WHEN Paul Welsh, 63, watched a 2016 memorial service after the death of his friend, Lemmy Kilmister from Motorhead, he decided to write a book because no-one had mentioned his lean years.

The IT procurement officer from Timperley, self-published it and expected to sell ten copies.

Then Cleopatra Books in LA offered to publish and distribute it worldwide.

“I was thrilled,” said Paul.

The recently released book is called Hitting my Head against the Wall.

The title comes from a remark by Lemmy during an interview with Paul for his Music Magazine, Penetration.

Lemmy said: “It’s like hitting my head against a wall. Either the wall falls down or my head splits open.”

Fortunately, the wall fell down.

Paul wrote about the band between 1973 – 77 when they slept in their van between gigs. Only in 1979 did they start to stay in hotels.

Paul met Lemmy in 1972 when he joined Hawkwind, a band Paul was already covering for his then arts magazine, Purple Smoke.

Among many unseen photographs in the book, is one of Paul with Nik Turner, Hawkwind’s sax and flute playing founder.

Lemmy’s time with them was short. He got sacked after Canadian police imprisoned him for 48 hours for carrying Speed.

Paul’s interviews are reproduced in his book. One of them was a week before Motorhead’s first gig,

“Everyone thought Lemmy was a loser. Motorhead had no money.

“I went to see them at a disco club in Birmingham. Lemmy said he would introduce me to his fans ‘She was on my knee a few minutes ago!’ he said.”

He last met Lemmy in 1986. “He said there would always be a place in his heart for me. It appeared he knew it was our last meeting.”

* Hitting my Head against the Wall, published by Cleopatra Books, is available, priced £13.79 from HMV and on line from Ebay and Amazon.