THIS WEEK I’M LISTENING TO…MOTÖRHEAD – Orgasmatron (40th Anniversary Edition) (BMG)

With Brian Robertson leaving Motörhead at the end of the ‘Another Perfect Day’ touring cycle Lemmy recruited guitarists Phil Campbell and Würzel – Michael Burston, to his headmaster – and with Phil Taylor then upping sticks brought in ex-Saxon drummer Pete Gill. The new-look four-piece band made their debut with four tracks on the September 1984 Bronze Records ‘No Remorse’ compilation and were then tied down with legal complications with Bronze until they re-appeared on GWR Records in July 1986 with ‘Orgasmatron’. With its striking cover art (prepared when the album had the working title of ‘Ridin’ With The Driver’) and a clutch of stonkingly good material – the book-ending ‘Deaf Forever’ and the title track, and one-time set opener ‘Dr Rock’, are worth the price of the album alone – ‘Orgasmatron’ peaked at No 21 in the UK chart; OK, so that’s one place less than ‘Another Perfect Day’, but there’s little doubt that ‘Orgasmatron’ rebooted their career and showed that there was plenty more gas in the band’s tanks.

Lemmy at the GWR Offices in 1987, shot for Rock Brigae magazine

If there was a fly in the ointment, it’s that the band were far from happy with the final mix. As such, what you get here, on either two CDs or three slabs of vinyl, is a remaster of the original 1986 LP, together with a complete new remix by Motörhead collaborator Cameron Webb, who first produced the band on ‘Inferno’ in 2004 and went on to have a lengthy relationship with the band as well working on Lemmy’s Headcat side project. Whether it’s better than the original version is a debate for the listener, and of course Gill is the only person from that line-up who’s still around who could comment from the band’s perspective, but there’s certainly more clarity to it and possibly less bludgeoning. On top of that comes a clutch of studio outtakes and rehearsal versions of the album material, and the band’s May 1986 session recorded for ‘The Friday Rock Show’ (including the spooky spoken word ‘Orgasmatron’). It’s a comprehensive set, it’s an exciting album, and it’s Motörhead – what else is there to say?

John Tucker October 2026