Motörhead 1998: “Bomber” live in Norwich – a gem from The Löst Tapes

On 18 October 1998 Motörhead played the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich on the tour for their album “Snake Bite Love”. It was the band’s first Norwich show since 1989. The night stayed in the vaults for more than two decades until Motörhead released the full concert on 24 December 2021 as part of “The Löst Tapes” series on their official YouTube channel – on what would have been Lemmy’s 76th birthday. “Bomber” is one of the clips from that recording; according to one review, the song opened the show.

On stage: the trio of Lemmy Kilmister (bass, vocals), Phil Campbell (guitar) and Mikkey Dee (drums). This line-up had released “Snake Bite Love”, the band’s 14th studio album, in March 1998. “Bomber”, by contrast, comes from a very different era: it is the title track of the 1979 album recorded by Lemmy with “Fast” Eddie Clarke and Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor. Besides the opener, critics single out the return of “Shine”, “No Class” and the “Overkill” finale. The band itself announced the footage by saying they were “on venomous form”.

“The Löst Tapes” bring previously unreleased concerts out of the archive; the Norwich show was also issued on vinyl as volume two of the series, selected with Phil Campbell and Mikkey Dee. In February 2024 the box set “The Löst Tapes: The Collection” gathered volumes 1 to 5. The clip shows Motörhead as a tight late-Nineties power trio – and is a reminder of how alive their live legacy remains. Lemmy died in 2015 at the age of 70.