Motorhead Newcastle City Hall 1979
1979 was a busy year for Motorhead. Lemmy and crew released two albums, headlined two UK tours, appeared on Top of the Pops, and played at the Reading Festival. The year started with the release of the “Overkill” album, and a March tour of the UK, with support from Girlschool. I saw the Newcastle City Hall gig, which was a great double bill and both bands put in a rocking performance. Come August, and Motorhead were third on the Friday night bill at Reading, sandwiched between performances by Wilko Johnson and The Tourists. The Friday night was headlined by The Police. Motorhead played well and got a great reception from the crowd. Reading that year had a strange line-up, which tried to mix up-and-coming new wave acts with more established rock bands. This caused a split crowd, and lots of can fights. Motorhead were one of the few bands who both camps were “allowed” to like, and this resulted in their performance being one of the successes of the weekend.
Motorhead released the “Bomber” album later in the year, and toured again to promote it. This time they had another great rock band of the day, Saxon, as support, and they called at Newcastle City Hall in November. The Bomber tour featured a massive “Bomber” plane lighting rig hanging over the band and going through its manoeuvres while they played. Great stuff. Motorhead were really at the top of their game during this period, and just couldn’t be beaten for a loud, fun night out.
A typical setlist from a late 1979 Motorhead gig: Overkill; Stay Clean; No Class; All the Aces; Metropolis; I’ll Be Your Sister; Dead Men Tell No Tales; Keep Us on the Road; Iron Horse/Born to Lose; Stone Dead Forever; Lawman; (I Won’t) Pay Your Price; Poison; Leaving Here; Capricorn; Train Kept A-Rollin’; Bomber. Encore: Limb from Limb; White Line Fever; Motörhead
“Only way to feel the noise is when it’s good and loud, So good I can’t believe it screaming with the crowd, Don’t sweat it, get it back to you, Overkill, Overkill, Overkill…On your feet you feel the beat, it goes straight to your spine, Shake your head you must be dead if it don’t make you fly, Don’t sweat it, get it back to you, Overkill, Overkill, Overkill.” (Overkill, Motorhead, 1979)
20 Nov
Motorhead Newcastle City Hall and Reading 1979
Posted November 20, 2013 by vintagerock in Girlschool, Motorhead, Saxon. Tagged: classic rock, concert, concerts, gig, gigs, heavy metal, new wave, punk, R&B, rock, rock n roll. 3 Comments
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Posted by Juliet on December 31, 2015 at 2:56 pm
Great gig, met the lads backstage got autographs. R I P
Posted by vintagerock on December 31, 2015 at 4:40 pm
RIP Lemmy. Legend
Posted by Juliet on January 1, 2016 at 10:09 am
Great gig, met the lads backstage and got autographs memorable night. R I P Phil and Lemmy