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Motörhead /

From page 104 of Classic Rock Magazine Christmas 2003

Cover of Christmas 2003 issue.

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ttac Colston Hall, Bristol As they arrive on stage to the dying (bam-a-lam!) strains of Ram Jam’s ‘Black Betty’, what immediately strikes you about budding Texan quintet Young Heart Attack is the classic headbanging interplay between twin vocalists Chris Hodge and Jennifer Stephens.

Hodge, who also plays guitar, has a voice as high-voltage and whisky- soused as the late Bon Scott’s ever was.

Meanwhile, to continue the AC/DC theme, the sinuous Saunders definitely deserves the accolade ‘she’s got balls’.

(Although the male coupling does tend to shrivel somewhat when she swivels those hips and whimpers ‘cha-cha-cha- cha’ down the mic).

YHA’s 20-minute set was short, sharp and smoking, with a superbly seditious version of The MC5’s ‘Over And Over’ just edging out a happily dazed ‘Misty Rowe’ as the highlight.

The pared-down, three-person Motörhead line-up of Lemmy, Phil Campbell and Mikkey Dee just turned up and got on with it. They didn’t so much sprint as saunter through ‘No Class’, ‘Stay Clean’, ‘God Save The Queen’, ‘Metropolis’ et al, but somehow the power of their performance was amplified by their nonchalant approach.

The fact is, Motörhead don’t need to be wrathful or in-your-face any more; their threats may be unspoken, but that doesn’t make them any less tangible.

Like Concorde, the ‘Bomber’ lighting rig is grounded these days, and the band veterans are probably sipping cocoa and sucking on Hob Nobs long before they get to Hammersmith. Consequently, Motörhead have an assertive grace about them these days; the domineering resilience of scarred prizefighters who still possess fists of iron.

It’s tempting to describe the band as an institution, but that would be unfair to mental hospitals and detention centres.

Geoff Barton