Midland rock wildman Lemmy has had to have a pacemaker fitted because of heart problems – and it could mean the end of the road for his band Mötorhead.
The 67-year-old heavy metal hero from Stoke-on-Trent also suffers from diabetes, and a tour including a stop at Wolverhampton Civic Hall, has had to be cancelled at the last minute.
It is a huge blow for the band, who have just released their 21st studio album, Aftershock, and were being lined up for big festival dates next year in addition to an exhausting four-month tour.
“We have made the decision because I am not quite ready to hit the road yet, and am working my way back to full fitness and rude health,” said Lemmy,
“Don’t worry, I’m not about to start promoting veganism and alcohol-free beverages, but it is fair to say that I personally have been reconfiguring areas of my life to make sure I can come back fitter and stronger than ever.
“It disappointed me tremendously to have to say I wasn’t quite ready to hit the road yet, but not nearly as much as it would’ve disappointed me to go out, play some average shows and watch my health give way long before the tour was over!
“When people come to see a Motörhead tour, they expect a Motörhead show, and that is exactly what you will get as soon as I am fit and ready to rumble.”
Guitarist Phil Campbell revealed that Lemmy’s notorious tough guy image made it hard for him to accept help when he fell ill.
“Lemmy’s continuing health problems have given us no option but to postpone the European tour which was due to start this month,” he said.
“He had a pacemaker fitted earlier in the year because he’d been suffering from irregular heartbeats, and then his diabetes started playing him up.
“The good news is that his ticker’s fine now and he’s made sufficient changes to his lifestyle and diet in order to combat the diabetes.
“It’s just that he felt he wasn’t 100 per cent ready to go back on the road just yet.
“As a result we put the dates back to enable him to build himself back up to full fitness.”
He added that while most fans had come to regard the gravel-throated singer as an unstoppable, hell-raising war horse destined to rock on for ever, he had very different view of the vicar’s son otherwise known as Ian Fraser Kilmister.
“Look, none of us are getting any younger, so Lemmy’s condition didn’t exactly come as a massive shock,” said Campbell, 52. “But the older we get, the more we tend to be there for one another and back each other up.
“The main problem is that he’s displayed such a hard persona all his life that it makes it difficult for him to let people in. He’s like the John Wayne of rock – always wanting to soldier on and handle things on his own, you know?”
Tickets for Motorhead’s November 19 show at the Civic Hall will remain valid once dates are rescheduled in the new year.
They may have had to cancel their Wolverhampton Civic Hall gig but there’s no stopping Lemmy & Co on their 21st studio album.
Driving rock guitar riffs, gruff grumbly vocals, speaker-busting bass and an avalanche of drums mean that it’s business as usual.
The likes of Heartbreaker, Coup De Grace and Paralysed sound just like Ace Of Spades in one way or another, while other tracks recall AC/DC and ZZ Top.
There’s nothing new here but diehard fans don’t want progression, just good old-fashioned runaway rock and roll.
Queens Of The Stone Age have just confirmed their Download debut. Other additions just announced are 30 Seconds to Mars, Gaslight Anthem, Motorhead, HIM, Alice In Chains and A Day To Remember They’ll join headliners Iron Maiden, Rammstein and Slipknot at Donington Park from June 14-16 next year Organisers are pleased to announce that Queens of the Stone Age are confirmed to make their Download Festival debut, marking the band’s first UK date to be announced for 2013.
30 Seconds to Mars are back for the third time to treat audiences to hits such as ‘Kings and Queens’, ‘This Is War’, ‘Closer To The Edge’ and ‘The Kill (Bury Me)’, and Gaslight Anthem, who played in 2011 and recently sold out Brixton Academy, establishing themselves as one of the foremost contemporary rock bands, are also confirmed. Returning to thrash out for the fourth time at Download Festival are Motorhead. In 2010 Lemmy and the gang were joined on stage by Slash creating a mosh of thousands to punk-fused metal classics ‘Stay Clean’, ‘Killed By Death’, ‘Overkill’ and ‘Ace of Spades’.
Finnish rockers HIM are also confirmed playing hits spanning their 20-year career. The band have just released celebratory compilation Two Decades of Love Metal which includes all of their greatest hits and brand new track ‘Strange World’.
Seattle alt-rockers Alice in Chains will be performing for the second time in Donington Park, while US rockers A Day To Remember will make their third appearance. Weekend tickets with camping are on sale now at www.downloadfestival.co.uk. Download RIP ticket packages can be purchased via www.livenationexperience.co.uk or by phoning 0207 009 3484. Tickets for Download Festival Weekend Arena and five-night camping can now be purchased using a new Deposit Ticket Scheme, which allows eligible customers to pay for tickets over three instalments. DTS is available to customers who purchase tickets before Monday 31 December 2012. For further information visit www.downloadfestival.co.uk. Download celebrated its 10th anniversary this year with a sell-out event headlined by The Prodigy, Metallica and Black Sabbath.
Motorhead monster Lemmy and pop veteran Joe Brown.
Because 71-year-old Joe, who found fame in the late 1950s and early 1960s has just recorded a UKELELE version of Motorhead classic Ace Of Spades.
It appears on Brown’s new CD, The Ukelele Album, which does what it says on the tin.
With his son Pete Brown on guitar, Phil Capaldi on drums, Mike Nichols on double bass, and extra ukelele power courtesy of the International Ukelele Club of Sonning Common (no, not kidding!), he rips into the famous rock riff.
And the really, really scary thing about it (Halloween is only days away, of course)?
It’s not half bad.
Hear that sound? That’s the remaining shreds of my credibility leaping off the sixth floor balcony. Out on November 5, the album also features Brown’s inimitable (good word, covers a multitude of sins) versions of The Who’s Pinball Wizard, ELO’s Mr Blue Sky, 10cc’s I’m Not In Love and McGuinness Flint hit When I’m Dead And Gone.
Oh, and yes, there’s, erm, When I’m Cleaning Windows ...
