![\"Lemmy](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Lemmy-Ian-Fraser-Kilmister-Moto\u0308rhead-2015-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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Credit: Goran Beg<\/p>\n
Mon 27 July 2026 19:30, UK <\/p>\n
In Ian \u2018Lemmy<\/a>\u2018 Kilmister\u2019s estimation, nothing in the world of rock and pop trumps the immortality of solid songcraft.<\/p>\n The fact was, the Mot\u00f6rhead frontman was always tethered to the elemental foundations of rock and roll more than he was to heavy metal or even hard rock. They weren\u2019t lacking on the latter. Straddling a febrile bridge between punk\u2019s garage attack and the new wave of British heavy metal, the Mot\u00f6rhead machine wielded blistering levels of turbo-speed reflecting Lemmy\u2019s longstanding taste for amphetamines.<\/p>\n Lemmy was already a rock veteran by the time he kickstarted his Mot\u00f6rhead gang. He\u2019d not long been slinging bass for London space rockers Hawkwind across their classic Space Ritual era, but before that, he was flatmates with Noel Redding and winning a roadie gig with the Jimi Hendrix Experience after several years on guitar touring Europe with The Rockin\u2019 Vickers and countless dates in the UK\u2019s northern clubs as early as 1962.<\/p>\n His foundation was pop\u2019s big bang itself. A child of the 1950s, the likes of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Little Richard all set a standard in style and performance Lemmy would follow for the rest of his life, routinely announcing his band\u2019s arrival to the stage by bellowing to the craned-necked mic \u201cWe are Mot\u00f6rhead, and we play rock and roll\u201d as a nod to his formative heroes and a clear affirmation of the tradition he felt he belonged to.<\/p>\n Once The Beatles arrived, a teenage Lemmy was catching the Fab Four in their earliest Cavern days, later developing his guitar chops trying to imitate 1963\u2019s Please Please Me debut<\/a>.<\/p>\n Those early witnesses to rock and pop\u2019s primordial developments would shape Lemmy\u2019s values as an artist and music fan, as well as prompt the curious celebration of an unlikely 1976 single standing as tall as his beloved Beatles. Talking to Classic Rock in 2008, the Mot\u00f6rhead bassist reeled off his list of \u201cperfect songs\u201d with two choice selections of \u2018Twist and Shout\u2019 and \u2018Please Please Me\u2019 from Liverpool\u2019s finest, and one \u2018Dancing Queen\u2019 from Sweden\u2019s premier pop heavyweights.<\/p>\n \u201c[They\u2019re] stuff that sticks in your head,\u201d Lemmy surmised. \u201c\u2019Cos even if you hate ABBA, you\u2019ll be singing that song walking down the road. They\u2019ve got unbelievable hooks. They were obviously doing something right because their records sold all over the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/strong><\/p>\n He wasn\u2019t wrong. Sweden\u2019s biggest-selling artist by a country mile, with over 150million claimed album sales under their glittered belt, ABBA\u2019s glowing pop songbook has shone a light all over disparate corners of the rock world, from Gene Simmons, Pete Townshend, Dave Grohl, and even the Sex Pistols, counting second bassist Sid Vicious as an ardent fan and the guts of \u2018SOS\u2019 shaping the \u2018Pretty Vacant\u2019 riff.<\/p>\n Just as deeply held was Lemmy\u2019s admiration. It\u2019s unclear if Lemmy was ever known to blast ABBA on the tour bus as the Pistols were known to do, but his veneration for the eternal pop song would have no doubt seen in the Bj\u00f6rn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson hit factory<\/a> the same timeless musical canon as the John Lennon \u2013 Paul McCartney songbook. It\u2019s the universality that does it for Lemmy, spotting in ABBA\u2019s celestial \u2018Dancing Queen\u2019 the same alchemic formulae in the rock and roll and Merseybeat of his youth that he couldn\u2019t help but admire.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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