Review by Daniel for MotörheadGirlschool - St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1981)
During the latter part of 1980, Motorhead had hit a career high point & were enjoying the strongest critical & commercial success of their career to date. So you can imagine that the band & their management would have viewed any sort of hold-up in their touring & recording schedules as disastrous. But unfortunately for the band that’s exactly what they were about to experience. Motorhead drummer Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor had managed to seriously injure his neck while mucking around during drunken shenanigans & apparently it’s a little hard to drum in Motorhead with a busted neck. Phil had been taking part in a game of “who can lift the other person up the highest” with a large Irishman which resulted in Phil being dropped on his head from quite a height. An extremely unlucky & freak occurrence for such a game, don’t you think? But however it may have occurred, it certainly brought Motorhead’s meteoric rise to a grinding hault. Thankfully for the band though, Motorhead’s label mates Girlschool were in the recording studio at the time & their producer Vic Maile had the ingenius idea to invite Lemmy & Eddie into the studio to record a single with Girlschool so as to ensure that the Motorhead juggernaut wasn’t completely derailed while Phil recovered.
The result was the “St. Valentines Day Massacre” EP which was released in February 1981 with the band’s names listed as “Motor Headgirl School” on the front cover. The artwork features the two bands dressed as prohibition era gangsters & their molls while the musical concept was equally as interesting. The two bands would combine for a cover version of Johnny Kidd & the Pirates “Please Don’t Touch” & then each band would cover one of the other band’s songs which resulted in Motorhead covering Girlschool’s “Emergency” & Girlschool covering Motorhead’s “Bomber”. Girlschool drummer Denise Dufort took on the drumming duties on all three songs.
For those that aren’t already aware, Girlschool were a fairly prominent all-female NWOBHM act that put out some fairly decent records through the early 80’s. I’d recommend you check out their 1980 debut album “Demolition” if you enjoy straight down the line hard rock with a bit of danger about it but don’t expect to hear too much legitimate metal. Their sound is much more along the lines of your grimy Motorhead-inspired hard rock. In fact, Lemmy & the boys were clearly their primary influence in my opinion. It’s interesting to note that Lemmy had a brief affair with guitarist Kelly Johnson & has been quoted as saying that he’s always had strong feelings for her even decades later. He certainly respected her as a musician & was a strong supporter of the band throughout their career.
All three of the songs here are worth a listen. “Please Don’t Touch” has a strong 50’s rock ‘n’ roll vibe going on while “Emergency” is more of a straight-up hard rock number. I prefer the original version of “Emergency” which is my favourite Girlschool song overall. “Bomber” is probably the track that offers the most appeal for me personally as it’s the heaviest of the three & I think the girls make a good fist of a genuinely classic song.
The E.P. is generally regarded very highly with some people claiming it to be a NWBHM classic. Personally, I quite like it but think that those sort of sentiments are fairly extreme. “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre” should be enjoyed for what it is i.e. a novelty release intended to tide fans over until Motorhead could recover from Phil’s injury. It certainly doesn’t compare with Motorhead’s previous three albums but is a fun listen nonetheless.