It’d be remiss not to include Lemmy and his speed rock juggernaut among the leading forces of the new wave of British heavy metal. If you were a committed punk at loggerheads with the metal crowd, one look at Lemmy, Phil ‘Philthy Animal’ Taylor, and ‘Fast’ Eddie Clarke may well have been sniffed at as part of the rock old guard they were rebelling against. Up against Captain Sensible’s giant pink, fluffy jacket, however, it’s clear Motörhead saw in The Damned kindred spirits, a punk band who likewise jumped into punk’s smoking crater but had enough about them to scarper toward other creative ventures when the scene got stale, just as Lemmy was able to spot metal’s cliched trappings from a mile off.