The bizarre moment Lemmy met three of his ex-girlfriends on live TV
If you’re looking for proof that the 1990s were weirder than you remember, look no further. This footage of Motorhead frontman Lemmy being interviewed on The Girlie Show in 1997 is just about as oddball as it gets.
Occupying Channel 4’s so-called “post-pub” time slot at 11pm on Fridays, The Girlie Show was a late-night chat show that encouraged its guests and presenters to be as controversial as possible. In traditional Channel 4 fashion, the show was advertised as more dangerous and edgy than any other chat show on British television, and in many ways, it was.
Here, presenter Sara Cox, one of four female hosts on The Girlie Show, sits down with Lemmy to dig into his “murky” past. It isn’t long before the pair discuss the pros and cons of foreplay. This brand of frisky banter made The Girlie Show what it was.
The televised embodiment of the ladette phenomena saw women engage in the same antics their second-wave feminist predecessors had previously criticised in men. It was marketed as girl power in action, which is probably why the show became the first to host The Spice Girls.
In addition to hosts Sara Cox, Sarah Cawood, Rachel Williams and Clare Gorham, the show featured a group of lads from Sunderland – the “Naked Apes”. Each week, they were filmed doing something appropriately laddy, ranging from getting pissed on the ferry to Amsterdam, attempting to pick up women in a gay club, and going to the races dressed up as the dogs. The Girlie Show also ran a regular ‘Wanker Of The Week’ feature, of which Jimmy Nail and Naomi Campbell were both recipients.
As you’ll no doubt understand if you’ve watched the footage, The Girlie Show frequently came under fire for exploiting girl power to entertain a male audience. Although disguised as a tool of liberation, the programme was accused of reducing women to witless sex objects.
Throughout his interview, Lemmy looks very uncomfortable, clearly bewildered by the whole experience. The Girlie Show became known for staging practical jokes with audience members, so it’s possible that none of the women who join Lemmy on the couch even know the musician.
That being said, he seems to know them, indicating his embarrassment at having been thrown into a sofa with three of his ex-girlfriends is absolutely sincere. Either way, the whole interview is a bizarre watch.
