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‘Eat the Rich’: Cult rock and roll comedy with Lemmy, Shane MacGowan, Paul McCartney, Angela Bowie


 
Imagine, if you can, a country starkly divided by wealth inequality, where a small number of rich people lead lives of extravagant luxury and everyone else fights over the crumbs.

Now imagine that the most vulgar of celebrities, having ascended to high office by appealing to racist and sexist tendencies in the electorate, has announced a plan to slash health care in order to build up the military. Far from bringing him down, sex scandals only make him appear more powerful and exciting to his base. And what, exactly, is the nature of his relationship with the Russians?
 

 
Of course, I could only be talking about Nosher Powell, the real-life English boxer and actor who portrays “Cockney fascist” Home Secretary Nosher Powell in the dystopian 1987 comedy Eat the Rich. The dialogue is as quotable as that of Tapeheads or Repo Man. Early on, a diner at the posh eatery Bastards addresses a label head played by Miles Copeland:

Look, Derek, forget funk rap. It’s dead. The kids are getting hooked on socialism.

“OK, we’ll sack the blacks and sign the reds,” Copeland replies. It’s a cruel, cynical, racist—did I mention racist?—society.
 

 
The great Lanah Pillay stars as Alex, a hero for our time. Alex becomes a revolutionary after she’s fired from her waitressing job at Bastards, where she served koala and panda meat to one too many horrible jerks. And joining Lanah and Nosher from the world of UK showbiz in this movie right here is everyone and her fucking uncle: Lemmy, Shane MacGowan, Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French, Hugh Cornwell of the Stranglers, Sandie Shaw, Beatle Paul, Bill Wyman of the Stones, Koo Stark, Angela Bowie, and The Young Ones’ Rik Mayall all make appearances. Most of the soundtrack (and the soundtrack album) is by Motörhead, and at one point in the movie, Lemmy climbs onstage to play “Dr. Rock.”

More after the jump…

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Posted by Oliver Hall
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03.16.2017
09:45 am
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That time Lemmy recorded a single with the (not so) ‘squeaky clean’ Nolan Sisters

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The Young & Moody Band were an R&B group formed around the talents of Bob Young and Micky Moody. Young was a musician and regular collaborator with Status Quo, co-writing with Franco Rossi some of the band’s best-known hits like “Caroline,” “Paper Plane” and “Down Down.” Moody was guitarist with Whitesnake. The pair met while Quo and Whitesnake were on tour and decided one late evening to form their own sideline band together. They settled on the catchy and easy to remember name of Young & Moody and duly recorded their first album which they released in 1977. Though decent enough this self-titled debut didn’t bring home much bacon. But there was enough interest from friends and fellow musicians for Young & Moody to develop into the unlikeliest of “supergroups.”

In late 1980, Motörhead appeared on the BBC chart music show Top of the Pops. At that point in their career, Motörhead seemed to almost have booked a residency on this renowned pop show as they seemed to be on it so frequently—and were certainly one of the reasons for watching it. The thing about TOTP was its utterly baffling mix of hip, cult or heavy metal bands and rap artists with odious light entertainment trash. The likes of “The Birdie Song” or Renée and Renato could be heard warbling on the same show as say, Siouxsie and the Banshees or PiL. Watching TOTP was often self-inflicted harm, like pigging out on a box of candies just to find your one favorite soft center—to paraphrase Forrest Gump. 

The night Motörhead were on the show, a popular light entertainment act was topping the bill—The Nolans.

Now you have probably never heard of The Nolans or The Nolan Sisters as they once were known, but this quintet of fresh-faced sisters was Ireland’s most famous export next to probably Guinness or St. Paddy’s Day, at least until U2 made the big time. The Nolans looked like they’d spent the whole of their childhood singing in front the bedroom mirror with a hairbrush in hand. They were the female Osmonds or the Irish Jackson Five. They were good girls. They were wholesome. They were squeaky clean.

The Nolans started out playing pubs and clubs in the north of England. They were real troupers. In 1974, they debuted on It’s Cliff Richard—the born-again Christian pop star who was once hailed as England’s Elvis.

In 1975, the Nolans supported Frank Sinatra on his European tour. From then on the saccharine sisters never seemed to be off TV singing about “Scarlet Ribbons” or whatever. Then came a record deal and their breakthrough single “I’m in the Mood for Dancing” which catapulted the girls into global fame. Well, fame everywhere save for America.
 
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Lemmy and the Nolans—a match made in…. (photo Rama.)
 
When Lemmy met the Nolans he only had only one thing on his mind as he told Q magazine in 2010:

“No (there was no fling), but it wasn’t for the want of trying. They are awesome chicks. People forget those girls were onstage with Frank Sinatra at the age of 12. They’ve seen most things twice.

“We were on Top of the Pops at the same time as them and our manager was trying to chat up Linda: the one with the bouffant hair and the nice boobs. He dropped his lighter and bent down to pick it up. Linda said to him, ‘While you’re down there, why don’t you give me a…’ It blew him away. We didn’t expect that from a Nolan sister. None of us did.

“We were supposed to be the smelliest, loudest motherf**kers in the building but we more than met our match. We were in awe. You couldn’t mess with the Nolan sisters.”

 
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Now this is how one of the sisters, Colleen Nolan recounted meeting Lemmy in an article from 2015:

Lemmy was the nicest, most intelligent, philosophical person you could ever meet - he’ll probably be turning in his grave now I’ve said that. Though, I was terrified when I met him for the first time in 1981. I was a Nolan sister and he was this scary-looking heavy metal guitarist. He was in The Young and the Moody band and The Nolans recorded the single, “Don’t Do That,” with them.

I remember how much he loved women and big boobs . He was certainly fascinated with mine. He used to say: “Great t*ts!” but he was never being lecherous, he was just saying: “Be proud of yourself.” It wasn’t creepy, Lemmy actually made me feel good about being a woman.

He did once ask me out for a drink though. I said: “Seriously, I could NOT take you home and introduce you to my mum - she’d have a heart attack!” But he found out that The Nolans weren’t that innocent either. When we did Top of the Pops he bent over to pick something up in front of us and Linda said: “While you’re down there…”

The look of shock on his face was priceless.

He thought he’d have to watch his behavior in front of the Von Trapps and there was Maria von Trapp being so crude. From that point on he realized we were ordinary people and we got along great.

Music from Lemmy and The Nolans, after the jump…

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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02.21.2017
11:24 am
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Life-size bronze Lemmy statue unveiled at Rainbow Bar & Grill
08.25.2016
08:47 am
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Photo by Mike Maglieri via DIO on Twitter

A bronze Lemmy statue was unveiled last night at the Rainbow Bar & Grill on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, California. The statue stands at 6 feet tall and was sculpted by Los Angeles-based artist Travis Moore.


Image via John Kerr on Facebook.

The Rainbow Bar & Grill was one of Lemmy’s favorite haunts. He didn’t (or was allowed to?) drive and lived within walking distance of the legendary nightclub and watering hole for the famous. It makes perfect sense why the statue was erected there. His ashes belong at the Rainbow, too, but in a commemorative ashtray.

Below, video of last night’s unveiling:

 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Tara McGinley
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08.25.2016
08:47 am
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The Stranglers’ 1979 cricket match against the UK music press, featuring Lemmy and a bag of drugs
05.19.2016
09:42 am
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On September 16, 1979, the Stranglers held a cricket match to promote their new album The Raven and raise money for Capital Radio’s charity Help A London Child. They assembled a black-clad group of punk and reggae musicians to face a team made up of their usual adversaries and objects of abuse: rock journalists. Earlier that year, JJ Burnel had gaffer-taped writer Philippe Manoeuvre to the Eiffel Tower (Burnel: “it was only about 300 feet up”) and left him there, with his pants pooled around his ankles. “He wasn’t best pleased,” Jet Black remembers.

Cricket is played by teams of eleven, but the Stranglers were only four. To fill themselves out to the Stranglers XI for the charity match, the band recruited members of Motörhead, the Damned, X-Ray Spex, Flying Lizards, Steel Pulse, and other bands—a lot of people, according to their opponents in the Music Press XI, who claimed they saw a few supernumerary players on the field. Even Eddy Grant was on the massive team of rockers (“as many as 40 [...] at any one time,” the NME reported) that assembled at Paddington Recreation Ground on that storied day.
 

via Aural Sculptors
 
Lemmy showed up with a note from his doctor excusing him from the match because of a wart on his foot, but he lent his team moral and chemical support, while Kate Bush cancelled, according to Hugh Cornwell’s account in The Stranglers: Song by Song:

That was a fantastic event. [The Stranglers’ publicist] Alan Edwards came up with the idea of playing against the music press and managed to secure Brondesbury cricket ground in north London. Our team were dressed head to toe in black and wore black pads, black gloves and black caps. We even used black bats.

Kate Bush was going to play but pulled out. Lemmy turned up but had injured himself and had a sick note from his doctor, which was quite funny. He said, ‘Don’t worry. I’ll be watching on the boundary. If anyone needs a pick-up, my friend has a bag of whizz!’

Jet played and maybe John did. Some of the Finchley Boys played and a couple of members of the Damned. It just so happened that a friend of our dealer at the time had been a Hampshire [C]olt and was a demon fast bowler in his youth, so we got him out of retirement.

We batted first, with Jet and one of the large Finchley Boys opening the batting. We were all out quite cheaply, but managed to secure a tie because when the other team batted we kept sneaking on extra fielders to stop the run flow.

The opposition started complaining, but it was all for charity, so it got a bit ridiculous. The funniest point was when Richard Williams, who was editor of Melody Maker, came out to bat. He was brimming with confidence and had very expensive new equipment and strode out looking very professional. But our dealer clean bowled him almost immediately and Richard became very upset.

 

via Aural Sculptors
 
The blog Aural Sculptors has three press clippings about the match, and all of them contradict Cornwell on its outcome (“a fairly comprehensive drubbing,” the NME reported; “the Stranglers [...] spent a lot of their time lying down and threatening to take the bus home”), but at least Record Mirror corroborates Lemmy’s “bag of whizz”:

The Motorhead bit of the team had to keep vanishing behind bushes and under trucks. I really couldn’t figure out if this was for Lemmy to rest or to have some more talcum on his feet which he kept whipping out from the little paper bag. At least [I think] it was talcum, you never can tell with these rowdier boys.

Continues after the jump…

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Posted by Oliver Hall
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05.19.2016
09:42 am
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Lemmy Kilmister’s memorial service to be live-streamed this Saturday
01.07.2016
02:31 pm
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This is great: For family, friends and fans not able to attend Ian Fraser “Lemmy” Kilmister’s memorial service, it will be live-streamed via Motörhead’s official YouTube page this Saturday.

SATURDAY JANUARY 9th THE WORLD CELEBRATES LEMMYOn SATURDAY JANUARY 9th, the world will come together and celebrate the…

Posted by Official Motörhead on Tuesday, January 5, 2016

 

 
via Motörhead on FB

Posted by Tara McGinley
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01.07.2016
02:31 pm
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Sign the petition to have a heavy metal element named after Lemmy on the periodic table
01.06.2016
09:46 am
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Okay, folks, so we kind of have to make this happen: There’s a petiton on Change.org that’s tryng to get a newly discovered ‘heavy metal’ element named after Lemmy Kilmister. The suggested name? Lemmium. That works for me. You? Sign the petition!

Heavy rock lost its most iconic figure over Christmas with the sudden and unexpected death of Ian ‘Lemmy’ Kilmister.  Lemmy was a force of nature and the very essence of heavy metal.  We believe it is fitting that the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry recommend that one of the four new discovered Heavy Metals in the Periodic table is named Lemmium.  An astrological object (a star) has been named Lemmy to meet the IUPAC naming recommendations.

I think they mean “astronomical,” but maybe not!

So far Change.org has amassed over 21,000 supporters. I think we can do better. A link to sign the petition is here.

Posted by Tara McGinley
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01.06.2016
09:46 am
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Decorate your ENTIRE home with Lemmy Kilmister housewares
01.23.2015
02:55 pm
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Get yer Lemmy duvet here.
 
I’m simply posting this because… you can really do this. The idea of furnishing your entire living space head to toe in Lemmy-themed housewares seems absurd, yes, but dammit… it can be done!

I never thought in a million years I’d be able to purchase a Lemmy duvet cover, a Lemmy wall clock, Lemmy accent pillows or even a Lemmy shower curtain. But thanks to the Internet and sites like Society6, you and I can do just that.

I’ve provided links below each image in case you’ve gotta own it.


Get it here.
 

Get it here.
 

Get it here.
 

Get it here.
 

Get it here
 
More after the jump…
 

READ ON
Posted by Tara McGinley
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01.23.2015
02:55 pm
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Lemmy Kilmister garden gnome
09.17.2014
12:23 pm
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I’ve never really considered putting a garden gnome in my garden before, but I just might have to rethink that ‘cause this Lemmy garden gnome is pretty rad and hilarious. Etsy shop Ian the Gnome refurbishes old garden gnomes and will customize ones for you, too. I’d like to have one made of Bad Brains’ frontman of H.R., too please!

The Lemmy gnome goes for $45.00.

Here are a few more I dig from Ian the Gnome:


Madhatter garden gnome for $70.00
 

Clockwork Orange gnome for $45.00
 

Cap’n Crunch gnome BECAUSE WHY NOT? For $45.00

via Cherrybombed

Posted by Tara McGinley
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09.17.2014
12:23 pm
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Lemmy’s mole sings ‘Ace of Spades’
09.16.2014
09:03 am
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As Lemmy will tell you himself, those facial bumps are not warts they’re moles. He did have warts once, on his hands, nineteen of them with one going round his finger like a snake. But they all disappeared, one night, after he had a bath though his hands never went in the water. Or, so he claims.

Lemmy’s moles are famous. They even have their own Facebook page, with an ambition to “conquer every woman who gaze upon them.” Who knew they could be such aphrodisiacs?

They have also been the focus of much speculation from music journalists, who seem unable to resist asking why the LA-based legend has never had plastic surgery to have them removed? Usually, Lemmy just points to his mutton-chopped face and says:

What can you make out of this? What are you going to do? I think I look all right for my age, anyway.

Apart from being conversational ice-breakers, Lemmy’s moles have recently inspired one fan to make this little animation of Lemmy’s mole performing “Ace of Spades.”
 

 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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09.16.2014
09:03 am
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Ask Lemmy: Straight talk from metal’s ace life coach
06.10.2014
09:25 am
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If there were any doubt in your mind that Motörhead’s apparently indestructible singer/bassist Lemmy Kilmister is a total goddamn genius, I refer you to these two “Ask Lemmy” videos. They were produced for the program Hard N Heavy on the Canadian E1 network in 1994, and in them, the man who gave the world the lyric “They say music is the food of love/Let’s see if you’re hungry enough” offers some perfectly blunt, often hilarious, genuinely sage advice on matters of love, sex, and RACE RELATIONS.

I can add nothing further here. Just watch.
 

 

Posted by Ron Kretsch
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06.10.2014
09:25 am
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Lemmy is God: Image of Motörhead leader’s face appears on pancake
05.23.2014
11:00 am
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Yesterday Motörhead tweeted an image of what appears to Lemmy on a pancake. There’s no backstory to where the Lemmy pancake came from. Perhaps a fan sent it to them?

All hail the Lemmy pancake!!!
 

 
Via Cherrybombed

Posted by Tara McGinley
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05.23.2014
11:00 am
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Lemmy, Freddie Mercury and Barry Gibb cover The Chi-Lites

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I know, I know, this is incredibly silly but it cracks me up.

British comedian Stevie Riks does wickedly funny impressions of rock stars that are often as cruel (though affectionate) as they are funny. In this particular video, Riks portrays Barry Gibb, Freddie Mercury and Lemmy as they perform The Chi-Lites’ classic “Have You Seen Her.’
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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04.03.2012
05:00 pm
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Ladies & Gentlemen, How Do?: Documentary on The Damned in The Works
03.04.2012
09:23 pm
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The best band that emerged out of the fertile soil of the UK punk movement in the 1970’s, is, for my money, The Damned. Sure, I love the Pistols, but they imploded as quickly as they emerged. The Clash were good but got bloated by the end. (Plus, I am forever bitter about having “Car Jamming” forced on me at a formative age. Really, guys?) But The Damned have never let us down. From their debut, Damned Damned Damned to the psychedelic rock infused masterpiece of their 2008 album, So, Who’s Paranoid, they have never sold out, gotten stodgy or taken the easy way out. With each album, you can hear a band that started off strong only get progressively better and more bold. Simply put, The Damned is one of the greatest bands ever and the time has finally come for their story and music to be embraced in documentary film mode.

Wes Orshoski, who was one-half of the directing team behind 2010’s excellent documentary, Lemmy, which coincidentally (or not) featured Dave Vanian and Captain Sensible from The Damned, has started work on the as-of-now untitled film project. As a longtime fan, this is extremely exciting and if it’s at least as good as Lemmy, then this is truly going to be a long overdue treat.

For more information, you can read about this on The Damned’s Official Site.
 

 

Posted by Heather Drain
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03.04.2012
09:23 pm
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Before they were famous: Hugh Cornwell, Richard Thompson, Lemmy and co.

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A 15-year-old, Hugh Cornwell poses with his first band Emil and The Detectives in 1964. The band was formed by guitarist Richard Thompson (on the far right of picture). who went on to Fairport Convention, while Cornwell found fame as frontman with The Stranglers. Cornwell talked about this early snapshot in the Telegraph Magazine:

I remember getting the violin bass guitar I’m holding here, I was about 15 and had saved up £50 for it. Before then I’d been playing a homemade version with a neck the thickness of a plank of wood. Richard Thompson (on the far right) suggested I learn to play bass because he was forming Emil and the Detectives (the band in the picture) and he needed a bass player, so he taught me. We were good friends from school and we played each other music that we had discovered, like the Rolling Stones and the Who. Richard’s older sister, Perri, who was the social secretary at the Hornsey College of Art in north London, would book us to play parties and pay us £30 per gig. Our biggest claim to fame was supporting Helen Sahpiro at the Ionic cinema in Golders Green. But after we took our O-level [exams] we lost touch. The next I heard he was the lead guitarist in Fairport Convention…

...In August 2008 I was doing a festival outside Madrid and the promoter said, ‘If we hurry we can catch the end of Richard Thompson’s set.’ I couldn’t believe it. I hadn’t seen Richard in 30 years. We had a big huggy reunion and now we’re back in touch it’s really lovely. When I played in LA last year he came to watch and I suggested that we play a song together. I chose “Tobacco Road” by the Nashville Teens, which was a number one hit in the 1960s and was one of the first songs we learnt together.

Hugh Cornwell tours the UK April 6-17, details here.
 
More early pics and performances of pop stars, including Lemmy, Bowie and Davy Jones, after the jump…
 

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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03.18.2011
06:13 pm
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Foo Fighters and Lemmy in ‘White Limo’
02.14.2011
06:47 pm
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Lemmy guest stars in the video for the Foo Fighters’ new tune “White Limo” produced by Butch Vig.

I’m not a big Foo Fighters fan, but I know fun when I see it. The battered video tape look suits the song which sounds like some dirty ass hardcore thrash from the 80s. Shades of Vig’s early production work with Die Kreuzen. Very cool.

Foo Fighters new album will be released April 12.
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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02.14.2011
06:47 pm
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