SPEED QUEEN were a Hard Rocking French quintet originally formed in Mulhouse, Alsace in 1974 under the name BLACK RAT.
Heavily influenced by the Heavy Rocking style of AC/DC, once they were joined by leather lunged vocalist “Stewy” (aka Martine Himburg), in 1977, they soon changed their name to Speed Queen.
Their first vinyl appearance came on the Crypto Records compilation album, “Rock D’Ici Vol. 2” in 1978. They contributed two tracks, “Be Bad Man” and “One Of These Days”.
In 1979 they played some dates on MOTORHEAD’s French tour and Lemmy was so impressed by the band that he invited them to do a couple dates in England also.
They recorded their first album in September 1979 at the Chateau d’Herouville, where the ROLLING STONES had produced “Exile On Main Street”.
On the sleeve the track “Not To Sell” was dedicated to Lemmy, who was instrumental in Speed Queen being offered a deal with Bronze Records in the UK.
Unfortunately, the band were unable to take advantage of Bronze’s offer because they were involved in legal wranglings with Crypto Records at the time.
In 1982, a further album, confusingly also called “Speed Queen”, was released by the band on new label CBS Records.
Most of the songs on this record had French lyrics and titles, and overall Speed Queen sounded a bit slicker than on the debut LP.
Lemmy even found the time to appear on the album, contributing vocals to a song called “Revanche”.
The record didn’t sell as well as the band had hoped, and Speed Queen split up in early 1983.
Post-Speed Queen Stewy reappearred with a 1984 solo album “Gypsy”, recorded under the name of STEVIE.
Her label hoped for an international hit, and to this end they hired some American musicians & songwriters.
Bruce Kulick (KISS, BLACKJACK) plays guitar on most of the album and Michael Bolton did some back up vocals too.
Half of the songs were sung in English and the rest in French.
Although very commercial, the album failed to sell, and after one further album, 1986’s “Seemann”, Stewy/Stevie was dropped by the label.
Later she re-emerged as a member of TOUCH! alongside her husband, former TRUST guitarist Norbert “Nono” Krief.
They released a lone 1994 album, “Marche Avec Moi”, on the French wing of the EMI Records label.
She then sang with UN MONDE A L’ENVERS who released a self-titled album in 2005, before guesting on BIG BEN’s 2008 “Sur Invitation”, album.
Former Speed Queen drummer Bernard “Speedy” Reischtat now plays with GENS DE LA LUNE.[/spoiler]
02 – Mister Lee
03 – Not To Sell
04 – Rosie Babe
05 – Get Ready Mama
06 – Gimme One More Whiskey
07 – Beware
08 – Rock On
Joël “Joe” Montemagny – Guitar (BLACK RAT)
Agnain Martin – Guitar (BLACK RAT, STEVIE)
Terry Smadja – Bass & Backing Vocals (BLACK RAT)
Bernard “Speedy” Reischtat – Drums (BLACK RAT, GENS DE LA LUNE)Pierrot Stephan – Piano on 4 & 8
Jack Bon – Backing Vocals on 8 (GANAFOUL)