POOLE author Alan Burridge has paid tribute to the Motorhead front man Lemmy Kilmister who died yesterday.

As official band biographer Alan Burridge had a unique insight and access to the band, having been responsible for the Motorheadbangers Fan Club for the last 36 years.

Formed in 1975, the band enjoyed massive success in the early 1980s and their albums Overkill, Bomber, Ace of Spades and, in particular, No Sleep 'til Hammersmith, cemented their reputation as one of Britain's premier rock exports.

“The last time I saw Lemmy face to face was when they played the BIC in November 2011. He’s a wonderful and unusual human being. I got a lot from Lemmy, he’s very logical and problem solves very quickly.

Bournemouth Echo: Picture: www.rockstarimages.co.uk

Read our review of that gig here and see our gallery of pictures here.

"If ever I had a meeting with him in a dressing room it was always about three minutes long, he just sorted things quickly. He will be greatly missed and he was a great friend,” says Alan.

The rock star, whose real name was Ian Kilmister, died just days after celebrating his 70th birthday following a short battle with an "extremely aggressive cancer".

“I was contacted yesterday to say Lemmy was ill, but I didn’t realise it was going to be quite as quick as it was. I got up this morning and my Facebook and emails are absolutely jam-packed with messages from fans. I’ve got hundreds of new people wanting to join the fan club, which is no bad thing I suppose,” Alan added.

In 2012, Alan wrote Motorhead - Live To Win, a 220-page celebration of metal mayhem giving a year by year history with anecdotes and exclusive band photographs.

This book focused on founder, bassist and vocalist Lemmy and opened with his early days as roadie for Jimi Hendrix and bassist in psychedelic space rockers Hawkwind. The man himself even provided a foreword to Alan’s book - “This is an incredible amount of information especially when they have found stuff from the early days when no-one was paying attention.”