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| Alan Mason, Alistair Handyside & Jeremy Wimpress at the Mott Concert ! |
Mott The Hoople were joined at Hammersmith Odeon (they call it The Apollo these days!) for the first night of a five night residency by old boys/young dudes Alistair Handyside, Alan Mason and Jeremy Wimpress.
The band has not played together for 35 years and this reunion was arranged to celebrate 40 years of Mott. While Ian Hunter and Mick Ralphs have continued to record and tour bassist Overend Watts had left his market stall in Hereford to rejoin the others for these concerts. Dale Griffin, the drummer, is no longer in the best of health and only played during the encores but his place was ably covered by Martin Chambers of The Pretenders.
Rocking through a set list that included all the hits and a few pleasant surprises it was easy to see why this largely unsung group has influenced many and varied artists including; The Clash, Morrissey, Nirvana, Queen (Mott are the only band Queen ever played support to) and Def Leppard whose singer, Joe Elliot, joined them on stage for the 'All The Young Dudes' encore. Frontman Ian Hunter, an amazingly sprightly 70 year old, rounded off the show with an emotion charged 'Saturday Gigs' accompanied by the 3500 strong crowd. Tonight the words of their song 'Ballad of Mott' that 'rock and roll's a losers game' just did not ring true.
Rocking through a set list that included all the hits and a few pleasant surprises it was easy to see why this largely unsung group has influenced many and varied artists including; The Clash, Morrissey, Nirvana, Queen (Mott are the only band Queen ever played support to) and Def Leppard whose singer, Joe Elliot, joined them on stage for the 'All The Young Dudes' encore. Frontman Ian Hunter, an amazingly sprightly 70 year old, rounded off the show with an emotion charged 'Saturday Gigs' accompanied by the 3500 strong crowd. Tonight the words of their song 'Ballad of Mott' that 'rock and roll's a losers game' just did not ring true.
As we left, the CD of the concert we had just attended was for sale in the foyer - wasn't like that at the Bristol Colston Hall in '73!
Jeremy Wimpress [KS 1969-1976]