Motorhead - Lemmy

  by Jon Rogers

published: 21 / 2 / 2011

intro

Despite taking two years to make, Jon Rogers finds fly-on-the wall documentary 'Lemmy' to be lacking in insight and new information about the legendary Motorhead front man

Musical trends may come and go but Ian ‘Lemmy’ Kilminster will go on regardless doing his own thing. Watching ‘Lemmy’ you realise just how much a creature of repetitive habit he really is. Filmmakers Greg Olliver and Wes Orshoki’s feature-length documentary apparently took two years to film. I am not really sure why it took quite so long. The first half of the film is a sort of fly-on-the-wall look at the life the leader of heavy rock veterans Motörhead has. And what do we learn? Well, not a lot to be honest. It must be quite dull, actually, being Lemmy. In amongst the various famous faces lining up to pay tribute to the man behind the all-time classic ‘Ace of Spades’ we see him sitting drinking Jack Daniels and Coke at his local, the Rainbow Bar and Grill on Sunset Strip. We see him smoke his Marlboro Reds. We see him gamble on the slot machines... We see him talk about his collection of World War II memorabilia. Same old, same old. Bit dull, really. Still, fair play to the man, he is 65 years-old after all. Then we have a sort of roll call of who’s who in heavy rock all lining up to pay homage and perhaps tell an amusing anecdote. Former Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighter Dave Grohl, Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne and guitarist Slash, amongst others all get to have their say. Even former Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker and one time New Order bassist Peter Hook talk about the impact Motörhead had on them. The second half of the film takes a similar form but more a fly-on-the-wall take of Lemmy the musician – in the studio with some famous mates – or live on stage. Despite this though the viewer never really gets what it is like to experience Motörhead live – the thrill, the excitement, the exhilaration. The sheer loudness and volume. Instead, apart from the odd bit of live footage we have yet more people rolling up to pay homage and praise him and that there would be no [insert name of just about any rock band here] without him. No doubt a fair point but how many times do we actually need to hear it? Then we have footage of Lemmy messing about and jamming in the studio with the likes of Metallica and Dave Grohl and then a few war stories of life on the road from Lemmy. After two years of filming was that the most interesting footage the directors got? If so any decent editor should have cut out the extraneous waste. Where the documentary really comes alive though and brings out some insight into quite why Lemmy has lasted the course and become something of an institution to the rock community are the interviews he does to camera. The grizzled Lemmy talks touchingly about his son (but not quite so nicely about the woman who gave birth to him) and his life in Los Angeles as well as his musical influences and inspirations. He even has a kind word to say about his former band Hawkwind, who fired him under somewhat acrimonious circumstances. We even get Lemmy’s homespun wisdom occasionally: “You can’t win ‘em all,” he deadpans. “I mean, where would you put ‘em?” And for all the macho posturing, the heavy drinking, the gambling, the women, the smoking, the drugs and the sheer ferocity of the band, the final scene is actually quite telling. The sense of loneliness and sadness is eerily conveyed with a shot of Lemmy, post-gig, visibly tired, all alone in his dressing room shooing the camera out as he’s had enough and wants some peace. The man’s still a legend though.

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