Lemmy

Lemmy
Directed by Greg Olliver and Wes Orshoski
USA, 2010
Cornerhouse, 28 December 2010

Still from Lemmy

A fairly solid documentary portrait of Motorhead’s famous frontman.

The film is informative and appreciative (and at times overly eulogistic) although not terribly revealing, in truth.

There is an account of Lemmy’s early life and of his time as a roadie for Hendrix.  His tenure in Hawkwind, an episode that ended acrimoniously on the Canadian border, is also covered.  Yet even this unfortunate experience didn’t deter our hero: as Hawkwind dissipated, Motorhead rapidly revved up; and the rest is history.  Nowadays, the band are still on the road, still going strong.

Although we are given plenty of footage of Lemmy on stage and a haphazard tour of the great rock’n’roller’s rather cluttered flat, including a peek at his precious collection of Nazi memorabilia, he still remains a bit of a mystery.  In a way he is a classic Englishman, reserved and eccentric, despite the years spent in LA.

Curiously no one, among the many celebrity contributors, makes mention of the fact that Lemmy’s leather cowboy/biker get-up is, well, just a teensy-weensy bit gay.  Funny, that.  It is as though Tom of Finland never happened.

Lemmy is a fun documentary that fans will enjoy, but don’t expect too many surprises.  Also, there are rather too many eulogistic blurb-style soundbites to make it a really serious film.