ON THE ROAD: Motörhead
MAESTROS OF METAL
WHEN GENRE-INFLUENCING HEAVY METAL BAND MOTÖRHEAD GO ON TOUR, ONE THING IS CERTAIN - IT’S GOING TO GET RATHER LOUD. TPI’S ZOE MUTTER HEADED TO THE MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC HALLE IN DÜSSELDORF, GERMANY, TO SEE THE PIONEERS OF SPEED ROCK IN ACTION.
Without Motörhead, the history of heavy metal would be incomplete. The band’s influence on the genre and overwhelmingly loud and fast-paced style has blown audiences away throughout the group’s history. As Eddie Rocha, Tour Manager and Production Manager of the band’s tours for the past seven years, pointed out, Motörhead’s successful formula has meant their musical style and the appearance of their live shows has not changed dramatically since they formed in 1975. “As you can expect, they like it loud live and
it has to be the biggest sound you can get. The wedges we use for Lead Singer Lemmy were purchased because they were the only ones that could get loud enough,” said Rocha, who lives in Brazil and works on tours coming into the country when he is not on the road. During the 13 years Rocha spent
working with Brazilian band Sepultura he met Motörhead’s previous Manager, Todd Singerman, and Tour Manager, Adam Parsons. “At one point Motörhead and Sepultura had the same management and when Adam decided not to go on the road anymore, I started
58 • TPi JANUARY 2012
doing a few shows with the band in South America and I’ve worked with them ever since,” explained Rocha. The band’s most recent tour, The World Is
Yours, has seen the band and production crew travel the globe before heading out on the road again with Megadeath, Volbeat and Lacuna Coil in 2012. The production planning took place a month before the tour started, but the team only had one day of rehearsals at Millennium Studios in Bedford. Said Rocha: “We do a full production tour at this time of year and then go on to the summer festivals. Unlike the European dates, when the show traveled around the US, we took some extra PA to add to the local system and full monitors.”
NO NEED FOR VIDEO Video was incorporated into the show on the band’s 2008 European tour. However, according to Rocha, Motörhead’s old school style does not lend itself to this element being introduced into the performance. The look of the show has always been largely the band’s decision and in place of a large video display surface behind the band - a common feature of many other
live shows - customised backdrops produced by Hangman were hung on stage to coincide with each country the tour visited. “Occasionally we try to bring in new kit
such as more moving lights, but Motörhead are different to other bands and people know what to expect. You don’t need any image magnification on side screens because it’s all about the three musicians on the stage. Even the super fans, whose opinions we always listen to, thought the video didn’t work,” said Rocha. Other additional features are introduced for
some of the band’s performances. To fit in with the hit Bomber, a large aluminium plane has been hung over the stage at previous shows. “We’ve brought it out at some festivals too, but it hasn’t been a part of this tour because it requires another truck and when we are playing some of the smaller venues it just isn’t practical,” explained Rocha. “We were able to fit everything in two
trucks on this tour - from catering through to production, but every day is still a challenge to see how many points we have and then work out the weight we are able to fly.” Although pyrotechnics were not part of
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