Not quite another perfect day
Motorhead return to the Main Stage at Donington (after playing the 2nd Stage 3 years ago) and judging by the number of Motorhead t-shirts that have been knocking about today it’s no surprise that they get a big crowd and a great reaction as they take to the stage.
Unfortunately the technicians don’t seem to have got to grips with the acoustics of the new arena yet as the sound during opener ‘Doctor Rock’ is pretty poor. Things aren’t helped either by the fact that Lemmy’s voice sounds particularly strained on the next two songs (‘Stay Clean’ & ‘Be My Baby’) and for those of us who have seen plenty of the band the overall impression is of a slightly subdued performance early on.
Thankfully as Lemmy gets warmed up and the sound guys get their act together things take a distinct turn for the better with excellent versions of ‘Killers’ and ‘Metropolis’. There aren’t really any surprises in the set and it’s much the same as you’d have heard if you saw them on the Alice Cooper tour earlier this year. The good thing about this being that they haven’t tailored their set to accommodate crowd pleasing numbers and there is a healthy mix of newer songs including ‘One Night Stand’, the always stunning ‘In the Name of Tragedy’ (dedicated to William Shakespeare “whoever the fuck he is”) and their recent live only cover of Thin Lizzy’s ‘Rosalie’.
In a place like Donington Lemmy can do no wrong and every action on his part is met with a rapturous roar from the crowd. The highlight of the set however comes as a real surprise as old guitarist Wurzel joins them on stage for ‘Ace of Spades’. He clearly relishes the chance to relive past glories and it’s a shame he didn’t stay for set closer ‘Overkill’. So Motorhead deliver the goods yet again despite early problems and an obviously shortened festival set. Will they ever stop?! We hope not.