Released 8 November 1980
Recorded 4 August – 15 September 1980
Jackson’s Studios,
Rickmansworth, England, UK
Genre Heavy metal, NWOBHM, speed metal, rock and roll
Length 36:42
Label Bronze (Worldwide)
Mercury (North America)
Producer Vic Maile

Motörhead are a British rock band formed in 1975 by bassist, singer and songwriter Ian Fraser Kilmister, known mostly by his stage name Lemmy, who has remained the sole constant member. The band is often considered a precursor to or one of the earliest members of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, which re-energised heavy metal in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Usually a power trio, Motörhead had particular success in the early 1980s with several successful singles in the UK Top 40 chart. The albums Overkill, Bomber, Ace of Spades, and particularly No Sleep ’til Hammersmith, cemented Motörhead’s reputation as one of Britain’s foremost rock bands.

Motörhead are typically classified as heavy metal, and their fusion of punk rock into the genre helped to pioneer speed metal and thrash metal. Lemmy dislikes such labels, preferring to describe the band’s music simply as “rock n’ roll” and usually opening live shows with the line “We are Motörhead. We play rock and roll.” Motörhead’s approach has remained the same over the band’s career, preferring to play what they enjoy and do best; their appreciation of early rock and roll is reflected in some of their occasional cover songs. Motörhead’s lyrics typically cover such topics as war, good versus evil, abuse of power, promiscuous sex, substance abuse, and “life on the road”. The name “Motörhead” is a reference to users of the drug amphetamine. The band’s distinctive fanged-face logo, with its oversized boar’s horns, chains, and spikes, was created by artist Joe Petagno in 1977 for the cover of the Motörhead album and has appeared in many variations on covers of ensuing albums. The fanged face has been referred to variously as “War-Pig” and “Snaggletooth”. The band is ranked number 26 on VH1′s 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock. They are cited as the first speed metal band.

Ace of Spades is the fourth album by the British band Motörhead. Released on 8 November 1980, it peaked at #4 on the UK album charts and reached Gold status by March 1981.^[3] It was preceded by the release of the title track as a single on 27 October, which peaked in the UK singles chart at #15 in early November.^[4]

Recording

The album was recorded in August and September 1980, produced by Vic Maile at his Jackson’s Studio in Rickmansworth. This is the first of what would be a series of projects with Maile, and members of the band commented at the time about finding the right producer. Whereas the band had previously had an input at the mixing stage, Maile took sole responsibility here, Clarke explaining that the result was that “you can finally hear everything that’s going on”.^[5]

Of the performances, Lemmy claimed that “Vic got me singing instead of just shouting all the time”, while Taylor added “and he got me playing more solid”.^[5]

Sleeve

It was the first of the band’s albums to feature a photograph of them on the cover, dressed as cowboys. The ‘Arizona desert-style’ pictures used on the album sleeve and tour programme were taken during a photo session at a sandpit in Barnet.^[6]

Promotion and tour

Motörhead appeared on Top of the Pops twice in October to promote the single “Ace of Spades”, and were guests on the ITV children’s morning show Tiswas on 8 November.

The band undertook a UK tour from 22 October through to 2 December under the banner Ace Up Your Sleeve, with support from Girlschool and Vardis. After the Belfast show on 2 December, high jinx resulted in Taylor breaking his neck forcing him to wear a neck-brace and curtailing any further band activity. The other members of the band took the opportunity to collaborate with Girlschool for the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre EP.

Critical reception

The album has been described as “one of the best metal albums by any band, ever”^[7] and has become a significantly influential ‘hard rock classic’.^[8] Despite the band always referring to their music as rock ‘n roll,^[9] the album, and particularly its title track have been considered amongst the most influential in the development of thrash metal.^[10] The title track is, for many, the definitive Motörhead anthem.^[11] The album is listed in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Classic albums documentary

On 28 March 2005 the documentary about the album (a part of the Classic Albums series) was released on DVD by Eagle Vision. The in-depth look at the making of the album includes interviews with and performances by Lemmy, Phil Taylor and Eddie Clarke.^[12]

Track listing

All tracks composed by Ian Kilmister, Phil Taylor, Eddie Clarke.

LP

Side A

Side B

CD bonus tracks

1. “Dirty Love” – 2:57
   • Originally released as the B-side of the Ace of Spades single
2. “Please Don’t Touch” (Johnny Kidd, Guy Robinson) – 2:49
3. “Emergency” (Kim McAuliffe, Kelly Johnson, Enid Williams, Denise Dufort) - 3:00

• Tracks 14 and 15 were originally released on the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre EP in 1981.

Deluxe Edition: Disc 2

1. “Dirty Love” – 2:55
2. “Ace of Spades” (alternate version) – 3:03
3. “Love Me Like a Reptile” (alternate version) – 4:16
4. “Love Me Like a Reptile” (alternate version) – 3:31
5. “Shoot You in the Back” (alternate version) – 3:11
6. “Fast and Loose” (alternate version) – 3:06
7. “(We Are) The Roadcrew” (alternate version) – 3:24
8. “Fire Fire” (alternate version) – 2:41
9. “Jailbait” (alternate version) – 3:33
10. “The Hammer” (alternate version) – 3:11
11. “Dirty Love” (alternate version) – 1:02
12. “Dirty Love” (alternate version) – 3:51
13. “Fast and Loose” (BBC Session) – 4:18
14. “Live to Win” (BBC Session) – 3:33
15. “Bite the Bullet/The Chase Is Better Than the Catch” (BBC Session) – 6:05

The 2CD version does not include the Girlschool St. Valentine’s Day Massacre tracks that are on the single-disc remaster.

Credits

• Lemmy (Ian Kilmister) – bass, lead vocals
• “Fast” Eddie Clarke – guitar, lead vocals on “Emergency”
• Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor – drums

• Recorded 4 August – 15 September 1980 at Jackson’s Studios, Rickmansworth, UK
• Produced by Vic Maile
• Sleeve photography by Alan Ballard
• Design by Martin Poole

Release history and variations

• The labels on the 1986 GWR re-issue had the GWR logo and “A” on one side, and Side Two on the other. The tracks were also erroneously listed in the order of the North America release.

References

Links

• Ace of Spades review on Yahoo Music
• Motorhead official website

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Directed by Leena Yadav
Produced by Ambika A. Hinduja
Screenplay by Leena Yadav, Shiv Kumar Subramaniam
Story by Leena Yadav, Shiv Kumar Subramaniam
Starring Amitabh Bachchan, Ben Kingsley, R. Madhavan, Saira Mohan, Raima Sen, Shraddha Kapoor, Tinnu Anand, Mahesh Manjrekar
Music by Salim-Sulaiman
Cinematography Aseem Bajaj
Editing by Hughes Winborne, Kaushik Das
Distributed by Serendipity Films
Release date(s) February 26, 2010
Running time 140 mins.
Country India
Language Hindi

Teen Patti (Hindi: तीन पत्ती) is a 2010 Bollywood film directed by Leena Yadav who had previously directed the Sanjay Dutt-Aishwarya Rai starrer Shabd in 2005. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Ben Kingsley, R. Madhavan, Raima Sen, Shraddha Kapoor^[1] and is produced by Ambika Hinduja under the banners Hinduja Ventures and Serendipity Films. The film is about a mathematics professor, played by Amitabh Bachchan, who is trying to write a thesis on probability and relates it to the Indian card game of Teen Patti.

Plot

The story begins with Venkat Subhramaniam (Amitabh Bachchan), a professor of mathematics, software engineering, and a genius, teaching math in his village to kids when a postman comes with a letter. The letter is from Perci Trachtenberg (Ben Kingsley), widely regarded as the world’s greatest living mathematician, who invites Venkat to a high rolling casino in London. Venkat tells Perci about an equation that could not only change the dialogue on mathematics forever, but one that has already left an indelible impression of guilt – for many painful reasons – on Venkat’s life. It is shown in the past that the reclusive genius Venkat has cracked a theory that could redefine the principles of probability and randomness. Venkat tries to use this experiment in a game called Teen Patti, (a poker game) which he plays on the internet. According to this experiment if a player playing Teen Patti knows all the 3 cards with one of the players (except him) he/she can guess the other cards with the rest of the players and therefore can guess who is going to win with the theory of probability.

Venkat succeeds on his theory and submits his report to the institute where he teaches but they reject his report. But Venkat is sure about his theory and wants to try out in reality with real players. So he talks with a younger professor Shantanu (R. Madhavan) about his theory and tells him to get three students to try out this experiment. Shantanu arranges three students- Sid (Siddharth Kher)- the college rockstar, Aparna or Apu (Shraddha Kapoor)- the studious geek who has a crush on Sid and Vikram or Vikku (Dhruv Ganesh)- the boy next door. They come together and start playing the game and Venkat’s theory like the last time proves to be successful. Venkat tells that after a few more games he’ll be sure to crack his equation and even be able to study it better. Shantanu tells him that he should try using his theory in the real world, where there are people who actually gamble and play Teen Patti i.e. in underground dens or ‘addas’.

Although Venkat has no interest in the money that could come from practicing his equation to crack Teen Patti, he eventually succumbs to Shantanu’s charismatic persuasion. Soon, with the help of his new students, they explore the addas (underground gambling dens) of wild Bombay. Later another student from the institute, Abbas (Vaibhav Talwar)- the rich spoiled brat joins the gang and arranges for them parties in casinos, private clubs etc. But what starts out as an experiment between a charismatic young professor and an eccentric older one soon descends into a game neither of them can control. The money they earn gets stolen; someone is blackmailing them; they get greedy about money and in the course of time they change into different people and even start betraying each other. The story tells that money is nothing but hunger; it leads to greed, deception, betrayals which have disastrous consequences in the end.

Cast

Amitabh Bachchan as Venkat Subramanium
Ben Kingsley as Perci Trachtenberg
R. Madhavan as Shantanu Biswas
Dhruv Ganesh as Bikram
Shraddha Kapoor as Aparna
Siddharth Kher as Sid
Vaibhav Talwar as Abbas
Saira Mohan as K.
Raima Sen
Ajay Devgan as Sunny
Jackie Shroff as Tony Milano
Mahesh Manjrekar as Dagdu
Ranjeet
Shakti Kapoor as Prem London
Tinnu Anand as Billu
Siddharth Shanghvi
Nonita Kalra
Bibhu Mohaptra
Eden Shyodhi
Rubina Khan as Sadasas
Maria Gopez as Dancer in Niyat Song

Production

The film is shot in India except for a few parts that in England, for which production designer Ayesha Punvani, created gambling dens (adda) in places like abandoned train yards, dockyards, abandoned factories, mills that have been shut down and an ice factory, and in all 80 sets were created ^[2]

Reception

Teen Patti had a poor opening, being beaten out by My Name Is Khan in the first place and Karthik Calling Karthik in the second place. Even Amitabh Bachchan’s appearance could not help the film to go on. The film was rated as a Box office disaster in its first week. The critical reception was extremely poor as well, receiving almost universally bad reviews. Well known film critic and author Anupama Chopra called it “a train wreck of a movie”.^[3]

References

Links

• Official website
• Teen Patti at the Internet Movie Database
• Teen Patti Reviews

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.