Album Review: Motörhead – No Sleep ’til Hammersmith [Boxset]

Album Review: Motörhead - No Sleep 'til Hammersmith [Boxset]
Reviewed by Paul Hutchings

Probably the greatest live album of all time? Well, there’s a pub argument if ever I’ve seen one, but ‘No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith’ is certainly up there in the running. Released on June 27th 1981, ‘No Sleep’ roared to the top of the UK charts for Motörhead’s only ever UK Number One album. What a fucking travesty.

Although the title bore the name of the legendary London venue where Motörhead would call home for much of the next 30 years, Hammersmith wasn’t on the itinerary for the ‘Short Sharp Pain in the Neck’ Tour from which the recordings for this album were drawn. Instead, the band took in dates at West Runton Pavilion in Norfolk, Queen’s Hall in Leeds, two nights at City Hall, Newcastle and the Maysfield Leisure Centre in Belfast at the tail end of March.

Having toured relentlessly for five years, and released ‘Overkill’, ‘Bomber’ and ‘Ace of Spades’ in that time, the band were heading towards burnout. Philthy Animal noted as much in the documentary The Guts and the Glory: “The more famous we seemed to get, the more we were working all the time, and we just never seemed to see any money... this is how you know you're being ripped off, when they work you like dogs and hardly give you any time off, 'cause when you got a bit of time off you might start thinking about things”.

I remember buying ‘No Sleep’ in Virgin Records in Cardiff, located opposite Cardiff Castle and one of many stores sadly defunct years ago. It’s a coffee shop now. I was already acquainted with ‘Bomber’ and ‘Ace of Spades’ as my dear old Dad had a habit of popping into the local record store in Pontypridd where his dental practice was and asking the staff to supply him with something heavy for his metal loving 11-year-old son. The likes of Sabbath, AC/DC, Maiden and Kiss all came to me via this route; not bad for a 35-year-old whose tastes were Neil Diamond and The Carpenters! I wonder what he would have thought about his son still spinning those discs 40 years later? Anyway, I digress.

As I said, I was familiar with Motörhead, enthralled by the covers of Bomber and Ace of Spades and when I bought ‘No Sleep’ it was the cover that immediately pulled me in. I was mesmerised by it. The Bomber lighting rig was amazing. The lighting fantastic and magical. And there, underneath it all stood Motörhead. Lemmy Kilmister Stage Right, ‘Fast’ Eddie Clarke Stage Left and, in the middle, the hammer, Phil ‘Philthy Animal Taylor, bathed in the glow of the lights, in front of the row of Marshall amps and beyond them, the heaving mass of Motörheadbangers, crushed together, fists raised. Few albums covers capture the content of the record as accurately as ‘No Sleep’.

Letting the needle hit that black vinyl for the first time, I was unprepared for the sheer ferocity of ‘No Sleep’. ‘Ace of Spades’ fairly ripped out of the speakers, Lemmy’s thunderous Rickenbacker opening like a machine gun, the massive roar of the crowd as Motörhead instantly accelerated to hyperspace. It’s pure, unadulterated power remains as captivating today as it did in my bedroom 40 years ago and you realise now why this song was undroppable from any set Motörhead ever played. It’s a masterclass in driving heavy rock n’ roll. Lemmy’s rhythm guitar style of playing the bass evident in the mix whilst Philthy bashed seven shades of shit out of the kit and Fast Eddie simply played all the licks needed.

There’s no initial let up as the band charge into ‘Stay Clean’, another absolute piledriver and one of six recorded from the second night in Newcastle. By now I was totally under the album’s magical spell. I hadn’t been to a gig at that stage (that would come the following year although it would be 1983 before I saw Motörhead on the Another Perfect Day tour), and the roar of the crowd was mesmerising. After slowing things slightly with ‘Metropolis’, there’s the dedication to “Little Philbert” on ‘The Hammer’ which turns the gas mark up to maximum once more. It’s an underrated Motörhead song and Philthy’s battery from the first Newcastle date demonstrates his sheer balls out assault on the kit.

The anomaly on the recording front is the inclusion of ‘Iron Horse/Born to Lose’. Dedicated to “all the angels in here” (that’s Hells Angels, obviously!), this is a recording that is uncredited but came from the 1980 dates, apparently because Lemmy wasn’t happy with the recordings from the 1981 tour. You can judge for yourself as this extended version includes the full recordings from both Newcastle dates as well as the Leeds show.

After a dedication to “me and Eddie” for the blistering ‘No Class’, this is where my original vinyl version would have paused as I flipped it over to side B. Back in the day, ‘Ace of Spades’ was played early on and ‘Overkill’, which in the latter years was always the set closer sat in the middle of the set. Yes, imagine that, those kick ass double bass pedals hitting you hard, fast and heavy a mere halfway through. And on ‘No Sleep’ you can hear the huge roar from the Newcastle crowd as ‘Overkill’ punches a hole in the set. How to follow that? Well, in Motörhead’s case, invite one of your roadies on to bellow his guts out before the band launch into the anthem dedicated to “a fine body of men”. ‘(We Are) The Road Crew’ is a track only Lemmy, who roadied for Hendrix and The Nice, could have written. And it’s here that you find Motörhead in all their combined glory, with ‘Fast’ Eddie’s frantic guitar work, the powerhouse drumming of ‘Animal’ and Lemmy’s aural assault from that bass. It’s magical and by now 11-year-old me was a stunned mess. Even the “slow one”, Capricorn, was intense and heavy.

The business end of the album always blew me away. The thunderous rumble of ‘Capricorn’ was followed by Lemmy’s shout of “Bomber” as Motörhead piled into one of their fastest songs, the magnificent ‘Bomber’, which on ‘No Sleep’ is about a third faster than on the album that carries the song’s name. It’s a fusion of punk and hard rock that never fails to excite. And then the finale; the souped up or should that be speeded up version of the Hawkwind song ‘Motörhead’, written by Lemmy of course, and again much faster than the original. The closing sirens, feedback and crowd chanting closed the selected tracks. It’s an album I could listen to on repeat and never tire of it. The passion and energy is simply brilliant.

So, what do we get in this 40th anniversary release? Well, it’s worth bearing in mind that there have already been remastered and extended versions released by other labels over the years, so BMG were obviously keen to provide something not previously issued. What we get is a combination of unreleased and released music. The first disc has additional tracks in the shape of ‘Over the Top’ and ‘Train Kept A Rollin’. These were released as part of the 1996 Castle Records reissue so most dedicated fans will already have these.

Then we get to the additional discs, and these are what are most interesting. The shows from Newcastle and Leeds are reproduced in full, with Motörhead playing a range of songs from those first albums including rarer tracks such as the first ever single ‘Leaving Here’, ‘Fire Fire’, ‘Too Late Too Late’ and ‘Shoot You in the Back’. The interaction is more cohesive, more natural, with ‘Fast’ Eddie chipping in on the mic. In summary it’s rawer. That’s not to say these aren’t listenable because the quality has been excellent so far and it’s the same with this release.

Whilst it may be disappointing to many that there isn’t the same boxed packages that greeted the arrival of the 40th editions of ‘Overkill’ and ‘Ace of Spades’, there is enough here to get your teeth into. Several of tracks from these additional shows have already been released but never as a whole one. Throw in some rare sound checks alongside the full remastered quality and hardback books with unseen pictures, and it’s probably a winner.

For all their studio work and multiple live albums over the decades, it’s still ‘No Sleep’ that provides most Motörhead fans with the best representation of the band as they should be remembered. The classic line-up is a term that I don’t particularly like, given the length of service given by Phil Campbell and Mikkey Dee to the band, but there is no denying the quality and sheer dynamics that sparked between the trio of Lemmy, Fast Eddie and Animal.

Lemmy is quoted as saying of ‘No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith’ after it crashed into number one, “I knew it’d be the live one that went best, because we’re really a live band. You can’t listen to a record and find out what we’re about. You’ve got to see us.” He was right then but in the permanent absence of all three members of the band, we’ll just have to remember the power of Motörhead through this reissue.