Motörhead guitarist “Fast” Eddie Clarke died Wednesday at 67.
He was the last surviving founding member of the legendary metal outfit, best known for their 1980 hit Ace of Spades.
“We are devastated to pass on the news we only just heard ourselves earlier tonight … Edward Allan Clarke – or as we all know and love him Fast Eddie Clarke – passed away peacefully yesterday,” the official Motörhead Facebook page announced early Thursday. “Ted Carroll (who formed Chiswick Records) made the sad announcement via his FB page, having heard from Doug Smith that Fast Eddie passed peacefully in hospital where he was being treated for pneumonia.”
Former Motörhead drummer Mikkey Dee, now a member of the Scorpions, said in a statement on Motörhead’s page, “Oh my f—king God, this is terrible news, the last of the three amigos. I saw Eddie not too long ago and he was in great shape, so this is a complete shock. Me and Eddie always hit it off great. I was looking forward to seeing him in the UK this summer when we around with the Scorps.”
Dee added of fellow founding Motörhead members Ian “Lemmy” Kilmeister, who died of cancer in December 2015, and Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor who died that November, “Now Lem and Philthy can jam with Eddie again, and if you listen carefully I’m sure you’ll hear them, so watch out! Fast Eddie … keep roaring, rockin’ and rollin’ up there as goddammit man, your Motörfamily would expect nothing less!”
In addition to his work with Motörhead, Clarke formed the band, Fastway, with UFO bassist, Pete Way, in the 80’s. The band’s debut, self titled, album, spawned the hit, Say What You Will.
additional source: Jessica Sager of Page Six
17 Responses
WOW the classic line up of Motorhead die within span of 2 years Overkill album got me into Motorhead Fastway was great too killer albums RIP Fast Eddie
I have been a therapist in the mental health field for over 30 years, and I have seen such overwhelming love, hate, peace, violence, madness, joy, euphoria, despair, desperation, and serenity. My clients have always been beautiful and colorful in spirit even when they are raging. I have had surreal moments like playing guitar duets with a woman who had killed her mother. As we played, I would look over and marvel about how multi-dimensional we all are. She played gently and tenderly and transformed the myriad hallucinations and delusions on the unit … making them allies, and inviting the visions and invisible ones to the party!
As much as I loved my clients and my work, there are many nights when I would drive home with my thoughts all moshing inside my head. However, my confusion and trauma was tempered by my inspiration. One of the great tools I used to “meditate” and give my mind permission to just go wild and explore. My mind needed to get its ya-yas out just about every night!
So, I would make the long drive home with classic line-up Motorhead blasting my car down the country roads. By the time I arrived home, my self-inflicted aural assault somehow tempered my chaos and confusion! I am forever indebted to Motorhead, particularly the classic line-up. Before they started dying, Lemmy Eddie & Philthy got back together on a show called “Classic Albums” to discuss “Ace of Spades”. At the end, they broke the show’s formula by playing a mini live-in-studio show! And they still sounded perfect! Any grey hair suited them; made them all look like wizards!
There were only two times when my automobile blast-fix of Motorhead backfired. Once I was driving a client home from a support group he attended. He was much younger than me, but he liked a lot of old-school metal. He chose to put Ace of Spaces (or was it Bomber?) into the car CD player. The young client was thrilled and we headbanged our way back to his home. But before we got there …. yep …. the blue lights got me and I got a speeding ticket.
The second backfire moment was waking up in jail after a crazy night of being obsessed with the song “Locomotive”playing over, and over, and over. When I made bail and the police returned my personal belongings, the items were: Ace of Spades CD, A “Circus” heavy-metal mag, 7 peep show tokens, and to melted orange slurpies. Cops said I had been driving while holding tight to the plastic glasses, and kind of palming them against the steering wheel which basically kept us on the road despite the mad swerving.
Fast Eddie Clarke’s guitar riffs were among our guardian angels that night Nobody got hurt!
ETERNAL PEACE & LOVE, Fast Eddie! Now the classic line-up can reunite in earnest! 🙂
~ DexMandrake aka Keith ~ Ashville, NC
He will be missed. RIP Eddie!
Will always be remembered for that riff that was Ace of Spades.
RIP Eddie
This will offend many, but Pete Way’s best material was in Fastway. Fast Eddie Clarke along with Lemmy created some of the greatest metal riffs in the history of music. I never felt he got his in the world of glorifying guitar gods.
RIP legend.