Creator of the iconic Motörhead logo reveals he only got paid a £30 fee

Despite the image firmly being entrenched in rock and roll folklore and omnipresent at any discerning rock event today, incredibly the fledgling book designer says he was only paid a modest £30 fee.

Having been linked up by Ted Carroll, owner of the Rock On record stall in Soho market and Chiswick Records label founder, Phil recounted the moment he was invited to Lemmy’s “absolutely dreadful” squat in Notting Hill.

“(Lemmy) already had a photograph of the pig’s head his friend Joe Petagno had done,” Phil explained. “Lemmy said ‘Can you do a logo for it, Phil? Try and make it look… Germanic.”

Selecting a gothic looking typeface from his Letrasets – letters on a sheet you rub onto your design – Phil said: “I’d used a lot of the letters already, so when I got to the second ‘o’ it was a special one with an umlaut over it. I thought, hmmm, actually that will make it look really Germanic!”

Not completely happy with some of the letters that had been bodged together, Phil said: “My fee was £30 in credit from Ted’s shop, so I thought I won’t bother changing it, it’s far too much trouble.”

He continues: “When I finished I thought it looked a bit amateurish – it was black on white – so I had the idea of making a negative image of it. Suddenly it looked really good. As a drawing (Snaggletooth) was okay, but in reverse it looked really interesting and beautiful.

“These days, you see the album design on T-shirts, people have it tattooed on them, it’s everywhere. All I got for it was my £30 credit at the shop, but I’m not bitter, it was just great to have designed such an iconic logo.”

You can read the full interview with Phil Smee in the first edition of Planet Rock Magazine, which is now on sale right here.

Issue 1, which is also available on newsstands now, features a mirrored and embossed collectors’ cover, and celebrates the remarkable rise of Motörhead via a gargantuan cover story which includes eye-witness accounts and a new interview with legendary guitarist ‘Fast’ Eddie Clarke.

Elsewhere in the magazine, you’ll find an all-revealing interview with Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, plus we celebrate the 30th anniversary of Def Leppard’s blockbusting album Hysteria as the band revisit an astonishing tale of tragedy and triumph. And there’s loads more on Guns N’ Roses, The Magpie Salute (aka the ‘new’ Black Crowes), Black Star Riders, UFO, Pink Floyd, Kiss, Blues Pills, Van Halen and Joanne Shaw Taylor, to name but a few. 

Our highly selective reviews section brings you all the music you need to know about right now. That means in-depth reviews of new albums by Roger Waters, Royal Blood, Inglorious, The Dead Daisies, Royal Thunder and more, plus live action from The Who, Joe Bonamassa and Broken Witt Rebels.