Motörhead - 25/05/01 – Kentish Town Forum

My first Motörhead concert with Iain; indeed our first gig outing altogether. We’d been working together for a couple of years and spent many a night-shift talking toot. We’d bonded over a love of heavy metal and politics, and while Iain normally went back to the West Country for gigs, we decided it was time to see Motörhead in London. For this adventure we were joined by co-worker Jassy and her boyfriend, who managed to have a massive falling out halfway through the gig. How you can hear yourselves enough for an argument during a Motörhead gig is hard to fathom.
Motörhead were recovering from a commercially dead patch during the nineties – they’d slipped from 2-night stands at Hammersmith Odeon to single nights in smaller venues. I’d certainly given up on them – 1991’s ‘1916’ was to me the last great Motörhead album for a long time. I think I saw them play during the late eighties or early nineties, but I can’t find a ticket stub. I certainly had a shirt, which I assume came from a gig, but that’s long gone.
At The Forum, they played a deafener. It’s not a big venue and they were incredibly loud. They played ‘Orgasmatron’ under green lights, the slow-motion ‘Metropolis’ and the usual hits and all was great fun I think I spent a fair bit of the evening near the back, but certainly moshed towards the end, beginning the tradition of getting kicked in the head while standing upright, courtesy of stage-divers.
My main memory of the night is trying to find everyone as the venue emptied out. Jassy’s boyfriend had done a bunk, Iain had vanished, and I was in my usual ‘We’re going to miss the last traaain…’ panic.
Still, a great night, and set the pattern for many more. But this night in 2001 was where we started.