Motorhead has been called everything under the sun having anything to do with being the hardest, fastest, loudest and craziest band in existence. Lemmy Kilmister, and any one of the bands line-ups throughout the bands twenty-five year history have lived through some of the most legendary exploits known to the world of Rock Music, and have documented some of those wild stories of angst, pranks, Rock n' Roll debauchery and the Infinite Wisdom of Lemmy for their legions of fans to live vicariously through with the twenty albums Motorhead has released in the past quarter century. There aren't many bands that can match the influence or impact of Motorhead.

They've been called everything from the Loudest Band in the World, to the pioneers of both the Thrash, and Speed-Metal genres of music that have spawned bands like Slayer, and the Almighty Metallica, who outspokenly cite Motorhead as one of, if not "the" major influence in Metallica's formative years. While many bands have dropped out completely, or succumbed to the influence of music industry types, Motorhead stays true to what the band has been doing for twenty-five years, and remains an uncompromising musical force. The uncompromising nature of Motorhead is just one of many reasons they've earned the right to be called Legends.

"If we'd had short hair they would have called us punks. We've got more in common with the Damned than Judas Priest"--- Lemmy

In 1975 Lemmy was fired from the psychedelic-rock band Hawkwind, and immediately formed a band called Bastard. An interesting piece of info about Mr. Kilmister is that he was a roadie for Jimi Hendrix before he joined Hawkwind in the late 60's. Excuse the detour, back to the business of Motorhead. Bastard's line-up consisted of Lemmy on bass and vocals, Larry Wallace on guitar, and Lucas Fox on drums. Shortly thereafter Lemmy changed the bands name to Motorhead after his then manager told him a band called Bastard would never get a shot at being on the very popular British music show "Top of the Pops." The name Motorhead by the way is American slang for Speed Freak, (hmmmm, how fitting). The band went into the studio to record, and during the recording sessions Fox was replaced by Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor. Lemmy wanted to add a second guitarist to the band, so they auditioned "Fast" Eddie Clarke, and for reasons unknown, Wallace quit in the middle of Eddie's audition. Eddie stayed with the band and recorded five studio albums including the bands 1977 self titled debut, and one live album (No Sleep �til Hammersmith) with the band. Eddie saw the band through the ill fated, and underrated Iron Fist album, and left the band after an artistic difference arose over Lemmy recording a cover of cowgirl crooner Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man" with Wendy O. Williams. Eddie formed Fastway with ex-Humble Pie drummer Jerry Shirley and achieved a fair amount of success with Fastway's KNAC friendly debut album, and the single "Say What You Will." After that he hasn't shown himself around town much.

With Eddie's departure Motorhead hastily recruited Brian "Robbo" Robertson from Thin Lizzy to help fulfill the bands tour obligations. "Robbo" recorded Another Perfect Day with the band and went on tour with the band in support of the album. While Another Prefect Day is a fine album, and "Robbo" proved to be quite musically adept live, and in the studio, the band found him to be more trouble than he was worth. The fans were disenchanted with him for his refusal to play classics from the Motorhead catalogue, and the band was disenchanted with him because he developed a fixation for wearing ballerina shoes and tights on stage. "Robbo" left the band at the end of 1983. Motorhead replaced him with guitarists Phil Campbell and Wurzel at the beginning of 1984, and then sadly, Philthy quit the band. Motorhead replaced him with Pete Gill from Saxon. They also parted company with Bronze Records around this time, and No Remorse � a greatest hits album with four new tracks, is the last album Motorhead recorded for Bronze Records. In 1986 Motorhead released the absolutely devastating Orgasmatron and did a massive tour in support of the album. In 1987 Pete Gill left the band and Philthy returned to record Rock n' Roll, which contains the most comical lyrics to ever grace a Motorhead song in the form of the single "Eat the Rich." Motorhead kept on going and recorded the 1988 live album No Sleep at All, and the 1991 studio album 1916 with the Lemmy, Phil Campbell, Wurzel, and Philthy line-up intact. Mikkey Dee from Don Dokken's band came onboard in 1992 in time to record March or Die and replace Philthy on drums. After a couple more studio albums with the four piece line-up I came to find the band was a three piece again with the departure of guitarist Wurzel, upon seeing the cover of the 1996 release Overnight Sensation.