A previously unreleased recording of Motörhead sound-checking “Stay Clean” on the No Sleep ’Til Hammersmith tour has been unearthed. The track will be included on the upcoming 40th anniversary edition of the aforementioned live album, out June 25th.
On the newly unveiled recording, the band rips through the Overkill track to a mostly empty venue — not that you could tell by hearing it. The recording is hard evidence of the commitment Lemmy and company had for their craft, pummeling the sound techs and stagehands as if it was the main event.
Few documents exist from Motörhead’s soundchecks, a vital part of the daily grind of touring. Fortunately, the band brought a mobile recording unit along for their “Short Sharp Pain in the Neck Tour” in March of 1981. The recording of “Stay Clean” came from the warmup to the March 30th show in Newcastle.
The expanded anniversary edition of No Sleep ’Til Hammersmith is a celebration of the classic Motörhead lineup of frontman Lemmy Kilmister, guitarist Fast Eddie Clark, and drummer Philthy Animal Taylor. The band’s unparalleled power was harnessed on the double-live album, which went to No. 1 on the UK charts after its release on June 27th, 1981.
The expanded edition features remastered audio from the original analog tapes, bonus tracks, additional soundcheck recordings, and a previously unreleased full concert recording from the March 30th Newcastle show. For the four-disc CD box set, the three full concerts from which the Hammersmith album was culled have been restored in their entirety for the first time.
Pre-order the No Sleep ’Til Hammersmith expanded edition here. Watch the video for the Motörhead “Stay Clean” soundcheck recording below.
