Remembering Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor on his birthday
Motörhead drummer would have turned 70 today
Remembering Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor on his birthday
Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor was born Philip John Taylor on September 21st, 1954, in Hasland, Chesterfield, England. Taylor came to prominence as the drummer of Motörhead from 1975–1984 and 1987–1992 recording eleven studio albums and four live albums, including “No Sleep ’til Hammersmith” and “Nö Sleep at All.” The Motörhead line-up consisting of Lemmy, “Fast” Eddie Clarke and Taylor are considered the ‘classic’ line-up of the band. Motörhead was one of Heavy Metal’s biggest forces, their first period which Taylor was part of, is often considered the one where they did some of the best and greatest songs in their long career including “Ace of Spades,” “Iron Fist” and “Overkill” among many others. Taylor recorded with the band some of Heavy Metal’s strongest and enduring classic albums such as 1977 “Motörhead,” 1979 “Overkill,” 1979 “Bomber,” 1980 “Ace of Spades,” the 1981 live “No Sleep ’til Hammersmith” and “Iron Fist.” He left Motörhead in 1984 but returned in 1987 and continued playing in the group until 1992. After having been warned three times in the previous two years “to get his act together,” he was fired after recording “I Ain’t No Nice Guy,” because of his poor performance. From 2005 to 2008 Taylor played and recorded in a group called The Web of Spider. In 2007 Taylor briefly worked on a project called Capricorn with former Danzig guitarist Todd Youth, former Monster Magnet Phil Caivano and former Nashville Pussy Corey Parks. After playing in The Web of Spider, Taylor began work on a project with guitarist Chris Holmes, formerly of the heavy metal band W.A.S.P., and in 2009, Taylor joined American thrash metal band Overkill for a set at the Islington Academy. The set included a cover of the Motörhead song from which Overkill took their name. Taylor reunited one last time with Lemmy and Clarke on November 6th, 2014, at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, England on stage for Motörhead’s classic “Ace of Spades” only to come on to wave to the crowd and leave. Phil Taylor died on 11 November 2015 at the age of 61 after an illness. less than seven weeks after, on December 28th, 2015, Lemmy also died, putting an end to Motörhead, that sadly is now a definitive one after the deaths of guitarist “Fast” Eddie Clarke in 2018 and recently on September 19th, 2019, the original guitarist Larry Wallis.
Look back at Motörhead 1980 music video for their signature song “Ace of Spades” with Phil Taylor on drums
Listen to a selection of with Phil Taylor compiled by Pop Expresso on Spotify
Watch more music related videos
Images and photographs can be from different ranges of sources such as Pinterest, Tumblr etc. except when/where noted. If you are the copyright holder and would like them removed or credited, please get in touch.