Motörhead
Before I got into whisky, music was the biggest passion in my life but a tragic absence of the talent required to become a musician, or at least, a lack of the patience to acquire it, led me to became a DJ instead. I spent countless nights in bars and clubs playing music and thoroughly enjoying myself. Before my life was hijacked by turntables and 12-house music, however, it had a very different soundtrack.
Like dozens before me, I felt a wee bit out of place at school. Like I never quite fit in. The other kids seemed to enjoy the contemporary music that made up the Top 40 at the time but to me, the vast majority of it sounded mince. The music that appealed to me was very different. It was angry and aggresive and anarchic and I bloody loved it. Of course, you can’t talk about heavy rock or metal without an acknowledgement of the band, Motörhead.
The band was formed by Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister after he had been dismissed from his previous band Hawkwind for doing what in his words, were “the wrong drugs”. Lemmy created his new band to focus on music that he described as “loud, fast, city, raucous, arrogant, paranoid, speedfreak rock n’ roll…”
Kilmister recruited guitarist Larry Wallis and drummer Lucas Fox and the trio began to tour. After ten gigs, they were chosen to support Blue Oyster Cult at the Hammersmith Odeon and a record deal with United Artists followed. An album was recorded but the label hated it and the project was shelved.
In 1976 “Fast” Eddie Clarke replaced Wallis on guitar to form what is now considered the classic Motörhead lineup of Lemmy, Clarke and Phil Taylor on drums. Major success continued to elude them until 1978, when their cover of Louie Louie reached the singles chart. The band recorded a session with BBC Radio One icon, John Peel, in September and appeared for the first time on Top of the Pops the following month. A year later they were back at the BBC performing “Overkill” to promote a new album. It would be their first to break the top 40, peaking at 23. The next album, Bomber, reached number 12.
In August 1980 the band were back in the studio, recording the album that would come to define them. The Ace of Spades was released as a single on 27 October and the band were back on Top of the Pops in November. The single reached number 15, the album number 4. It was an impressive achievement given its uncompromising sound. VH1 later placed Ace of Spades at No 10 on their Top 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs of All Time.
In a biography of the band, Stephen Thomas Erlewine, wrote: “Motörhead’s overwhelmingly loud and fast style of heavy metal was one of the most groundbreaking styles the genre had to offer in the late ’70s. (Motörhead) wasn’t punk rock (but) they were the first metal band to harness that energy and, in the process, they created speed metal and thrash metal”.
Lemmy himself became an icon – in every sense of the word. He was known for excessive alcohol consumption and drug abuse and once claimed that he drank a bottle of Jack Daniel’s every day from the age of 30. He referred to his continuing drug use as “dogged insolence in the face of mounting opposition to the contrary”. Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana) once wrote: “Fuck Elvis and Keith Richards, Lemmy’s the king of rock ‘n’ roll—he told me he never considered Motörhead a metal band, he was quite adamant. Lemmy’s a living, breathing, drinking and snorting fucking legend. No one else comes close.”
Lemmy passed away in 2015, four days after his 70th birthday. His loss was felt deeply, across the world, by millions of fans. His lasting legacy is perhaps best summed up in the 1994 film, Airheads: “Who would win in a fight between Lemmy and God? Trick question – Lemmy is God!”
The Whisky
In 2019, the remaining members of the band partnered with Swedish distillery Mackmyra to produce a Motörhead single malt whisky. Matured for five years in new American oak barrels and bottled at 40%, it retails for £67.
*Full disclosure: I was sent this sample free of charge. As always I will strive to give an honest opinion on the quality of the dram and the value for money it represents.
Smell: Lots of cask character, despite its relative youth. Lots of vanilla and caramel. Toffee. Cinnamon. Honey. Figs. Orange peel. Charred oak.
Taste: More of that big bourbon cask character. Toffee apples and vanilla ice cream. Chocolate and caramel. Currants. Cinnamon and clove. Lots of dark oak. After a while, there’s a sweet raisin and sultana note that lifts it to another level.
Thoughts: £67 for a five-year-old whisky at 40% is a bit on the steep side but I suppose there’s a lot of people to be paid when a band teams up with a distillery. In fairness, this sort of tie-in does tend to carry a hefty price and it’s a decent enough dram – just closer to a bourbon in style than it is to a Swedish single malt. As a committed JD drinker, Lemmy would likely have approved.
I think I went into this experience expecting a bit more Mackmyra but maybe that didn’t make sense. To all intents and purposes, Mackmyra is contract distilling here – and maturing to someone else’s specifications. What they have produced is a robust whisky with decent depth of flavour, especially given its low bottling strength and while the price isn’t all that appealing to me, I doubt diehard fans would feel the same way and it is them, at the end of the day, that the whisky is aimed at. Whilst not quite that dedicated myself, I have to admit that there’s something appealing about the idea of the Motörhead logo snarling out from the drinks cabinet.
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