‘Ace of Spades’ Dolby Atmos Brain Invasion!

Members of the Rock Press gathered at the Dolby Atmos theatre in Soho Square last night to have an exclusive pre-listen to the new mix of the Motorhead ‘Ace of Spades’ album. It was a totally stunning experience to feel like Lemmy was actually inside your head like thoughts, more intimate than listening in headphones. For the first time all the lyrics could be heard and understood. A thrill, but perhaps not for the faint hearted!

Django Holder the mix engineer of Feel The Noize studios explained the process of recreating the mix from scratch into the Dolby Atmos mix. It was not straightforward as he discovered the speed of the original tapes he was provided with was different from the speed of the stereo version released and, not only that, the tracks on the tapes were not even the same speed as each other! The master ends 20 seconds after the released version! John Jackson the owner of Jackson studios where the album was recorded said that one explanation for this might have been power cuts at the time! There were many guitar overdubs from Eddie, luckily a number of them were labelled ‘Do Not Use’ which narrowed down which ones must have been used on the actual recording. Lemmy played bass like a rhythm guitar so there was less lower end than on modern recordings, but because of the energy and drive this did not matter.

Kris Needs, a music journalist that was with the band at the time of the recording, said that when he took over the Punk Rock Magazine Zig Zag in 1977 Motorhead were the “most hated band in England”, but he gave their single a good review saying they were “faster, nastier and louder than any of your Punk bands”. His office was round the corner from the basement where Lemmy lived and he used to go round there after work and was ultimately asked to write a book about the band. Motorhead were struggling and not happy with recordings they had created when through the Girlschool connection they went to Jackson studios where the girls had recorded ‘Demolition’. The band clicked with Vic Maile the producer (who they called The Turtle’ “because he looks like one” Lemmy) who drew out their essence and resulted in ‘Ace of Spades’. He would apparently look up from his Autotrader magazine and quietly say “Is that your best shot?” until he got the right take.

John Jackson explained that Jackson Studios was a brick built barn lined with RockWool which provided great separation. Django Holder commented that the isolation in the studio still stands up against today’s standards. Each day Motorhead would start at 2pm with a bottle of Smirnoff vodka, a bottle of Sainsbury’s dry white wine which would be gone by 4pm, so then out came another bottle and another downed in plastic cups. After working till late they would all go out partying. Sally, John’s daughter who looked after the catering for the band which involved a large amount of McVitie’s chocolate biscuits said there were many stories she remembered about the band. One day Philthy washed his custom green and yellow Ford Capri in sun tan oil which looked great at first, but which congealed into a black fly-catching mess by the next day. After he had broken his neck in a ‘who can throw each other higher contest’ with Irish fan club members he played the drums with a neck brace and appeared on Top Of The Pops with it with a bow tie drawn on it by Girlschool.

A fantastic album heard with new clarity made this quite an experience. Motorhead beer was provided for those who wanted to raise a glass to the three piece band, none of whom are with us anymore. Had they been there though, surely they would have approved! With the sound giving you the illusion of hearing Lemmy inside your own brain, it is surely the closest thing to still being with the band!

Dawn Osborne