette, which was all I could afford at the time, and I suppose never looked back. This was rock music, but not as I knew it, a bit punkish in its speed, better than Judas Priest and Black Sabbath, but a whole lot different musically than them. I saw Motorhead as renegades, as outsiders, and at that time they were just that within the music industry , but that would change in the next two years, with the release of the subsequent albums ‘Bomber ‘ and ‘Ace of Spades’ , but that’s for another day and review!
‘Overkill ‘isn’t and wasn’t ‘heavy metal ‘ per se. Of course, as all Motorfans knew, Motorhead played ‘rock ’n ‘roll’, and in my opinion were more akin to the Ramones, the Damned, the MC5 and so on and so forth, Lemmy Kilmister had played bass with the Damned for a few gigs, and his band appealed to the metallers and the punks alike, which was unusual in those days. There’s a real mixture in ”’Overkill, the heavy blues of (I Won’t ) ‘Pay Your Price’ and ‘Damage Case’ , The swinging ‘ No Class’ which reminded me of ZZ Top’s ‘Tush’ , the proto-thrash metal of ‘Overkill’, with the incredible drumming and sheer breakneck speed of it. ‘Metropolis’ and ‘Capricorn’ slow the pace down a bit, but Motorhead were never going to be balladeers, were they?
I really enjoyed the ‘Live at Aylesbury Friars’ cd, with songs from the ‘Motorhead ‘album , and ‘Overkill’ itself , and a smattering of choice covers that fit t.he band like a glove; John Mayall’s ‘I’m Your Witch Doctor’, Johnny Burnette’s ‘Train Kept A’ Rollin’ and Hawkwind’s ‘The Watcher’. As said in my opening comments, I am transported back in time, back to the first time I saw Motorhead live, on the ‘Bomber ‘ tour in 1979, at Aberdeen’s legendary Capitol theatre, when my ears rang for hours after the gig, and when I proudly wore the tour badge on my school blazer the next day, and boasted of my signed record sleeves to my pals of the time,way back in the days when you had to queue for concert tickets, rather than everything being sold out within minutes due to online demand these days!
Golden days indeed!
The Eclectic Audio Lab 
eddiesrockmusic
/ August 14, 2022Happy memories – A great album from the golden age of the band.