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Mott the Hoople

Mott the Hoople are one of the great also-rans in the history of rock & roll. Though Mott scored a number of album rock hits in the early '70s, the band never quite broke through into the mainstream.

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Latest Activity: Aug 14, 2010

Mott the Hoople were an English rock band with strong R&B roots and dominant in the glam rock era of the early to mid 1970s. They are popularly known for the song "All the Young Dudes", written for them by David Bowie and appearing on their 1972 album of the same name.

The early years

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Mott The Hoople can be traced to two beat bands from Herefordshire in the early 1960s. The Soulents were from Ross-On-Wye, and boasted Pete Overend Watts on guitar, and Dale "Buffin" Griffin on drums. The Buddies were from Hereford, and featured Mick Ralphs on guitar and Stan Tippins on vocals. By 1966, Ralphs, Tippins, and Watts (the latter now on bass) had come together in a band called The Doc Thomas Group, and soon secured a residency at a club in a resort town in Italy. The group were offered a recording contract with the Italian label Dischi Interrecord, and released an eponymous album in January 1967. By 1968, drummer Dale Griffin and organist Verden Allen had joined the band.

Although the group toured and recorded in Italy as The Doc Thomas Group, their gigs in the UK were played under the names of The Shakedown Sound, and later as Silence. Silence recorded demos at Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, Wales, which were shopped to EMI, Polydor, Immediate and Apple with no success. The group came to the attention of Guy Stevens at Island, who liked the group but not with Tippins as lead singer. Advertisements were placed ("Singer wanted, must be image-minded and hungry"), and Ian Hunter was eventually selected as lead singer and piano player. Tippins assumed the role of road manager.

While in prison in 1968, Stevens discovered the Willard Manus novel, Mott the Hoople, (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1966) and vowed to find a band to match the moniker. When Silence auditioned for Stevens in early 1969, they reluctantly agreed to change their name. The book is about an eccentric who works in a circus freak show.

Their debut album, Mott the Hoople (1969), which was recorded in a week, was a cult success, and their repertoire included cover versions of "Laugh at Me" (Sonny Bono) and "At the Crossroads" (Doug Sahm's Sir Douglas Quintet), and an instrumental cover of "You Really Got Me" (The Kinks).

The second album, Mad Shadows (1970), presented Mott the Hoople as hard rocking, poorly recorded, boggie hippies. Mad Shadows features a squeaky kick drum that is almost impossible to NOT hear, once one becomes aware of its presence. The record sold poorly and received generally negative reviews. Wildlife (1971) fared even worse, and flirted with an overtly country-hippie stance and accordingly (usually) acoustic instrumentation. On 10 October 1970, Mott the Hoople and Bridget St John were showcased on BBC Two's, Disco 2. Even though the group was building a decent following, Brain Capers (1971) failed to sell well. A nadir came in early 1972 when, booked into fourth-rate European venues, they decided to split after a particularly dismal gig in a disused gas holder in Switzerland. When combined with an aborted UK tour with The Lothringers, the band was close to breaking up.
The glam years

David Bowie had long been a fan of the band, and heard from Watts that they were about to split. He persuaded them to stay together and offered them "Suffragette City" from his then yet-to-be-released Ziggy Stardust album. They turned it down. Bowie also penned "All the Young Dudes" for them, and it became their biggest hit. Released as a single in July 1972, it was a success in the UK, with the band using Tippins - who by this time was their tour manager - to sing backing vocals during concert. A Bowie produced album, also called All the Young Dudes, sold well but stalled at #21 in the UK Albums Chart. Late in 1972 they were going to record another Bowie song, "Drive-In Saturday", but their intended arrangement did not satisfy him and their professional relationship effectively ended. Another casualty in the wake of All the Young Dudes was Verden Allen, who departed before the release of their next album, Mott. Mott climbed into the Top 10 of the UK Albums Chart, and became the band's best seller to date in the U.S. Using the glam rock craze as their launch pad, the band straddled the widening gap between the teen-pop market and the college circuit. It yielded two UK hits, "Honaloochie Boogie" and "All the Way from Memphis", both featuring Andy Mackay of Roxy Music on saxophone. "All the Way From Memphis" is also featured in the movie, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore.
Mott the Hoople's new found popularity ultimately helped lead to the band's break-up, perhaps helped along by an exposé in New Musical Express of Tippins' role in singing the chorus of "All the Young Dudes", from a hidden microphone backstage. In May 1973 following Verden Allen's departure the band was augmented by two keyboard players. Former Love Affair and Morgan member Morgan Fisher joined as keyboardist and Mick Bolton joined on Hammond Organ. Bolton left at the end of 1973 and was replaced on tour by Blue Weaver, while Fisher stayed on to become their permanent piano player. Ralphs left in August 1973 to form Bad Company and was replaced by former Spooky Tooth guitarist Luther Grosvenor. For contractual reasons, he changed his name to Ariel Bender at the suggestion of singer-songwriter Lynsey De Paul for his stint with the band.

In the afterglow of The Hoople (1974), a live album Live was quickly released, after which Mick Ronson replaced Bender. The end was nigh when both Ronson and Hunter left the group to form a duo. Ray Major and Nigel Benjamin were added to continue the group, which abbreviated its name to 'Mott'.

In 1974, for their tour of America, Mott the Hoople were supported by the band Queen. This tour later provided the inspiration for Queen's 1975 single "Now I'm Here", which contains the lyrics "Down in the city, just Hoople and me." The song became a live favourite of Queen fans and reached #11 in the UK Singles Chart. The tour resulted in a lifelong friendship between the two bands, with Ian Hunter, Mick Ronson and David Bowie performing "All the Young Dudes" at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in 1992. Morgan Fisher went on to play piano on Queen's 'Hot Space' tour in 1982, and Brian May, Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor performed backing vocals on the Ian Hunter solo song, "You Nearly Did Me In". May would later cover Mott's "All the Way from Memphis" on his solo album, Another World, with Hunter making a guest appearance.

Mott the Hoople are name-checked on two other hit singles. Reunion's 1974 single, "Life Is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)" begins with the lyrics, 'B Bumble and the Stingers, Mott the Hoople, Ray Charles Singers...'. Whereas, R.E.M.'s, "Man on the Moon" begins with 'Mott the Hoople and the Game of Life, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah...'

Hunter wrote the book Diary of a Rock'n'Roll Star about the day-to-day life on the band's 1972 winter tour of the U.S., covering the ups and downs of life on the road. It was published 18 months later in June 1974 was out-of-print for many years but is currently available.

The post Hunter years

This line-up released two more albums, Drive On (1975) and Shouting and Pointing (1976), both of which sold poorly. After Nigel Benjamin quit in 1976, Mott added John Fiddler (formerly of Medicine Head) and became British Lions, recording two albums, British Lions (1978) and Trouble With Women (posthumously released on Cherry Red Records 1980) before finally splitting up without any chart success. Hunter and Ronson worked and toured together sporadically until Ronson's death in 1993. Hunter has continued his solo career.

On 16 and 17 April 1999, the first and only 'Mott The Hoople Convention' was held at the Robin Hood Pub in Bilston, Wolverhampton, England. Hunter and his band performed both evenings of the convention. During the encore of the Ian Hunter Band's 17 April performance, Hunter was joined onstage by Bender and Allen for a version of "Walkin' With A Mountain"; Allen performed on the original studio version of the song, whilst Bender performed an extended solo during performances of the song on Mott The Hoople's 1973-74 tours.

In 1996 K-tel released a CD called The Best of Mott the Hoople purporting to be re-recordings of the band's hits and new songs by Hunter and Ronson. In actuality, the recording was by a Danny McCulloch and Gerry Chapman (usually going under the band name of The Trybe), consisted of heavy rock versions of Mott's hits and original songs, and had nothing at all to do with the original Mott the Hoople. K-tel were subsequently fined for supplying goods with a false description, but the tracks and album continued to circulate under the name Mott the Hoople, often appearing on compilation albums. In 2002, the tracks were released again as I Can't Believe It's Not Mott the Hoople!, though this time it was credited to The Trybe.

In 2002 and 2004, Ralphs toured with Hunter, as part of the latter's backing band.

No Mott the Hoople reunion occurred prior to 2009, although negotiations for one were attempted in 1985; all parties have shown some interest at various times in the idea over the last 30 years. In 2005 it was reported in the publication Classic Rock, that Hunter had received the offer of a seven-figure number to re-form the band. In October 2007 at Hunter's concert at the Shepherds Bush Empire, he was joined by Ralphs and Allen for the encore.

2009 reunion

On 16 January 2009, it was announced that the band would be re-uniting for two concerts at the Hammersmith Apollo in London, in October 2009. According to Hunter's website, all five of the original members would participate in the reunion. Hunter wrote, "Why are we doing it? I can't speak for the others, but I'm doing it just to see what it's like. Short of war, death, famine etc. ...it's ON." Tickets for the two original dates sold out, and a third date at the same venue was added for 3 October 2009. After that one sold out as well another two dates were added on 5 and 6 October. The special limited 3 CD-set recorded during the first show at Hammersmith Apollo was sold directly after that concerts.

Mott The Hoople also held a warmup gig prior to their five-night stand at the HMV Hammersmith Apollo in October. The show was held at the Blake Theatre in Monmouth, Wales on 26 September 2009. Prior to this is was announced that because of the poor health of Buffin, his place for the concerts would be taken by Martin Chambers, drummer of The Pretenders.

The reunion was favourably reviewed by major British broadsheet newspapers, with The Guardian, The Times and The Independent awarding 4/5 stars and The Daily Telegraph awarding 5/5. On 27 November 2009 Mott the Hoople played The Tartan Clefs charity night in Glasgow.


Discography


Albums

Mott the Hoople (1969) – UK #66 / U.S. #185
Mad Shadows (1970) – UK #48
Wildlife (1971) – UK #44 / U.S. #207 (bubbled under)
Brain Capers (1971) - U.S. #208 (bubbled under)
All the Young Dudes (1972) – UK #21 / U.S. #89
Mott (1973) – UK #7 / U.S. #35
The Hoople (1974) – UK #11 / U.S. #28
Live (1974) – UK #32 / U.S. #23


Singles

"Rock and Roll Queen" / "Road to Birmingham" (October 1969)
"Rock and Roll Queen" / "Backsliding Fearlessly" (January 1970)
"Midnight Lady" / "It Must Be Love" (October 1971)
"Downtown" / "Home Is Where I Want to Be" (December 1971)
"All the Young Dudes" / "One of the Boys" (July 1972) – UK #3 / U.S. #37
"One of the Boys" / "Sucker" (January 1973) U.S. #96
"Sweet Jane" / "Jerkin' Crocus" (March 1973) – (not released in the UK)
"Honaloochie Boogie" / "Rose" (May 1973) – UK #12
"All the Way from Memphis" / "Ballad of Mott the Hoople (26 March 1972 - Zürich)" (August 1973) – UK #10
"Roll Away the Stone" / "Where Do You All Come From" (November 1973) – UK #8
"The Golden Age of Rock 'n' Roll" / "Rest in Peace" (March 1974) – UK #16 / U.S. #96
"Foxy, Foxy" / "Trudi's Song" (June 1974) – UK #33
"Saturday Gigs" / Medley; "Jerkin' Crocus" - "Sucker" (live) (October 1974) – UK #41
"All the Young Dudes" (live) / "Rose" (December 1974)


Mott albums

Drive On (September 1975) - UK #45 / U.S. #160
Shouting and Pointing (June 1976)


British Lions albums

British Lions (February 1978) – U.S. #83
Trouble with Women (recorded 1978, released May 1980)


Posthumous albums

Two Miles from Heaven (1980)
Original Mixed Up Kids - The BBC Recordings (1996)
All the Young Dudes: The Anthology (1998 triple CD box set)
Rock 'n' Roll Circus Live 1972 (2000)
A Tale of Two Cities (2000)
Two Miles From Live Heaven (2001)
Mott the Hoople Live - 30th Anniversary Edition (2004)
Family Anthology (2005)
Live Fillmore West (2006)
Fairfield Halls, Live 1970 (2007)
Old Records Never Die: The Mott the Hoople/Ian Hunter Anthology (2008)

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Comment by Niels (Mod) on July 29, 2010 at 11:27am
Oh, that's great, RJhog. Take a listen to track no. 4. That's my favorite.
Comment by RJhog (Admin) on July 29, 2010 at 11:06am
Quite honestly, I know absolutely nothing about Mott. But, I did buy the new issue of Classic Rock Magazine and I did actually get the free CD by Down N Outz (Joe Elliot). Usually they don't include that in the mags that are imported here. I haven't listened yet, but will soon.
Comment by Niels (Mod) on July 29, 2010 at 9:26am
I agree with Joe Eliott, that this band deserves more recognition. They really have some great songs.
 

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In Memory Of

Norma Jean Fox
(11/30/1945-9/7/2010)

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