About Opentopia
Opentopia Directory Encyclopedia Tools

Lemmy Kilmister

Encyclopedia : L : LE : LEM : Lemmy Kilmister

Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister (born Ian Fraiser Kilminster, December 24 1945, also known as Ian Fraiser Willis) is an English bass player and singer. He is known primarily as the founding member and leader of the heavy metal band Motörhead. His unmistakable appearance, with his facial totem moles, sideburn to moustache connection, and gravelly voice have made him a cult figure known well beyond the world of rock music. 

-->
Lemmy was born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire and raised in Anglesey, Wales. His father, a clergyman, left the family when Lemmy was three months old; the experience helped to imbue a deep hatred of religion in Lemmy and this is reflected in a number of his songs.

Although the nickname 'Lemmy' is supposed to come from his days as a roadie when he would ask people to 'Lemmy (lend me) a fiver', Kilmister's autobiography maintains that he has been known as Lemmy since he was around 10.

Contents

Career

Lemmy spent the sixties in a number of small-time bands including Opal Butterfly, Sam Gopal's Dream, and The Rockin' Vicars as well as working as a roadie for Jimi Hendrix in 1967 for about six months, and as a roadie for The Nice. In 1971 he joined archetypal space rock UK Underground outfit Hawkwind who were centred around the very in Ladbroke Grove. His distinctive style of bass playing, involving the use of chords rather than the single notes preferred by most players, was a fundamental part of the Hawkwind sound during his tenure. He also provided lead vocals on a number of songs including the band's biggest UK chart single, Silver Machine, which reached No.3 in 1972.

By 1975 Lemmy's forceful personality and propensity for ingesting copious quantities of amphetamines were leading to conflict with other members, and this culminated with his sacking after being arrested for drug possession while on tour with the band in Canada. Lemmy went on to form a new band with guitarist Larry Wallis and drummer Lucas Fox. Wallis's former bands included the Pink Fairies, Steve Took's Shagrat and UFO. Lemmy's connection with Took (formerly of T Rex) was not limited to Wallis, as they were personal friends and Took was the step-father to Lemmy's son Paul. This new band was originally called Bastard. However, after the band's manager pointed out this name would lose them TV and radio exposure, it was changed to Motörhead - the last song Lemmy wrote for Hawkwind.

After a short period both Wallis and Fox were replaced with guitarist "Fast" Eddie Clarke and drummer Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor, and with this line-up the band began to achieve success. The uncompromisingly intense nature of their sound appealed to both Lemmy's original metal/rock constituency as well as the new punk fans — intrigued, perhaps, by Lemmy's brief stint in The Damned — and Lemmy's guttural vocals were unique in the world of rock at that time. The band's success peaked between 1980 and 1981 with a number of UK chart hits, including the classic single Ace of Spades (still a crowd favourite today) and the No. 1 Live Album No Sleep 'til Hammersmith . Motörhead have since gone on to become one of the most influential bands on the heavy metal scene and, although Lemmy is the only constant in a changing line-up, are still performing and releasing records to this day. Despite Motorhead's many member changes over their 30 year history the current lineup of Lemmy, Phil Campbell and Mikkey Dee has remained constant since 1995.

Lemmy has also worked with a number of other musicians over his career, and occasionally guests with Hawkwind. He was brought in as a songwriter for Ozzy Osbourne's 1991 No More Tears album, providing lyrics for the tracks "Hellraiser," (which Motorhead later released) "Desire," "I Don't Want To Change The World," and the massive hit "Mama I'm Coming Home." Lemmy has noted in several magazine and television interviews that he made more money off of the royalties from that one song than he had in his entire time with Motorhead.

He has made a number of appearances in film and television, including the 1990 science fiction film Hardware and the 1987 comedy Eat the Rich, for which Motörhead also recorded the soundtracks. In the 1994 comedy Airheads (in which he is credited as "Lemmy von Motorhead"), he shouts (truthfully) about being the editor of his high school newspaper. He has also appeared in several movies from the Troma studio. Having a predilection for self-deprecating parody, he once appeared in an advertisement for Kit Kat chocolate bars, miming a piece of chamber music on the violin, in an upper-class tea-room. Motörhead performed the entrance theme song "The Game" for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)'s Paul Michael Levesque, a/k/a Triple H, as well as "Line in the Sand" for his now defunct wrestling stable, Evolution. In 2006, they once again provided theme music for the WWE as they recorded the song King of Kings for Triple H on the Wreckless Intent CD.

Lemmy collects Nazi memorabilia, and has an Iron Cross encrusted on his bass, which has led to accusations of right-wing extremist tendencies. However Lemmy considers himself to be an anarchist. According to Keith Emerson as written in his autobiography, two of Lemmy's Hitlerjugend knives were gifted to Keith Emerson himself during Lemmy's time spent as a roadie for The Nice. Emerson used these knives many times as "keyholders" during his famous wrestling sessions with the Hammond Organ during the shows with The Nice and Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

He published his autobiography, White Line Fever in November 2002.

Equipment

Lemmy has used Rickenbacker 4001 and 4003 bass guitars almost exclusively since the Hawkwind days, though some of these instruments were modified with the installation of Gibson Thunderbird pickups in the neck position. Rickenbacker recently produced a 50-bass run of Lemmy Kilmister signature basses, the 4004LK, which is fitted with three pickups, gold hardware, and elaborate wood carving in the shape of oak leaves. Recently, he has been using a customised 4004.

For amplification he uses Marshall amplifiers, specifically hot-rodded Marshall JMP Superbass IIs from the later 1960s/early 1970s. Each amp, with a nominal output of 100 watts, is used with a 4x12 speaker cab and a custom-made 4x15 cab. Lemmy uses two such stacks, one on each side of the drum riser. For many years the amps were nicknamed "No Remorse" and "Murder One" with appropriate nameplates. No Remorse was subsequently replaced by Marshall when, as Lemmy observed in an October 2004 interview, No Remorse "blew up."

The phrase "everything louder than everything else" sums up Lemmy's sonic approach, as he plays at an absolutely earsplitting volume. He uses the bridge pickup exclusively and turns everything on the bass up full. On the amplifiers, he turns the bass and treble off, and the midrange up all the way, with the volume and presence up to 3:00. The result is a biting midrange sound which is distorted but not fuzzed out and blurry, a formula well-suited to Lemmy's use of open-string drones and power chords, all of which is played at hell-for-leather tempos.

Lemmy has occasionally played acoustic guitar, notably on the acoustic song "Whorehouse Blues" off of Motörhead's Inferno album.

Lemmy the Public Speaker

In November 2005 Lemmy, who grew up in Wales, was invited to the Welsh Assembly as a guest speaker by Tory Welsh assembly member William Graham. He was asked to express his views on the detrimental effects of drugs. However he shocked the Assembly Members and Welsh public when he called for the legalization of Heroin.

"I have never had heroin but since I moved to London from north Wales in '67 I have mixed with junkies on a casual and almost daily basis," he said. "I also lived with a young woman who tried heroin just to see what it was like. It killed her three years later. I hate the idea even as I say it, but I do believe the only way to treat heroin is to legalize it."

He stated that legalization would eradicate the drug dealer from society: [Blabbermouth Article].

Sexuality

In [an article for BraveWords.com], Lemmy claimed to have engaged in bisexual behaviour. This was proven to be a hoax. Lemmy is said to have called up the journalist who claimed he was bi, and informed him "it would be difficult for him to kneel down and get his floppy disk with a screwdriver through both knees." [link] The article was entirely removed from the website shortly after its appearance. Online music news site Blabbermouth.net credit themselves with being the informants of the article's inauthenticity: [Blabbermouth article].

Appearing in a Channel 4 documentary called "Motorhead: Live Fast, Die Old" broadcast on August 22, 2005, it was claimed that Lemmy "had bedded" in excess of 2,000 women. In the documentary Lemmy also explained that while in school (at the end of term) he noticed a lad who had brought a guitar to school and had been "surrounded by chicks", Lemmy's mother had a guitar, which he then took to school, even though he could not play, and was himself surrounded by girls, "in those days just having a guitar was enough" and from then on "that was it".

Discography

Videography

VHS

DVD

Books

Trivia

References

External links

Motörhead
Members
Lemmy Kilmister - Phil Campbell - Mikkey Dee
Former members: Larry Wallis - Fast Eddie Clarke - Brian Robertson - Wurzel
Lucas Fox - Philthy Animal Taylor - Pete Gill
Discography
Albums: On Parole - Motörhead - Overkill - Bomber - Ace of Spades - No Sleep 'til Hammersmith - Iron Fist - Another Perfect Day - No Remorse - Orgasmatron - Rock 'n' Roll - No Sleep at All - 1916 - March ör Die - Bastards - Sacrifice - Overnight Sensation - Snake Bite Love - Everything Louder Than Everyone Else - We Are Motörhead - The Best Of - Hammered - Live at Brixton Academy - Inferno - BBC Live & In-Session - Kiss of Death
EPs - Singles - DVDs

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

Search Titles
0123456789
ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRST
UVWXYZ?

E-mail this article to:

Personal Message: