I illustrated this classic album cover for Motorhead in ‘79. I’ve just been writing up this funny story of how I met the band to discuss the cover for a new book to be called ‘Top 200 hard rock cover arts’ by Martin Popoff to be published soon.

    “I was given the commission on a Friday and I suggested we all meet on the Saturday at midday to discuss the cover as I was only given a few days to illustrate this and I had to crack on with it. They looked a bit pissed off to have had to get up that early. They had the title but not much else so I suggested a dramatic angle on a diving bomber and they all seemed to like the idea. Philthy Animal didn’t say anything at all but sucked noisily on a tin of Special brew. Lemmy suggested it should be a German bomber as and I quote ‘…the bad guys make the best shit’, which I couldn’t argue with. Fast Eddie seemed to go along with it all.
    We agreed on a Heinkel 111 as the glass nose and under slung gun turret would give me more places in which to put the boys. I bought a little Airfix model, put it together and sprayed it black. I then shot it with dramatic lighting and this gave me excellent reference from which I could execute the airbrush illustration.
    I painted it in black and white first as this gives maximum drama and then tinted it  with color later. I added Motorhead’s ‘Snaggletooth’ logo in a kind of chrome effect where the swastika would have been. Lots of searchlights and explosions and a detaching bomb flying towards the camera completed the drama.
    I took passport sized pics of the boys all looking mean. Lemmy curled up his lip and perfectly looked the part, Phill just had that expression permanently so he didn’t have to try hard. Eddie wasn’t overjoyed at his ‘girlie looking hair’ but overall Motorhead were ecstatic about the final illustration. It proved to be so popular that they subsequently made the famous 40 foot lighting rig in the shape of the bomber for the tour.
    It was one of the most famous album covers I’ve ever done, so my Mum had the original artwork on the wall of her sitting room. She was very religious and would have the Methodist circle over after church on a Sunday. So there would be Lemmy and Philthy Animal snarling out of the picture with the vicar sipping tea underneath.”