Please Don’t Touch – Headgirl

I have been a fan of the works of Motorhead for close to a decade now, but it wasn’t until the end of last year that I discovered this song, and boy is it brilliant! Combining the names in their respective bands, Motorhead teamed up with all female rock band Girlschool to create the collaborative band Headgirl and together released the St. Valentines Day Massacre EP. Until hearing this song, I had never heard of Girlschool. I love Rock and metal, but seriously I had never heard of them. Motorhead I have known about for a very long time. I have a great liking for nearly every piece of music I have heard from them, with songs like Motorhead, Back at the Funny Farm and Rock Out being amongst my favourites.

I can’t remember how exactly I discovered this song, but since hearing it for the first time late last year, I have listened to it a multiple number of times. The video from Top of the Pops is an interesting one as it features quite a few interesting sights including Philthy Animal‘s dance moves, and of course; Lemmy wearing a suit.

The song was originally recorded and performed by Johnny Kidd & the Pirates which listening to it compared to this performance is a lot slower and more like a classic American swing piece. In this instance it’s full on heavy rock whilst still retaining its original notes, just heavier and louder. The lyrics are very catchy here, and the tandem duet of Lemmy and Kelly Johnson works really well, as they each take a solo part in the verses, then combine together in the chorus. Add to this of course the backing of the other band members from both bands, which in turn works well with the drums to provide a low dubbing of backing vocals.

The music has a really nice and niche heavy beat to it too, which just keeps on delivering and somehow getting even harder with each pick of the notes. Added to this is also the hard-working, but incredibly skilled work of the songs musicians providing a short but definitely sweet tune which is enjoyable from start to finish. Now, while there is a strong chance that this TOTP performance was a lip-sync job, that doesn’t detract from the value of the performance necessarily. You can see the performers working hard to pull off the song, much like if they were playing it live. You see Girlschool’s drummer (Denise Dufort) really pounding the drums whilst staying in rhythm. You get to see the romance between Philthy and Kim McAuliffe, whilst also seeing the battle of the guitars between Johnson and Fast Eddie Clarke, not to mention the tremendous fun Enid Williams is getting out of the performance, plus of course Lemmy’s trademark style of singing and dynamic bass playing!

It’s an amazingly fun performance to watch, but at the same time you are getting treated to an amazing song being performed by two hard-hitting rock bands in their element. I may not know much about Girlschool, but I am so glad that I discovered this song!