By November 1978, when they headlined their first show at London’s Hammersmith Odeon, the venue that was to become such part of their mythology, Motörhead were still considered little more than a curio. A self-titled debut album, recorded in just three days in April, had been released in the summer of 1977, but it was a mongrel; Hawkwind-meets-Pink Fairies in a hasty redo of an earlier rustbucket (later released as On Parole).
Only the title track – street slang for ‘speed freak’, itself a redo of an old Hawkwind B-side – made an impression when it was released as a single: NME advised to check for structural damage in your home after playing it, while Sounds declared Lemmy to be “the Lee Marvin of megadeath rock”.
