''No Sleep 'til Hammersmith'' is the first live album by English

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

band

Motörhead Motörhead () were an English rock music, rock band formed in London in 1975 by bassist and lead vocalist Lemmy Kilmister, guitarist Larry Wallis and drummer Lucas Fox. Kilmister was the primary songwriter and only constant member. The band a ...

, released in June 1981 by

Bronze Records Bronze Records was an independent English record label founded in 1971 by record producer Gerry Bron on Oxford Street in London, eventually relocating to Chalk Farm. History Bron had been producing Uriah Heep (band), Uriah Heep for Vertigo Reco ...

. It peaked at number one on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

. It was followed by the release of the single " Motorhead" (backed with the non-album track "Over the Top") on 3 July, which peaked on the UK Singles Chart at number 6.

Background

After releasing three albums and touring for five years, Motörhead's 1980 album ''

Ace of Spades The ace of spades (also known as the Spadille, Old Frizzle, and Death Card) is traditionally the highest and most valued card in the deck of playing cards. The actual value of the card varies from game to game. Design The ornate design of the ...

'' (their first LP to be released in the United States) gave the band its first taste of major success. However, as drummer

Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor Philip John Taylor (21 September 1954 – 12 November 2015), better known as "Philthy Animal", was an English drummer. He was a member of the rock band Motörhead from 1975 to 1984 and 1987 to 1992, recording eleven studio albums and four live ...

wryly notes in the documentary ''The Guts and the Glory'': In February 1981, the band released the ''St. Valentine's Day Massacre'' EP co-recorded with Girlschool, and in March headed out on a British jaunt called the "Short Sharp Pain in the Neck" tour, from which the songs on ''No Sleep 'til Hammersmith'' would be picked.

Recording

The original ''No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith'' LP includes two songs from their debut album, the title track from 1979's ''

Bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft that utilizes air-to-ground weaponry to drop bombs, launch aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploy air-launched cruise missiles. There are two major classifications of bomber: strategic and tactical. Strateg ...

'', five songs from 1979's '' Overkill'', and three songs from ''

''. The track "Motorhead" would be released as a single and become the band's biggest chart hit, reaching number 6 in the UK. Bar "Iron Horse/Born to Lose", which was from a 1980 show, ''No Sleep 'til Hammersmith'' was recorded at

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

and

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

shows during the ''Short Sharp Pain in the Neck'' tour. The name of the tour referred to an injury sustained by Taylor when he was dropped on his head during after-show horseplay. The title is a reference to the major London music venue the

Hammersmith Odeon The Hammersmith Apollo, currently called the Eventim Apollo for sponsorship reasons, and formerly and still commonly known as the Hammersmith Odeon, is a live entertainment performance venue, originally built as a cinema called the Gaumont Pa ...

(now Apollo); often the last stop on the band's UK tours. But despite the name, this venue was not played on this tour, the shows being: * 27 March 1981: West Runton Pavilion,

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

, England * 28 March 1981:

Queen's Hall The Queen's Hall was a concert hall in Langham Place, London, Langham Place, London, opened in 1893. Designed by the architect Thomas Knightley, it had room for an audience of about 2,500 people. It became London's principal concert venue. Fro ...

, Leeds, England * 29 March 1981:

City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

, Newcastle, England * 30 March 1981: City Hall, Newcastle, England * 3 April 1981: Maysfield Leisure Centre,

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

, Northern Ireland Backstage at Leeds and Newcastle, the band were presented with

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

and

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

records for sales of ''Ace of Spades'', silver for ''Overkill'' and silver for " Please Don't Touch". Kilmister, Ian Fraser and Garza, Janiss ''White Line Fever'' (2002).

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...

p. 145. . The sound at Leeds Queens hall was not good and most of the original album is taken from Newcastle. Vocalist and bassist

Lemmy Ian Fraser Kilmister (24 December 1945 – 28 December 2015), better known as Lemmy Kilmister or simply Lemmy, was a British musician. He was the founder, lead vocalist, bassist and primary songwriter of the metal band Motörhead, of which he ...

stated that originally they intended ''No Sleep 'til Hammersmith'' to be a double album but they only had enough material for three sides. At the time of the album's release, the band were in the middle of their first tour of North America, supporting

Ozzy Osbourne John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English singer, songwriter, and media personality. He rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead singer of the heavy metal music, heavy metal band Black Sabbath, during which per ...

. "When 'No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith' came out", Lemmy told James McNair of ''

Mojo Mojo may refer to: * Mojo (African-American culture), a magical charm bag used in Hoodoo Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * ''Mojo'' (2017 film), a 2017 Indian Kannada drama film written and directed by Sreesha Belakvaadi * '' ...

'' in 2011, "it made a difference financially, but a lot of it went back into the show."

Reception

''No Sleep 'til Hammersmith'' is the band's peak in terms of chart positions. In the wake of the success of the ''

St. Valentine's Day Massacre The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre was the murder of seven members and associates of Chicago's North Side Gang on Saint Valentine's Day 1929. The men were gathered at a Lincoln Park, Chicago garage on the morning of February 14, 1929. They were ...

'' EP and ''

'' album and single, it entered the UK chart at number one. Lemmy believed its success was due to a building anticipation from their fan base for a live album, due to the band having toured so heavily in the past, but also considered it their "downfall" due to the difficulty in following up its success. Jason Birchmeier of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

wrote, "the performance: in a word, it's breakneck. ..Motörhead could do no wrong at this point in time, as they were laying the foundation for the coming thrash movement, in a way, and their winning streak continues here on ''No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith'', one of the best live metal albums of all time." In the 2011 book ''Overkill: The Untold Story of Motörhead'', biographer

Joel McIver Joel McIver (born 10 February 1971) is a British author. His best-known work is ''Justice for All: The Truth About Metallica'', first published in 2004 and appearing in nine languages since then. McIver's other works include biographies of Bla ...

calls it "the peak of the Lemmy/Clarke/Philthy line-up's career".

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

wrote, "Vic Maile's power-packed definition obliterates my bias against live recording. Remakes of white lies like 'No Class' and 'Stay Clean' and calling cards like 'Bomber' and 'Motorhead' save valuable shelf space. So what if it gives me a headache? Sometimes a headache comes as a relief." ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' rated it the best live album of all time. It is also featured in the book ''

1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die ''1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die'' is a musical reference book first published in 2005 by Universe Publishing. Part of the ''1001 Before You Die'' series, it compiles writings and information on albums chosen by a panel of music criti ...

''.

Legacy

The title of the band's third live album, '' Nö Sleep at All'', refers to the title of this album. The album title was also referenced by the

Beastie Boys The Beastie Boys were an American Hip-hop, hip hop and Rap rock, rap rock group formed in New York City in 1979. They were composed of Ad-Rock, Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz (vocals, guitar), Adam Yauch, Adam "MCA" Yauch (vocals, bass), and Mike D, ...

on the track " No Sleep till Brooklyn" from their album '' Licensed to Ill''.

Track listing

Original edition

Metal-Is Records 2001 2-CD re-issue edition

* All track dates taken from the liner notes *'Iron Horse/Born to Lose' was recorded at an unspecified location in 1980, on the 1980 European tour (thus between 7 February and 20 April 1980), the same tour as ''The Golden Years'' EP, which are also unspecified on any releases.

2021 40th anniversary edition

''No Sleep 'til Hammersmith'' was reissued on 25 June 2021 via Sanctuary/BMG for its 40th anniversary across a number of formats, including a four-CD deluxe edition with previously unreleased performances. The record featured tracks from the band’s ''Short Sharp Pain in the Neck'' tour which saw them play Newcastle, Leeds, Norfolk and Belfast in the space of a week, in late March / early April 1981. This 40th anniversary reissue features a new remaster of the original album created from the original tapes. The four-CD edition includes five bonus tracks on the first disc (three of which are previously unreleased from a soundcheck) and features three previously unreleased full concerts from this tour: Leeds Queen Hall (28 March 1981) and both nights from Newcastle City Hall (29 & 30 March 1981). Just over half of the original album is from the Newcastle show on the 30 March. The box set includes 28-page book, poster, plectrum, tour pass, ticket, flyer & badge.

Personnel

Per the album's liner notes. * Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister – lead vocals, bass *

"Fast" Eddie Clarke Edward Allan Clarke (5 October 1950 – 10 January 2018), better known as "Fast" Eddie Clarke or simply "Fast" Eddie, was a British guitarist who was a member of heavy metal bands Fastway and Motörhead. Of Motörhead's classic lineup, which ...

– guitar, backing vocals *

– drums

Production

* Vic Maile – producer * Ian Kalinowski – front sleeve photography * Graham Mitchell – back sleeve photography * Simon Porter – back sleeve photography

Release history

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

External links

''No Sleep 'til Hammersmith''
(

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) at

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(streamed copy where licensed) {{DEFAULTSORT:No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith Albums produced by Vic Maile Motörhead live albums 1981 live albums Bronze Records live albums Live heavy metal albums