Fast Eddie Clarke

"Fast" Eddie Clarke was Motörhead's guitarist between 1976 and 1982, the period corresponding to the band's classic line-up and to practically everything cited when the band is discussed. Born in Twickenham in 1950, he joined a few months after Lemmy founded the group, and completed the trio that recorded Overkill (1979), Bomber (1979), Ace of Spades (1980) and No Sleep 'til Hammersmith (1981). His role was to give melody to a band that, on paper, had no room for it. With Lemmy playing chords on the bass and Philthy Animal Taylor hammering without subtlety, Clarke was the only harmonically mobile element in the group — and he solved that with a vocabulary of hard rock and British blues, short riffs and solos that sound improvised even when they are not. The riff of "Ace of Spades" is his, and is probably the most recognisable thing Motörhead ever produced. He left in 1982, in disagreement with the band's decision to record with Wendy O. Williams of the Plasmatics — an episode he described as the moment he stopped recognising the group he had helped build. He then formed Fastway with Pete Way of UFO, and went on playing for decades in projects of his own. He was the last survivor of the classic trio, and died on 10 January 2018, aged 67, two years after Lemmy and Taylor.