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FAST EDDIE CLARKE: from Motorhead to FASTWAY

http://www.fasteddieclarke.com/

RESUME

Fastway are a heavy metal band formed by guitarist, "Fast" Eddie Clarke, formerly of Motörhead, and bassist, Pete Way, formerly of UFO

In 1983 both players had been disgruntled with their own bands and decided to work together in a new outfit. They recruited drummer, Jerry Shirley, formerly of Humble Pie, and the then unknown vocalist, Dave King. They took their name from a combination of the founding members' names. However, Way then discovered that he could not escape from his recording contract with Chrysalis Records, and then received a tempting offer to play for Ozzy Osbourne, so abandoned the project. Bringing in session bassist, Mick Feat, the band then recorded their debut album, Fastway. They are often incorrectly considered to be a NWOBHM band. NWOBHM bands like Iron Maiden and Motörhead started in 1975, whilst Fastway did not commence until 1983.

A critical and commercial success, the band toured to promote the album (with Alfie Agius as their session bass player). The band then recruited Charlie McCracken, formerly of Taste as "permanent" bassist, and released another success in the form of All Fired Up the following year. After the hardships of touring, Shirley and McCracken subsequently left. In 1986 Clarke and King reformed Fastway with a new line-up. Recruiting Shane Carroll (second guitar), Paul Reid (bass), and Alan Connor (drums) from Dave King's first band Stillwood, this line-up released Waiting for the Roar. The record took an album-oriented rock approach instead of the driving bluesy-metal of the previous albums. The success of the record was limited, and it disappointed many fans. In 1987 Fastway was approached to make the soundtrack for the heavy metal horror film, Trick or Treat. The film flopped, but the soundtrack re-established Fastway as a hard hitting metal band. The soundtrack was a moderate success, and stayed on the Billboard Hot 200 chart for eleven months. The success of the soundtrack, and the very little money the band received, caused in-fighting and the band disbanded. King took most of the band with him and started Q.E.D., a more AOR styled outfit. They released a two-track single.

King then got a call from David Geffen and Jon Kollodner to come to the United States to head up a heavy metal supergroup, called Katmandu. Katmandu also featured Mandy Meyer from Krokus on guitars. The band was rounded out by Cain Carruthers of the punk rock band The Untouchables, and Mike Alonso of the punk band, The Meanies.

Clarke decided to restart Fastway again from scratch using vocalist Lea Hart and session men, quickly releasing On Target in the same year, but it sold poorly.

In 1990 this duo released Bad Bad Girls, employing various session musicians including members of Girlschool. It was widely ignored and sold poorly. After calling it a day in 1991, they released a perfunctory live album Say What You Will LIVE (an older recording, curiously with King on vocals). In 1997 however the pair reunited and released a reworked version of On Target, but there was no commercial success.

Vocalist King later returned to his roots in 1997 with Flogging Molly, an Irish inspired punk band, who have sold over a million and a half copies of recorded output. The last studio CD Within a Mile Of Home hit #20 on the Billboard Hot 200.

On 25 May 2007, Toby Jepson, former lead singer with Little Angels, announced he had accepted an approach from Fastway to perform lead vocal duties during the year's festival appearances. Jepson will also continue with his solo work.As reported on MelodicRock.com on 26 February 2007, an updated line-up for Fastway will appear at this year's Sweden Rock Festival. They will also be appearing at the 2007 Download Festival at Castle Donington. Besides guitarist Clarke, the band features among others John "Harv" Harbinson (Stormzone), Steve Strange and John McManus (Mama's Boys).

The current line-up appeared at the 2007 Japanese Loud Park Festival in Saitama,Japan on Saturday October 20th 2007. Songs performed were Misunderstood,Steal The Show,Another Day,Say What You Will,Heft,Telephone,Non Stop Love,Feel Me,Touch Me (Do Anything You Want),Easy Living.

In an interview with Komodo Rock at the Hard Rock Hell Festival in November 2007, Eddie Clark confirmed that he and Toby Jepson would be working on new material. He said "Toby and I are going to sit down and maybe do a few tunes over the winter. See if we can write some tunes."

Dave King-fastway'singer on

Fastway (1983) #43 UK, #31 U.S.
All Fired Up (1984) #59 U.S.
Waiting for the Roar (1986)
Trick or Treat (soundtrack, 1986) #156 U.S.

Lea Hart-fastway'singer on
On Target (1988) #135 U.S.
Bad Bad Girls (1990)

Discography FAST EDDIE CLARKE

Albums
1974 Curtis Knight and Zeus -The Second Coming
1974 Curtis Knight and Zeus - Sea Of Time
1983 Fastway - Fastway
1984 Fastway - All Fired Up
1986 Fastway - Waiting For The Roar
1986 Fastway - Trick Or Treat (soundtrack album)
1988 On Target - On Target
1990 On Target - 1990
1992 On Target - On Target / Bad, Bad Girls
1993 The Muggers - The Muggers Tapes
1993 Solo album - It Ain't Over Till It's Over
2003 Motörhead - Live at Brixton Academy
2007 Fast Eddie Clarke Anthology

Singles

1974 Curtis Knight and Zeus - "Devil Made Me Do It" / "Oh Rainbow"
1974 Curtis Knight and Zeus - "People, Places and Things" / "Mysterious Lady"
1983 Fastway - "Easy Livin'" / "Say What You Will"
1983 Fastway - "Easy Livin'" / "Say What You Will" / "Far, Far From Home"

Guest appearances

1994 J.B.O. BLASTphemie - on "Greetings from Fast Eddie Clarke"
2000 Necropolis End Of The Line - solo on "A Taste For Killing"
2003 Chinchilla Madtropolis - solo on "When The Sand Darkens The Sun"
2005 Masque Look Out - solo on "I've Had Enough Of The Funny Stuff"

Motörhead

Motörhead - September 1977
Overkill - March 24, 1979
Bomber - October 27, 1979
Ace of Spades - November 8, 1980
No Sleep 'til Hammersmith - June 27, 1981
Iron Fist - April 17, 1982
BBC Live & In-Session - September 20, 2005

MORE ABOUT FAST EDDIE CLARKE

MOTORHEAD

Just like the rest of us, Lemmy finds it difficult to believe that this year Motörhead will have existed for a quarter of a century. "I thought we had three years in us ? if we were lucky," booms the snaggle-toothed bassist/vocalist as we lounge about his Kensington hotel suite. "You don't think chronologically at the start, you only realise how long you've been around at the end."

To have endured a career this twisted, you simply had to come from a twisted background. Lemmy - born Ian Fraser Kilmister in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, on Christmas Eve, 1945 - fits the bill perfectly. The son of a RAF pastor, at the age of four, he had 10 teeth removed without anaesthetic and the young Kilmister quickly became aware that he preferred his own company to most other kids he knew. After his parents divorced, Lemmy pronounced his father to be "The most grovelling piece of scum on this earth, a weasel of a man with glasses and a bald spot." When, in 1983, I asked him who his first crush was, he told me, "Champion The Wonderhorse."

After a brief sojourn in Manchester in the mid-60s as the clean-cut guitarist in the Rockin' Vickers, he relocated to London where he landed a gig as a roadie for Jimi Hendrix. He shared a flat with Noel Redding, forged an association with the London chapter of the Hell's Angels and remembers those days chiefly for the acid he regularly supplied to Jimi. "He'd send me out to score 10 trips. He'd take six, and I'd keep four."

The authorities had found a stash of white powder on him which they thought was cocaine (illegal in Canada) but which turned out to be amphetamine sulphate (bizarrely, still regarded then under Canadian law as a 'pure food'). By the time he'd caught up with Hawkwind at the next gig in Toronto, however, he discovered he'd been "voted out of the band." After four years with Hawkwind, during which he'd supplied the lead vocal to their one and only hit, 'Silver Machine', in 1972, Lemmy took his dismissal badly. Very badly.

"I'd sort of seen it coming, I just didn't know when," he shrugs now. "The only reason they bailed me out of jail, apparently, was because my replacement couldn't get there on time. It's a terrible thing to be fired ? especially for an offence that everyone else was guilty of. So I came home and fucked all their old ladies," he adds with all the detachment of somebody pouring a glass of milk. What, every last one of 'em? "Not the ugly ones, of course. But at least four," he cackles gleefully. "Outrageous? No, not at all. I took great pleasure in it. Eat that, you bastards."

Lemmy's earliest recollections of Motörhead, the band, involve, "Incredible poverty, living in squats. This bird we knew called Aeroplane Gaye used to work under a furniture store in Chelsea, and if anyone quit early we'd all dash down there and rehearse. We were that broke, but we did alright. We were struggling for a long time with no bread, then over about six months it just went whammo."

The prototype Motörhead included former Pink Fairies guitarist/vocalist Larry Wallis and drummer Lucas Fox. Although they supported Greenslade at London's Roundhouse in July, this line-up proved short-lived, and the latter was eventually replaced, in late '75, by Phil Taylor. "I met Lemmy through speed really," Taylor later claimed. "Y'know, dealing and scoring. I wasn't actually playing in a band at the time."

'Philthy Animal', as he soon became known, was a former skinhead and Leeds United football hooligan, whose father had bought him a drum kit with the immortal words: "If you wanna beat something up, beat this up."

"Why would he send out a press release about a new band if he thought there was a chance I'd go back to Hawkwind? That's obviously garbage," Lemmy insists. Maybe he thought you needed a kick up the arse? "Yeah, right. A kick up the arse from Doug Smith? Don't make me laugh. He dropped us six months later anyway, we were with [former Moody Blues manager] Tony Secunda for two years."

After Motörhead had cut their debut 'On Parole' album for United Artists, the company rejected it (the album remained in the vaults until the band finally hit the charts with 'Bomber'). The following March, Taylor found himself among of a group of blokes trying to earn a few extra quid by painting a houseboat in Battersea. One of them was part-time TV repair man and former Curtis Knight/Blue Goose guitarist 'Fast' Eddie Clarke, who was interested to learn that Taylor's group were considering adding a rhythm player. "So we organised an audition and jammed all afternoon, and Lemmy and I found we had a lot of things like the Yardbirds in common," recalls Clarke now. "But Larry didn't show up till the end, and when he did he wasn't in very good humour. "I didn't hear anything for ages and assumed Larry didn't want me in the band, then one Saturday afternoon there was a knock on the door and Lemmy was standing there. He gave me this fucking bullet belt and leather jacket and said, 'You're in'. Larry had gone and I had my uniform!"

During the legal melée that followed the 'On Parole' album, they cut a single, 'White Line Fever' b/w 'Leavin' Here', for Stiff Records, and once again suffered the indignity of being shelved. "The Stiff thing was the real pisser, because our single was sidelined while they put out things like 'Planet Airlines', a real obvious hit," says Lemmy sarcastically, trying none too hard to conceal his bitterness. "But I'm used to not being appreciated by the business. The business has demonstrated year in, year out that it knows nothing about rock'n'roll. It's not even interested in finding out. I didn't join the business, I joined the band, and although it won't admit it, I've beaten it hand over fist every time. They always do whatever I tell them not to and they always fuck up."

Nevertheless, these were shaky beginnings for the band. "Was I always convinced of the band's value?" Lemmy muses. "Well, maybe not during that little era with Lucas, but after we got Eddie and Phil in I knew we had something special. That was an excellent band from day one. I'd only written three songs for Hawkwind and I wasn't too good at it yet. But this band has always been the eternal underdog, and we're good at it."

Obviously, drink and speed were important in shaping the band," continues Eddie, who was a moderate drinker until he joined Motörhead. "I was a dopehead. Speed was something that they all did, and I soon found myself doing it as well. Then I realised that having a drink with the speed mellowed you out and gave you an opportunity for a bit of kip. That was how my drinking career got underway."

Motörhead's break came in typically freak-ish fashion when Gerry Bron, the boss of Bronze Records (then home of Uriah Heep and Manfred Mann's Earth Band), agreed, as a favour to a booking agent friend, to issue what actually became the first ever Motörhead single: their cover of cult 60s classic, 'Louie Louie'. The band was by then actually signed to Chiswick Records, who had refused to release it.

Recalls Bron: "[Agent] Neil Warnock had said, 'I've got a 12-date tour lined up for this band called Motörhead. But the promoter says that unless we get a single out to promote it, he's gonna pull the plug'." Although Bron confesses he thought 'Louie Louie' was "about the worst record I'd ever heard", he released it "purely as a favour to Neil. And to my amazement, it went into the Top 75. I said, hang on a minute, this is a terrible record, but it's gone into the chart without any kind of push at all, so I went to see them at Hammersmith Odeon and it was packed to the rafters with people going absolutely crazy. We had to sign them right away."

Bronze Records had told the band that if 'Louie Louie' went Top 75, they could secure them a place on Top Of The Pops. Sure enough, the band recorded their slot for the show on the Wednesday, and Clarke, who was "doing a painting job" on the following night, "had to ask the punters if we could watch their telly, because I was on in a minute! I was standing there in my overalls with a paintbrush in my hand..."

The success of 'Louie...' (and its more representative B-side 'Tear Ya Down') was the start of a love-hate relationship that would benefit both band and label, yet culminate in trench warfare. "We always seemed to have a problem with Motörhead," Bron recalls with a sigh. "Nobody liked them, not on a professional level. They had a fantastic following, but licensees around the world absolutely hated them. We had a terrible job getting them to work with the band."

The relationship between band and label became so fractious that Lemmy would often tell concert audiences to go out and steal the group's latest recording, "Because we don't get the fucking royalties anyway." Nevertheless, as a consequence of Motörhead's success, Bronze also signed Girlschool, the all-girl combo who Lemmy and co. had taken out on tour as their support act in 1978. The two bands later recorded a covers EP under the name of Headgirl. As a result, the two groups developed a strong bond, and over the years Lemmy dated both guitarist Kelly Johnson and bassist Gil Weston.

"I even lived with Gil for quite a while," he says now. "When I got her the Girlschool job I said it would break us up, and sure enough it happened six months later. She married the tour chef!"

Early on, as a gesture of solidarity, Motörhead decided to split the profits equally three ways, even though Lemmy was writing the lyrics and Eddie the majority of the riffs. "We knew if we did make it that we didn't want Lemmy and I coming to work in Rolls Royces and Phil on a pushbike," says Clarke. As the guitarist now insists, the reason for the band's early success was their very togetherness. Although there was tension, their bond was seemingly unbreakable.

"You hear a lot of good things and a lot of bad things about Lemmy, and most of them are true," said Taylor at the time. "He is a cunt, he is a bastard, he does knock other people's chicks off. But he's also incredibly funny. Every time you go out with him it's a memorable experience."

"We had a bond, and it went beyond whether you liked someone or not," adds Clarke now. "Me and Phil were especially close because Lemmy was a bit of a loner. I can't imagine being any closer to anyone else than those two, and it never even entered my mind whether I even liked Lemmy or not, because it wasn't even an issue. We felt almost indestructible because we'd had so much shit thrown at us and we'd decided that no matter what happened, we were gonna fuckin' carry on.

"The music business created Motörhead because they tried so hard to scupper us, and it made us dogged. What happened years later, when I kinda got out of the band, was they started to wonder whether they liked me or not. Then you're doomed. Being in a band's like being in a war, you don't give a fuck whether or not a guy's feet smell, you wanna know if he'll keep you alive."

Clarke: "Not for a fucking minute. We were too busy partying. There were times when I got the red mist and let off a bit of steam, or Phil would smash up the odd hotel room and break his hand, but that was all part of it. The fights between me and Phil were legendary, we'd really try to hurt each other."

Doug Smith: "I was worried about the band many times. I once thought Phil Taylor was dead of an overdose in New York. And in America the police arrive whenever you call an ambulance, so I'd been going around his room hiding every drug I could find, hoping they'd think he'd just collapsed. It was life-threatening all the time, for all of them - even Lemmy, who I once thought was gonna have a heart-attack when we got to a gig in Canada and there was no speed around."

Motörhead's manipulation of the press was masterful. Playing heavily on their hard-living, biker image, their notoriety was well-earned. Mick Wall, then a humble Sounds scribe, travelled to an early gig in St Albans, and reported: "I never really recovered from the coach trip. Sixty minutes speeding from Chalk Farm Road is all it took. Not nearly enough time for readjustment to a state of mind equipped to deal with the onslaught of Barbie dolls thrust suddenly into your company, the fresh chunks of meat hanging from butchers hooks over each table, or the pints of artificial blood, shot through syringes no doubt, over the seats and windows. Not enough time to do anything except sit on your hands and gape at [publicist] Motorcycle Irene and her chums swanning around pouring drinks."

In late '79, Motörhead made London's Evening News for "clocking in a staggering 119 decibels at a recent concert". An unrepentant "band leader Lemmie" (sic) retorted: "The kids may be injuring themselves, but how could we stop them from pressing their heads against the speakers? They keep on shouting to turn it up." The Daily Mirror then joined in, declaring: "Their music is so loud it's like your brains being forced down your nose." And a couple of years later, a picture of Lemmy cuddling the then 16-year-old Coleen Nolan appeared in The Sun as part of a story that seemed to suggest their was something dubious going on. No such luck. In fact, Lemmy was participating on the 'Don't Do That' single with the Nolan Sisters and the Young And Moody Band.

The release of the 'Overkill' and 'Bomber' albums both came in 1979, but they'd had plenty of time in which to perfect their sound. The latter crashed into the charts at No.12, causing Sounds to describe it as "music to perform lobomoties to." To promote it, they had already sold-out two nights at London's prestigious Hammersmith Odeon.

But even then, the strain between the protagonists was beginning to show.

"Lemmy had been up for three days drinking vodka and fucking chicks," Clarke explained years later. "We've got 12,000 kids crammed in and waiting for us. All day people have been offering me lines of coke and everything, and I've had one fucking Heineken because I want to be together for this show. 55 minutes into the set, Lemmy disappears backwards and collapses. Afterwards, me and Phil are furious, going: 'You let us down'. And he was saying, 'Me being up for three nights had nothing to do with it'. The fact that he was up for three days getting blow-jobs had nothing to do with the fact that he'd collapsed onstage? No, of course not!"

Although 1980's 'Ace Of Spades' entered the chart at No.4, Clarke remembers it as "becoming a little more difficult. There was pressure because we were famous." Yet Lemmy's prime recollections are that the band were, "Ready to kill." His main memory is of "Eddie lying on his back, helpless with laughter and feeding back on the solo for '(We Are) The Roadcrew'," which he'd written in five minutes flat. Again, Sounds went overboard, their correspondent Garry Bushell awarding '...Spades' the full five stars and insisting: "Motörhead are heavy metal in the only meaningful sense of the term. Everyone else is just pretending." Around that time, the trio flew to America for their first US shows, including their debut at the Orange Bowl in Miami supporting - of all bands - Heart. Afterwards, at the headliners' request, they hooked up with Ozzy Osbourne and proceeded to stun audiences. "The Yanks were shocked, horrified," Eddie recalls now. "When we finished they'd just stare at each other. It wasn't until Chicago, probably two months into the tour, that we got our first encore."

The band's pinnacle came in 1981 when 'No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith' - still one of the greatest live albums of all time - entered the UK album charts at No.1. The bassist was in New York at the time and remembers being asleep when he received the news, and although he claims to have told whoever had made the call to ring him back the next morning, he regarded the chart placing as a vindication. Clarke's biggest regret was that with being on the other side of the Atlantic, nobody could buy them any celebratory drinks.

Despite the fact that the album wasn't even recorded in Hammersmith (it was actually done in Leeds and Newcastle), the strangest thing about 'No Sleep...' was that the band hadn't even wanted to release it in the first place. "The great story behind that album is that [Bronze's distributors] Polydor were very, very keen on it, especially somebody there whose name I now don't recall," Gerry Bron relates. "But this guy ? let's call him Dave Smith ? got a telex from Lemmy saying, 'I hear you're going to release the live album. Does Dave Smith like hospital food?' The band were away in Australia at the time, so we put it out anyway and it went straight in at No.1 and, of course, Lemmy never said a word afterwards."

"We sent Bronze the famous 'six-foot fax' with all the things we thought were wrong with it - it went on for pages because we thought the thing was terrible," laughs Eddie. "The mixes had been done while we were away and we were fuming. Apparently he just threw it in the fucking bin [but] the album comes out and goes straight to No.1 so who's gonna fuckin' argue? We know nothing!"

"We knew that 'No Sleep...' was gonna do well because people had been waiting for a live album from us for three years, but never in our wildest dreams did we think it would go straight in at No.1," Lemmy confesses. "Actually, I was more pleased when 'Ace Of Spades' went in at No.4, because 'No Sleep.' was a one-off. That said, it was also our death-knell because you can never follow a live album that goes straight in at No.1. What are you gonna do, put out another one?"

Just before the band had departed for their second US tour to promote the then new 'Iron Fist' album, a series of dawn raids on their homes had lead to the arrest of Philthy for possessing 2.2 grammes of cannabis. Back home, a warrant was issued for his arrest. Fortunately for Lemmy and Fast Eddie, they'd stayed out all night, but that didn't stop them from claiming in Sounds that somebody was "out to stitch us up." While the band were away, police were also called to Lemmy's gaff after his flatmate, actor Andrew Elsmore, was found stabbed six times in the head and chest with his body partly burned.

As Clarke now explains, things had started to become strained between himself and the other two. After the murder at Lemmy's pad, Doug Smith had moved the group into a shared house in Clapham. While the tour continued, Clarke's then girlfriend was the first to move their possessions in, also picking the best bedroom.

The disappointing reaction to the, in truth rather patchy, 'Iron Fist' album and tour made it clear that the magic wouldn't last forever. Bronze had failed to get the album into the shops in time for the tour. Despite this, Philthy threatened to leave the band unless they played a huge chunk of the new material, and it fell on deaf ears. "It killed the tour stone dead," says Clarke. "It was our worst fucking tour, the kids didn't come alive until the encore. I was devastated."

"The 'Iron First' album was bad, inferior to anything else we've ever done," agrees Lemmy now. "There are at least three songs on there that were completely unfinished. Having Eddie [Clarke] produce it was a mistake that even he would now probably admit to. But there you go, we were arrogant. When you're successful that's what you become, you think it'll go on forever."

"Listen," says an indignant Clarke, "I swear on my mother's grave, I didn't want to produce 'Iron Fist'! I'd produced the first Tank album [1982's 'Filth Hounds Of Hades'] and producers all wanted 10 or 20 grand- from a band that were on two hundred quid a week. Why should we pay some cunt that? I didn't want to play and produce. But Doug Smith was forever telling us the band was skint, and Lemmy's whole attitude was, 'Let's let fucking Fancy Bollocks do it, he's just done the Tank album, he's got the best room in the house, he's nicked one of my birds and he's a cunt'."

After seven years of threatening to do so, Eddie Clarke finally quit the band in May '82 after a blazing row in a New York hotel room over a version of Tammy Wynette's 'Stand By Your Man' that Lemmy was cutting with the late Plasmatics singer Wendy O. Williams. Almost 20 years later, the subject clearly still rankles with Clarke. "I still feel justified in saying that Wendy O. Williams thing was a piece of shit and that we shouldn't have done it because 'Iron Fist' hadn't gone down well and the tour had been a disaster. We needed something with a bit of credibility, not another fucking joke. Lemmy even suggested crediting it to Motörhead and Wendy O. Williams with a disclaimer that it had nothing to do with Fast Eddie Clarke - well, that really fucking did me. It wasn't about me, it was about Motör-fucking-head."

With hindsight, though, Lemmy believes Clarke's departure could have been avoided. "Yeah, Eddie was just going through one of his crazes," he says today. "He used to have 'em all the time. He had this craze on this guy Will Reid-Dick, who had co-produced the 'Iron First' album with him, and he came over to New York to do that collaboration. Wendy, rest in peace, wasn't the type of chick who got the song right away, she had to work at it. They [Clarke and Reid-Dick] got impatient and became very counter-productive, so I ended up producing it myself while they were outside the studio bitching.

Almost inevitably, Fast Eddie and Doug Smith remember things differently. "We had this big row and had separate dressing rooms in New York because they didn't want me anywhere near them, but afterwards I did go into their dressing room and said, 'Listen guys, the gig was good and I'd like to do the rest of the tour if we can put this thing behind us '. But they said, 'No way, man, fuck off'. That's God's truth. They say I left the band, and I did used to throw wobblers, but that's not the way I saw it. It broke my heart because those were the greatest times of my life."

"Eddie may well have offered to finish the tour, but Lemmy and Phil just weren't interested," explains Smith. "It had taken all my negotiating skills throughout the previous night to get them to play the New York show, at which they completely ostracised Eddie. For them, that was it."

"The thing is, Motörhead never got recognition from other musicians, and I think that's why the split happened," says Eddie. "They loved Thin Lizzy and Brian Robertson and probably used that as an excuse to get me out of the band, at least in Phil's mind. You know, get a proper musician in. I don't mean that in a horrible way, but it's something that Phil and I have discussed since. And let's face it, Brian Robertson was not a good choice."

Nevertheless, 'Robbo' was appointed and left soon afterwards, while Philthy came and went from the band over the following years, amid claims that he was no longer up to the task. Indeed, Lemmy once collared me in the foyer of the Marquee for a concert review I'd written in which I'd lambasted the band for not playing 'Overkill'. "Philthy's legs had gone," he said simply.

After leaving Motörhead, Taylor played with Robertson and ex-Sensational Alex Harvey Band/Michael Schenker Group bassist Chris Glenn, yet soon returned to ask Lemmy for his job back. "The terrible thing was, I agreed," Lemmy sighs. "And I don't think he ever forgave me for it, because he hadn't liked asking. I didn't like having to tell people we couldn't do 'Overkill' anymore because he couldn't play it, because he really should have been able to. He wasn't that old, just too out of it and apathetic, taking the wages." As he would be the first to admit, you can't make people change their ways. "Not unless they want to. We warned him twice over a period of about 18 months, but he didn't buck up. He lost it, didn't care any more. You can't make people care."

Although Fast Eddie enjoyed brief post-'Head success with Fastway and released a solo album, 'It Ain't Over Till It's Over', in 1993 which featured Lemmy on one track, neither he nor Philthy are desperate for a return to the music business. Still in regular contact with Lemmy, Clarke has also been sober for the last 11 years since an upsetting incident when he started coughing up blood. "I used to say I'd drink till I died, but as soon as the deep dark claret started coming out, I was on the phone to my doctor," he laughs. "So much for all my big talk. But there was nothing bigger in our lives than Motörhead. Phil and I have never recovered. We've never had families because Motörhead was our family."

Which begs the final question: everyone else is doing it, will we ever see the 'classic line-up' back onstage together? Clarke: "You'll have to ask Lemmy. If he was up for it, maybe. I've always got loads of time for him. Maybe we'll play together if this 25th anniversary gig comes off. I've heard lots of rumours, but I'll believe it when I hear it from Lem."

As we all know now, the anniversary show Eddie refers to was confirmed and took place at Brixton Academy on October 22 2000. Just call it a little family get-together...

So when the lights went down and Lemmy growled, 'In case you've come to the wrong show, we are Motorhead', pandemonium broke out. Cranking over that famous bass, the band launched into 'We Are Motorhead' and one classic after another followed. 'No Class', 'Metropolis' and 'I'm So Bad (Baby I Don't Care)' rattled by at warp speed. Mixing the old with new, the band stormed through 'Born to Raise Hell', (with back-ups by ex-Warlock warbler Doro Pesch) and 'The Chase is Better than The Catch' (with original legend, 'Fast' Eddie Clarke).

There was only enough time for a few gruff words before 'Stay Out of Jail' and the balls-out boogie of 'Going to Brazil'. The long-lost 1981 classic, 'Damage Case', was a surprise inclusion, ahead of a frantic version of the Pistols', 'God Save the Queen'. Interest levels may have dipped a little during some of the newer numbers, but Lemmy and the boys proved they still had it in them to whip the crowd into a frenzy in the ultimate adrenaline rush of 'Bomber' and 'Ace of Spades'. With the infamous 'Bomber' lighting rig above the stage and the capacity-crowd at fever pitch, it could have been 1979 again as Queen's Brian May and Fast Eddie joined the band for a final bludgeoning charge through 'Overkill'.

A quarter of a century on and this band are not slowing down. Next stop Lemmy's 55th birthday party at the Forum. You'd better bring your earplugs.

FASTWAY

Eddie returned to England in 1982 after leaving Motorhead and immediately got together with Pete Way from UFO. The very first Fastway rehearsals commenced with Topper Heddon from The Clash on drums, Pete on bass and Eddie on guitar.

After a few weeks of rehearsals, things were going well and there was much media interest in the new band. At this point, Topper decided the he did not want to commit to the band full time, so Pete and Eddie started looking for a drummer and vocalist. Word got out that they were looking for tapes of would be vocalists and drummers. After receiving literally hundreds of replies, sorting through and listening to the many offerings became a major task. At the same time, Pete heard that Gerry Shirley, formally of Humble Pie was in England and not doing anything. Gerry jumped at the chance to join this exciting new project and was 'in' as soon as the first rehearsal was over. Around the same time, whilst sifting through the many tapes that had been sent in, Eddie found one from Dublin containing some rather impressive vocals. The singer in question was Dave King and Pete and Eddie invited him to London. The four piece gelled immediately and shortly afterwards, Fastway signed their first record deal with CBS.

The date for the recording of the first album was set but just before Fastway entered the studio, Pete Way mysteriously disappeared. Several frantic attempts to find him failed and Eddie was forced to make the decision to find a replacement for the recording sessions. Session man Mickey Feat was drafted in to play on the debut album, Fastway and the record was duly delivered on time. Pete Way re-surfaced as a member of The Ozzy Ozbourne Band. It transpired that he had accepted an offer to play Ozzy's European tour, for some strange reason, hence his going AWOL. Eddie never heard from Pete again.

Produced by Eddie Kramer and released in April 1983, the album confirmed that this band meant business and with or without Pete Way, were going to have a big impact on the worldwide rock scene. Mickey Feat had played a blinder on the album but was not a 'live' performer, so the bass duties on the following British tour were carried out by Alfie Ages. The UK tour was a success and only a few days after the final gig, a now permanent bass player joined the ranks. Charlie McCracken, who had several years experience with Rory Gallagher's Taste was in and as album sales rose slowly but surely, the band plotted their next move.

They didn't have to wait long before calls started to arrive from America. 'Easy 'Livin'' had been released as a single and some radio stations had started to play the B-side, 'Say What You Will'. This particular track was going down a storm and the band were quickly booked to tour the States for what turned out to be a six month stint. They were given difficult support slots with Iron Maiden and AC/DC but won the fans over and sold over 400,000 albums in the process.

A week before Christmas 1983, the band returned to England to prepare for the recording of the next album. The Christmas break obviously did them good because 'All Fired Up' was and still is a great record. The band were really 'fired up' at this point and with sales of 'Fastway' still rising and a successful US tour under their belts, the mood was just right to create a really great album. Once again produced by Eddie Kramer, Eddie's guitar playing is truly outstanding on this recording and Dave King turns in one of the best vocal performances of his career. The first single from 'All Fired Up' was 'Tell Me' and as soon as the album received it's first American airplay, the offers to tour came thick and fast. Fastway supported Ratt, The Scorpions, Rush and Billy Squire throughout a repeat performance of the previous year's excursions. Although they received much critical acclaim, the sales of 'All Fired Up' did not quite match up to those of 'Fastway' and when the band returned to England in November 1984, Gerry and Charlie decided that they wanted to pursue other projects. Eddie knew that there was a lot of mileage left in Fastway and after a short break, he re-joined Dave King in Ireland and set about putting together a new Fastway line up.

Early in 1985, Eddie went to Ireland and it was there that he and Dave King put together Fastway MkII with the members of Dave's old band. This made the band a five piece and together, they started writing 'Waiting For the Roar'. Eddie had met ZZ Top's engineer, Terry Manning and he agreed to produce the new album. 'Waiting For the Roar' was recorded in Abbey Road studios and even included a 58 piece orchestra on certain tracks. Fastway toured extensively in 86 and supported AC/DC across Europe where, yet again, they went down a storm. As soon as the tour was completed, an offer came in to write and record the soundtrack for a new movie called 'Trick or Treat'. The result was astonishing and there is no doubt that the film would not have been as successful if it wasn't for the strength of the original soundtrack. This is even more remarkable when you consider that the music had to be written to a deadline.

After the soundtrack had been released, Dave King left the band and Eddie returned to London, where he met Lea Hart. This new partnership worked well and the two decided to write songs for a new record, called 'On Target'. Lea and Eddie recruited the services of Gary Ferguson drums, Neil Murray on bass and later, Tim Carter bass but they were only to play on the album and never played live. 'On Target' reached America's Top 40 but Eddie always believed that the album's would have been better without the amount of record company interference that the band had to put up with. The re-recorded version, 'On Target-Reworked' is certainly a stronger offering. Produced by Eddie himself, the guitar sound is exceptional and the overall result is the total sound that Eddie wanted first time around.

The next album 'Bad, Bad Girls' stands up as a worthy addition to the Fastway collection. Unfortunately, it was to be the band's final studio recording. Due to ill health and a general decline in the popularity of rock music around this time, there was also to be no tour this time around and Fastway have not played live since. Don't rule out a future return to the stage for this great band, though…

Article ajouté le 2008-03-22 , consulté 20 fois

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