Lemmy Kilminster’s ashes are to go on display at what was reputedly his favourite London club: Stringfellows.
Well...they won’t be all of his ashes. Most of those are still at the Motörhead man’s final resting place, the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, California. Instead what will be on display at Stringfellows will be a portion, inside a replica urn. Much like the cricket Ashes – that little trophy that the captain of Australia (and sometimes England) raises at the end of each titular test series – is merely a replica of the real Ashes. Those are kept in perpetuity at Lord’s, the so-called ‘home of cricket’.
Anyway, this isn’t the first time (some of) Lemmy’s ashes have gone on tour. They’ve previously been shown at one of his favourite venues, LA’s Rainbow Bar and Grill, as well as Nottingham’s Rock City and at the French metal festival Hellfest, where they were ensconced in a massive statue of the great man.
Some of them have also been scattered at the Wacken Open Air festival in Germany which Motörhead played many times. Thomas Jensen, one of the festival's co-organisers said at the time: “Lemmy coming back to Wacken is an enormous honour for us - words can hardly express how enormous. We will create a place of remembrance for him that does justice to his significance for an entire genre and beyond.”
Before he died in 2015, Lemmy had requested that his ashes be encased in bullets and sent out to his friends and loved ones, and since his passing this seems to have happened too. In 2021 his Production Managers Eddie Rocha and Emma Cederblad uploaded a video to Youtube which showed the process being done.
Former Motörhead manager Todd Singerman told The Sun that Stringfellows “always held a special place in Lemmy’s heart,” explaining that, “He loved the relaxed environment - and he certainly loved the view. I know he’s relieved he can get back to enjoying one of his favourite places.”
There is set to be a ceremony at the club honouring the man and his achievements on December 18. It will be attended by Phil Campbell, who aside from its founder was the longest serving member of Motörhead, holding down the guitarist’s spot from 1984 through to the group’s dissolution in 2015.
