‘The Ace of Spades’ - the city betting on heavy metal to spark regeneration
A statue to remember Lemmy of Motorhead, born in Burslem, is just the start of Stoke-on-Trent’s rock heritage plans
Birmingham is often seen to be the capital of heavy metal in the UK’s rock history, but Stoke-on-Trent has been staking a claim too.
Motorhead frontman Lemmy and guitarist Slash of Guns’N’Roses both hail from the Potteries and it is this rich musical heritage the six towns want to build upon.
Our exclusive report this weekend comes from Helen Dalley at The Knot who last week joined our growing family of local newsletters.
Beginning in 2024 the local news title and newsletter rooted in Stoke and Staffordshire [the flag of which gives its name to the The Knot] packs a punch and we were delighted to visit Stoke and confirm they are now a part of The Lead’s award-winning local network
We’re excited to be able to bolster what Helen and team have been doing by ensuring they can dig deep on all that’s happening in Burslem and beyond.
In today’s story she does exactly that and takes us into how there’s a revival plan for making more of Lemmy’s story.
We’ll also be featuring some of our original local journalism in our national edition, like we are today, to show what’s happening in different parts of the country.
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Burslem bets on the legacy of Lemmy
It’s 10.30am on a gorgeous sunny morning at the first-ever Burslem Urban Rock Festival. Blue skies hang over the mother town, while the Lemmy statue — unveiled just over a year ago — basks in the sunshine as keen fans begin gathering near the stage for a day of heavy metal. Outside new venue Old No. 6, visitors sup Motörhead-themed ales against a backdrop of photos, band artwork, and other memorabilia.
There are big plans afoot for the town, the centrepiece of which is a proposal to transform the Art Deco Queen’s Theatre into Kilmister Halls, a 1,500-capacity music venue complete with a recording studio and music school. At the forefront of the project is festival organiser IFK Legacy, which is dedicated to keeping alive the memory of Burslem’s most famous son, Lemmy Kilmister, who was born here on Christmas Eve in 1945.
The bands haven’t even started but it’s standing room only at Old No. 6 as I grab a few words with director of the IFK Legacy David Ovenden, and Andy Edwards, the Stoke-born creator of the statue that’s already attracted thousands of visitors to gaze on Lemmy’s likeness, with his long hair, tight jeans, bass, and trademark high mic position. Over the low hum of bikes revving their engines, Ovenden confirms that the viability study for Kilmister Halls is set to be finished within the next month.
He says they will also be speaking with the Arts Council, Architectural Heritage Fund and the National Lottery to bring the venue back into use. “The first phase will be the auditorium, but we’re asking for a lot of money, like £19 million, so it’s going to take time. But we’re thinking about bringing it into use earlier without even painting the walls, just get the electrics sorted out and the toilets, so we could do that next year.”
Reviving the Queen’s Theatre will not be straightforward. The building has sat largely unused for years and securing multi-million-pound heritage funding in the current climate will be a challenge. But supporters believe Lemmy’s international fanbase gives Burslem a cultural hook few towns of its size possess.
“We’re hoping to open up Kilmister Halls as early as next year” - David Ovenden, director, IFK Legacy
People from all over the world have come to pay tribute to Lemmy since his statue was unveiled just over 12 months ago, says Edwards as we chat in Old No. 6. “The main thing about this place is the atmosphere is so good, and every time you come in, it’s different. You sit around a table and there’s three different nationalities. It feels like home to me and it seems like I’m not the only one. The walls are full of donated memorabilia, even though we’ve only been going for three weeks.”
While Lemmy-themed ales, including a pilsner, Overkill, named after the 1979 Motörhead album of the same name, are already being pulled, they’re still waiting on a delivery of Lemmy Lemonade, which is coming all the way from New Zealand. Andrews is emphatic that Burslem is becoming a rock hub. “It’s not just us – there are seven other local music venues that are putting on music today.” In fact, the festival sparked three days of live music across the city over the bank holiday weekend, with venues including Burslem’s Old Post Office, Grumpy’s Motorcycle Garage, Ye Olde Crown and Hog Noggins among those hosting events.
In addition to showcasing six local bands before top cover band Motörheadache perform, the festival has attracted several rocker-themed stalls, including alternative clothing brand Grimm Prints. Selling items including screaming skull t-shirts and camo trucker hats, owner Craig Robinson, who’s based just down the road in Rugeley, says he likes to support small festivals like this. “It’s great to be part of the first ever festival of its kind here,” he enthuses, adding that he supports the idea of Kilmister Halls. “There needs to be more music venues. Unfortunately, in the West Midlands now, music venues are dying out. The only way bands can make money these days is with merch, which is one thing I offer to smaller bands, so they don’t have to print 1,000 t-shirts.”
A little further up the road is Barewall Art Gallery, which is stocked with cool Motörhead memorabilia, including tees, Lemmy-themed ceramic plaques, and even a limited-edition head cat Lemmy, a nod to Lemmy’s old psycho billy band, created especially for the gallery by local ceramicists Dappled Sky. With only 100 made, a portion of every sale goes to the IFK Legacy Project.
Owner and curator Amanda Bromley says having the statue so close to the gallery has encouraged them to embrace more of a rock vibe. “When the statue was unveiled, it was great – we had Lemmy’s boots and hat on display here – and since then, we’ve helped the guys at IFK out by selling merchandise up until they had their own space, Old No. 6.” The gallery’s visitor book has been penned by visitors from more than 60 countries, she adds.
Bromley points out that Burslem has been ‘down on its knees’, and believes that Lemmy is helping to save the town saying: “He’s brought this new spirit where people can feel positive about what’s going on and it’s brought everyone together. Now we have investment going on in the town, like Burslem market, and the Wedgwood Institute is being repaired and then of course Queen’s Theatre. This is not going to just transform Burslem but the whole city.
“We don’t want to stop until Kilmister Halls are open, and we want to make the rockers feel welcome.”
Bromley is also selling postcards of the poem written by Stoke-on-Trent’s poet laureate, Steve Beattie, ‘Ace of Spades in Stoke on Trent’ (you can see him reciting it for the Knot here). A big Motörhead fan – he’s got a tattoo of the ace of spades on his hand in reference to their biggest hit and the band’s logo, Snaggletooth, on his left arm – Beattie couldn’t be happier to see all this going on in his home city. “It’s just great to pay tribute to Lemmy – without Motörhead, there might not have been bands like Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, and Slayer. Every time you drive past the statue, somebody’s at it, and they’re coming from all over the UK and further afield. It’s helping to promote the live bands we have in the area, too, and doing a huge amount for all the local businesses.”
“Lemmy is not only helping to transform Burslem but the whole city.” Amanda Bromley, owner, Barewall Art Gallery
The band opening up for the festival, Walking Alone, is a heavy rock trio who are all aged just 14. Singer Olivia, who is also a back-up singer for one of Stoke’s longest-running bands, Grace, has the confidence of someone much older as they introduce their own songs and blast through Nirvana, Rage Against the Machine, and Foo Fighters covers before bowing out with their take on Motörhead’s ‘Bomber’.
Lead singer/bassist Olivia says it was “absolutely amazing” to open at the festival. “It’s crazy, I don’t think I’ve seen so many people in this area before,” she says, adding that her band are already hoping they can play Kilmister Halls someday.
What follows is a high-octane line-up of metal, heavy rock, alternative and emo (our faves are alt rockers Mercury): among the crowd are kids as young as 9 or 10 wearing Motörhead, Metallica, and Nirvana t-shirts, while older fans with grey beards likely there to witness Motörhead’s heyday in the 80s clap enthusiastically as they are entertained by a new wave of rockers inspired by the New Wave of British Heavy Metal that Lemmy’s former band made famous. Later in the afternoon, there’s a mosh pit, but it’s all good-natured fun. Ovenden later tells me the festival drew a peak crowd of around 4,000 Lemmy devotees — no small achievement for a town with a population of just 7,000 to 8,000.
In-between sets, corner shops are doing a roaring trade as rockers line up for cans, crisps, and snacks, while local burger restaurant Smash on Trent is blasting out AC/DC as fans dig into super dirty burgers and Phili cheese steak fries.
But it’s the pubs that are benefitting the most: a few steps away from the stage at the Bursley Ale House, a popular hang-out for Port Vale fans, the queue snakes out the door for pints of Road Crew, an American Pale Ale named after Motörhead’s iconic track, as a DJ mixes up a blisteringly loud roster of heavy metal faves from Pantera, Korn, Metallica and AC/DC. Outside, groups of mates bask in the sunshine and pair their pints with cheese and bacon oatcakes. The mood is upbeat, and the feeling is that something positive is happening here.
A fan who’s travelled from Nottingham, Phil, who is here with his two friends, is keen to tell me that he met Lemmy once in LA at his favourite haunt the Rainbow Bar and Grill and brought him a Jack Daniel’s and Coke, the drink he was famously devoted to. Another quartet of cool-looking fans, two originally from Poland who now live up the road in Chesterton, tell me their friends have travelled here from Slovakia. “We’re here because we want to pay tribute to Lemmy,” says the group’s spokesperson, Henryka.
As the sun goes down on Burslem’s first-ever urban rock festival, it feels like the start of something much bigger for the town. I cast a glance over to the Queen’s Theatre, where the windows have been decorated with letters spelling out “Lemmy Forever”. Since the statue was unveiled last May, many fans have paid tribute to one of heavy metal’s most famous sons. It remains to be seen where things will stand next year, but if the IFK Legacy have anything to do with it, then us Stokies might well be watching bands in the Queen’s Theatre sooner rather than later.
At the Bursley Ale House the queue snakes out the door for pints of Road Crew, an ale named after Motörhead’s iconic track, as a DJ mixes up a blisteringly loud roster of heavy metal faves.
Indeed, in 12 months’ time, Ovenden is hopeful that they will be using the venue in some way, and a bigger event is already being planned for next year. He also says that talks are ongoing with the council to market Queen’s Theatre and the Market Hall as a joint venue, and that plans are even being floated for a two or three-day festival to be held here in Burslem.
As for the long-term, Ovenden hopes that Kilmister Halls will be operating as a charitable organisation, with any money generated to be ploughed back into outreach projects, be that music or the arts in general. Sunderland Fire Station has proved an inspiration, he says. Hosting more than 200 shows a year, including live music, dance, and comedy, it’s also home to a rock school plus bars and restaurants.
As Lemmy once said, “You can’t be a legend in your own lifetime. It’s only after you’re dead that you become a legend.” In a town that has often struggled to find its feet, Burslem’s embrace of Lemmy feels about more than heavy metal. It’s an attempt to build a new identity from a cultural legacy that already has global reach. ■
About the author: Helen Dalley is the editor of The Knot, based in Stoke-on-Trent.
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Such a terrific, positive story! I hope everything Burslem wishes for comes true.