Motorhead

Manchester Apollo,

Tuesday 16 November 2010 

Motorhead are not the loudest band on the planet ....but they certainly are in the popular imagination, so that's what matters.

I've been to see them before and I have the same complaint as last time...namely that, in the cause of pushing the volume up "beyond 11" on the amps, they rather defeat the object because distortion degenerates into white noise, and unless you have an intimate knowledge with ALL their material (which l certainly don't), you cant really tell what they are actually playing.

They did some pretty good albums in the late seventies and early eighties, but these albums were not exactly choc full with classics, so I think it was unwise of them to play a show featuring so many new songs, when they haven't even really got enough "classic material" to fill the ninety minutes with ...and of course, the fact that you can barely hear the stuff in the first place makes it difficult.

The classic songs were done well and were as exciting and frenetic as ever...but to sacrifice my favourite track "Love Me Like A Reptile" and the all time classic "Bomber" on the altar of having to play new material is just a travesty.

Of course, the whole point of Motorhead is their popular incarnation as the loudest and dirtiest band in the world - which is poppycock - but, together with Lemmy's image as the evil man in black, they are supremely iconic to rock fans of all ages all over the world - and that is the whole point of going to see them. Oh, and the fact that they almost single-handedly rescued rock music from the slough of self indulgence that it fell into by 1977 should help assure their immortality.