Portal:Motörhead/Selected article
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Portal:Motörhead/Selected article/1
Ace of Spades is the fourth album by the British heavy metal band Motörhead. Released in 1980, it reached #4 on the UK charts and was the first of the band's album releases to feature a photo of the band on the cover.
In August and September 1980, the band were recording at Jackson's Studios in Rickmansworth with producer Vic Maile for the "Ace of Spades" sessions for Bronze Records. As a preview of the forthcoming album and tour, the "Ace of Spades" single was released on October 27, 1980 and by early November had reached #15. The album was released on November 8, 1980 and sailed to #4 in the UK album charts, prompting Bronze to press a limited number of albums in gold vinyl, changing the catalogue number from BRON to BRONG for the edition. The 'Arizona desert-style' pictures used on the album sleeve and tour booklet cover were taken during a photosession at a sandpit in Barnet.
On January 28, 2003, Silverline released a DVD-Audio version of the album. On March 28, 2005 the album was released on DVD by Eagle Vision, the in-depth look at the making of the album includes interviews with Lemmy, Phil Taylor and Eddie Clarke.
The album has been described as "one of the best metal albums by any band, ever, period", and has become a significantly influential 'hard rock classic'. Despite the band always referring to their music as rock 'n roll in the same vein as their heroes Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix, the album, and particularly its title track have been considered amongst the most influential in the development of thrash metal. (read more...)
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"Ace of Spades" is a single by the heavy metal band Motörhead.
Initially released as a 7" vinyl single on October 27, 1980 as a preview to the album Ace of Spades and autumn tour, Bronze Records also released a 12" vinyl pressing in special 'Christmas' picture sleeves, limited to 50,000 copies. The picture of the band in Santa outfits used on the cover was taken whilst the band were on tour at the Aylesbury Fair. In November the song reached #15 in the UK Singles Chart. The song is considered to be the definitive Motörhead anthem, and "put a choke on the English music charts and proved to all that a band could succeed without sacrificing its blunt power and speed". It is considered to be a metal masterpiece.
For the lyrics, Lemmy said he "used gambling metaphors, mostly cards and dice - when it comes to that sort of thing, I'm more into the one-arm bandits actually, but you can't really sing about spinning fruit, and the wheels coming down".
In September 1993 WGAF Records re-released the original 1980s track on CD-single, cassette single, 12" vinyl picture sleeve and picture disc versions, the song was covered with "Louie Louie", "Dirty Love", and "Ace of Spades (The CCN Remix)", and although the band were not too pleased with the CCN Remix version, this single reached #23 in the UK charts.
The song ranked in at #10 on VH1's 40 Greatest Metal Songs. In March 2005, Q magazine placed it at #27 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. (read more...)
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Joe Petagno (born January 1, 1948 - ) is an artist known principally for creating images used on heavy metal album covers, for bands such as Motörhead, Marduk, Nightshade, and Illdisposed.
Petagno was born in Portland, Maine and left the United States in 1972. He worked with Hipgnosis before meeting Motörhead's Lemmy in 1975, he designed "Snaggletooth" for the band's Motörhead album and has continued to design the majority of the album and single sleeve covers for the band. He is also (lesser) known for his science fiction book covers, notably for the Corgi SF Collector's Library edition of Ray Bradbury's The Silver Locusts aka The Martian Chronicles. He also creates non-heavy metal album covers.
In 1979, Petagno went with a travelling exhibition, sponsored by the Shah of Iran, visiting France and meeting his partner, Sanne, in Denmark, where he has lived ever since.
He has published Orgasmatron, The Heavy Metal Art of Joe Petagno, which has a foreword by Lemmy and an introduction by Steffan Chirazi. It covers his work with Hipgnosis, designing for Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, and Motörhead. Also contains reproductions of paintings on display in Denmark.
Petagno appeared in a rare interview on the bonus DVD when Motörhead re-issued their Inferno album as a 30th Anniversary Birthday Edition. (read more...)
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No Sleep 'til Hammersmith was Motörhead's first live album. The recordings were almost exclusively from three shows: (Leeds, March 28, 1981 and Newcastle March 29 and March 30, 1981). "Iron Horse / Born To Lose" having been recorded live in 1980. Backstage at the last two shows in Leeds and Newcastle the band were presented with silver and gold albums for Ace of Spades, a silver disc for Overkill and a silver for "Please Don't Touch".
The album was released after the St. Valentine's Day Massacre EP and built on the success of that single and the earlier LPs, debuting at Number One on the UK charts and marking the band's most successful period. Lemmy says that originally they intended it to be a double album but they only had enough material for three sides. By the time the record was released the band were on their first U.S. tour with Ozzy Osbourne.
The single, "Motorhead (live)", was issued using the album's final track for the A-side, covered with the non-album track "Over the Top" recorded on the same tour, reaching number 6 in the UK Singles Charts. This was released in a picture-sleeve and also as a picture-disc (p/d UK cat Bronze BROP 124).
The original vinyl album has a photo-montage inner-sleeve and was available in black (UK cat. Bronze BRON 535) and later 'gold' vinyl (UK cat. Bronze BRONG 535). (read more...)
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