Hand grenades, the BBC, and Scumbag College: The story of Motörhead’s appearance on ‘The Young Ones’
Whether it was in the acid-dripped outer-cosmos of his time with Hawkwind, or during his many years as a heavy metal hero at the forefront of Motörhead, Lemmy Kilmister played an unimaginable wealth of iconic gigs over the years – whether or not he could actually remember them. Perhaps his most iconic, though, saw him perform in the front room of some particularly anarchic students.
Motörhead might have revolutionised the landscape of hard rock and metal from their first emergence during the tail-end of the 1970s, but British comedy was undergoing a similarly hardcore revolution around the same time. Rebelling against the old world of club comics and ‘mother-in-law’ jokes, the likes of Alexei Sayle carved out a new world of ‘alternative comedy’ in the underground clubs of Soho. By the 1980s, though, that comedic underground burst into the mainstream with the aid of the BBC, and The Young Ones was born.
Revolving around a particularly squalid student house, and the four mismatched students who live in/destroy it, The Young Ones was unlike anything that had come before, and it helped to launch the beloved careers of people like Rik Mayall and Ade Edmonson, who were at the heart of the show. Aside from its colossal importance in the history of British comedy, though, the show was also notable for its weekly music performances.
Reportedly, at the time The Young Ones was being made, the BBC allowed higher budgets to ‘variety’ programmes than simple sitcoms. So, by inviting a live band into the house every week, Mayall and the show’s creators were granted a bigger budget and more leeway with what they could get away with. As such, the likes of The Damned, Madness, and, perhaps most notably, Motörhead collided with that alternative comedy revolution at various points.
Motörhead’s appearance in the first episode of the show’s second series, ‘Bambi’, is arguably the show’s most iconic musical moment. While the students rush through a train station, attempting to make it to an expectedly explosive taping of University Challenge to represent their ‘Scumbag College’, Lemmy and the gang rattle through a performance of ‘Ace Of Spades’ in their living room – capturing both the timeless rock appeal of that classic track and the anarchic element of the programme.
Despite Kilmister’s naturally camera-trained performance – pointing at the audience during the legendary “That’s the way I like it…” line, the bassist himself didn’t massively enjoy the experience of being on the show. Asked about it during an interview with Salt Lake City Weekly, he called the cast of the show “really fucking boring” and “Left-wing college bores.”
For the other members of Motörhead, though, the performance was something of a landmark. Not only was it the band’s final performance with drummer Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor, before he left the group, but it was also their first with their new guitar line-up of Würzel and Phil Campbell.
Phil Campbell’s first show with Motörhead
Campbell, in particular, seemed to revel in the experience of filming, telling Noise11.com, “That must have been within a week of joining. Just a one-day shoot at the BBC.” The late guitarist recalled, “I remember going to the canteen and seeing Slade and Roy Wood. Lem said, ‘Don’t worry lads, in a few years you’ll have your own stories.’”
“The show was groundbreaking,” he added. Still, that groundbreaking nature didn’t always translate to music education, with the BBC’s cameras trained on Würzel while Campbell performed the track’s iconic solo. “I’m chuffed to have been on it, even if the cameraman pointed at the wrong guitarist during the solos,” the guitarist concluded.
Regardless of whether Lemmy himself placed much importance on the band’s iconic 1984 appearance on the show, and whether or not he got on well with Rick, Vyvyan, Mike, and Neil, that fateful performance of ‘Ace of Spades’ was a key gig in the history of Motörhead, and it introduced a lot of The Young Ones’ adolescent audience to the metal outfit for the very first time.
