Motörhead – “we play Rock And Roll” – raise the roof at the 2007 Montreux Jazz Festival performance.

Release Date: 16th June 2023

Label: BMG

Format: 2LP / 2CD

For a band who set the standard for Hard Rock live albums with the No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith and the subsequent expanded reissues, Motörhead have followed up with their fair share of live releases. The latest is a goodie from 2007 and the Kiss Of Death tour with the trio of Lemmy, Phil Campbell and Mikkey Dee taking the stage at the grand Auditorium Stravinski during the renowned Montreux Jazz Festival. Not so much a sign that Lemmy & Co were going soft in their old age, but a slackening of the ‘jazz’ rules that saw Montreux embrace a wider range of music. And you can’t really get any less jazz than Motörhead.

Lemmy even gets multi-lingual with his Good Evening greetings with a sly “Here’s a bit of jazz for you” before his usual “We are Motörhead…” intro spiel. Kicking into a fearsome and suitably breakneck Snaggletooth (a worthy and suitably explosive set opener in which they specialise) is an indication that back in 2007, the Motörhead set was getting a fresh polish. In the blink of an eye, they’re into a combo of Stay Clean and Be My Baby – Phil as per, on backing vox while pumping out the riff.

Nearly eight minutes are dedicated to Sacrifice, “a very fast number,” a large portion of which is given over to Mikkey Dee’s drum solo; not that he’s been slacking in any way, more an indication of the huge amount of adrenalin that must have been coursing through his body. A number in the set reinforcing the Motörhead crossover between Metal and Punk that takes them into territories beyond their simple claim to be ‘rock and roll’. Further evidence? – The rapid fire, hey, we’re now The Ramones, “1-2-3-4” into the rapid fire Going To Brazil in the Punk crossed with Johnny B Goode section of the set.

The underrated Inferno album gets a healthy raid for this set. The rustic acoustic Whorehouse Blues settles into a late set slot, punctuating the thunderous finale, while In The Name Of Tragedy is one of those relatively calmer, yet more epic numbers (think Brotherhood Of Man, The Thousand Names Of God territory) that flounts the stereotypical view of Motörhead. That comes via the standards and the ‘hits’; the former via Metropolis, Over The Top and Killed By Death, latter provided by the thundering bass openings of Iron Fist, ‘Spades’ and Overkill. The set also includes the first official release of their cover of Thin Lizzy’s Rosalie – “who likes Thin Lizzy?” says the great one before Phil does the job of two guitars and Lemmy growls out his best Phil Lynott lines.

A fine souvenir to add to the legacy, with a set that’s diverse and fresh and a grand cover shot that capture the huge stacks of Marshalls for those who like their live photography and artwork that gives a rock-solid vision of what to expect.

And here is that version of Rosalie:

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