text: In the century following the ratification of the Bill of Rights, the intended meaning and application of the Second Amendment drew less interest than it does in modern times. The vast majority of regulation was done by states, and the first case law on weapons regulation dealt with state interpretations of the Second Amendment. A notable exception to this general rule was "Houston v. Moore", , where the U.S. Supreme Court mentioned the Second Amendment in an aside. In the "Dred Scott" decision (1857), the opinion of the court stated that if African Americans were considered U.S. citizens, "It would give to persons of the negro race, who were recognised as citizens in any one State of the Union, the right... to keep and carry arms wherever they went."


title: Second Amendment to the United States Constitution

text: State and federal courts historically have used two models to interpret the Second Amendment: the "individual rights" model, which holds that individuals hold the right to bear arms, and the "collective rights" model, which holds that the right is dependent on militia membership. The "collective rights" model has been rejected by the Supreme Court, in favor of the individual rights model, beginning with its "District of Columbia v. Heller (2008)" decision.


text: The Supreme Court's primary Second Amendment cases include "United States v. Miller", (1939); "District of Columbia v. Heller" (2008); and "McDonald v. Chicago" (2010).


text: "Heller" and "McDonald" supported the individual rights model, under which the Second Amendment protects the right to keep and bear arms much as the First Amendment protects the right to free speech. Under this model, the militia is composed of members who supply their own arms and ammunition. This is generally recognized as the method by which militias have historically been armed, as the Supreme Court in "Miller" said:The signification attributed to the term Militia appears from the debates in the Convention, the history and legislation of Colonies and States, and the writings of approved commentators. These show plainly enough that the Militia comprised all males physically capable of acting in concert for the common defense. 'A body of citizens enrolled for military discipline.' And further, that ordinarily when called for service these men were expected to appear bearing arms supplied by themselves and of the kind in common use at the time.


text: Of the collective rights model that holds that the right to arms is based on militia membership, the Supreme Court in "Heller" said:A purposive qualifying phrase that contradicts the word or phrase it modifies is unknown this side of the looking glass (except, apparently, in some courses on Linguistics). If "bear arms" means, as we think, simply the carrying of arms, a modifier can limit the purpose of the carriage ("for the purpose of self-defense" or "to make war against the King"). But if "bear arms" means, as the petitioners and the dissent think, the carrying of arms only for military purposes, one simply cannot add "for the purpose of killing game". The right "to carry arms in the militia for the purpose of killing game" is worthy of the mad hatter.


text: In the Reconstruction Era case of "United States v. Cruikshank", , the defendants were white men who had killed more than sixty black people in what was known as the Colfax massacre and had been charged with conspiring to prevent blacks from exercising their right to bear arms. The Court dismissed the charges, holding that the Bill of Rights restricted Congress but not private individuals. The Court concluded, "[f]or their protection in its enjoyment, the people must look to the States."


text: The Court stated that "[t]he Second Amendment... has no other effect than to restrict the powers of the national government..." Likewise, the Court held that there was no state action in this case, and therefore the Fourteenth Amendment was not applicable:


text: Thus, the Court held a federal anti-Ku-Klux-Klan statute to be unconstitutional as applied in that case.


text: In "Presser v. Illinois", , Herman Presser headed a German-American paramilitary shooting organization and was arrested for leading a parade group of 400 men, training and drilling with military weapons with the declared intention to fight, through the streets of Chicago as a violation of Illinois law that prohibited public drilling and parading in military style without a permit from the governor.


text: At his trial, Presser argued that the State of Illinois had violated his Second Amendment rights. The Supreme Court reaffirmed "Cruikshank", and also held that the Second Amendment prevented neither the States nor Congress from barring private militias that parade with arms; such a right "cannot be claimed as a right independent of law". This decision upheld the States' authority to regulate the militia and that citizens had no right to create their own militias or to own weapons for semi-military purposes. The Court however observed with respect to the reach of the Amendment on the national government and the federal states and the role of the people therin: "It is undoubtedly true that all citizens capable of bearing arms constitute the reserved military force or reserve militia of the United States as well as of the states, and, in view of this prerogative of the general government, as well as of its general powers, the states cannot, even laying the constitutional provision in question out of view, prohibit the people from keeping and bearing arms so as to deprive the United States of their rightful resource for maintaining the public security, and disable the people from performing their duty to the general government." In essence the court said: "A state cannot prohibit the people therein from keeping and bearing arms to an extent that would deprive the United States of the protection afforded by them as a reserve military force."


text: In "Miller v. Texas", , Franklin Miller was convicted and sentenced to be executed for shooting a police officer to death with an illegally carried handgun in violation of Texas law. Miller sought to have his conviction overturned, claiming his Second Amendment rights were violated and that the Bill of Rights should be applied to state law. The Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment did not apply to state laws such as the Texas law, writing: "As the proceedings were conducted under the ordinary forms of criminal prosecutions there certainly was no denial of due process of law."


text: In "Robertson v. Baldwin", , the Supreme Court stated in "dicta" that "the right of the people to keep and bear arms (Art. II) is not infringed by laws prohibiting the carrying of concealed weapons."


text: "United States v. Schwimmer", , concerned a pacifist applicant for naturalization who in the interview declared not to be willing to "take up arms personally" in defense of the United States. The Supreme Court cited the Second Amendment indirectly by declaring that the United States Constitution obliges citizens "to defend our government against all enemies whenever necessity arises is a fundamental principle of the Constitution" and by declaring further that the "common defense was one of the purposes for which the people ordained and established the Constitution."


text: In "United States v. Miller", , the Supreme Court rejected a Second Amendment challenge to the National Firearms Act prohibiting the interstate transportation of unregistered Title II weapons:


text: In a unanimous opinion authored by Justice McReynolds, the Supreme Court stated "the objection that the Act usurps police power reserved to the States is plainly untenable." As the Court explained:


text: Gun rights advocates claim that the Court in "Miller" ruled that the Second Amendment protected the right to keep arms that are part of "ordinary military equipment". They also claim that the Court did not consider the question of whether the sawed-off shotgun in the case would be an applicable weapon for personal defense, instead looking solely at the weapon's suitability for the "common defense". Law professor Andrew McClurg states, "The only certainty about "Miller" is that it failed to give either side a clear-cut victory. Most modern scholars recognize this fact."


text: According to the syllabus prepared by the U.S. Supreme Court Reporter of Decisions, in "District of Columbia v. Heller", , the Supreme Court held:


text: The "Heller" court also stated ("Heller", 554 U.S. 570 (2008), at 632) its analysis should not be read to suggest “the invalidity of laws regulating the storage of firearms to prevent accidents.”


text: The Supreme Court also defined the term arms used in the Second Amendment. "Arms" covered by the Second Amendment were defined in "District of Columbia v. Heller" to include "any thing that a man wears for his defence, or takes into his hands, or useth in wrath to cast at or strike another". 554 U. S., at 581." The Michigan Court of Appeals 2012 relied on "Heller" in the case "People v. Yanna" to state certain limitations on the right to keep and bear arms:


text: In some respects, these limitations are consistent with each other. However, they are not identical, and the United States Supreme Court neither fully harmonized them nor elevated one over another. First, the Court stated that "the Second Amendment does not protect those weapons not typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes." "Id." at 625, 128 S.Ct. 2783. The Court further stated that "the sorts of weapons protected were those `in common use at the time.'" "Id." at 627, 128 S.Ct. 2783 (citation omitted). As noted, however, this included weapons that did not exist when the Second Amendment was enacted. "Id." at 582, 128 S.Ct. 2783. Third, the Court referred to "the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of `dangerous and unusual weapons.'" "Id." at 627, 128 S.Ct. 2783 (citation omitted).


text: There are similar legal summaries of the Supreme Court's findings in "Heller" as the one quoted above. For example, the Illinois Supreme Court in "People v. Aguilar" (2013), summed up "Heller"s findings and reasoning:


text: "Heller" has been widely described as a landmark decision because it was the first time the Court affirmed an individual's right to own a gun. To clarify that its ruling does not invalidate a broad range of existing firearm laws, the majority opinion, written by Justice Antonin Scalia, said:


text: The Court's statement that the right secured by the Second Amendment is limited has been widely discussed by lower courts and the media. According Justice John Paul Stevens he was able to persuade Justice Anthony M. Kennedy to ask for “some important changes” to Justice Scalia’s opinion, so it was Justice Kennedy, who was needed to secure a fifth vote in "Heller", "who requested that the opinion include language stating that Heller “should not be taken to cast doubt” on many existing gun laws." The majority opinion also said that the amendment's prefatory clause (referencing the "militia") serves to clarify the operative clause (referencing "the people"), but does not limit the scope of the operative clause, because "the 'militia' in colonial America consisted of a subset of 'the people'... "


text: This dissent called the majority opinion "strained and unpersuasive" and said that the right to possess a firearm exists only in relation to the militia and that the D.C. laws constitute permissible regulation. In the majority opinion, Justice Stevens' interpretation of the phrase "to keep and bear arms" was referred to as a "hybrid" definition that Stevens purportedly chose in order to avoid an "incoherent" and "[g]rotesque" idiomatic meeting.


text: Justice Breyer, in his own dissent joined by Stevens, Souter, and Ginsburg, stated that the entire Court subscribes to the proposition that "the amendment protects an 'individual' righti.e., one that is separately possessed, and may be separately enforced, by each person on whom it is conferred".


text: Regarding the term "well regulated", the majority opinion said, "The adjective 'well-regulated' implies nothing more than the imposition of proper discipline and training." The majority opinion quoted Spooner from "The Unconstitutionality of Slavery" as saying that the right to bear arms was necessary for those who wanted to take a stand against slavery. The majority opinion also stated that:


text: Reaction to "Heller" has varied, with many sources giving focus to the ruling referring to itself as being the first in Supreme Court history to read the Second Amendment as protecting an individual right. The majority opinion, authored by Justice Scalia, gives explanation of the majority legal reasoning behind this decision. The majority opinion made clear that the recent ruling did not foreclose the Court's prior interpretations given in "United States v. Cruikshank", "Presser v. Illinois", and "United States v. Miller" though these earlier rulings did not limit the right to keep and bear arms solely to militia purposes, but rather limits the type of weapon to which the right applies to those used by the militia (i.e., those in common use for lawful purposes).


text: "Heller" pertained to three District of Columbia ordinances involving restrictions on firearms amounting to a total ban. These three ordinances were a ban on handgun registration, a requirement that all firearms in a home be either disassembled or have a trigger lock, and licensing requirement that prohibits carrying an unlicensed firearm in the home, such as from one room to another.


text: Under any of the standards of scrutiny the Court has applied to enumerated constitutional rights, this prohibitionin the place where the importance of the lawful defense of self, family, and property is most acutewould fail constitutional muster... Because Heller conceded at oral argument that the District's licensing law is permissible if it is not enforced arbitrarily and capriciously, the Court assumed that a license will satisfy his prayer for relief and did not address the licensing requirement. Assuming he is not disqualified from exercising Second Amendment rights, the District must permit Heller to register his handgun and must issue him a license to carry it in the home."


text: Justice Ginsburg was a vocal critic of "Heller". Speaking in an interview on public radio station WNYC, she called the Second Amendment "outdated", saying:


text: According to adjunct professor of law at Duquesne University School of Law Anthony Picadio, who said he's not anti-gun but rather "anti-bad-judging", Justice Scalia's reasoning in "Heller" is the product of an erroneous reading of colonial history and the drafting history of the Second Amendment. He argued that the Southern slave states would never have ratified the Second Amendment if it had been understood as creating an individual right to own firearms because of their fear of arming free blacks. After a lengthy historical and legal analysis Anthony Picadio concluded: “If the Second Amendment had been understood to have the meaning given to it by Justice Scalia, it would not have been ratified by Virginia and the other slave states.” Picadio pointed out that the right acknowledged in "Heller" was not originally to be an enumerated right. Instead, he argues, there would be more respect for the "Heller" decision, if the right acknowledged in "Heller" would have been forthrightly classified as an unenumerated right and if the issue in "Heller" would have been analysed under the Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution. He finished with the following observation: "The pre-existing right that the "Heller" Court incorporated into the Second Amendment is very narrow. As recognized by Justice Alito in the "McDonald" case, it protects only "the right to possess a handgun in the house for the purposes of self-defense." This narrow right has never been extended by the Supreme Court."


text: On June 28, 2010, the Court in "McDonald v. City of Chicago", , held that the Second Amendment was incorporated, saying that "[i]t is clear that the Framers and ratifiers of the Fourteenth Amendment counted the right to keep and bear arms among those fundamental rights necessary to our system of ordered liberty." This means that the Court ruled that the Second Amendment limits state and local governments to the same extent that it limits the federal government. It also remanded a case regarding a Chicago handgun prohibition. Four of the five justices in the majority voted to do so by way of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, while the fifth justice, Clarence Thomas, voted to do so through the amendment's Privileges or Immunities Clause.


text: Justice Thomas, in his concurring opinion, noted that the Privileges or Immunities Clause refers to "citizens" whereas the Due Process Clause refers more broadly to any "person", and therefore Thomas reserved the issue of non-citizens for later decision. After "McDonald", many questions about the Second Amendment remain unsettled, such as whether non-citizens are protected through the Equal Protection Clause.


text: In "People v. Aguilar" (2013), the Illinois Supreme Court summed up the central Second Amendment findings in "McDonald":


text: On March 21, 2016, in a per curiam decision the Court vacated a Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision upholding the conviction of a woman who carried a stun gun for self-defense. The Court reiterated that the "Heller" and "McDonald" decisions saying that "the Second Amendment extends, prima facie, to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in existence at the time of the founding", that "the Second Amendment right is fully applicable to the States", and that the protection is not restricted to "only those weapons useful in warfare". The term "bearable arms" was defined in "District of Columbia v. Heller", 554 U.S. 570 (2008) and includes any "[w]eapo[n] of offence" or "thing that a man wears for his defence, or takes into his hands", that is "carr[ied]... for the purpose of offensive or defensive action". 554 U. S., at 581, 584 (internal quotation marks omitted)."


text: The Court heard "New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. City of New York, New York" on December 2, 2019, to decide whether a New York City ordinance that prevents the transport of guns, even if properly unloaded and locked in containers, from within city limits to outside of the city limits is unconstitutional. The New York Rifle & Pistol Association challenged the ordinance on the basis of the Second Amendment, the Dormant Commerce Clause, and the right to travel. However, as the city had changed its rule to allow transport while the case was under consideration by the Court, the Court ruled the case moot in April 2020, though it remanded the case so the lower courts could review the new rules under the petitioners new claims.


text: New York law prohibits the concealed carry of firearms without a permit. The issuance of such permits was previously at the discretion of state authorities, and permits were not issued absent 'proper cause'. The New York State Rifle & Pistol Association and two individuals who had been denied permits on the grounds that they lacked proper cause, challenged the licensing regime as a violation of the Second Amendment, with the District Court and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in favor of the state. The Supreme Court ruled on June 23, 2022, in a 6–3 decision that the New York law, as a "may-issue" regulation, was unconstitutional, affirming that public possession of firearms was a protected right under the Second Amendment. The majority stated that states may still regulate firearms through "shall-issue" regulations that use objective measures such as background checks.


text: Until "District of Columbia v. Heller" (2008), "United States v. Miller" (1939) had been the only Supreme Court decision that "tested a congressional enactment against [the Second Amendment]". "Miller" did not directly mention either a collective or individual right, but for the 62-year period from "Miller" until the Fifth Circuit's decision in "United States v. Emerson" (2001), federal courts recognized only the collective right, with "courts increasingly referring to one another's holdings... without engaging in any appreciably substantive legal analysis of the issue".


text: "Emerson" changed this by addressing the question in depth, with the Fifth Circuit determining that the Second Amendment protects an individual right. Subsequently, the Ninth Circuit conflicted with "Emerson" in "Silveira v. Lockyer", and the D.C. Circuit supported "Emerson" in "Parker v. District of Columbia". "Parker" evolved into "District of Columbia v. Heller", in which the U.S. Supreme Court determined that the Second Amendment protects an individual right.


text: Since "Heller", the United States courts of appeals have ruled on many Second Amendment challenges to convictions and gun control laws. The following are post-"Heller" cases, divided by Circuit, along with summary notes:


title: Motörhead

text: Motörhead () were an English rock band formed in London in 1975 by Lemmy (lead vocals, bass), Larry Wallis (guitar) and Lucas Fox (drums). Lemmy was also the primary songwriter and only constant member. The band are often considered a precursor to the new wave of British heavy metal, which re-energised heavy metal in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Though several guitarists and drummers have played in Motörhead, most of their best-selling albums and singles feature drummer Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor and guitarist "Fast" Eddie Clarke.


title: Motörhead

text: Motörhead released 23 studio albums, 10 live recordings, 12 compilation albums and five EPs over a career spanning 40 years. Usually a power trio, they had particular success in the early 1980s with several successful singles in the UK Top 40 chart. The albums "Overkill", "Bomber", "Ace of Spades" and, particularly, the live album "No Sleep 'til Hammersmith" cemented Motörhead's reputation as a top-tier rock band. The band are ranked number 26 on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock. As of 2016, they have sold more than 15 million albums worldwide.


title: Motörhead

text: Most often classified as heavy metal, Motörhead has been credited with being part of and influencing numerous musical scenes, thrash metal and speed metal especially. Lemmy, however, always insisted that they were a rock and roll band. He said that they had more in common with punk bands, but with their own unique sound, Motörhead is embraced in both punk and metal scenes. Their lyrics typically covered such topics as war, good versus evil, abuse of power, promiscuous sex, substance abuse and, most famously, gambling, the latter theme being the focus of their hit song "Ace of Spades".


title: Motörhead

text: Lemmy died on 28 December 2015 from cardiac arrhythmia and congestive heart failure, after being diagnosed with prostate cancer. The day after his death, drummer Mikkey Dee and guitarist Phil Campbell both confirmed that Motörhead had disbanded. By 2018, all three members of Motörhead's best-known line-up (Lemmy, Taylor and Clarke) had died.


title: Motörhead

text: Lemmy was dismissed from Hawkwind in May 1975 after being arrested in Canada for drug possession; he said "the band dismissed me for doing the wrong drugs". Now on his own, Lemmy decided to form a new band called Motörhead, the name was inspired by the final song he had written for Hawkwind.


title: Motörhead

text: Lemmy wanted the music to be "fast and vicious, just like the MC5". His stated aim was to "concentrate on very basic music: loud, fast, city, raucous, arrogant, paranoid, speedfreak rock n roll ... it will be so loud that if we move in next door to you, your lawn will die". He recruited guitarist Larry Wallis (formerly of Pink Fairies) on the recommendation of Mick Farren, based on Wallis' work with Steve Peregrin Took's band Shagrat, and Lucas Fox on drums. According to Lemmy, the band's first practice was at the now defunct Sound Management rehearsal studios, in Kings Road, Chelsea in 1975. Sound Management leased the basement area of furniture store The Furniture Cave, located in adjacent Lots Road. Kilmister has said they used to steal equipment, as the band was short on gear. Their first engagement was supporting Greenslade at The Roundhouse, London on 20 July 1975. On 19 October, having played 10 gigs, they became the supporting act to Blue Öyster Cult at the Hammersmith Odeon.


title: Motörhead

text: The band were contracted to United Artists by Andrew Lauder, the A&R man for Lemmy's previous band, Hawkwind. They recorded sessions at Rockfield Studios in Monmouth with producer Dave Edmunds, during which Fox proved to be unreliable and was replaced by drummer Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor, a casual acquaintance of Lemmy's. Their record label was dissatisfied with the material and refused to release it, although it was subsequently issued as "On Parole" in 1979 after the band had established some success.


title: Motörhead

text: In March 1976, deciding that two guitarists were required, the band auditioned an acquaintance of drummer Taylor's named "Fast" Eddie Clarke. Wallis, who was continuing to tour with a reformed Pink Fairies, quit immediately after the auditions and Clarke remained as the sole guitarist. This trio of Lemmy/Clarke/Taylor is today regarded as the "classic" Motörhead line-up. In December, the band recorded the "Leaving Here" single for Stiff Records, but United Artists intervened to prevent its general release as the band were still under contract to them, despite the label's refusal to issue their debut album. Initial reactions to the band had been unfavourable; they won a poll for "the best worst band in the world" in the music magazine "NME".


title: Motörhead

text: By April 1977, living in squats and with little recognition, Taylor and Clarke decided to quit the band, and after some debate, they agreed to do a farewell show at the Marquee Club in London. Lemmy had become acquainted with Ted Carroll from Chiswick Records and asked him to bring a mobile studio to the show to record it for posterity. Carroll was unable to get the mobile unit to the Marquee Club on 1 April 1977, but showed up backstage after the engagement and offered them two days at Escape Studios with producer Speedy Keen to record a single. The band took the chance, and instead of recording a single they laid down 11 unfinished tracks. Carroll gave them a few more days at Olympic Studios to finish the vocals and the band completed 13 tracks for release as an album. Chiswick issued the single "Motorhead" in June, followed by the album "Motörhead" in August, which spent one week in the UK Albums Chart at number 43. The band toured the UK supporting Hawkwind in June, then from late July they commenced the "Beyond the Threshold of Pain Tour" with the Count Bishops.


title: Motörhead

text: In August, Tony Secunda took over the management of the band, and their cohesiveness became so unstable that by March 1978, Clarke and Taylor had formed and were performing as the Muggers with Speedy Keen and Billy Rath.


title: Motörhead

text: In July 1978, the band returned to the management of Douglas Smith, who secured a one-off singles deal with Bronze Records. The resulting "Louie Louie" single was issued in September peaking at number 68 on the UK Singles Chart, and the band toured the UK to promote it, recorded a BBC Radio 1 "John Peel in session" on 18 September (these tracks were later issued on the 2005 "BBC Live & In-Session" album), and appeared for the first time on BBC Television's "Top of the Pops" on 25 October. Chiswick capitalised on this new level of success by re-issuing the debut album "Motörhead" on white vinyl through EMI Records.


title: Motörhead

text: The single's success led to Bronze extending their contract, and put the band back into the studio to record an album, this time with producer Jimmy Miller at Roundhouse Studios. A hint of what the band had recorded for the album came on 9 March 1979 when the band played "Overkill" on "Top of the Pops" to support the release of the single ahead of the "Overkill" album, which was released on 24 March. It became Motörhead's first album to break into the top 40 of the UK Albums chart, reaching number 24, with the single reaching number 39 on the UK Singles Chart. These releases were followed by the "Overkill" UK tour which began on 23 March. A subsequent single was released in June, coupling the album track "No Class" as the A-side with the previously unreleased song "Like a Nightmare" on the B-side. It fared worse than both the album and previous single but reached number 61 on the UK singles chart.


title: Motörhead

text: During July and August, except for a break to appear at the Reading Festival, the band were working on their next album, "Bomber". Released on 27 October, it reached number 12 on the UK Albums Chart. On 1 December, it was followed by the "Bomber" single, which reached number 34 on the UK Singles Chart. The "Bomber" Europe and UK tour followed, with support from Saxon. The stage show featured a spectacular aircraft bomber-shaped lighting rig. During the "Bomber" tour, United Artists put together tapes recorded during the Rockfield Studios sessions in 1975–1976 and released them as the album "On Parole", which peaked at number 65 on the UK Albums Chart in December.


title: Motörhead

text: On 8 May 1980, while the band were on tour in Europe, Bronze released "The Golden Years", which sold better than any of their previous releases, reaching number eight on the UK Singles Chart. The band had, however, preferred the title "Flying Tonight", in reference to the "Bomber" lighting rig. On 20 August, the band had a 40-minute filmed slot, along with Girlschool's 20 minutes performing live at the Nottingham Theatre Royal for the "Rockstage" programme, broadcast on UK television by the ATV on 4 April 1981.


title: Motörhead

text: During August and September 1980, the band were at Jackson's Studios in Rickmansworth, recording with producer Vic Maile. The "Ace of Spades" single was released on 27 October 1980 as a preview of the "Ace of Spades" album, which followed on 8 November. The single reached No. 15 and the album reached No. 4 on the UK charts, the latter being the highest position in the band's history. Bronze celebrated its gold record status by pressing a limited edition of the album in gold vinyl.


title: Motörhead

text: Motörhead made an appearance on "Top of the Pops" in November that year with "Ace of Spades", and between 22 October and 29 November the band were on their "Ace Up Your Sleeve" UK tour with support from Girlschool and Vardis, and also made an appearance as guests on the ITV children's show "Tiswas" on 8 November. The "Arizona desert-style" pictures used on the album sleeve and tour booklet cover were taken during a photo session at a sandpit in Barnet. "Ace of Spades", considered to be the definitive Motörhead anthem, "put a choke on the English music charts and proved to all that a band could succeed without sacrificing its blunt power and speed".


title: Motörhead

text: To coincide with the "Ace of Spades" release, Big Beat, who had inherited the Chiswick catalogue, put together four unused tracks from the Escape Studios sessions in 1977 and released them as "Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers", which reached No. 43 on the UK Singles Chart in November.


title: Motörhead

text: The band had more chart hits in 1981 with the releases "St. Valentine's Day Massacre" EP, their collaboration with Girlschool which reached No. 5 on the UK Singles Chart in February; the live version of "Motorhead", which reached No. 6 on the UK Singles Chart in July; and the album it was taken from, "No Sleep 'til Hammersmith", which reached No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart in June. During March 1981, the band had been touring Europe, and in the final week of the month they conducted the "Short Sharp, Pain in the Neck" UK tour from which the recordings for "No Sleep 'til Hammersmith" were made.


title: Motörhead

text: From April through to July, the band toured North America for the first time as guests of Blizzard of Ozz, an early incarnation of Ozzy Osbourne's band, but were still able to make an appearance on "Top of the Pops" on 9 July to promote the live "Motorhead" single. In October the band recorded tracks at BBC's Maida Vale studio for the David Jensen show broadcast on 6 October. The band commenced a European tour on 20 November, supported by Tank, after which Clarke produced Tank's debut album "Filth Hounds of Hades" at Ramport Studios in December and January.


title: Motörhead

text: Between 26 and 28 January 1982, the band started recording their self-produced new album at Ramport Studios, before moving onto Morgan Studios to continue the sessions throughout February. On 3 April the single "Iron Fist" was released, reaching No. 29 on the UK Singles Chart, followed by the parent album "Iron Fist", released on 17 April and peaking at No. 6 on the UK Albums Chart. They were the last releases to feature the Lemmy, Clarke, Taylor line-up, though the line-up continued to perform in the "Iron Fist" UK tour between 17 March and 12 April, and the band's first headlining North America tour from 12 May until Clarke's last engagement at the New York Palladium on 14 May.


title: Motörhead

text: Clarke left as a consequence of the band recording "Stand By Your Man", a cover version of the Tammy Wynette classic, in collaboration with Wendy O. Williams and the Plasmatics. Clarke felt that the song compromised the band's principles, refused to play on the recording and resigned, later forming his own band, Fastway. Lemmy and Taylor made numerous telephone calls to find a guitarist, including one to Brian Robertson, formerly with Thin Lizzy, who was recording a solo album in Canada. He agreed to help out and complete the tour with them. Robertson signed a one-album deal resulting in 1983's "Another Perfect Day" and the two singles from it, "Shine" and "I Got Mine".


title: Motörhead

text: In June and July the band played five dates in Japan, and from mid-October until mid-November they toured Europe. From late May until early July, the band conducted the "Another Perfect Tour", followed by an American tour between July and August, and another European tour in October and November. Robertson began to cause friction in the band as a result of his on-stage attire, consisting of shorts and ballet shoes, and with his pointblank refusal to play the old standards that every Motörhead audience expected to hear. This led to an amicable agreement that Robertson would leave, playing his last engagement with the band at the Berlin Metropol on 11 November.


title: Motörhead

text: After Robertson's departure in 1983, the band were sent tapes from all over the world from potential guitarists. The group returned to the concept of dual lead guitars by hiring unknowns Würzel and Phil Campbell (formerly of Persian Risk). In February 1984, the Lemmy, Campbell, Würzel, and Taylor line-up recorded "Ace of Spades" for the "Bambi" episode in the British television series, "The Young Ones". Scenes of the band playing are interspersed with the characters' antics as they rush to the railway station, in a parody of the Beatles' comedy film "A Hard Day's Night". Taylor quit the band after that recording, causing Lemmy to quip: "Did I leave them or did they leave me?". Before joining Motörhead, Phil Campbell had met former Saxon drummer Pete Gill, and the trio decided to call him to see if he would like to visit London. The try-outs went well and Gill was hired.


title: Motörhead

text: Bronze Records thought the new line-up would not make the grade and decided to "nail down the lid" on the group with a compilation album. When Lemmy found out, he took over the project, selecting tracks, providing sleeve notes and insisted that Motörhead record four brand new tracks to go at the end of each side of the album. During the sessions between 19 and 25 May 1984 at Britannia Row Studios, London, the band recorded six tracks for the single's B-side and the album. The single "Killed by Death" was released on 1 September and reached No. 51 in the UK Singles Chart, the double album "No Remorse" was released on 15 September and reached silver disc status, attaining the position of No. 14 in the UK Album charts.


title: Motörhead

text: The band were involved in a court case with Bronze over the next two years, believing that their releases were not being promoted properly, and the record company banned them from the recording studio. The band looked to more touring for income; Australia and New Zealand in late July to late August, a brief tour of Hungary in September, and the "No Remorse" "Death on the Road" tour between 24 October and 7 November. They kicked off their tour in the UK by making a live appearance on the early morning children's TV show "The Saturday Starship". Their set, which included "Iron Fist", "Ace of Spades", and "Overkill", was performed in the car park of the Central TV studios, Birmingham, prompting complaints about the noise from local residents.


title: Motörhead

text: On 26 October the band made a live appearance on the British Channel 4 music programme "The Tube", performing "Killed By Death", "Steal Your Face" (over which the programme's end-credits were played) and the unbroadcast "Overkill", before going on to their next engagement that evening. From 19 November to 15 December the band toured America with Canadian speed metal band Exciter and Danish heavy metal band Mercyful Fate and from 26 to 30 December performed five shows in West Germany.


title: Motörhead

text: On 5 April 1985, ITV broadcast four songs that were recorded after the band went off air on their earlier appearance on "The Tube" programme. A week later the band, dressed in tuxedos, played four songs on the live Channel 4 music show "ECT" (Extra-Celestial Transmission). To celebrate the band's 10th anniversary, two shows were arranged at Hammersmith Odeon on 28 and 29 June, a video of the second show was taken and later released as "The Birthday Party". From early June until early August the band were on their 'It Never Gets Dark' tour of Sweden and Norway, an American tour followed in mid-November until late December.


title: Motörhead

text: From 26 March to 3 April 1986, the band toured West Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark on their "Easter Metal Blast" and in June, played two dates in Bologna and Milan in Italy. The court case with Bronze was finally settled in the band's favour. The band's management instigated their own label, GWR. Recording took place in Master Rock Studios, London and the single "Deaf Forever" was released on 5 July as a taster for the "Orgasmatron" album, which was released on 9 August. On the same day as the release of the album, Lemmy and Würzel were interviewed by Andy Kershaw on the BBC Radio 1 "Saturday Live" show and "Orgasmatron" and "Deaf Forever" were played. The single reached No. 67 and the album reached No. 21 in the UK charts.


title: Motörhead

text: On 16 August, the band played at the Monsters of Rock at Castle Donington and was recorded by BBC Radio 1 for a future "Friday Rock Show" broadcast. The performance closed with a flypast by a couple of Second World War German aircraft. Also that day Lemmy was filmed giving his views on spoof metal act "Bad News" for inclusion in a Peter Richardson Comic Strip film entitled "More Bad News" since the band featuring Rik Mayall, Peter Richardson, Nigel Planer and Adrian Edmondson were also performing at Donington. In September the band conducted their "Orgasmatron" tour in Great Britain, supported by fledgling act Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction. In October they toured America and in December were in West Germany.


title: Motörhead

text: In 1987, during the filming of "Eat the Rich" – in which Lemmy was taking a starring role alongside well-known comedy actors such as Robbie Coltrane, Kathy Burke, the regulars from the Comic Strip ensemble, and various other musician cameo appearances – Gill left the band and Taylor returned to appear in the band's cameo as "In House Club Band" alongside Würzel and Campbell. The band wrote "Eat the Rich" especially for the film, its soundtrack featured tracks from "Orgasmatron" and Würzel's solo single "Bess". The band's second album for GWR was "Rock 'n' Roll", released on 5 September, after a tight work schedule in the studio. While having some popular tracks and using "Eat the Rich" as its second track, the band commented that the album was virtually "nailed together".


title: Motörhead

text: On 2 July 1988 Motörhead were one of the performers at the Giants of Rock Festival in Hämeenlinna, Finland. The tracks were released as "No Sleep at All" on 15 October. A single from the album was planned with the band wanting "Traitor" as the A-side, but "Ace of Spades" was chosen instead. When the band noticed the change, they refused to allow the single to be distributed to the shops, and it was withdrawn and became available only on the "No Sleep at All" tour and through the "Motörheadbangers" fan club. While they continued to play live shows during 1989 and 1990, Motörhead once again felt unhappy with their career, and a court case with GWR followed, which was not resolved until mid-1990.


title: Motörhead

text: With the court case resolved, Motörhead signed to Epic/WTG and spent the last half of 1990 recording a new album and single in Los Angeles. Just prior to the album sessions the band's former manager, Doug Smith, released the recording of the band's 10th anniversary show, much against the bands wishes, having previously told him that they did not want it released, in 1986. In the studio they recorded four songs with producer Ed Stasium, before deciding he had to go.


title: Motörhead

text: When Lemmy listened to one of the mixes of "Going to Brazil", he asked for him to turn up four tracks, and on doing so heard claves and tambourines that Stasium had added without their knowledge. Stasium was fired and Peter Solley was hired as producer. The story according to Stasium was that Lemmy's drug and alcohol intake had far exceeded the limitations of Stasium's patience so he quit. The single "The One to Sing the Blues" issued on 24 December 1990 (7" and CD) and 5 January 1991 (12"), was followed by the album "1916" on 21 January. The single, which was issued in 7", cassette, shaped picture disc, 12" and CD single, reached No. 45 in the UK Singles Chart, the album reached No. 24 in the UK Album Charts.


title: Motörhead

text: The band conducted their "It Serves You Right" tour of Britain in February, the "Lights Out Over Europe" tour followed, lasting until early April, when the band returned to Britain to play another six venues. In June the band played five dates in Japan and five dates in Australia and New Zealand. Between July and August, they played across the United States with Judas Priest, Alice Cooper, Metal Church and opener Dangerous Toys on the "Operation Rock 'n' Roll" tour. The band finished the year with six dates in Germany during December.


title: Motörhead

text: On 28 March 1992, the band played what would turn out to be Taylor's last engagement at Irvine Meadows, Irvine, California. The band had been wanting Lemmy to get rid of their manager, Doug Banker, for some time and after an unsolicited visit from Todd Singerman, who insisted he should manage them despite never having managed a band before, the band met with Singerman and decided to take him on board, firing Banker. In the midst of this, the band were recording an album at Music Grinder Studios, in the city's east part of Hollywood during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Three drummers participated in the making of the "March ör Die" album: Phil Taylor, who was fired because he did not learn the drum tracks on the song "I Ain't No Nice Guy"; Tommy Aldridge who recorded most of the material on the album; and Mikkey Dee, who recorded "Hellraiser", a song originally written by Lemmy for Ozzy Osbourne's "No More Tears" album. "March ör Die" features guest appearances by Ozzy Osbourne and Slash.


title: Motörhead

text: Lemmy had known Mikkey Dee from the time when King Diamond had toured with Motörhead. He had asked Dee to become Motörhead's drummer before, but Dee had declined due to his commitment to King Diamond. On this occasion, Dee was available and met the band to try out. Playing the song "Hellraiser" first, Lemmy thought "he was very good immediately. It was obvious that it was going to work." After recording "Hellraiser" and "Hell on Earth" in the studio, Dee's first engagement with Motörhead was on 30 August at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. The new line-up then went on tour, playing dates with Ozzy Osbourne, Skew Siskin and Exodus. On 27 September, the band played at the Los Angeles Coliseum with Metallica and Guns N' Roses. The band toured Argentina and Brazil during October and conducted the "Bombers and Eagles in '92" tour of Europe with Saxon throughout December.


title: Motörhead

text: Motörhead played two dates at the Arena Obras Sanitarias in Buenos Aires in April 1993 and toured Europe from early June until early July, returning to the United States to play one show at the New York Ritz on 14 August. A new producer was sought for the band's next album and eventually Howard Benson, who was to produce the band's next four albums, was chosen. The band recorded at A&M Studios and Prime Time Studios in Hollywood and the resultant album, titled "Bastards", was released on 29 November 1993. The single "Don't Let Daddy Kiss Me" included the song "Born to Raise Hell", which also appeared on the album and would later be re-recorded with collaborative vocals from both Ice-T and Ugly Kid Joe frontman Whitfield Crane for the soundtrack of the movie "Airheads" (in which Lemmy also made a cameo appearance) and released as a single in its own right. Although "Bastards" received airtime, the record company ZYX Music would not pay for promotional copies, so the band sent out copies themselves. A further tour of Europe was made throughout December that year.


title: Motörhead

text: In February and March 1994, Motörhead toured the United States with Black Sabbath and Morbid Angel. In April the band resumed their tour of the States until early May, playing an engagement with the Ramones on 14 May at the Estadio Velez in Buenos Aires, attracting a crowd of 50,000 people. The band toured Japan in late May and Europe in June, August and December.


title: Motörhead

text: The band's 1995 touring schedule began in Europe in late April. In June, they went on a second tour with Black Sabbath, this time supported by Tiamat, until the band succumbed to influenza and headed back to Los Angeles and Cherokee Studios in Hollywood where they were to record an album. During the sessions it became clear that Würzel was not extending himself and left the band after the recording. The title track from the album, "Sacrifice", was later used in the movie "Tromeo and Juliet", a film in which Lemmy appears as the narrator. The band decided to continue as a three-man line-up and a tour of Europe was performed throughout October and the first two days of November. A three-day tour of South America followed the week after. Lemmy celebrated his 50th Birthday later that year with the band at the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles; Metallica played at the event under the name the Lemmy's.


title: Motörhead

text: In 1996, the band began touring the States in early January and played 30 venues up to 15 February; a seven-date tour of Europe in June and July was followed by two engagements in South America during August. A tour of the United States with Belladonna and Speedball began with two shows (Los Angeles & Hollywood) in early October 1996 and concluded in Washington on 4 December. During this time the band had recorded "Overnight Sensation", at Ocean Studio and Track House Recording Studio. The album was released on 15 October, the first official album of the band as a three-piece since "Another Perfect Day" and the best distributed album the band had had for years. The band concluded the year's touring with 13 dates in Germany.


title: Motörhead

text: During 1997, the band toured extensively, beginning with the first leg of the "Overnight Sensation" tour in Europe on 12 January at the London Astoria, where the guest musicians were Todd Campbell, Phil Campbell's son, on "Ace of Spades" and "Fast" Eddie Clarke for "Overkill". The European leg lasted until March and was followed by four dates in Japan, from late May to 1 June, and an American tour with W.A.S.P. throughout the rest of June. In August, three dates in Europe were followed by seven dates in Britain, which ended with a show at the Brixton Academy on 25 October, where the guest musician was Paul Inder, Lemmy's son, for "Ace of Spades". A further four dates in October in Russia concluded the year 1997.


title: Motörhead

text: Lemmy recalled that the touring was going particularly well, with some countries like Argentina and Japan putting the band in larger venues, and the English promoters discovered that "they could turn a nice profit with Motörhead shows". In his opinion, the three-piece line-up was performing excellently and it was high time they made another live record. The band did eventually, but made another studio album first, "Snake Bite Love", recorded in various studios and released on 3 March 1998.


title: Motörhead

text: The band joined with Judas Priest at the Los Angeles Universal Amphitheatre on 3 April, to begin their "Snake Bite Love" tour. On 21 May, Motörhead were recorded at The Docks in Hamburg. The tracks from this performance were later released as "Everything Louder Than Everyone Else". The band were invited to join the Ozzfest Tour and played dates across the States during early July until early August and were in Europe from early October until late November. The British leg of the tour was dubbed the "No Speak With Forked Tongue" tour and included support bands Groop Dogdrill, Radiator and Psycho Squad, which was fronted by Phil Campbell's son Todd.


title: Motörhead

text: In 1999 Motörhead made a tour of the states between 20 April and 2 June, before going to Karo Studios in Brackel, Germany to record their next album, "We Are Motörhead", which was released in May the following year. During the time the album sessions took place, the band played at venues around Europe, the first of which was at Fila Forum in Assago, near Milan, where Metallica's James Hetfield joined the band on-stage to play "Overkill". In October and early November, the band toured the states with Nashville Pussy. Throughout the rest of November, the band conducted their European "Monsters of the Millennium" tour with Manowar, Dio and Lion's Share, ending the Millennium with two shows at the London Astoria. The two shows were billed under the "Kerrang!" "X-Fest" banner and at the first show were supported by Backyard Babies and during the second show guest vocals were provided by Skin from Skunk Anansie and Nina C. Alice from Skew Siskin for "Born to Raise Hell", and Ace from Skunk Anansie played "Overkill" with the band.


title: Motörhead

text: In May 2000, the release of "We Are Motörhead" and the single from it, a cover of the Sex Pistol's "God Save the Queen", coincided with the start of the band's "We Are Motörhead" tour across South and North America during May and June, with a further nine shows across in Europe in July. Shows in the United States and France were followed by the release of a double-disc compilation album, "The Best Of", on 26 August.


title: Motörhead

text: Four dates in Japan preceded the band's 25th anniversary concert on 22 October at the Brixton Academy in London, where guest appearances were made by "Fast" Eddie Clarke, Brian May, Doro Pesch, Whitfield Crane, Ace, Paul Inder and Todd Campbell. The show also featured the return of the Bomber lighting rig. The event was filmed and released the following year as the "25 & Alive Boneshaker" DVD, and the CD of the show, "Live at Brixton Academy", was released two years after that. Lemmy states the reason for the DVD as wanting "to record it for the posterity or whatever it is. I nodded off through the 10th anniversary, we never did anything on the 20th, so the 25th made sense."


title: Motörhead

text: A tour of West and East Europe followed the anniversary concert, taking the band through October, November and December. The schedule for the Eastern European tour was quite brutal, involving two 18-hour drives back-to-back and little time off, at the Warsaw venue the band did not arrive until 11 o'clock and the crew were still loading into the venue at one in the morning, while the fans waited.


title: Motörhead

text: After taking a month off, the band began working on a new album at Chuck Reid's house in the Hollywood Hills. This album, "Hammered", was released the following year. On 1 April 2001, the band gave a one-song performance for Triple H's entrance at WrestleMania X-Seven at the Reliant Astrodome in Houston. The second leg of the "We Are Motörhead" tour began in May in Ireland, moving across to the United Kingdom. In Manchester, the band were supported by Goldblade, and by Pure Rubbish at the two London shows. The second London show also included Backyard Babies and Paul Inder, who was guest musician for "Killed By Death". Between June and August, Motörhead played at a number of rock festivals in Europe; including as the Graspop Metal Meeting in Belgium, the Quart Festival in Norway, and the Wacken Open Air on 4 August, where four songs were recorded for the "25 & Alive Boneshaker" DVD. The band returned to the States for a seven show tour between late September and early October.


title: Motörhead

text: In April 2002, a DVD of some of Motörhead's performances from the 1970s and 1980s along with some stock footage of the band was released as "The Best of Motörhead". Two weeks earlier, the "Hammered" album was released and supported by the "Hammered" tour, which kicked off in the States at around the same time. The United States dates continued until late May, and a European leg followed between June and August. In October, the band played five dates in Great Britain with Anthrax, Skew Siskin and Psycho Squad. The final venue was the Wembley Arena in London, where instead of Psycho Squad, the band were supported by Hawkwind, with Lemmy performing "Silver Machine" on stage with them. Throughout the rest of October and better part of November, the band were on a European tour with Anthrax.


title: Motörhead

text: In April and May 2003, the band continued to promote the "Hammered" album in the States, and on the three dates Phil Campbell had to miss, his mother having died, Todd Youth stood in for him. Between late May and mid-July the band played seven dates at Summer Festivals in Europe and from late-July until the end of August, they were touring the United States with Iron Maiden and Dio. On 7 October a comprehensive five-disc collection of the band's recordings covering 1975–2002 was released as "Stone Deaf Forever!". On 1 September 2003, the band returned to Hollywood's Whisky A Go-Go club for the Hollywood Rock Walk of Fame Induction. During October, the band performed a tour of Great Britain with the Wildhearts and Young Heart Attack. The band performed seven shows across Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain between 21 and 28 October and from late November until early December they were in Germany and Switzerland, touring with Skew Siskin and Mustasch. On 9 December, the previously recorded "Live at Brixton Academy" album was released.


title: Motörhead

text: Motörhead performed an invitation-only concert at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London on 22 February 2004; at Summer Festivals in South America during May; and in Europe during June, July and August. They had already spent time in the studio, working on "Inferno", which was released on 22 June and followed by the "Inferno" tour of Ireland with Class of Zero for three dates. Joined by Sepultura, the tour hit Great Britain. Some of the London show at the Hammersmith Apollo was filmed for TV as Gene Simmons introduced the extra opening act the Class, made up of school children from his Channel 4 series "Rock School". Würzel guested on "Overkill". The band continued the tour with Sepultura across Europe through the rest of November and December. At the show in Magdeburg, Germany on 4 December Motörhead joined Sepultura on stage during their support slot playing the song "Orgasmatron", in celebration of Sepultura's 20th Anniversary. The show on 7 December at the Philipshalle in Düsseldorf was recorded and later released as the "Stage Fright" DVD.


title: Motörhead

text: Motörhead picked up their first Grammy in the awards of 2005 in the Best Metal Performance category for their cover of Metallica's "Whiplash" on "". "They've managed to get the knife in," Lemmy grumbled. "It was only a mercy fuck – it was our 30th anniversary. If they gave us a Grammy for one of our albums or songs, it would mean something."


title: Motörhead

text: From March until early May 2005, the band toured the United States, and in June and August were on the "30th Anniversary" tour in Europe. On 22 August, they were the subject of an hour-long documentary, "Live Fast, Die Old", aired on Channel 4 as part of "The Other Side" series of documentaries, filmed by new and established directors.


title: Motörhead

text: On 20 September, a compilation containing the band's appearances on BBC Radio 1 and a concert recording from Paris Theatre, London, was released as "BBC Live & In-Session". In October, the band toured Europe with Mondo Generator before returning to Britain to tour with In Flames and Girlschool in October and November. During the show at the Brixton Academy on 19 November, Lemmy joined Girlschool on stage to play "Please Don't Touch". Motörhead finished the year's tours in December, with two engagements in New Zealand and five in Australia with Mötley Crüe. Also in 2005, Motörhead played on the Vaya Con Tioz farewell festival Böhse Onkelz at Lausitzring. In 2006, the band performed a four-date House of Blues tour in the States in March with Meldrum and from June until early August played at European open-air festivals with some indoor headlining shows. On 28 October, the band performed at The Rock Freakers Ball in Kansas City before heading off to tour Great Britain with Clutch and Crucified Barbara.


title: Motörhead

text: During that tour, "Kiss of Death" was released on 29 August 2006 via Sanctuary Records, with a video for "Be My Baby". The tour ended on 25 November at the Brixton Academy, where Phil Campbell played on "Killed By Death" during Crucified Barbara's support set. Twelve shows in Europe with Meldrum took them through the end of November to early December, the first two shows also featuring Skew Siskin.


title: Motörhead

text: In November, the band agreed to a sponsorship deal with the Greenbank B under-10s football team from North Hykeham, Lincoln, putting the band's name as well as War-Pig on the team's shirts; the under-10s run out to "Ace of Spades". Lemmy is old friends with Gary Weight, the team's manager; Weight "sent an email off to them and they came back and said it was a great idea" and hopes the deal will draw inspired performances from his team. On 25 April 2007, the band played at the Poliedro de Caracas in Caracas, Venezuela, and on 29 April at the Fundiçao Progresso, Rio de Janeiro. In June, Motörhead played an engagement at the Royal Festival Hall as part of Jarvis Cocker's Meltdown. On 26 February 2008, "No Sleep 'til Hammersmith" was reissued again as a two disc CD.


title: Motörhead

text: From March through to June 2008, the band convened in Los Angeles with producer Cameron Webb to begin work on their 19th album "Motörizer". Mikkey Dee's drum tracks were recorded at Dave Grohl's studio. "Motörizer" was released on 26 August. It does not feature artwork by Joe Petagno, the artist who designed many of their classic covers. In June 2008 the band performed on the main stage of the Download festival. Between 6 and 31 August, Motörhead joined Judas Priest, Heaven & Hell and Testament on the Metal Masters Tour. On 20 August the band played at the Roseland Ballroom, New York, as part of "The Volcom Tour 2008", which continued with the Misfits, Airbourne, Valient Thorr and Year Long Disaster at House of Blues, Anaheim, California on 2 September, playing a further thirteen dates. The band concluded the tour without the supporting bands, playing one more show at the Roseland Ballroom on 20 September, and the final engagement, at The Stone Pony, Asbury Park, New Jersey on 21 September.


title: Motörhead

text: On 30 September, Reuters reported that Neverdie Studios had signed a deal with Lemmy and Motörhead to develop and market Lemmy's Castle and Motorhead Stadium inside the virtual world of Entropia Universe, an online universe. The year's touring ended with a 34-date tour of Europe with a variety of support bands including Danko Jones, Saxon, Witchcraft, and Airbourne.


title: Motörhead

text: On 6 March 2009, the band played in the Middle East for the first time, at the annual Dubai Desert Rock Festival. On 1 April Motörhead were reported to have entered into a two-year sponsorship deal with UK Roller Derby team the Lincolnshire Bombers Roller Girls. That September, noted drummer Matt Sorum filled in for Mikkey Dee for a U.S. tour. "I was absolutely blown away and was very honoured to get the call," Sorum said. "You know what I love about Lemmy? He's always on time. We go on stage, no delays. Being in bands where you have to wait around for a couple of hours fucks you up."


title: Motörhead

text: In November 2009, the band were supported by NWOBHM veterans Sweet Savage on the Irish leg of the tour (30 years after first sharing the stage together) and punk and goth rock legends the Damned on the UK leg of their world tour. On the Damned's official website, Captain Sensible said: "Ha ha ... we're working with Lemmy again, are we? Excellent! He's the real deal, the absolute antithesis to all that the likes of Simon Cowell stand for. And for that we should all be grateful. This tour will be a celebration of all things rock 'n' roll ... pity the poor roadies is all I can say!"


title: Motörhead

text: In a November 2009 interview with ABORT Magazine's E.S. Day, Lemmy said that Motörhead would enter the studio in February 2010 "to rehearse, write and record" their 20th studio album, to be released by the end of the year. The album was recorded with Cameron Webb and Welsh producer Romesh Dodangoda in Longwave Studio, Cardiff. In an interview with Hungarian television in July 2010, drummer Mikkey Dee announced that the album was finished, with 11 tracks. The album's name was said to be "The Wörld Is Yours". On 3 November 2010, Future plc, a UK media company, announced that Motörhead were to release "The Wörld is Yours" via an exclusive publishing deal with "Classic Rock" magazine on 14 December 2010. The standard CD release of "The Wörld is Yours" would go on sale on 17 January 2011, through Motörhead's own label, Motörhead Music.


title: Motörhead

text: To coincide with the release of their upcoming album, Motörhead embarked on a 35th Anniversary UK tour, from 8–28 November 2010, and a European tour from 30 November 2010 – 19 December 2010. They also took their tour to the Americas in 2011. In October, the band recorded a slow blues version of their longtime hit "Ace of Spades" for a TV spot for Kronenbourg beer. On 5 December the single "Get Back in Line" was released, followed by the release of a video for the single on 6 December. In December, Mikkey Dee stated to French journalists that Motörhead are planning to release a box-set with several DVDs in 2011. He did not give any details but said that it will come in a "beautiful package including many surprises".


title: Motörhead

text: On 17 January 2011, it was announced that Motörhead would be part of the Sonisphere Festival in Knebworth. In August 2011, they headlined the Brutal Assault open-air festival in the Czech Republic. On 2 March 2011 Motörhead performed on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon".


title: Motörhead

text: On 9 July 2011, former guitarist Würzel died of a heart attack. In celebration of 35 years' touring, in late 2011 the band released the live DVD "The Wörld Is Ours – Vol 1 – Everywhere Further Than Everyplace Else", including performances at the O2 Apollo Manchester, Best Buy Theater, New York City and Teatro Caupolicán, Santiago de Chile. On 19 December 2011, it was announced that Motörhead would play at the German festivals Rock am Ring and Rock im Park in Nürburgring and Nuremberg respectively in June 2012. On 12 January 2012, it was announced that Motörhead were touring the US and Canada in early 2012, along with three other metal bands Megadeth, Volbeat and Lacuna Coil. The Gigantour took place from 26 January to 28 February 2012, but Motörhead missed the final four shows because Lemmy had a combination of an upper respiratory viral infection and voice strain, resulting in severe laryngitis. Lemmy wrote on Facebook, "I'm giving my voice a good rest", hoping he would recover soon to play at the Mayhem Festival, which was held from 30 June to 5 August 2012. Motörhead also took part on 23 June in the Rock-A-Field Luxembourg Open Air Festival in Roeser.


title: Motörhead

text: In an April 2012 interview with Classic Rock Revisited, Lemmy was asked if Motörhead were planning to make a follow-up to "The Wörld Is Yours". He replied, "We have not started writing any songs yet but we will. We put out an album out every two years. I will continue to do that as long as I can afford an amp." On 28 June 2012, Lemmy told Auburn Reporter that Motörhead will release their next album in 2013 and they had written "about 6 songs so far." On 23 October 2012, Lemmy told Billboard.com that the band had planned to enter the studio in January to begin recording the album for a mid-2013 release. On 28 February 2013, it was announced that Motörhead had begun recording their new album. Motörhead released the live DVD "The Wörld Is Ours – Vol. 2 – Anyplace Crazy As Anywhere Else" in September 2012. On 18 June 2013, the new album's title was revealed to be "Aftershock".


title: Motörhead

text: In mid-November 2013, Motörhead were due to embark on a European tour alongside Saxon, followed by a tour in Germany and Scandinavia due to last until mid December 2013 but the dates were postponed and rescheduled for February and March 2014 due to Lemmy's health problems. However, in January 2014, Motörhead announced the cancellation of the new February and March dates of their European tour as Lemmy was still to reach full recovery from diabetes related health problems. But the same month, the band was confirmed for Coachella Festival to take place across two weekends in spring 2014 (12–14 and 19–21 April) in Indio, California, the exact dates to be revealed as 13 and 20 April 2014. In February 2014, Motörhead confirmed a Summer tour 2014 with eight European dates (from 24 June to 10 August) in France (2 dates), Switzerland, Italy, Germany (2 dates), Russia and Ukraine. In March 2014, the band announced a Los Angeles date on 11 April 2014 at Club Nokia. Later on, two new dates on 17 and 18 April 2014 respectively in Las Vegas (Pearl) and San Francisco (Warfield) were added. Still in March 2014, Motörhead announced that three heavy metal bands Megadeth, Anthrax and themselves would perform from 22 to 26 September 2014 at the first annual Motörhead's Motörboat cruise on board the Carnival Ecstasy (self-proclaimed "The Loudest Boat in the World"), due to sail from Miami and visit the ports of Key West and the Cozumel island just off Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula.


title: Motörhead

text: In a September 2014 interview on Full Metal Jackie, Lemmy stated that Motörhead would "probably" enter the studio in January 2015 to start work on their 22nd studio album for a tentative late 2015 release. On 25 February 2015, Motörhead officially confirmed that they were in the studio recording their new album in Los Angeles with longtime producer Cameron Webb. On 27 May 2015, the band released teasers on their Facebook page with the roman number "XXXX" on it. On 4 June the new album (which would be their last) "Bad Magic" was launched for pre-order on Amazon, revealing its title and cover art which also shows the "XXXX", coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the band. The album was released on 28 August 2015. The band performed at the UK's Glastonbury Festival in June 2015. Their final UK gig was at the Eden Project on 27 June 2015.


title: Motörhead

text: While touring the album as the "40th anniversary Tour", Motörhead had to cut short their Salt Lake City show on 27 August 2015 (in the Rocky Mountains) due to Lemmy's breathing problems (the result of an altitude sickness) and then they had to cancel completely day-off their Denver Riot Fest set on 28 August 2015. Their tour picked up again on 1 September 2015 at Emo's in Austin, Texas (moved from Cedar Park Center) but the group were again forced to abandon their set after three songs and to cancel subsequent shows (from the show on 2 September 2015 in San Antonio, Texas to the show on 5 September 2015 in Houston, Texas included).


title: Motörhead

text: Despite his ongoing health issues forcing Motörhead to cut short or cancel several US shows, Lemmy Kilmister was able to bounce back in time for the trio's annual Motörboat heavy metal cruise from Miami to the Bahamas which ran from 28 September through 2 October 2015 including performances by bands such as Slayer, Anthrax, Exodus, Suicidal Tendencies and Corrosion of Conformity. For this occasion, Motörhead performed live two entire (identical) sets on 30 September and 1 October 2015.


title: Motörhead

text: Motörhead continued the "40th Anniversary Tour" in Europe in November and December. They played concerts in Germany, Sweden, Norway and Finland. Their final concert was in Berlin, Germany on 11 December 2015. After Lemmy's death, drummer Mikkey Dee spoke in an interview about him: "He was terribly gaunt. He spent all his energy on stage and afterwards he was very, very tired. It's incredible that he could even play, that he could finish the Europe tour. It was only 20 days ago. Unbelievable." The "40th Anniversary Tour" was planned to continue in January 2016 in the band's home country the UK, the first concert would have been in Newcastle on 23 January 2016.


title: Motörhead

text: On 28 December 2015, Lemmy died, four days after celebrating his 70th birthday. He was the second Motörhead member to die in 2015, following Phil Taylor the previous month. The band posted the following message on Facebook:


title: Motörhead

text: The following day, drummer Mikkey Dee confirmed that Motörhead would not continue, stating, "Motörhead is over, of course. Lemmy was Motörhead. We won't be doing any more tours or anything. And there won't be any more records. But the brand survives, and Lemmy lives on in the hearts of everyone." Two days after Lemmy's death, guitarist Phil Campbell also stated that "Motörhead is no longer".


title: Motörhead

text: A few days later, the band's long-time manager Todd Singerman told the press that Lemmy had experienced chest pains two days after his 70th birthday party (held at Whisky a Go Go) and visited into the emergency room, but was released the next day. However, Singerman was concerned because Lemmy's speech was "getting bad" and took him to a brain scan. On 26 December the doctor came into Lemmy's apartment, "brought the results and told us all that he has two to six months to live". Lemmy reacted calmly. "He took it better than all of us", said Singerman. "His only comment was, 'Oh, only two months, huh?' The doctor goes, 'Yeah, Lem, I don't want to bullshit you. It's bad, and there's nothing anyone can do. I would be lying to you if I told you there was a chance.'" Plans were made to treat Lemmy at home. A video game console at the Rainbow Bar and Grill that Lemmy loved to play was brought to his apartment. On 28 December 2015, he spent hours on the console, and Rainbow owner Mikael Maglieri paid a visit. Lemmy died in his sleep later that day.


title: Motörhead

text: An autopsy on Kilmister showed that the causes of death were prostate cancer, a cardiac arrhythmia, and congestive heart failure.


title: Motörhead

text: Initially planned on 27 May 2016, UDR Music released on 10 June 2016 "Clean Your Clock", a Motörhead archive live album due to contain material recorded at the 20 and 21 November 2015 shows at the Zenith in Munich. On 1 September 2017, Motörhead released "Under Cöver", a covers album featuring covers throughout Motörhead's history, along with covers only found on tribute albums, and new recordings.


title: Motörhead

text: Former Motörhead guitarist "Fast" Eddie Clarke died on 10 January 2018 after a battle with pneumonia at the age of 67, making him the last member of the band's classic line-up (following Taylor and Lemmy) to die.


title: Motörhead

text: In a biography of the band, senior editor for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine, wrote: "Motörhead's overwhelmingly loud and fast style of heavy metal was one of the most groundbreaking styles the genre had to offer in the late '70s" and though "Motörhead wasn't punk rock ... they were the first metal band to harness that energy and, in the process, they created speed metal and thrash metal."


title: Motörhead

text: Although Motörhead is often considered a heavy metal band, Lemmy always described Motörhead's music as simply "rock and roll". In 2011, he said: "We were not heavy metal. We were a rock 'n' roll band. Still are. Everyone always describes us as heavy metal even when I tell them otherwise. Why won't people listen?" In 2014, he reiterated to "Der Spiegel" that he did not particularly like heavy metal.


title: Motörhead

text: Lemmy had stated that he generally felt more kinship with punk rockers than with heavy metal bands: Motörhead had engagements with fellow Brits, the Damned, with whom he played bass on a handful of late 1970s engagements, as well as having penned the song "R.A.M.O.N.E.S." as a tribute to the Ramones. Motörhead, Lemmy stated, have more in common aesthetically with the Damned than Black Sabbath, and nothing whatsoever in common with Judas Priest. Lemmy said he felt little kinship with the speed metal bands Motörhead have inspired:


title: Motörhead

text: The "NME" stated that their brief solos were just long enough "... to open another bottle of beer", while a 1977 "Stereo Review" commented that "they know they're like animals, and they don't want to appear any other way. In view of the many ugly frogs in heavy metal who think they are God's gift to womankind these Quasimodos even seem charming in their own way". Motörhead's approach has not changed drastically over the band's career, though this is a deliberate choice: erstwhile Motörhead drummer Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor said that rock icons like Chuck Berry and Little Richard never drastically altered their style, and, like them, Motörhead preferred to play what they enjoyed and did best. This fondness for the first decade of rock and roll (mid-1950s to mid-1960s) is also reflected in some of Motörhead's occasional cover songs from that era.


title: Motörhead

text: Lemmy often played power chords in his basslines. When asked about whether he had begun as a rhythm guitarist, he stated:


title: Motörhead

text: The name "Motörhead" is a reference to users of the drug amphetamine. The band's distinctive fanged-face logo, with its oversized boar's tusks, chains, and spikes, was created by artist Joe Petagno in 1977 for the cover of the "Motörhead" album and has appeared in many variations on covers of ensuing albums. The fanged face has been referred to variously as "War-Pig" and "Snaggletooth". The band's name is usually printed in a lowercase form of blackletter. The umlaut character ö is possibly derived from the similar "heavy metal umlaut" in the name of their 1975 acquaintances Blue Öyster Cult. However, this umlaut does not alter the pronunciation of the band's name. When asked if Germans pronounced the band "Motuuuurhead", Lemmy answered "No, they don't. I only put it in there to look mean".


title: Motörhead

text: Snaggletooth is the fanged face that serves as the symbol of Motörhead. Artist Joe Petagno drew it in 1977 for the cover of the band's debut album (with designer Phil Smee who turned it into a negative and did the lettering to complete the logo), having met Lemmy while doing some work with Hawkwind. Petagno stated:


title: Motörhead

text: It has remained a symbol of Motörhead throughout the years, with Petagno creating many variations of Snaggletooth, or as some have called it and written it down as War-Pig, for the covers of ensuing albums. Only two of the original covers for Motörhead's 22 studio albums do not feature any variation of War-Pig on the cover: "On Parole" and "Overnight Sensation" (of which, "On Parole" was never sanctioned by the band), and was in any case reissued with a black Snaggletooth on a white background. Phil is wearing a Snaggletooth badge on the cover of "Ace of Spades". The cover of "Iron Fist" depicts a metal gauntlet wearing four skull-shaped rings, one of which is Snaggletooth, while the rear of the album-sleeve shows a fully detailed 3-D metal sculpture of the symbol. Originally the Snaggletooth design included a swastika on one of the helmet's spikes. This was painted out on later re-releases of the albums on CD.


title: Motörhead

text: On 21 September 2007, Petagno announced that "there will be no more "HEADS" from my hand", citing irreconcilable differences between himself and the band's current management, Singerman Entertainment. Petagno stated:


title: Motörhead

text: Motörhead are well known in the professional wrestling world for performing wrestler Triple H's entrance music, "The Game", which he has used as his entrance music since January 2001. In addition to the song playing whenever Triple H appears on WWE programming such as "Raw" or "SmackDown", and at other pay-per-view wrestling events, the band have performed the song live for him at WrestleMania X-Seven and WrestleMania 21. Their song "Rock Out" was also used as the theme song of the WWE pay-per-view Unforgiven in 2008. Motörhead also provided the entrance music for Triple H's faction Evolution, entitled "Line in the Sand". "The Game" was released on both the American version of the "Hammered" and "WWF The Music, Vol. 5" albums, and "Line in the Sand" was released on the "" album. Motörhead have since performed a third entrance track for Triple H, entitled "King of Kings", which made its debut at WrestleMania 22. Triple H has also introduced the band in concert. Lemmy inspired Triple H's facial hair, and Triple H spoke at Lemmy's funeral.


title: Blues

text: Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the African-American culture. The blues form is ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll, and is characterized by the call-and-response pattern (the blues scale and specific chord progressions) of which the twelve-bar blues is the most common. Blue notes (or "worried notes"), usually thirds, fifths or sevenths flattened in pitch, are also an essential part of the sound. Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce the trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the groove.


title: Blues

text: Blues as a genre is also characterized by its lyrics, bass lines, and instrumentation. Early traditional blues verses consisted of a single line repeated four times. It was only in the first decades of the 20th century that the most common current structure became standard: the AAB pattern, consisting of a line sung over the four first bars, its repetition over the next four, and then a longer concluding line over the last bars. Early blues frequently took the form of a loose narrative, often relating the racial discrimination and other challenges experienced by African-Americans.


title: Blues

text: Many elements, such as the call-and-response format and the use of blue notes, can be traced back to the music of Africa. The origins of the blues are also closely related to the religious music of the Afro-American community, the spirituals. The first appearance of the blues is often dated to after the ending of slavery and, later, the development of juke joints. It is associated with the newly acquired freedom of the former slaves. Chroniclers began to report about blues music at the dawn of the 20th century. The first publication of blues sheet music was in 1908. Blues has since evolved from unaccompanied vocal music and oral traditions of slaves into a wide variety of styles and subgenres. Blues subgenres include country blues, such as Delta blues and Piedmont blues, as well as urban blues styles such as Chicago blues and West Coast blues. World War II marked the transition from acoustic to electric blues and the progressive opening of blues music to a wider audience, especially white listeners. In the 1960s and 1970s, a hybrid form called blues rock developed, which blended blues styles with rock music.


title: Blues

text: The term "Blues" may have come from "blue devils", meaning melancholy and sadness; an early use of the term in this sense is in George Colman's one-act farce "Blue Devils" (1798). The phrase "blue devils" may also have been derived from a British usage of the 1600s referring to the "intense visual hallucinations that can accompany severe alcohol withdrawal". As time went on, the phrase lost the reference to devils, and it came to mean a state of agitation or depression. By the 1800s in the United States, the term "blues" was associated with drinking alcohol, a meaning which survives in the phrase "blue law", which prohibits the sale of alcohol on Sunday. Though the use of the phrase in African-American music may be older, it has been attested to in print since 1912, when Hart Wand's "Dallas Blues" became the first copyrighted blues composition.


title: Blues

text: In 1827, it was in the sense of a sad state of mind that John James Audubon wrote to his wife that he "had the blues".


title: Blues

text: The phrase "the blues" was written by Charlotte Forten, then aged 25, in her diary on December 14, 1862. She was a free-born black woman from Pennsylvania who was working as a schoolteacher in South Carolina, instructing both slaves and freedmen, and wrote that she "came home with the blues" because she felt lonesome and pitied herself. She overcame her depression and later noted a number of songs, such as "Poor Rosy", that were popular among the slaves. Although she admitted being unable to describe the manner of singing she heard, Forten wrote that the songs "can't be sung without a full heart and a troubled spirit", conditions that have inspired countless blues songs.


title: Blues

text: The lyrics of early traditional blues verses often consisted of a single line repeated four times. It was only in the first decades of the 20th century that the most common current structure became standard: the so-called "AAB" pattern, consisting of a line sung over the four first bars, its repetition over the next four, and then a longer concluding line over the last bars. Two of the first published blues songs, "Dallas Blues" (1912) and "Saint Louis Blues" (1914), were 12-bar blues with the AAB lyric structure. W.C. Handy wrote that he adopted this convention to avoid the monotony of lines repeated three times. The lines are often sung following a pattern closer to rhythmic talk than to a melody.


title: Blues

text: Early blues frequently took the form of a loose narrative. African-American singers voiced their "personal woes in a world of harsh reality: a lost love, the cruelty of police officers, oppression at the hands of white folk, [and] hard times". This melancholy has led to the suggestion of an Igbo origin for blues because of the reputation the Igbo had throughout plantations in the Americas for their melancholic music and outlook on life when they were enslaved.


title: Blues

text: The lyrics often relate troubles experienced within African American society. For instance Blind Lemon Jefferson's "Rising High Water Blues" (1927) tells of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927:


title: Blues

text: Although the blues gained an association with misery and oppression, the lyrics could also be humorous and raunchy:


title: Blues

text: Hokum blues celebrated both comedic lyrical content and a boisterous, farcical performance style. Tampa Red and Georgia Tom's "It's Tight Like That" (1928) is a sly wordplay with the double meaning of being "tight" with someone, coupled with a more salacious physical familiarity. Blues songs with sexually explicit lyrics were known as dirty blues. The lyrical content became slightly simpler in postwar blues, which tended to focus on relationship woes or sexual worries. Lyrical themes that frequently appeared in prewar blues, such as economic depression, farming, devils, gambling, magic, floods and drought, were less common in postwar blues.


title: Blues

text: The writer Ed Morales claimed that Yoruba mythology played a part in early blues, citing Robert Johnson's "Cross Road Blues" as a "thinly veiled reference to Eleggua, the orisha in charge of the crossroads". However, the Christian influence was far more obvious. The repertoires of many seminal blues artists, such as Charley Patton and Skip James, included religious songs or spirituals. Reverend Gary Davis and Blind Willie Johnson are examples of artists often categorized as blues musicians for their music, although their lyrics clearly belong to spirituals.


title: Blues

text: The blues form is a cyclic musical form in which a repeating progression of chords mirrors the call and response scheme commonly found in African and African-American music. During the first decades of the 20th century blues music was not clearly defined in terms of a particular chord progression. With the popularity of early performers, such as Bessie Smith, use of the twelve-bar blues spread across the music industry during the 1920s and 30s. Other chord progressions, such as 8-bar forms, are still considered blues; examples include "How Long Blues", "Trouble in Mind", and Big Bill Broonzy's "Key to the Highway". There are also 16-bar blues, such as Ray Charles's instrumental "Sweet 16 Bars" and Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man". Idiosyncratic numbers of bars are occasionally used, such as the 9-bar progression in "Sitting on Top of the World", by Walter Vinson.


title: Blues

text: The basic 12-bar lyric framework of a blues composition is reflected by a standard harmonic progression of 12 bars in a 4/4 time signature. The blues chords associated to a twelve-bar blues are typically a set of three different chords played over a 12-bar scheme. They are labeled by Roman numbers referring to the degrees of the progression. For instance, for a blues in the key of C, C is the tonic chord (I) and F is the subdominant (IV).


title: Blues

text: The last chord is the dominant (V) turnaround, marking the transition to the beginning of the next progression. The lyrics generally end on the last beat of the tenth bar or the first beat of the 11th bar, and the final two bars are given to the instrumentalist as a break; the harmony of this two-bar break, the turnaround, can be extremely complex, sometimes consisting of single notes that defy analysis in terms of chords.


title: Blues

text: Much of the time, some or all of these chords are played in the harmonic seventh (7th) form. The use of the harmonic seventh interval is characteristic of blues and is popularly called the "blues seven". Blues seven chords add to the harmonic chord a note with a frequency in a 7:4 ratio to the fundamental note. At a 7:4 ratio, it is not close to any interval on the conventional Western diatonic scale. For convenience or by necessity it is often approximated by a minor seventh interval or a dominant seventh chord.


title: Blues

text: In melody, blues is distinguished by the use of the flattened third, fifth and seventh of the associated major scale.


title: Blues

text: Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce the trance-like rhythm and call-and-response, and they form a repetitive effect called a groove. Characteristic of the blues since its Afro-American origins, the shuffles played a central role in swing music. The simplest shuffles, which were the clearest signature of the R&B wave that started in the mid-1940s, were a three-note riff on the bass strings of the guitar. When this riff was played over the bass and the drums, the groove "feel" was created. Shuffle rhythm is often vocalized as ""dow", da "dow", da "dow", da" or ""dump", da "dump", da "dump", da": it consists of uneven, or "swung", eighth notes. On a guitar this may be played as a simple steady bass or it may add to that stepwise quarter note motion from the fifth to the sixth of the chord and back.


title: Blues

text: The first publication of blues sheet music may have been "I Got the Blues", published by New Orleans musician Antonio Maggio in 1908 and described as "the earliest published composition known to link the condition of having the blues to the musical form that would become popularly known as 'the blues.'" Hart Wand's "Dallas Blues" was published in 1912; W.C. Handy's "The Memphis Blues" followed in the same year. The first recording by an African American singer was Mamie Smith's 1920 rendition of Perry Bradford's "Crazy Blues". But the origins of the blues were some decades earlier, probably around 1890. This music is poorly documented, partly because of racial discrimination in U.S. society, including academic circles, and partly because of the low rate of literacy among rural African Americans at the time.


title: Blues

text: Reports of blues music in southern Texas and the Deep South were written at the dawn of the 20th century. Charles Peabody mentioned the appearance of blues music at Clarksdale, Mississippi, and Gate Thomas reported similar songs in southern Texas around 1901–1902. These observations coincide more or less with the recollections of Jelly Roll Morton, who said he first heard blues music in New Orleans in 1902; Ma Rainey, who remembered first hearing the blues in the same year in Missouri; and W.C. Handy, who first heard the blues in Tutwiler, Mississippi, in 1903. The first extensive research in the field was performed by Howard W. Odum, who published an anthology of folk songs from Lafayette County, Mississippi, and Newton County, Georgia, between 1905 and 1908. The first noncommercial recordings of blues music, termed "proto-blues" by Paul Oliver, were made by Odum for research purposes at the very beginning of the 20th century. They are now lost.


title: Blues

text: Other recordings that are still available were made in 1924 by Lawrence Gellert. Later, several recordings were made by Robert W. Gordon, who became head of the Archive of American Folk Songs of the Library of Congress. Gordon's successor at the library was John Lomax. In the 1930s, Lomax and his son Alan made a large number of non-commercial blues recordings that testify to the huge variety of proto-blues styles, such as field hollers and ring shouts. A record of blues music as it existed before 1920 can also be found in the recordings of artists such as Lead Belly and Henry Thomas. All these sources show the existence of many different structures distinct from twelve-, eight-, or sixteen-bar.


title: Blues

text: The social and economic reasons for the appearance of the blues are not fully known. The first appearance of the blues is usually dated after the Emancipation Act of 1863, between 1860s and 1890s, a period that coincides with post-emancipation and later, the establishment of juke joints as places where African-Americans went to listen to music, dance, or gamble after a hard day's work. This period corresponds to the transition from slavery to sharecropping, small-scale agricultural production, and the expansion of railroads in the southern United States. Several scholars characterize the development of blues music in the early 1900s as a move from group performance to individualized performance. They argue that the development of the blues is associated with the newly acquired freedom of the enslaved people.


title: Blues

text: According to Lawrence Levine, "there was a direct relationship between the national ideological emphasis upon the individual, the popularity of Booker T. Washington's teachings, and the rise of the blues." Levine stated that "psychologically, socially, and economically, African-Americans were being acculturated in a way that would have been impossible during slavery, and it is hardly surprising that their secular music reflected this as much as their religious music did."


title: Blues

text: There are few characteristics common to all blues music, because the genre took its shape from the idiosyncrasies of individual performers. However, there are some characteristics that were present long before the creation of the modern blues. Call-and-response shouts were an early form of blues-like music; they were a "functional expression ... style without accompaniment or harmony and unbounded by the formality of any particular musical structure". A form of this pre-blues was heard in slave ring shouts and field hollers, expanded into "simple solo songs laden with emotional content".


title: Blues

text: Blues has evolved from the unaccompanied vocal music and oral traditions of slaves imported from West Africa and rural blacks into a wide variety of styles and subgenres, with regional variations across the United States. Although blues (as it is now known) can be seen as a musical style based on both European harmonic structure and the African call-and-response tradition that transformed into an interplay of voice and guitar, the blues form itself bears no resemblance to the melodic styles of the West African griots. Additionally, there are theories that the four-beats-per-measure structure of the blues might have its origins in the Native American tradition of pow wow drumming. Some scholars identify strong influences on the blues from the melodic structures of certain West African musical styles of the savanna and sahel. Lucy Durran finds similarities with the melodies of the Bambara people, and to a lesser degree, the Soninke people and Wolof people, but not as much of the Mandinka people. Gerard Kubik finds similarities to the melodic styles of both the west African savanna and central Africa, both of which were sources of slaves.


title: Blues

text: No specific African musical form can be identified as the single direct ancestor of the blues. However the call-and-response format can be traced back to the music of Africa. That blue notes predate their use in blues and have an African origin is attested to by "A Negro Love Song", by the English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, from his "African Suite for Piano", written in 1898, which contains blue third and seventh notes.


title: Blues

text: The Diddley bow (a homemade one-stringed instrument found in parts of the American South sometimes referred to as a "jitterbug" or a "one-string" in the early twentieth century) and the banjo are African-derived instruments that may have helped in the transfer of African performance techniques into the early blues instrumental vocabulary. The banjo seems to be directly imported from West African music. It is similar to the musical instrument that griots and other Africans such as the Igbo played (called halam or akonting by African peoples such as the Wolof, Fula and Mandinka). However, in the 1920s, when country blues began to be recorded, the use of the banjo in blues music was quite marginal and limited to individuals such as Papa Charlie Jackson and later Gus Cannon.


title: Blues

text: Blues music also adopted elements from the "Ethiopian airs", minstrel shows and Negro spirituals, including instrumental and harmonic accompaniment. The style also was closely related to ragtime, which developed at about the same time, though the blues better preserved "the original melodic patterns of African music".


title: Blues

text: The musical forms and styles that are now considered the blues as well as modern country music arose in the same regions of the southern United States during the 19th century. Recorded blues and country music can be found as far back as the 1920s, when the record industry created the marketing categories "race music" and "hillbilly music" to sell music by blacks for blacks and by whites for whites, respectively. At the time, there was no clear musical division between "blues" and "country", except for the ethnicity of the performer, and even that was sometimes documented incorrectly by record companies.


title: Blues

text: Though musicologists can now attempt to define the blues narrowly in terms of certain chord structures and lyric forms thought to have originated in West Africa, audiences originally heard the music in a far more general way: it was simply the music of the rural south, notably the Mississippi Delta. Black and white musicians shared the same repertoire and thought of themselves as "songsters" rather than blues musicians. The notion of blues as a separate genre arose during the black migration from the countryside to urban areas in the 1920s and the simultaneous development of the recording industry. "Blues" became a code word for a record designed to sell to black listeners.


title: Blues

text: The origins of the blues are closely related to the religious music of Afro-American community, the spirituals. The origins of spirituals go back much further than the blues, usually dating back to the middle of the 18th century, when the slaves were Christianized and began to sing and play Christian hymns, in particular those of Isaac Watts, which were very popular. Before the blues gained its formal definition in terms of chord progressions, it was defined as the secular counterpart of spirituals. It was the low-down music played by rural blacks.


title: Blues

text: Depending on the religious community a musician belonged to, it was more or less considered a sin to play this low-down music: blues was the devil's music. Musicians were therefore segregated into two categories: gospel singers and blues singers, guitar preachers and songsters. However, when rural black music began to be recorded in the 1920s, both categories of musicians used similar techniques: call-and-response patterns, blue notes, and slide guitars. Gospel music was nevertheless using musical forms that were compatible with Christian hymns and therefore less marked by the blues form than its secular counterpart.