Famous Arlingtonian

You don’t usually associate Arlingtonia with heavy metal music, but at least one practitioner of the dark art recently lived among us in Linton Street.

Even hard rock fans might not recognise the name Michael Burston, but as ‘Würzel’ he attracted a loyal fan base as a guitarist and songwriter with Motörhead. On joining the band in 1984, one of his first performances was playing Ace of Spades in the TV comedy The Young Ones. He went on to record nine albums with Motörhead.

Würzel moved into Linton Street in 1985 and lived here for 26 years. His partner Jem Reeve says he loved the area and our community. On tour, to avoid the media and his many fans, he used to book into hotels as ‘Anthony Arlington’. Arlington Square was his special ‘chill out’ area, where he wrote his solo ambient album Chill Out Or Die. He loved talking to the council gardeners who, we hope, forgave Motörhead’s Lemmy for his threat that the band’s music would be so loud ‘if we move next door to you, your lawn will die.’

Würzel (pictured with Lemmy) played with Motörhead until 1995. He was working on an album with his new band, Leader of Down, when he died of a heart attack in 2011.