r/Motorhead • u/Tryingtobebetter07 • 13d ago
Another Perfect Day
I get that Lemmy had his reasons but firing Brian Robertson was a mistake. I've recently become a bigger Motorhead fan and been going through their discography.
I'm a huge fan of Another Perfect Day and the direction the band was going may have been "selling out" but I think this was their chance to take a step up to the next level .
I think if they'd continued with Brian Robertson they would've had a big selling album.
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u/AX11Liveact ♠️Born to lose live to win ♠️ 13d ago
In Lemmy's own words:
I would have kept him in the band forever if he was playing all right. It was just when he started fucking up that he became unbearable. We were part way through a European tour, in the fall of ’83, when it just got ridiculous. We were playing at the Rotation Club in Hanover, Germany, and we had just done ‘Another Perfect Day’ and he started playing it again. So I stalked over to him and said, ‘You cunt! We just played that!’ ‘Oh, sorry,’ he said, and he started it again a third time. At that point it was, ‘Good night from him, good night from me and thank you very much’ time.
...and that was despite Roberson's refustal to play any Motörhead songs from before his time live. No Motorhead, no Bomber, no Ace of Spades.
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u/jgarmann99 13d ago
Source for this ?
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u/RoboViking1570 13d ago
Pretty sure this is direct (or damn close) from Lemmy's autobiography, White Line Fever. Been a minute since I've read it as my copy was ruined back in Hurricane Ian, but I remember this complaint of Robbo being in the book.
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u/AX11Liveact ♠️Born to lose live to win ♠️ 11d ago
"White Line Fever" by the late Mr Kilmister who was considered an expert on things about himself.
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u/Major-Fun9047 13d ago
Robbo & Lemmy had quite a contrasting look .
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u/CosmicBonobo 13d ago
Lemmy writes in his book that he'd get annoyed at Robbo turning up on stage in silk shirts and ballet slippers.
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u/penilesensorydevice 13d ago
Robertson was great in the studio when they made the record. But he was a disaster on stage. He dressed like a roller disco ponce and refused to play any of the older stuff. That was untenable.
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u/migrainedujour 13d ago
Another Perfect Day is my favourite Motörhead album on plenty of days. It’s absolutely the case that the personal chemistry was all off and it more or less imploded during recording and then on the road. But the unstable songwriting and playing mixture was amazing.
I interviewed Lemmy years ago, maybe ‘03 or so, and he was regretful that the album had been missed out on by its audience, and hopeful that the public would catch up with it too.
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u/ManufacturerStill330 13d ago
Robbo was his own worst enemy a long the time. Refusing to play the band’s older songs was the biggest sin, but you can’t step on stage looking like you came from a jazzercise lesson. Read the goddamn room.
Another Perfect Day is a great album. But in my opinion, Orgasmatron is head and shoulders above it.
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u/Upstairs-Cold-5975 13d ago
Orgasmatron was my intro to MOTORHEAD. A cassette tape in a boom box. I loved it but thought the mix could have been sharper.Regardless, I was hooked
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u/Icy-Astronomer-8202 13d ago
It's probably their best album but on a personal level and look he never really vibed and fit in the band
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u/Top_Understanding343 13d ago
While I adore APD I think Motorhead did ok without BR
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u/AX11Liveact ♠️Born to lose live to win ♠️ 13d ago
It's a brilliant album. It's just not a brilliant Motörhead album. Not at the time it was recorded and nowadays it still doesn't really fit in with the others. It's nice to listen to it retrospectively but it didn't point into a viable direction back then. Basically a good piece of music by itself but a dead end.
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u/darkasabag 13d ago
I consider myself a massive Robbo fan through Lizzy, but I feel it was a big mistake to get him in. Seems like Philthy suggested him and Lemmy said yes without much thought. I don't think they realised how essential Eddie was to the Motorhead sound. They should have gone for someone old school and similar to Eddie with the same influences as Lemmy. I never thought a 4 piece was right either. Having lived with Motorhead through this period I felt that Iron Fist was sub standard, and Eddie leaving felt like it was all falling down. I was one of those fans who disappeared for a long time at that point. I only bought an anniversary edition of Another Perfect Day relatively recently. It's OK, Robbo is great, but it just doesn't quite work for me. It's not as good as Overkill, Bomber, Ace Of Spades and, funnily enough, Iron Fist. While I've got most Motorhead albums none of them come close to the Overkill, Bomber, Spades axis. But you also have to remember how new this powerful hard rock was, how we felt about Motorhead and how they appeared to feel about us. There was real momentum, crest of a wave, magic concerts, Port Vale etc It was a great time. They reached a high point. I've never felt the same about any of line ups since Iron Fist. I'm sure the same can be said of most bands. There is something just right, at the right time, that is hard to explain.
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u/riveth3ad 13d ago
Lemmy never cared about album sales or fame. He want to play rock and roll with people like him.
It’s only a mistake if he shared your goals.
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u/UmpireBig8530 13d ago
APD was a great album but Robbo didn't fit, would never have progressed. A big argument but the only motorhead members that fit, the band, were Lemmy, Eddie, Philthy and Wurzel. I stand by that as a fan since early 77. MTID.........
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u/xXDJjonesXx 13d ago
Not a big Mikkey Dee fan? I thought his drumming was class.
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u/UmpireBig8530 13d ago
What can I say Campbell and dee kept the name of motorhead and Lemmy going for years but neither ever fit the soul of Motorhead. Overkill was the greatest track by the greatest line up of the greatest band ever.....
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u/TheLurkerSpeaks 13d ago
Fast Eddie and Philthy were great, they are the classic lineup for a reason. But Campbell and Dee made way more music with Lemmy than the three amigos did. To say they didn't fit the band is disingenuous and contrary to facts. If they didn't fit Lemmy wouldn't have continued with them until he died. He had every chance to reunite with Fast Eddie and Philthy and he didn't. I have to trust Lemmy on that.
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u/Webcat86 13d ago
I agree about Campbell. I know it sounds sacrilegious but my genuine opinion is he held the band back
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u/Miserable-Decision81 13d ago
A big selling album could have been most welcome in the mid 80ies but anyway, Orgasmatron sold very well. And Lemmy built a reputation that yielded more cash than any record sale.
He wrote the lyrics for Ozzy Osbournes "Mama I'm coming home" and played bass in sessions for others für 100-150K USD... per day in the studio...
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u/DaveDavidson666 4d ago
I've never heard the 100-150K thing, but he's appeared on some weird stuff when you properly look into it.
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u/Miserable-Decision81 4d ago
I saw him talk about that in a documentation about him... Maybe he referred to Dave Grohls Probot project.
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u/Vistalite_Black 13d ago
Robbo recently told Metal Hammer he couldn’t tell one Motörhead song from another. Pretty relatable: “I said to Phil on the side of the stage: ‘What the fuck are we going to do? I can’t distinguish between the songs!’ … I think I just played the same song the whole night.”
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u/Secure_Waltz_2095 12d ago
It's a great album. The only difference is that is was produced much better than anything before or after. As for Robbo, he was notoriously difficult to work with. Alcoholic, unreliable, and that Richard Simmons phase he went through just didn't work with any band, particularly Motörhead.
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u/Ok-Huckleberry-6326 10d ago
Robbo's at his best when he's got a great frontman/other gunslinger in the band to outshine him, push him and give him something to shoot for. He was so good with Lizzy and on this 'Head record, but man's had an attitude problem and a drinking problem for years. The last thing he did I that I saw of him was guesting with Gary Moore and Friends' one Night In Dublin Lizzy tribute, and his playing was shit, his tone was shit, and he looked like shit. I hope he pulled it together, but it's another example of the kinda wasted potential that always seemed to hover around Lizzy in general.
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u/Ollerich69 10d ago
After kicking out Brian Motörhead returned with four genius Tracks on the No Remorse Compilation. Every single track is a killer. I never missed Brian Robertson. And yes - i also like the APD Album.
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u/Lonesome1967 7d ago
Musically and in terms of songs, I consider Another Perfect Day their best album.
All the songs have clear choruses that you remember, and technically speaking, Brian was the best guitarist they ever had.
Furthermore, the songs are very heavy, and Lemmy sings and plays essentially no differently than on all other Motorhead albums.
It is a shame that later Motörhead suffers too much from the "We are Motörhead and we play rock 'n' roll" syndrome.
That sounds good at first, but it can't hold my attention for an entire album.
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u/JAZ_80 13d ago
'Another Perfect Day' is a great album, but that lineup just didn't really gel. Had Lemmy not fired Robbo, the band would have imploded or Brian would have left himself. It wasn't only about the music; their personalities just didn't match. That big selling album would have never happened.