Now well past 25 years with the band, Phil Campbell is more than settled into his role as one of the “new guys” in Lemmy’s crankshaft band of bandsaw brothers. Mikkey Dee, compact Swede, ex- of KING DIAMOND, completes the lineup, although as has been reported, Mikkey’s been collared to take a rare break, given his gig as part of Swedish reality show Kandisjungeln. Replacing him for a short space will be similarly blonde bigshot Matt Sorum, who will flail away as MOTÖRHEAD continues to pack ‘em in on their extended tour in support of Motorizer, the record that might spell the end of the band’s relationship with SPV, who seem to be restructuring, or maybe not.

Explains Phil, gracious beer-supplying host on the band’s surprisingly civilized and neat-as-a-pin tour bus… “Mikkey asked me and Lem… it’s a good opportunity for him to do something different, like once-in-a-lifetime. So yes, there’s this ‘I’m a Swedish celebrity… ‘get me out of here’ show in the Malaysian jungle. So we’ve asked Matt Sorum, who has kindly agreed to drum for a while. Because it depends on the vote. Mikkey’s definitely going to be out for a week, and it could be two-and-a-half weeks, and so it will be good. It’ll be a change for us - we’ll have a different drum solo for the first time in 18 years (laughs). He’s coming in next week to do two shows. But he’s looking at videos and DVDs right now. But yeah, Mikkey… they’re all flying them in different planes. They can take one luxury item. You don’t know what to expect; you could be taken by helicopter.”

But Lem jokes that Mikkey’s not a jungle guy… “No, but he’s pretty tough. He’s scared of heights, and things, but it’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing. It will be fun to have Matt playing with us for a few weeks. He’s looking forward to it - something different.”

Asked about plans for the next Motörhead album, Phil notes that, “Our record company folded up, I believe – SPV - a couple months ago. Well, we got our money out of it. I don’t know if we’re just going to put it out ourselves this time, but everything is cool. I think we’re still going to do a new one next year, start writing in January/February.”

If so, the record-crankin’ clip’s slowed a bit, but bloody ‘ell, Motörhead have been extremely prolific over the last dozen years or so, and the records stand up stiffly as vital, and in fact, worthy of argument that they are better than the old stuff, a debate we scribes have quite often as concerns this band, as well as DEEP PURPLE and URIAH HEEP for that matter.

“You know, we’re not a band that just goes through our greatest hits,” agrees Phil. “We put every effort into it. That’s the one thing we have going in this band: our integrity. We’re never going to go platinum or anything like that, but we try. We don’t just play our greatest hits and the rest is filler.”

So who’s driving the process when you’re making these records?

“Basically, the last couple of albums, like before Christmas or something like that, early January, I’ve gone home and recorded a bunch of riffs and a bunch of half songs, and put drums on them and everything, and then I take them to LA, where we meet up, and it’s all based on that. Lem’s funny; he’s a machine but he’s lazy when it comes to that. But he comes in and contributes his bit, which is really important and everything. He trusts me and Mik. We sort of slam it all together and everything, and he’ll come in and have his say and Mikkey helps arrange it - comes up; sings some riffs - and comes in. It’s all a three-way thing, but it starts with me.”

But of course, Lemmy, being the literary guy he is, is of tantamount import when it comes to the wordsmithing… “Well, sometimes he’ll have ten sets of lyrics. Like in the dressing room now, two minutes ago now, he’s doodling. Not with lyrics, but he’s come up with a… you’ll have to see them after, Martin. He’s been doing them for the last 12 months, some funny drawings, with a caption after them, just stupid stuff. He’s got to keep his mind alert. But other times, like last album, I don’t think he had any lyrics towards the last couple of weeks of recording. But we’re not worried - we know that Lem will come up with it in the end. And with ‘Orgasmatron’, there’s the perfect lyric for one song, and so we’d try to see where it would fit. There’s no rules in music; that’s the thing. You can write the best song in the world sitting on the toilet, in any country in the world, just thinking, and you can write the best music in the world in a five-star studio with three weeks’ rehearsal in Los Angeles. There’s no rules - it just comes.”

But like Purple, like SABBATH even… don’t call what Motörhead come up with “heavy metal.” It’s always amusing getting this sermon out of Lem, but doubly so when both he and Phil think so alike.

“Bluesy? Yes, it is,” avows Campbell, “because I can’t play heavy metal guitar. I’m a blues guitarist who plays the blues - that’s what I play in my sleep. I can’t do this metal, stuff like that. It’s rock ‘n’ roll, heavy blues, like. We’re a blues band, really, a rock ‘n’ roll band. We’re not a thrash metal band or anything.

The solos I’m playing tonight, it’s blues all the way along (laughs).”

The Toronto gig about to happen that night would turn out to be a bit of an unwitting landmark, in that by our calculations, at close to 3000 Motörheadbangers, this would have to be the biggest headlining gig the band ever played in this city. Possibly the best sounding as well, even if Lemmy seemed a bit listless on the eve. But previous to this jaunt, the band was on familiar terrain as part of a big metal package, which allowed for some of Campbell’s famous pranking… “On the last gig of the PRIEST tour,” relates Phil, “I don’t know if you saw this, but TESTAMENT thought they could outdo us for the last night prank, so I rode a horse on stage, during their gig. You heard about it, yeah? On the horse, dressed up and everything. And I distributed 150 USA Today to the crowd straight after, so when Ronnie came on with HEAVEN & HELL, the first ten rows are all reading newspapers.”