Portal:Motörhead/Selected article/4

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No Sleep 'til Hammersmith was Motörhead's first live album. The recordings were almost exclusively from three shows: (Leeds, March 28, 1981 and Newcastle March 29 and March 30, 1981). "Iron Horse / Born To Lose" having been recorded live in 1980. Backstage at the last two shows in Leeds and Newcastle the band were presented with silver and gold albums for Ace of Spades, a silver disc for Overkill and a silver for "Please Don't Touch".

The album was released after the St. Valentine's Day Massacre EP and built on the success of that single and the earlier LPs, debuting at Number One on the UK charts and marking the band's most successful period. Lemmy says that originally they intended it to be a double album but they only had enough material for three sides. By the time the record was released the band were on their first U.S. tour with Ozzy Osbourne.

The single, "Motorhead (live)", was issued using the album's final track for the A-side, covered with the non-album track "Over the Top" recorded on the same tour, reaching number 6 in the UK Singles Charts. This was released in a picture-sleeve and also as a picture-disc (p/d UK cat Bronze BROP 124).

The original vinyl album has a photo-montage inner-sleeve and was available in black (UK cat. Bronze BRON 535) and later 'gold' vinyl (UK cat. Bronze BRONG 535). (read more...)