GuilFest Guildford Live 2000

Anyone walking to and around the Guildford site on Friday will have been left with no doubt that most keenly awaited act on the short list for that evening was Motorhead. There was a spectacular number of T-shirts around and lots of portly middle aged bearded men with an assortment of leather and denim jackets that brought out the diplomat in the rest of us whilst queuing at the beer tent. Plenty of German and Scandinavian accents too.

The main stage field had been thin through Terrorvision's preceding set, as many of the Guildford faithful had settled for Rolf Harris' charms instead (never thought Hell's Angels would have been up for that sort of thing!). The field swelled though as the hour crept up on us and the rain was long gone… moods ran high and the crowd were chanting Motorhead even before they were late. The sound engineers were busy making their final scientific checks… "louder, louder!".

The stage filled with smoke and on came Lemmy, Phil 'the beast' Campbell and Mikkey Dee to a rapturous welcome. "Are you ready for this? Cos we're gonna beat the hell out of you". "Lemmy you f**ker get on with it" was the reply. Then off they went, playing through the back catalogue with their trademark energy and, oh yes, plenty of volume, Phil posturing around the stage and pouting at the crowd, Lemmy joining him during the gaps in vocals.

They were keen to tout their new album 'We Are Motorhead'. "We want you to buy 100 copies each cos' we need the money" shouted Lemmy. One of the highlights of the evening was the cover of God Save The Queen which is being released this Monday and is on the new album.

Needless to say the highlight was the second last track Ace Of Spades which had the crowd going wild and head-banging more exhaustively than before. The finale was Overkill and the mayhem continued but unfortunately they were overtime and the plug was pulled on the sound system as it was 11.05. This didn't stop them as they finished the song with only the stage speakers on and took their bows to well deserved praise.

Despite being a veteran of 25 years there is certainly no sign of metal fatigue (bet no one's heard that before - ed) in their performances. The old went away satisfied and the new fascinated even if their ears were ringing. Motorhead…. live forever.

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