Thor, Cleopatra Records’ very own God of Thunder, is back, celebrating the lightning-lashed height of summer with a STRICTLY LIMITED black vinyl 7-inch comprising two songs that are – and will remain! – unavailable anywhere else. No streaming, no downloads, no albums.
And just 35 copies are being pressed, guaranteeing an instant collector’s item for the armies of Thor fans out there. If they move quickly enough! When we say STRICTLY LIMITED, we mean it!
STRICTLY LIMITED is an extraordinary new series of 7-inch singles featuring rare, archival and unreleased tracks by some of the legends of rock’n’roll. Thor is the second in the series.
Released last week, the New York Dolls STRICTLY LIMITED pink vinyl 7-inch has already all but sold out (and might well have by the time you read these words); coming up soon are STRICTLY LIMITED exclusives by King Stott (ex-Plasmatics), Linda Gail Lewis featuring Hillbilly Moon Explosion and Bill Haley, Powerman 5000, Lorraine Lewis and Dee Snider and Kings Of Thrash. With more to come!
Presented in authentic white-label style packaging with a one-sided sleeve card and poly bag, every copy of “Quest For The Hammer” is personally signed by Thor.
To add to the excitement, these two performances are totally unique. Although both “Quest For The Hammer” and “Nerves Of Steel,” are taken from Thor’s upcoming new album, The Final Battle, they appear here in otherwise unavailable extended form, and feature a string of special guests – poet and performer Michael Moorcock, multi-instrumentalist and Hawkwind alumni Alan Davey, Jack Starr (Strider, Virgin Steele etc), Cliff Evans (Killers with Paul Di’Anno, Tank), Bobby Rondinelli (Black Sabbath, Rainbow, Blue Öyster Cult) and Derek Hughes.
Thor was especially thrilled to be joined by Moorcock – “”I’ve always been a fan of Michael Moorcock and his association with Hawkwind,” he says. “To have him narrate an intro for the new Thor album is the ultimate honor. It introduces the journey that Thor and his Strong Swords will explore on this new musical adventure.”
On the b-side, the explosive “Nerves of Steel” is “a high-energy uptempo barn burner, it is a taste and sets the tone for whats to come.” He’s talking there of what awaits on The Final Battle. But he could also be describing STRICTLY LIMITED itself. “What’s to come” will blow your mind!
Available exclusively direct-to-consumer from Cleopatra Records, here.
TRACK LISTING SIDE A Quest For The Hammer / Oath Of Allegiance Narration by Michael Moorcock Experimental sounds by Alan Davey
SIDE B Nerves Of Steel
Guitar – Jack Starr Guitar – Cliff Evans Bass – Derek Hughes Drums – Jack Starr
Lemmy, the indefatigable leader of Motörhead, once warned that if his band moved in next door to you, your lawn would die. So it’s a good job that the band’s toots lay in the brick-and-concrete underworld of London’s Ladbroke Grove, a part of the same hard rock multiverse that also gave us Lemmy’s old bandmates in Hawkwind, his good friends in the Pink Fairies, and so many more.There were very few lawns to kill for miles around.
Lemmy left us a decade ago – on December 28, 2015, to be precise. So it’s only fitting that, just 10 days shy of the actual anniversary, the Fairies themselves deliver the ultimate tribute to our fallen hero, a gut-tearing reworking of Motörhead’s own original statement of intent… “Motörhead”!
“Motörhead” was written in Los Angeles during Hawkwind’s 1974 US tour, after Lemmy borrowed an Ovation guitar from the Electric Light Orchestra, and took it out on the balcony of the Hyatt Hotel at 7.30am.
It became Lemmy’s final recording with Hawkwind before his firing in 1975—of course he took the title for his own next band, and swiftly rerecorded the song as well, first for the band’s proposed (but unreleased) debut album, then for Motörhead’s first UK hit single.
Almost everyone involved in this new recording has fistfuls of Lemmy memories… including two special guests, the late Hawkwind saxophonist Nik Turner, who played alongside him for three epoch-making years; sci-fi author and poet Michael Moorcock, who regularly performed and recorded with the Hawks throughout that same period, and now brings his unmistakable vocal roar to the Fairies.
Of the Fairies themselves, Paul Rudolph – having jammed multiple times with him in the legendary Pinkwind hybrid – actually replaced Lemmy in Hawkwind after a drug bust saw him peremptorily sacked from that band. And, a few years (and several more bass players) later, Alan Davey stepped into that same role, suddenly charged with playing the same tumultuous bass lines that his Hawkwind-loving younger self had grown up playing along with
Indeed, it was Lemmy’s bass solo on Hawkwind’s “Time We Left This World Today” that got Alan into playing bass in the first place. “It’s got lots of note bending, growling bass chords and a bass/guitar solo element about it. I had no interest in [playing] music till I heard that.”
Alan’s friendship with Lemmy grew from there; the pair would hang together, jam together… on one occasion, they almost recorded together, and would have if Lemmy hadn’t relocated to the United States on the eve of their studio date.
It was Alan who brought “Motörhead” into the Pink Fairies’ most recent recording sessions, a tribute not only to his old friend, but also to the symbiotic relationship between the two groups. Original Motörhead guitarist Larry Wallis, had replaced Paul Rudolph in the Fairies in 1973; fellow co-founder drummer Lucas Fox was a Fairy across their last two albums. And Alan himself has been leading his own Motörhead tribute band, Ace of Spades, since the end of the last century, with Lemmy’s full support, of course.
“I ran into Lemmy at the Hawkestra gig,” Alan recalls. “He turned up at the rehearsal and immediately said to me, ‘What’s this Ace of Spades band ya doing, Al, and why ya doing it?’
“I replied, ‘Cause I love the songs and I love playing them.’
‘That’s good enough for me,’ said Lemmy. He gave me a hug and his blessing to carry on with it and use the name Ace of Spades.”
It’s odds-on that Lemmy would heartily approve of the Fairies’ take on the anthem, as well. A guttural roar that comes screaming out of the Fairies’ latest album, the all-covers Covered In Pink, it’s the ultimate collision between Motörhead’s unrelenting sonic attack, and the Fairies’ role in the birth of space rock, with Alan’s predatory bass, Paul’s wildfire guitar and One-Legged Pete’s avalanche drums, Turner’s untrammeled honking and Moorcock’s vocals… in fact, there’s no need to try and describe what happens next. Just listen and feel your mind melt.
The full Fairies album will be out on January 16. For now, though, you’ve got “Motörhead.” It’s magnificent.
Guitarist Jerry Jeter and Don Falcone (on bass) recording As If Possessed in Don’s studio (photo by Karen Anderson)
Prepare for a cosmic journey as the realms of fantasy literature and progressive space rock collide in The End Of All Songs – Part 2, the final installment of the ambitious collaboration between visionary fantasy writer/art rock icon Michael Moorcock and the acclaimed space rock collective Spirits Burning, led by Don Falcone, with godfatherly guidance from Blue Öyster Cult’s Albert Bouchard.
Moorcock, widely proclaimed among the 50 greatest British writers since 1945, brings his unique narrative prowess and artistic vision to the forefront of The End Of All Songs – Part 2. Beyond his celebrated literary works, Moorcock has left an indelible mark on the rock world, lending his talents to iconic bands such as Hawkwind, Blue Öyster Cult, and various solo projects.
Moorcock’s creative synergy finds a kindred spirit in Don Falcone, the driving force behind Spirits Burning. With a musical career spanning decades, Falcone has been a consistent trailblazer in the space rock genre with the original Melting Euphoria and his Spaceship Eyes solo project, and in 2025, Stairway Press published his musical memoir, One Of The Spirits Burning (A Musical Memoir), which includes two chapters on the Spirits Burning & Michael Moorcock albums.
Set for release on August 29, the album is based – like its predecessors – upon Moorcock’s Dancers at the End of Time trilogy. But whereas those earlier sets opened with the 19th century poems that Moorcock started each book with, Falcone took a very different approach this time around.
“I turned to my Dancers hardback, which has all three books collected together. There is a prologue there that Mike wrote. I used some of those lines for verses.”
Falcone also created new lines that included the titles of each book – How Do We Survive An ‘An Alien Heat,’ How Do We Free From These ‘Hollow Lands,’ and When Will We Hear ‘The End Of All Songs?’ The result, “When Will We Hear,” previews the album today, as Spirit Burning’s new single.
Michael Moorcock & engineer Nick Pellicciotto, vocal/harmonica session in Texas (photo by Linda Moorcock)
The track features Moorcock at his very sharpest, and Falcone at his most ingenious.
“I decided to have Mike take the lead during the choruses and post chorus. During mixing, I added some sizzle delay to the end of some of his lines, so that his word trails would sound percussive, spacey, haunting.
“And I love Mike’s performance of his prologue text that is about Jherek’s father, Lord Jagged:
“And a thirst took one of these people, Much to his own astonishment, And because he was immersed, We have a story to tell.”
Of the remainder of the album, Falcone continues, “We hadn’t finished the story in the previous album, given the book length, the remaining story to tell. It begged the question: When would we really hear the end of all songs? For me, multiple answers: reaching the end of this cycle of albums; finishing the third book and closing the story of Jherek and Amelia; closing the decade+ collaboration with Al (Bouchard) and Mike (Moorcock). I even provided an answer within the lyrics: “When we resume our dance at the end of time, when we complete our dance at the end of time”; where “we” represents each musician on the album, and each listener too.
Falcone continues: “We have been immersed in this project for over a decade, and it’s exhilarating to see it complete with such a great selection of songs and the musicians who brought them to life.” These include familiar faces Paul Rudolph (Pink Fairies), David Jackson (Van der Graaf Generator) and Chas Cronk (The Strawbs), new crew members Ross the Boss (The Dictators), Nick Saloman (The Bevis Frond), and Mr. Dibs (Hawklords), and many more.
Michael Moorcock writes “This beautiful musical collaboration between a group of outstanding musicians and myself is unprecedented. The conception and the realisation, in which every artist adds their own particular interpretation, is glorious.
“I can think of no other artistic project as complex or as beautifully created as Don Falcone’s Spirits Burning group. It is as successful as it is complex. It is, in my view, a work of genius. This project deserves the highest possible praise. All I can add to this now is to offer my most enthusiastic thanks. This will stand as a high point in our musical history!”
Albert Bouchard pretending to play sax in his New York studio (courtesy Albert Bouchard)
Albert Bouchard adds: “After having time to work on this album in the beginning, I took a long break as I had more commitments. Don also took a break to write his book. When I returned, we worked intensely for about three weeks to make sure every track was optimized, Trading files and emails.”
“Several times a day. The tracks that came out of those three weeks are some of my best work with SB. My favorites are “Bring Back the Living” with Ross The Boss (and Paul Rudolph) on guitar, “The Sun Had Risen” and “Dancers End.” I feel this record is one the strongest of the series, as it should be.
1. When Will We Hear? 2. Remember Those Who Have Died (At Least Once) 3. The Ballad Of Lord Jagged Of Canaria 4. Forward To Go Back 5. Seven Days Of Infinity (Treat The World As A Canvas) 6. A Flurry Of New Worlds 7. Bring Back The Living 8. As If Possessed 9. On Her Island 10. Reading and Writing and Playing 11. There Used To Be A Time 12. Put The Kettle On 13. Peace and Love 14. The Sun Had Risen 15. The Parade (Before The Wedding) 16. The Dancers End
On February 21st, 2015, DMR Books will release their first publication entitled Swords of Steel, an anthology of fantasy/horror adventure stories in the tradition of Robert E. Howard, Michael Moorcock, George R.R. Martin, and H.P. Lovecraft.
The book will be “mass market” size (6.5” x 4.25”), 250 pages, in the tradition of the classic paperbacks from the ‘60s and ‘70s. The stories in this collection are written by members of such underground heavy metal bands as Manilla Road, Bal-Sagoth, Solstice, Cauldron Born, Twisted Tower Dire, and others.
“I got the idea while listening to Manowar’s “Dark Avenger.” I thought the lyrics would make a great story that could have been in an anthology from the ’70s like Swords Against Darkness. Then I wondered if any bands had ever written stories, and the idea took off from there.” – Dave Ritzlin (DMR Books editor and publisher)
“Dave agreed to let me do a Lovecraft-style story instead of heroic fantasy as that’s where my heart is right now with writing. I agonized over this story, poured my heart into it, and went temporarily insane during its creation. Many aspects of it were derived from my life. I’m interested to see how the other lyricists approached this project and how it’s received in-general by the public.” – Scott Waldrop (TTD)
Swords of Steel also includes interior illustrations and maps, poems by Sean Weingartner (Eternal Champion) and Howie Bentley (Cauldron Born), a non-fiction essay by historical novelist M Harold Page, and an introduction by David C. Smith, author of such sword and sorcery novels as Oron, The Sorcerer’s Shadow, and the Red Sonja series. Cover art is provided by Martin Hanford who has illustrated Warhammer novels for Games Workshop as well as covers for a number of bands including Twisted Tower Dire, Bal-Sagoth, and Slough Feg.
“I’m so honored to be a part of this book. I approached Dave about adding some poetry and he graciously accepted. This is my first writing in 20 years.” – Sean Weingartner (Eternal Champion)
Swords of Steel is planned to be followed annually by more anthologies of fictional stories from bands of the music genre.
“Who better to return traditional fantasy to its former glory than the heavy metal bards?” – Dave Ritzlin
THE ROCK ALCHEMIST – Italian Rock Band from Turin with a strong sonic identity that blends modern rock with progressive, hard, alternative, and pop elements!
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s SARCOFAGUS return with a Historic 2010 Concert Video Premiere on YouTube! Click image to watch the video
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 