Rockhal, Belval, Luxembourg 23.6.2015

[desertrat]

Ok guys....specially for Mark and Regina but also for Tim who 'liked' my post yesterday. Ah fuck it. For all of you. Belval last night is probably one of the strangest gigs I've ever been to. I tried and tried to get my wife to come along and although she'll tap her toes along to Motörhead, she would find the live experience too loud. Fair enough. So I went along having flown in from Beirut the night before, hungover from a friend's wedding. (Hi Stephen and Nidale!) Stayed at Ibis at the airport after a chilly 500m walk in the rain then Found my way to Ibis Hotel via bus train bus again for 2 euros. 2 hours to get there but cheap. After a drink at the hotel bar with my wife and a tour around the deserted closed shopping mall due to a national holiday, we went to Buffalos for some meat and cocktails.

Then I went to check out the venue just across the road as I saw the tourbus fly by. I met Motorheadbangers Max and Sylvain and chatted for a bit before going round the side of the venue for a chance to press the flesh with Motörhead...

[desertrat]

Mikkey was there for a fleeting moment behind the steel gates and bars but was gone before you could say paradiddledly fou. A dozen local tattooed Motörhead fans waited for the guys to come out. Lemmy had gone straight in to get ready for the soundcheck but Phil came out to quickly sign stuff after the plaintive cheeky French cry of a keen fan. I greeted him quickly with a formal Hello Philip. I wondered if he remembered me which he did as he said that no one spoke as posh as I did, the scallywag! I gave him a book on the Desert Fox Rommel to pass on to Lemmy and away he scarpered as you could hear the familiar bass riff to Orgasmatron to start the soundcheck...

[desertrat]

I went back round to the front of the Rockhal and chatted awhile again with Max before checking on the Mrs for a drink back at the hotel. I made sure she had some money for essential supplies while she showed me her Facebook page with the disused steelworks pictured next door and a tag about what I was up to wearing the local crew tshirt.

I went back to queue but made sure I had a jack n coke in hand from the Rockhal bar which had just opened and chatted to the guys at the front as we waited for the doors to open at 7pm. Time flew by as it always does when you are sharing your Motörhead stories. Max legged it to the front of the hall while I got to the merchandising stand first. I secured myself a XXXX Years tshirt with tour date back print for 35 euros and would have happily bought a tour programme if they had only printed one but alas they hadn't.

I then bought a couple of pints of Diekirch, the local beer to take to the front. Max and Gus shared one as I was too clumsy to carry three as I took up a prime position at the front centre stage. The hall soon filled up with roughly 6000 according to one dude I spoke to and the wait for the band started with good humoured banter.

[desertrat]

So around 8pm on came the support band, an instrumental progressive metal band called The Majestic Unicorns From Hell. They played a tight set which gave a foretasted of the awesome live sound that pawed at your chest and pinned your ears back like a terrified cat hanging for dear life onto a glider at 4000 feet.

They kept the between songs chat to a bare minimum but played a couple of strange backing tracks in German and Luxembourgisch. I was told one was from the German version of Spaceballs in which the speaker announced 'We can't go to light speed, it's too slow! We must go to ludicrous speed!' And so they did. Their bass player lunged toward like a young Nick Oliveri, ex bass player of Queens Of The Stone Age. The drummer hammered precisely on his comedy mini kit set up right at the front as the four of them looped dominantly through their set. He hit one cymbal so hard it came off! An enjoyable set that had everyone giving them an appreciative roar at the end.

Max, Gus and I decided to get the crowd going a bit and childishly went for a 1,2,3 shout Motörhead as loud as you can. Incredibly, from a quiet hall the shouts spread like a meme until the whole hall seemed to be baying for the band to come on. At 9.10pm the inevitable happened as Uncle Rotter ambled on amiably to a huge roar from the crowd. Lord Axsmith took his place and the Swedo-Greek Mauler planted himself on the drum riser high above our heads.

[desertrat]

Set list Rockhal, Belval, Luxembourg 23.6.15

We Are Motörhead
Damage Case
Stay Clean
Metropolis
Over The Top
Lord Axsmith solo
The Chase Is Better Than The Catch
Rock It
Lost Woman Blues
Dr Rock
Drum solo
Dr Rock continued
Orgasmatron
Power Cut
Orgasmatron
Going To Brazil
Ace Of Spades

Encores
Orgasmatron cut
Orgasmatron in A, cut again
Overkill

[desertrat]

Didn't I tell you it was a strange gig? Notice anything about the set list? The fact that there were four attempts at Orgasmatron? In the middle of the first one, there was a power cut, what looked like a short circuit according to Max, who is a sound engineer. The band immediately left the stage. The crowd went quiet with a general feeling of what the fuck?! 5 minutes later, back on they came with an apology from Lembrfore a short pause. 'Where was I?' I responded by yelling 'sadistic sacred whore' like some Shakespearian offstage prompter with Aspergers. He kindly obliged by restarting the song at the beginning of that verse!

You'll notice that when they came back on they attempted Orgasmatron twice more in two different keys. Well at least that was what Lemmy was singing anyway before finally stopping again and announcing 'I can't fucking do this!' with a strained laugh. It wasn't just him,,it was the whole band. Mystified, we looked on as there was a short pause and then fuck me if they didn't lift the roof off with one of their finest renditions of Overkill that I can ever remember in over 30 years of me seeing them!

[desertrat]

Oh and did I mention that during their very long soundcheck they did a wonderful faultless version of Heroes by David Bowie? I am not joking. They really did. What a strange but enjoyable day. I'll put a version of this in the next Motorheadbangers magazine if I can together with photos I took which I want to edit, crop and fuck about with first, some blurred some great.

[desertrat]

Oh and just before you thought this couldn't get any more bizarre, I went back to the hotel and had a drink with Terry who posts on Alan Burrdge's forum then go up to see my missus. She wanted some food from downstairs so as I was going down in the lift two French-speaking guys in Motörhead tshirts got in the lift with me. One drunkenly asked me if I wanted a gang bang., Quick as I could I replied, 'no thanks. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth!!!' So I get out of the lift, collect the food to take to my room and before the lift doors close, I said 'enjoy your gang bang guys!' The whole looked at me strangely as I laughed my head off, the doors closed and up I went. Luxembourg. Priceless.

[milan]

They started with We Are Motörhead! (first performance since 2011)

Thanks for such a detailed review, mon ami. Bit odd this Orgasmatron business. I can understand restarting the song after the power failure, but why repeating it for the encores?

"'I can't fucking do this!'"

- uh-oh... hope they don't drop it from the setlist.

" 'Where was I?' I responded by yelling 'sadistic sacred whore' like some Shakespearian offstage prompter with Aspergers. He kindly obliged by restarting the song at the beginning of that verse!"

- haw haw! Thanks again.

24 minutes of yesterday's concert. Power failure at the very end:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIYUHZkAIN4

"Sadistic and sacred whore" it was indeed! We Are Motörhead is in there too.

[motorheadfanbase]

They didn't repeat Orgasmatron in the encores, they tried to play some unknown song, but Lemmy fucked up the vocals twice by singing some verses of Orgasmatron! Strange situation, cause Phil mentioned it and tried to draw attention to Lemmy but only when he and Mikkey stopped playing, Lemmy noticed that there was something going wrong. Then they went straight on with 'Overkill', without 'introducing to Motörhead'. Lem seemed a little bit confused, cause afer fucking up the unknown song (don't know, which one it should have been, cause Lemmy don't say the title nor I recognized the chords) he announced the last song with 'Ace of spades', which was recently played. But then he says 'Overkill'.

Irrespective of this little struggle it was a great gig (by the way my personal anniversary, it was my 25. Motörhead Concert - would be more but I'm only 27 )

[regina]

What a great read that was DR, a music journalist could hardly have put it any better .
I particularly enjoyed all those colourful little "sideshows" you managed to weave into the main story (resisting the gangbang, haha!), which just about made me feel like experiencing that gig at first hand.
Bloody brilliant.


milan > thanks for sharing, I'll have a proper look at it later on tonight.

[timtelford]

seriously great review DR, would kill to hear HEroes, makes a change from Thin Lizzy tunes! and a gang bang too, hope that kept you warm at least....LOL! nice one, that would be a fine addition to the next MHB mag!

[mark321]

Great review DesertRat- but after reading most of your reviews in the fan mag I wouldn't expect anything different you posh shakespearying (is that even a word) fucker
Oh im glad Phil remembered you -and shame on him not taking you backstage- and I don't mean literally
Are you in Europe for long or are you back working soon in the middle east. Whatever -keep us entertained on here wont you -don't desert us you rat eh (see what I did there )

[desertrat]

Cheers guys! Thanks for the clarification on the encores. I was at the front and even I didn't realise what was going on! I did say in the review that Lemmy sang verses from Orgasmatron again although clearly Phil and Mikkey were playing a different riff. Lem also said they hadn't played the first encore song ever before and didn't give the title. He said that Mikkey was going to start it which doesn't happen in Orgasmatron, so when after three bars he started singing a verse from Orgasmatron again and definitely playing the same riff, I did wonder what was going on.
By the way, he dedicated Going To Brazil to Roger De Souza and those Brazilian fuckers over there. Also, he made a strange remark before one tune about Bruce Banner, (the Hulk's alter-ego) saying I bet you didn't expect that, did you? Well no, I didn't.

Nonetheless, a great gig and as you can see from the live You Tube footage, Phil was in the zone with some powerful, melodic soloing and guitar breaks. His playing matures like a fine Caerphilly cheese.

Yes Mark, I get it. My sides are hurting now with the mirth you cover me in. I'll be back home for a couple of weeks so would love to chat and maybe meet up. Please send me a message if you can. Glad you enjoyed the review. I only wish I could make it to their next couple of gigs. I will be glued to the TV for their Glastonbury set on Friday on BBC4.

[milan]

Thanks for the additional info!

"I only wish I could make it to their next couple of gigs."

- sorry you can't make it over here friend, ticket is only 20 euros.