Exactly why Kirsty McColl invited Motörhead legend Lemmy to mime the role of her guitarist for a performance of her hit single Terry on German TV show Musikladen in the summer of 1984 has been lost to the passing of time. But by all accounts, the pair had a great giggle on the day.
Saluting McColl as a "really great bird" in his autobiography White Line Fever, Lemmy fondly recalled their unlikely one-off TV collaboration: "I was on guitar, dressed in shades and a teddy-boy outfit," he wrote, "and I sank to my knees doing a solo – actually I had no idea what I was playing."
For Lemmy though, the fun did not stop there.
Liverpool synth-pop act Frankie Goes To Hollywood were inescapable in 1984, scoring three huge number one singles in the UK - Relax, Two Tribes and Power Of Love - and hitting the top spot on the UK albums chart too with their debut album, Welcome To The Pleasuredome. Germany was not immune to the band's charms either, with Relax spending six weeks atop the national charts leading to an invitation to perform on Musikladen on the same week that fellow Brits McColl and Kilmister were present.
Now, filming for TV shows can be a tedious business, so when Lemmy duckwalks into the frame from stage left, still pretending to strum his Telecaster guitar, one might imagine that the great man's actions were inspired by a desire to make Holly Johnson's band chuckle, and, to be fair, the quintet are visibly amused by their mysterious sixth member entering the fray.
However, it appears that Lemmy's motives were not wholly altruistic here, for having gatecrashed the band's stage, the Motörhead man swiftly discards his Fender guitar, and makes a beeline for the lingerie-clad blonde dancer hired to spice up FGTH's performance, making his interest in the young lady in question fairly obvious.
Exactly what transpired after this, dear reader, history, sadly, does not record, and that may be for the best.
Watch Lemmy's smooth seduction technique in the archive footage below:
