Bow down to the, Bow down to the Kings...

It takes a certain something to keep a band going, it takes even more of this to keep a band together for 34 years (and yes I know members have come and gone over the years, but the original member is still going and going strong).

I am of course talking about one of the greatest bands to have ever walked the face of the earth, the band that hates being stereotyped as "Heavy", "Speed" or "Thrash" metal- instead favouring the classification of simply 'rock 'n' roll'!

Fronted for the last 34 years by one of the greatest bass players in the world, Motörhead have enjoyed so much success since Lemmy decided to from the band in 1975; branching out from London until they reached worldwide recognition.

Motörhead's approach has remained the same over the band's career, preferring to play what they enjoy and do best; their appreciation of early rock and roll is reflected in some of their occasional cover songs. Motörhead's lyrics typically cover such topics as war, good versus evil, abuse of power, promiscuous sex, substance abuse and "life on the road."

So where did it all begin?
After he was sacked from 'Hawkwind' for being too hardcore with his drug taking, Lemmy Kilmister had the original idea to form a band under the name "Bastard". However after being told that it would be unlikely that Top of the Pops would allow a band with that name to perform, Lemmy decided on Motörhead. Which was inspired from the last song he wrote for Hawkwind, and also a slang term for a user of the drug Speed.

Lemmy's stated aim was for the outfit to be, "the dirtiest rock n' roll band in the world" and that, "if Motörhead moved in next to you, your lawn would die."

The original line up featured Larry Wallis on electric guitar, Lucas Fox on drums and Lemmy on bass. After several gigs with Lucas Fox, he was found to have become unreliable and was soon replaced by Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor. The decision was then made to have two lead guitarists, and as a result "Fast" Eddie Clarke was recruited. However, Wallis quit during the auditions and the double-lead idea was dropped. Lemmy, Clarke and Taylor are today regarded as 'Classic Motörhead'.

Initial reactions to the band were very negative, with them 'winning' a poll for "The Best Worst Band in the World" and after two years both Clarke and Taylor wanted to quit the band, and the decision was made to perform a farewell show in London.

However, an acquaintance of Lemmy's, Ted Carroll was asked to bring a mobile studio to their farewell gig so they could record it for posterity. Carroll was unable to bring the studio to the concert. However, they were offered a saving grace. Carroll offered them two days at Escape Studios to record a single. The band took the chance, but instead of recording a single, they recorded eleven unfinished tracks. Carroll offered them a few more days to finish the vocals and the band completed thirteen tracks for release as an album. In June they toured with Hawkwind and in late July began their 'Beyond the Threshold of Pain' tour.

Their rise to success began when they used eight of their recorded tracks, releasing their first album (entitled Motörhead, which reached number 43 in the UK Album Chart). This lead to them beginning to garner a following from metal and punk enthusiasts.

They had their first appearance on BBC's Top of the Pops with their single 'Louie Louie'. After several other singles and a tour, the band returned to the studios, releasing four tracks as 'Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers'.

The band's most memorable song (which propelled them into the mainstream limelight) was 'Ace of Spades'. The single reached number 15 and the album reached number 4 in the charts. The band made two appearances on Top of the Pops in the October of 2008 with 'Ace of Spades'. The band also made an appearance on popular 80's children's TV programme 'Tiswas'. And the single "put a choke on the English music charts and proved to all that a band could succeed without sacrificing its blunt power and speed."

Clarke left the band in May 1982, because he felt that recording a cover of 'Stand by Your Man' compromised the band's principles, after leaving he formed his own band 'Fastway.' Lemmy and Taylor hunted desperately to find a new guitarist, including a plea to Thin Lizzy's Brian Robertson, (who agreed to help out, signing up to a one-album deal resulting in 1983 with the album 'Another Perfect Day').

Robertson's attire of shorts and ballet shoes caused friction within the band. This along with Robertson's refusal to go back to the 'good old' standards led to an amicable departure from the band.

The group then returned to the concept of having a dual-lead and unknowns Wurzel and Phil Campbell. The four re-recorded Ace of Spades for TV.

Taylor left the band following the recording, which caused Lemmy to ask "Did I leave them or did they leave me?"

The band continued through the late 80's with Taylor until 1992 when he played his very last gig with the band. Lemmy later whipped up Mikkey Dee, and the band recorded 'Hellraiser' and went on tour with the likes of Ozzy Osbourne.

Wurzel would later leave the band in the mid-90's and the band have continued touring and recording with the power trio of Lemmy, Mikkey and Campbell.

Though the band are typically classified as heavy metal or speed metal, Lemmy has stated that he never considered Motörhead a metal band. When asked if he has a problem with Motörhead being called a metal band, he replied: "I do because I come from way before Metal. I’m playing Rock n’ Roll and I think Rock n’ Roll should be sacred – it is to me. I don’t see why it should not be for everybody else."

The band have enjoyed success with the WWE, with top superstars such as Triple H being a huge fan of the band- who have recorded entrance music for HHH and his (now-defunct) faction Evolution.

34 years and still going strong...

Now I put it to all of you 'Jizzy Tissues' out there who aspire to be like Busta Rhymes or Dizzy Rascal to try to match what Motörhead have accomplished. I urge you to try and cover one of the greatest songs of all times and actually make it a credible song.

Whilst all of you chat about 'popping caps in each others asses', 'slapping your bitch up' or 'chilling in your childhood bed' (crib), Motörhead's lyrics, much like Muse's, actually have depth to them. Whilst all of you Dizzy Rascals out there and dancing 'Wiv Me', Motörhead, or more importantly Lemmy (who has the best voice in the world) are singing songs with depths; such as the abuse of power in 'Ace of Spades'. The only abuse Busta raps about is probably illegal in pretty much most of the world.

"The pleasure is to play, it makes no difference what you say
I don't share your greed, the only card I need is
The Ace Of Spades"

compare that to one of Busta's lyrics...

"A yo, we ain't familiar at all nigga
Don't like, go grab your gat and lets brawl at hall nigga
Straight fallin".

I know who I'd rather listen too...

(n.b, It's not Busta or Dizzy...)

(sorry about the changes today :-)

I thought the topic was sport...

Yes I know I'm a little late to be posting my counter-argument to the recent p4 sports posts but this is completely relevant

Please forgive my ignorance, but I did believe that the recent P4 post was about sport, and yes whilst wrestling is scripted- the athletes are actually moving about and partaking in some form of sporting activity, whilst cricket is boring- the players do actually move about and sweat, and American football- is pretty much the same.

Which brings me to question the recent claim by Luke over at a.o.m, who claimed (rather blasphemously) that sitting on your arse in a glorified glider is a sport. The only exercise you get is from moving your wrists from left to right.

From what I could grasp from this 'pass-time' (for want of words) is that you have to complete a course in the fastest times, whilst releasing colourful shit from the rear of the glider.

How anyone can find this entertaining is beyond me, and I guarantee you that had this not have had sponsorship from a big company, then it would probably still be out of mainstream public limelight.

I mean at least in the other three sports there is excitement, I would start to watch if more participants began crashing and burning. At least there's fireworks in wrestling and American Can't use my feet so I'll use anything else ball. And I'm sure there's an entertaining side to cricket (I hope).

I mean I found Lab Rats more entertaining than this sport, and if I completely honest, I'd rather watch a Russian prostitute pleasuring herself whilst washing her armpits with olive oil.

Or just watch paint dry...........

It's the macho man's soap opera!

I am of course talking about the great entity that is sports entertainment.

I mean where else can you find a programme(s) that combines superbly written story-lines with death-defying moves (such as the chokeslam, moonsault or the pedigree). Where else would you find world-wide fan clubs, regular selling-out crowds and three world championships?

I am of course talking about the World Wrestling Entertainment industry.

It caters for everyone, with RAW talent, high-flying extremists over at ECW and see people laying the SmackDown!

It's hard not to be a fan.

There are also annual pay-per-view events which air monthly, with the 'wrestling year' ending on the grandest stage of the all 'Wrestlemania'.

All this is accompanied by hilarious, and often side-splitting commentary teams, be it 'Good Old' J.R and Tazz on SmackDown!, Jerry 'The King' Lawler and Michael Cole on RAW, and Todd Grisham and Matt Strikier over at ECW.

The Championships
WWE Championship
World Heavyweight Championship
ECW Championship
Intercontinental Championship
United States Championship
World Tag Team Championship
WWE Tag Team Championship
Women's Championship
Diva's Championship.

Headed by the McMahon family (my favourite being Stephanie) there is always no shortage of drama whilst there around.

And of course, there is the Divas... wwe.com/divas pick your favourite.

There is of course the need to mention the match types for which all of this explosive action takes place, from the traditional singles matches, to the more extravagant (and injury prone) 'Hell in a Cell' matches. From tag-team match-ups, to the 'Elimination Chamber'. From Triple-threat matches, to the 'Royal Rumble' (30 superstars battling it out to be the winner- earning a chance to challenge for a championship at Wrestlemania!)

Now the confusing bit, the reason for why there are three different shows. During the attitude era (and indeed whilst they were known as the WWF- the lost out to the World Wildlife Fund) the company competed with another wrestling company, known as WCW (World Championship Wrestling) for television. When WCW went bust, WWE were allowed to acquire WCW and ending the Monday Night Wars.

In a bid to keep the rating wars going they decided to split the flagship shows RAW and SmackDown! into two separate brands competing against each other for ratings. When WWE acquired ECW they added that as a programme to 'shake things up a bit!'. Each show is headed by a General Manager (a supervisor in effect), who endeavours to ensure their show coming out on top. The current GM's are;
RAW: Stephanie McMahon
SmackDown!: Vickie Guerrero
ECW: Theodore 'Teddy' Long

Another feature which has been added to the mix-up over the past few years is that of the WWE Draft, where every single superstar, general manager, commentator or indeed ring announcer, is eligible to be drafted to one of the opposing shows. Some of the most historic draft picks from years gone by include; Triple H and J.R moving to SmackDown!, Kane and Michael Cole moving to RAW and Matt Hardy moving to ECW.

There are of course, as with most sports, Legends in this business. My favourite being the soon to be inducted Hall of Famer, Stone Cold Steve Austin . The man who revolutionised the stunner, the man who flipped 'the bird' more times than Hitler's salute.

This legend, a hero had the balls to 'cross the boss', and came out on top! He has held a world title longer than Gravity's hold on a very fat man. He is still the only man to have stunned every member of the McMahon family-and get away with it!

Whilst there may be sceptics out there who , just because it's fake, refuse to watch it, and those who just make "gay" jokes as a reason to not watch it. This is a real sport. The WWE superstars don't need 6 months to recover after Wrestlemania! They are in action for 52 weeks a year.


Now whilst wrestling maybe be fake, you can guarantee it is; more exciting then Cricket, has more contact than American Football and you can guarantee you won't strain your neck like you would with Air Racing.

"And that's the bottom line, cause Stone Cold said so!"

BIG UPDATE!

I decided to change my name because I feel that 'Surprisingly Bewildered' allows me to be more creative- and is more attention grabbing than simply 'Lee'.
Also, you should check out thephenomenalfour.blogspot.com for like-minded thoughts!

Thanks,
Lee @ Surprisingly Bewildered.

Manuel Labour

No the above is not a typo... I do in fact mean Manuel,not manual, labour.

I am quite with my colleague over at p.d with this post, I do feel manual labour is a dead profession. Whilst I myself am a cleaner, this is obviously not my profession of choice, I didn't come out of the womb carrying a mop and a bucket. No! I am merely a cleaner becuase unfortunately they don't pay people to sit around drinking alcohol and complaining about the world (oh wait, The daily Telegraph exists...).

Also the money's not that bad...

On a serious note though, the manual labour industry is a dead business (well to British people), purely because we are prepared to do it, but we want a decent wage from it, whereas since we foolishly joined the EU, europeans seeking work are prepared to work for beans (not literally, of course - although the idea is quite funny).

Britain's biggest mistake was joining the European Union, because we lost our independance. We ruled the world at one point, we fought the Germans for freedom; and now we're being ruled by them (Europe that is).

Just to clarify though, I am not a supporter of the British National Party, as I am a strong Tory supporter, I just feel that during tough economic times like these, we need to look after 'our own' first.

Best plan of action
Leave Europe, becoming independant once more
Get the Tories in power
Sort the economy out
Sit around watching my amazing plan coming to fruition.

If all else fails, mock Brown and his blindness.

We can all have dreams can't we?..........

I have a dream...

Sorry to disappoint any MLK fans out there, but this post has nothing to with the great man's inspirational speach. However, it is a refreshing break to all the talk from colleagues at the newly renamed 'Phenomenol Four', who all seem to bash love or religion (although I do condone this talk).

I find it quite interesting that we all have had rather weird dreams in our lives, a dream I had the other day is included in this list (farmers in a school, and no it wasn't a sex dream!).

However, the factor I find most amazing is that dreams don't actually last the whole night, they last only a few minutes. And you can only remember dreams which occur through the state of 'rapid-eye movement, Rapid eye movement sleep sleep is the portion of sleep when there are rapid eye movements (REMs- pretty self-explanitory really! Dreams occur during REM sleep.

According to http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=8681, We typically have 3 to 5 periods of REM sleep per night. They occur at intervals of 1-2 hours and are quite variable in length. An episode of REM sleep may last 5 minutes or over an hour. About 20% of sleep is REM sleep. If you sleep 7-8 hours a night, perhaps an hour and half of that time, 90 minutes, is REM sleep.

Now some of you may be thinking, "Hey Lee, you've had quite enough to drink now!" (I haven't had any...), but it is quite interesting to learn that episodes that seem to last all night, are no more that a few minutes in length.

Let me know your thoughts...

Lee :-D

The final nail in the proverbial coffin...

Now, I consider myself a pretty calm natured person, who lets a lot of things slide under the rug. However I feel that people's ability to complain is now being abused. No doubt President Obama will probably send the secret service to kill me for this blog, but I think people are abusing the first amendment (or as it's more commonly known; freedom of speech).

Take the whole 'Sachsgate' scandal, when the programme was first broadcast there were no more than 30 complaints recieved. However when the tabloids decided to run a campaign to get Brand and Ross off the air, there was a mass public uproar, condemning the aforementioned for their actions.

I may sound slightly pedantic in my views, but surely it was the editors fault. As the programme was pre-recorded, one would expect the beeb to edit out the offensive parts, thus enhancing their 'squeaky-clean' persona. As this vital editing did not take place, then you cannot accuse the two presenters for this 'scandal'.

Had the tabloids realised this, then 30,000 sheep would have not complained. I bet my bottom dollar that none of the 29,700 people actually listened to the programme. If they had a spine, then they would be able to make their own decisions, rather than following like sheep and listening to liberal media!

And the recent media uproar regarding Jeremy Clarkson's rather apt description of Gordon Brown, made funnier by the fact that another Scot named Gordon condemned him.

Top tip - STOP COMPLAINING!