Monday, November 16, 2009

The Vampire Of Sunset Strip: That's the title Rolling Stone magazine gave to their first feature on Motorhead, reflecting within it the hours Lemmy keeps. It was a good analogy, and this has been his habit for the last 40 years, if not longer. Up at 2pm, soundcheck between 4 and 5pm (if on tour, which he is often as not), venue opens at 7pm; Motorhead onstage 9.30 until 11; wind down, go to a strip / lap / pole dance club, and then to bed at whatever time of day it happens to be.
Back in 1983, Lemmy phoned me at work to ask if I would "take over the remnants of the Taylor family run MHB's fan club?" and I said "Blimey, you're up early!" to which he replied, "No, I'm up late!"
Vampires have always fascinated mankind, and probably always will. In Mick Farren's what has become known as 'The Renquist Quartet' of vampire novels, (The Time Of Feasting / Darklost / More Than Mortal / Underland), he speculates that humanity is a failed race created by aliens who were brought to planet Earth to keep that mistake from being a thorn in their side, whilst they went on to create a hybrid, but without the flaws.
This alien race then assisted and directed our labour in the building the pyramids, so that if they needed to, they could see the original gold apex' tips glinting from several thousand light years away, and know where we were - well, they didn't have sat-nav 4,000 years ago, did they!
When the building was complete, the aliens used 'sun bombs' (H-bombs) to obliterate us, but inevitably, all were not killed; as they obviously hadn't devised the 'Overkill' theory at that time, either!
So they brought another failed race to planet Earth to eradicate us; the vampires: of which Victor Renquist, the 1,000 year old vampire and the main protagonist in Farren's four fabulous novels, would eventually become.
Forget Anne Rice's 'Interview With A Vampire,' forget Bram Stoker's 'Dracula;' Victor Renquist is the man; and when you have read any or all of these books, you will ache to become a vampire yourself.