MOTRHEAD Dedicates SONISPHERE Set To WRZEL

July 11, 2011

MOTRHEAD paid tribute to the band's late guitarist Michael "Wrzel" Burston on Sunday during their set at the U.K.'s Sonisphere festival. Addressing the crowd, Lemmy reportedly said, "We'd like to dedicate this set and our lives to Wrzel."

Video footage of MOTRHEAD's Sonisphere performance can be viewed below.

Although no official statement has been made, it is believed that Burston died of ventricular fibrillation, caused by cardiomyopathy, better known as heart disease. He was 61 years old.

MOTRHEAD drummer Mikkey Dee told the Swedish newspaper Expressen about his former bandmate. "He was wonderful. He wrote lots of fucking great MOTRHEAD riffs. I remember missing that when he was not in the band anymore. I missed the simple, classic MOTRHEAD riffs. We never wrote those after that. They ended with him."

While in MOTRHEAD, Wrzel released a solo album, "Bess", in 1987. The following year he issued the ambient CD "Chill Out Or Die". More recently Burston was a member of a new band called LEADER OF DOWN, which last month headlined the main stage at the U.K. fundraising music festival "Never Mind The Bullocks" in aid of Midlands Air Ambulance.

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