Motörhead : Another Tube of Super Glue

With 40 years of music and playing and being a revered GOD of metal Lemmy ‘Ian Fraser’ Kilmiester has surely done it all. He and his band make my top experiences in music and thrill me to no end to have been with these guys for a short time in feb 2011. Motorhead rolled into Kitchener Feb 26th 2011 looking to deafen the new blood waiting to see them for the first time. After a resistance by a doorman on who we were and what we were doing we got in and set up in the venue checking gear and seeing what was available for angles to shoot from same for any show really. Opening the show was Valiant Thor and then Clutch before Motorhead themselves. The shows were identical set list and organization between Kitchener and the next show Toronto on Feb 27th 2011. Toronto offered a bigger venue and larger crowd, and you could just feel their anticipation for GOD himself to take the stage. I was shooting the crown on high and some energetic guy made an incredible leap for my camera strap which was hanging down, just missing it like a wild dog for food. We both looked at each other and chuckled but i was not in the mood to play tug of war with a fan over my camera during a rowdy rock and roll show. Refocusing myself I turned around and got ready for Lemmy to take the stage, I was testing wide angles and seeing how close I could get my lens to the man himself. I put my camera on a pole and fired it remotely which proved to be hit and miss due to the distance i needed and the trigger not working how I had hoped but I was fortunate enough just to get it firing but just hitting a slow burst mode and letting it grabe frames whilst I raised it. over my head and close to lemmy. I got a few good frames and began to go back to shooting by hand when i feel a tap tap on my shoulder, I get a stage manager giving me a s hand wavy motion, assuming no more close shots(camera was about 4’ from lemmy). I was told later on backstage by my friend and who worked for motorhead that lemmy stopped a show when he was hit by a water bottle from the audience, not the same thing but I get while they would be protective of anything that would interfere with the talent. Our 3 songs over the pit photographers were ushered out of the pit then I was free to roam around backstage/side stage me and JohnPaul from Clutch were chatting about motor head and micky “D’s” juggernaut approach, John Paul of Clutch being no slouch himself on the skins. Waiting for Some more photo work backstage I seen some interesting but regular things and some young forty year old female who had to be shown the door. Moving right along Lemmy came out to see me and the friend I was with and we had a long chat about where we grew up and how he said be we were happy we moved away from there in jest. Talked about his custom boots and his love of militaria and his knights cross. At that point a friend grabbed my camera and and took a off the hip picture , Lemmy said he’s getting away and that set us roaring. We did not want to keep our host too long a few more jokes and we took our leave and packed up and left. Having been treated to a few days with people that it is usually a bit harder to meet day to day, you have to come back down off that high and hunt for the next tube of superglue, hoping to see this great group again some day, until next time.