Motorhead- The World is Yours Tour
People slowly filed into Festival Hall on Saturday the 26th March, with many choosing to miss the support band and only enter for whom they had come to see. Motorhead. They had returned to Australia for a short four date stint to promote their latest CD ‘The World is Yours’.
Arriving early to ensure a park nearby we managed to catch Motorhead during their sound check. It was delightful to hear that it was loud outside, because that meant it would be even louder inside during show time.
Regular John won the spot as supporting band, playing a 40 minute set to entertain and warm up the crowd during the wait for the headliners. However they were just not the crowds’ cup of tea, with some punters chanting ‘Motorhead’ at occasional intervals. Although a bit rude, young up and coming bands need to be able to deal with such things; which Regular John seemed to, the only comment made was ‘Motorhead happen to like us, so...’ before their last song. Musically they were really nothing special. Lead vocals were shared between the guitarist and bassist, while the other guitarist had some smooth Michael Jackson like footwork going on which was entertaining to watch.
Motorhead finally came out and graced the audience with a fast set of rock n roll, with multicoloured lights and strobe lights being quite effective. At the merchandise stall they were also selling signed drum heads, which was good to see the band took the time out to sign them and many people left with a great memento. A banner on the drum riser said ‘The World is Yours’ while the typical snaggletooth logo was on the backdrop. Lemmy rocked his typical look of cowboy hat, boots and black unbuttoned shirt. The set was short, fast and loud, typical of a Motorhead show. Many songs were played because of their short duration, so it was great to get the variety of older songs as well as a couple from The World is Yours. A guitar solo by Phil Campbell and a drum solo by Mikkey Dee were amazing, during which it was evident Lemmy was having a cigarette break behind the amps, as smoke rose above the top of his hat.
At 65 years of age Lemmy showed that he was just as fantastic as he was 30 years ago. His gruff, raspy vocals and unique bass playing style have not become a victim of age. The atmosphere was high all night even when Lemmy said ‘we’re going to play the slow song for the night, but don’t worry it will still be loud!’ They played a lot of songs throughout the night, but ended with classics Ace of Spades and Overkill. Lemmy ended with ‘We are Motorhead and we play rock n roll. Don’t forget us!’ With your ears still ringing two days after, I’m pretty sure it’s safe to say the night or Motorhead will never be forgotten.
