White Line Fever: Lemmy: The Autobiography by Kilmister Lemmy

Author:Kilmister, Lemmy [Kilmister, Lemmy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781471112713
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Published: 2012-06-07T18:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

back at the funny farm

Finding a new guitar player wasn’t a difficult process, really. I just did an interview in Melody Maker in which I mentioned that we were going to get somebody unknown this time around, and the applications flocked in. It was so simple, in fact, that we wound up choosing two guitarists.

After trying out about seven or eight guys, Phil and I narrowed it down to two contenders. Some of the others were good, but they just weren’t right for Motörhead. In the end, Phil Campbell and Mick ‘Wurzel’ Burston were the only ones I would have gone near. I had never heard of Phil Campbell’s prior band, Persian Risk, but apparently they had recorded a couple of singles. He was in London, playing with his band when we were trying out people, and on their way out of town in the van he said, ‘Let me off here, lads. I’ve just got to go and see somebody about a dog,’ or some such lie – you can’t really tell them you’re going for an audition, can you? After all, you might not get it. Phil was quite nervous, but he was so sure of his ability that he practically walked in as if he was just showing up for a rehearsal. He laid a couple of lines out and went zapping back out, rushing around, speeding out of his head. If this gives you the impression that he was something of a maniac, you’re right. I only found out just how much of one later on. He’s definitely added to the Motörhead legend over the years.

Wurzel, on the other hand, was nearly a basketcase when he came in. But I was already favourably inclined towards him from the letter he sent me. He’d enclosed a silly looking photo of himself and a note that read, ‘I hear you’re looking for an unknown guitarist. Well, there’s nobody more unknown than me.’ That warmed my heart immediately. When he came in to audition, however, he was shaking from fear. On top of that, he had walked all the way from the station carrying his guitar and his bag of pedals. No doubt his arms were killing him.

‘I’ve got a list of songs – ’ he said, and the paper was rattling in his hand.

‘Give me that, for fuck’s sake!’ I said, snatching it away from him. ‘Don’t worry. Sit down, have a couple of vodkas, man. You’ll be all right.’

So he had a couple of drinks, after which he played for us and he was all right. Usually at auditions, they fly you in for ten minutes and send you flying back out again, but I don’t see any sense in that. If you want a good guitar player, let him play his best. Wurzel later said in the press that that was the fairest audition he ever did. And it worked, obviously, because he wound up getting the gig.

We liked both Phil and Wurzel immensely (incidentally, both of them lied about their ages – Wurzel said he was younger and Phil said he was older.

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