MOTÖRHEAD
Biography and full studio discography of Motörhead, the London band Lemmy Kilmister led from 1975 to 2015, with a page for every album from the 1977 debut to Bad Magic, including liner notes and the Japanese editions, on METAL BOOST.
Biography
MOTÖRHEAD
Biography
At a glance
Motörhead were a British rock band formed in London in June 1975. Lemmy Kilmister — Ian Fraser Kilmister — played bass and sang, and was the one member who stayed from the first day to the last; the band ended with his death on 28 December 2015.
Hard rock, heavy metal and punk all claimed them, and the band went on refusing to belong to any of the three. In Britain, Ace of Spades entered the album chart at No. 4 in 1980 and the live record No Sleep 'til Hammersmith reached No. 1 the following year. The band state on their own site that they sold more than twenty-five million albums over their career.
This site carries twenty-six releases: the twenty-three studio albums from Motörhead in 1977 to Bad Magic in 2015, together with the three recent releases that have a Japanese pressing in circulation. The band's official site calls Bad Magic "the 23rd (and final) studio album", and this article follows that count.
Formation, and an album that was shelved — 1975 to 1976
Lemmy Kilmister was arrested at the Canadian border during a Hawkwind tour of America in 1975 and sacked from the band. He named the group he formed next after a song he had written for Hawkwind shortly before the dismissal; Bastard had also been on the list of names and was not chosen.
The band came together in London in June 1975 as Lemmy on bass and vocals, Larry Wallis on guitar and Lucas Fox on drums; Fox was replaced by Phil Taylor that December. That line-up recorded On Parole across 1975 and 1976, and it should have been the first album. United Artists shelved it, and the tapes did not appear until December 1979, by which time the band were established.
Eddie Clarke replaced Larry Wallis in February 1976. In August that year Lemmy, Clarke and Taylor gathered at Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Manticore Studio in Fulham to rehearse and, for the first time, record together. The tape was lost for decades; restored, it was released as The Manticore Tapes on 27 June 2025 to mark the band's fiftieth anniversary.
The three-piece years — 1977 to 1983
The debut album Motörhead appeared on 21 August 1977 on Chiswick as WIK 2. The band signed to Bronze and put out two albums within one year: Overkill on 24 March 1979 and Bomber on 27 October. Lars Ulrich of Metallica has said that Phil Taylor was the first drummer he ever heard play double bass drums, and that hearing Overkill made him want to play that way too.
Bomber peaked at No. 12 in the UK, and in the summer of 1980 a four-track live EP, The Golden Years, took the band into the Top 10 for the first time despite near-zero radio play.
Early in 1980 the band holed up at Rockfield Studios in South Wales to rehearse the follow-up. Eddie Clarke has said that Lemmy was not much interested in rehearsing, so the riffs came out of the hours he and Phil Taylor spent playing on their own — "Ace of Spades" among them, recorded as an instrumental at Rockfield with vocals and overdubs added later in London. Vic Maile, who had worked with Hawkwind, produced it. Clarke has also said that Lemmy's bass had no bottom end, which made it very hard to play along with, and that the band only got the hang of it on Ace of Spades because Maile insisted.
Released as a single in October 1980, again with little or no airplay, "Ace of Spades" entered the UK chart at No. 15, and the album went straight in at No. 4. The gambling language in the lyric is exact: "snake eyes" is double one on dice, and Lemmy explained that the "dead man's hand, aces and eights" was Wild Bill Hickok's hand when he was shot.
In February 1981 Bronze issued a three-track EP pairing Motörhead with Girlschool, the two bands billed as Headgirl: St Valentine's Day Massacre. Its lead track was a cover of Johnny Kidd & The Pirates' "Please Don't Touch", with Motörhead playing Girlschool's "Emergency" and Girlschool playing "Bomber". It reached No. 5 and sold more than 200,000 copies, the band's biggest-selling record. That June the live album No Sleep 'til Hammersmith (Bronze, BRON535) went to No. 1 and stayed on the chart for sixteen weeks, from 27 June to 10 October 1981.
Eddie Clarke left after Iron Fist, released on 17 April 1982, and Brian Robertson of Thin Lizzy took his place. The only album Robertson played on is Another Perfect Day, of 4 June 1983; he left that November.
Four players — 1984 to 1991
In February 1984 the band became a four-piece, with Phil Campbell and Würzel on guitars and Pete Gill on drums. Campbell stayed until 2015 — thirty-one years, the longest-serving member other than Lemmy. In his first year the band played "Iron Fist" for ITV's Saturday morning children's show The Saturday Starship in the car park of Central TV's Birmingham studios, which drew noise complaints from the neighbours. Later in 1984, while Würzel was in hospital in Newcastle with a kidney illness, they played as a three-piece of Lemmy, Pete Gill and the newly recruited Campbell.
This line-up made Orgasmatron, released on 9 August 1986, and Rock 'n' Roll, on 5 September 1987, both on GWR. Pete Gill left in June 1987 and Phil Taylor returned. The band moved to Epic for 1916 on 18 January 1991, followed by March ör Die on 14 August 1992.
Mikkey Dee, and two decades of one line-up — 1992 to 2004
Phil Taylor left again in April 1992 and Mikkey Dee joined that July; he played drums for the rest of the band's life. Bastards came out on 10 October 1993 on ZYX of Germany, and after Würzel left in February 1995 the band settled into the three-piece of Lemmy, Campbell and Dee, which did not change again until 2015.
Their long association with SPV / Steamhammer of Germany began here, and albums arrived at roughly two-year intervals: Sacrifice on 27 March 1995, Overnight Sensation on 15 October 1996, Snake Bite Love on 10 March 1998, We Are Motörhead on 15 May 2000, Hammered on 9 April 2002 and Inferno on 22 June 2004.
In 2005 the band won the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance with their cover of Metallica's "Whiplash". The category that year honoured recordings released between 1 October 2003 and 30 September 2004.
The last ten years — 2006 to 2015
Kiss of Death followed on 29 August 2006 and Motörizer on 26 August 2008. From The Wörld Is Yours, released on 14 December 2010, the band put their records out on their own UDR / Motörhead Music. Aftershock came on 21 October 2013, and Bad Magic, of 28 August 2015, was the last studio album; Warner Music Japan issued the Japanese pressing the same day as WPCR-16754.
Lemmy Kilmister died in December 2015, four days after his seventieth birthday. The band ended there.
After the band — 2016 to now
Records and reckonings have gone on appearing. Seriously Bad Magic, in 2023, brought out "Greedy Bastards", a previously unreleased track recovered from the Bad Magic session vaults. In October 2024, nine years after the end, "Lawman" gave the band a new UK Top 10 single, and they published their own figures for that year: over 320 million streams worldwide and twenty million listeners on Spotify.
On 19 April 2024 Lemmy's ashes were enshrined at the Rainbow Bar & Grill on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. On 9 May 2025 a statue of him was unveiled in his birthplace, Stoke-on-Trent, with Phil Campbell placing the ashes and leading the celebrations. Campbell himself died on 13 March 2026.
2025 marked fifty years since the band formed and since their first show, and would have been Lemmy's eightieth year; 2026 marks fifty years since their first recording was finished in early 1976. On Parole Sessions, which collects those sessions in full, was released to mark it on 17 April 2026, with a Japanese edition from Warner Music Japan as WPZR-31105/8.
Members
| Name | Role | Years |
|---|---|---|
| Lemmy Kilmister | Bass, lead vocals | June 1975 – 28 December 2015 (founder) |
| Phil Campbell | Guitar | February 1984 – 28 December 2015 |
| Mikkey Dee | Drums | July 1992 – 28 December 2015 |
| Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor | Drums | December 1975 – February 1984, February 1987 – April 1992 |
| Würzel | Guitar | February 1984 – February 1995 |
| Eddie Clarke | Guitar | February 1976 – 15 May 1982 |
| Pete Gill | Drums | February 1984 – June 1987 |
| Brian Robertson | Guitar | 15 May 1982 – 11 November 1983 |
| Larry Wallis | Guitar | June 1975 – February 1976 (founder) |
| Lucas Fox | Drums | June 1975 – December 1975 (founder) |
Discography on this site
| Year | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Kiss of Death (20th Anniversary Edition) | Anniversary edition (2CD) |
| 2026 | On Parole Sessions | Box set (3CD + Blu-ray) |
| 2025 | The Manticore Tapes | Studio recordings from 1976 |
| 2015 | Bad Magic | Studio album |
| 2013 | Aftershock | Studio album |
| 2010 | The Wörld Is Yours | Studio album |
| 2008 | Motörizer | Studio album |
| 2006 | Kiss of Death | Studio album |
| 2004 | Inferno | Studio album |
| 2002 | Hammered | Studio album |
| 2000 | We Are Motörhead | Studio album |
| 1998 | Snake Bite Love | Studio album |
| 1996 | Overnight Sensation | Studio album |
| 1995 | Sacrifice | Studio album |
| 1993 | Bastards | Studio album |
| 1992 | March ör Die | Studio album |
| 1991 | 1916 | Studio album |
| 1987 | Rock 'n' Roll | Studio album |
| 1986 | Orgasmatron | Studio album |
| 1983 | Another Perfect Day | Studio album |
| 1982 | Iron Fist | Studio album |
| 1980 | Ace of Spades | Studio album |
| 1979 | On Parole | Studio album (recorded 1975–76) |
| 1979 | Bomber | Studio album |
| 1979 | Overkill | Studio album |
| 1977 | Motörhead | Studio album |
A note on sources
This article was written against the band's own announcements at imotorhead.com (the notice of Phil Campbell's death, the release of The Manticore Tapes, the fiftieth-anniversary post, and the pieces on Lemmy's ashes and his statue), Warner Music Japan's product page for On Parole Sessions, TOWER RECORDS ONLINE's product pages, the Official Charts Company entry for No Sleep 'til Hammersmith, Grammy.com's page for Best Metal Performance in 2005, two Louder features on Ace of Spades from Classic Rock and Metal Hammer, uDiscover Music Japan, and the membership and release data MusicBrainz holds for artist 57961a97-3796-4bf7-9f02-a985a8979ae9. Release dates, labels and catalogue numbers are taken where the MusicBrainz original-pressing rows and Apple's current catalogue agree. Every video was checked against the channel that uploaded it, and no fan re-upload is included.
Trivia
Apart from Lemmy, the longest-serving member of Motörhead was the guitarist Phil Campbell. In its notice of his death the band's site records that he was Motörhead's guitarist for thirty-one years, having joined in 1984, and the longest-serving member aside from Lemmy. Campbell died on 13 March 2026.
The Japanese edition of On Parole Sessions came out on 17 April 2026 from Warner Music Japan at 9,020 yen including tax, catalogue number WPZR-31105/8, and the label's product page lists a poster as its enclosed bonus. TOWER RECORDS ONLINE classifies it not as a domestic pressing but as an import with domestic distribution spec, giving five discs and the number WPZR-31105.
Warner Music Japan's discography lists three Motörhead albums with domestic WPCR catalogue numbers: Under Cöver on SHM-CD (13 December 2017, WPCR-17951), Bad Magic (28 August 2015, WPCR-16754) and The Wörld Is Yours (9 March 2011, WPCR-50301). Aftershock appears on the same list tagged as an import, dated 29 October 2013, which is how one can tell it never received a domestic pressing there.
The Japanese edition of The Manticore Tapes was released by Universal Music Japan on 27 June 2025. TOWER RECORDS ONLINE gives its Japanese title as ザ・マンティコア・テープス and its spec as a domestic pressing, one disc, a cardboard sleeve, catalogue number UICB-15002 and JAN 4988031772201.
Warner Music Japan's product page lists the players on the first studio sessions, recorded across 1975 and 1976 for On Parole: Larry Wallis on guitar, Phil Taylor and Lucas Fox on drums, and Lemmy on bass and vocals. Two drummers appear because Fox was replaced by Taylor part-way through.
The line-up Motörhead are best known for — Lemmy, Fast Eddie Clarke and Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor — first recorded together in August 1976 at Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Manticore Studio in Fulham, London. The band's own site describes the session as a rehearsal at which the three also committed something to tape for the first time.
The Manticore tape then went missing for decades. According to the band's site it was unearthed and restored nearly fifty years later and released on 27 June 2025, timed to the band's fiftieth anniversary. The deluxe bookpack edition carries a twenty-four-page booklet whose liner notes were written by Kris Needs, a long-time collaborator of the band.
The only Motörhead record to top the UK album chart is a live one. The Official Charts Company database gives No Sleep 'til Hammersmith, released in 1981, a peak position of 1, lists the label as Bronze and the catalogue number as BRON535, dates its first appearance to 27 June 1981, and records a chart run of sixteen weeks, from 27 June to 10 October.
News
MOTÖRHEAD Exhibition To Open In October At The Punk Rock Museum
The exhibition dedicated to MOTÖRHEAD and Lemmy opens on Friday 2 October 2026 at The Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada. It features personal items from Lemmy's collection, including photographs and handwritten lyrics, and gives visitors the chance to play his bass.
Albums
A twentieth-anniversary edition of Motörhead's 2006 album Kiss of Death, half-speed remastered from the original tapes and paired with a 2007 festival set. BMG released the two-disc edition on 3 July 2026.
A box set gathering the whole of Motörhead's first studio sessions, recorded in 1975 and 1976. Three CDs and a Blu-ray; the Japanese edition appeared on 17 April 2026 as Warner Music Japan WPZR-31105/8.
In August 1976 Lemmy, Eddie Clarke and Phil Taylor recorded together for the first time at Manticore Studio in Fulham. The tape was lost for decades; restored, it came out on 27 June 2025 for the band's fiftieth anniversary.
A fortieth-anniversary edition of Another Perfect Day, the fifth Motörhead album, from 1983. Two discs and thirty-four tracks: new masters of the ten album songs, single B-sides, four demos, and seventeen songs recorded at Hull City Hall on 22 June 1983.
Released on 28 August 2015 and a UK No. 10, Bad Magic is what the band themselves call "the 23rd (and final) studio album". Warner Music Japan issued the Japanese pressing the same day as WPCR-16754.
Motörhead's 2013 album, released on 21 October on their own UDR label. Fourteen tracks, with official videos for "Heartbreaker", "Electricity" and "When the Sky Comes Looking for You".
Released on 14 December 2010, The Wörld Is Yours was the first Motörhead album on their own Motörhead Music / UDR. Warner Music Japan issued the Japanese pressing on 9 March 2011 as WPCR-50301.
Released on 26 August 2008 and a UK No. 32, Motörizer was the band's last album for SPV / Steamhammer of Germany. Official videos were made for "Rock Out", "Bullet in Your Brain" and "Life's a Bitch".
Kiss of Death was released on 29 August 2006. An official video was made for "Be My Baby", and a half-speed-remastered twentieth-anniversary edition followed in 2026.
Inferno was released on 22 June 2004. The following year the band won the Grammy for Best Metal Performance with their cover of Metallica's "Whiplash".
Hammered was released on 9 April 2002. An official video was made for "Brave New World", and Victor issued the Japanese pressing on 22 May that year as VICP-61874.
Released on 15 May 2000, We Are Motörhead includes a cover of the Sex Pistols' "God Save the Queen"; official videos were made for it and for the title track.
Snake Bite Love was released on 10 March 1998, its sleeve drawn by Joe Petagno, who created the band's Snaggletooth logo. Victor issued the Japanese pressing as VICP-60315.
Released on 15 October 1996, Overnight Sensation is the first album made by the three-piece of Lemmy, Phil Campbell and Mikkey Dee, after Würzel's departure.
Sacrifice, released on 27 March 1995, began the band's long association with SPV / Steamhammer of Germany and is the last album to feature Würzel, who had played guitar since 1984.
Bastards was released on 10 October 1993 by ZYX of Germany. Twelve tracks, and the first album on which Mikkey Dee plays drums throughout.
Released by Epic on 14 August 1992, March ör Die carries Ozzy Osbourne and Slash on "I Ain't No Nice Guy". Epic issued the Japanese pressing on 22 August as ESCA 5641.
1916, released by Epic on 18 January 1991 and a UK No. 24, holds "R.A.M.O.N.E.S.", the band's tribute to the Ramones, and a title track about the dead of the First World War.
Rock 'n' Roll was released by GWR on 5 September 1987. An official video was made for "Eat the Rich", and the Japanese pressing followed on 21 November as VDP-1288.
Released by GWR on 9 August 1986 and a UK No. 21, Orgasmatron is the first studio album by the four-piece with Phil Campbell, Würzel and Pete Gill.
Another Perfect Day, released on 4 June 1983, is the only Motörhead album played by Brian Robertson of Thin Lizzy. Official videos exist for "I Got Mine", "Shine" and "One Track Mind".
Released by Bronze on 17 April 1982 and a UK No. 6, Iron Fist is the last studio album by the three-piece of Lemmy, Eddie Clarke and Phil Taylor; Clarke left after it.
Motörhead's best-known album, released by Bronze on 8 November 1980. It entered the UK chart at No. 4 and the title single reached No. 15; the fortieth-anniversary edition gave all twelve songs official videos.
Recorded in 1975 and 1976, On Parole should have been Motörhead's first album. The label shelved it, and it did not appear until 8 December 1979, by which time the band were established.
Bomber, released by Bronze on 27 October 1979, was the band's second album of that year and reached No. 12 in the UK. Official videos exist for the title track, "Dead Men Tell No Tales" and "Poison".
Motörhead's second album, released by Bronze on 24 March 1979 and a UK No. 24. Lars Ulrich of Metallica has named the double bass drums on its title track as what made him want to play that way.
Motörhead's debut album, released by Chiswick on 21 August 1977 as WIK 2 and a UK No. 43. Eight tracks, and the first record by the three-piece of Lemmy, Eddie Clarke and Phil Taylor.