Mott the Hoople
Mott the Hoople were an English rock band formed in Herefordshire. Originally named the Doc Thomas Group, the band changed their name after signing with Island Records in 1969. The band released albums at the beginning of the 1970s but failed to find any success. On the verge of breaking up, the band were encouraged by David Bowie to stay together. Bowie wrote their glam-style signature song "All the Young Dudes" for them, which became their first hit in 1972. Bowie subsequently produced their album of the same name, which added to their success.
For the band's debut album, see Mott the Hoople (album). For the novel after which they were named, see Mott the Hoople (novel).
Mott the Hoople
Mott (1974–1976)
British Lions (1977–1979)
Hereford, Herefordshire, England
1969–1980
(reunions: 2009, 2013, 2018, 2019)
Ian Hunter
Ariel Bender
Morgan Fisher
James Mastro
Steve Holley
Mark Bosch
Paul Page
Dennis Dibrizzi
Pete Overend Watts
Dale "Buffin" Griffin
Verden Allen
Mick Ronson
Ray Majors
Nigel Benjamin
Steve Hyams
Mick Ralphs
Mick Bolton
Derek John "Blue" Weaver
Despite membership changes, the band experienced further commercial success with Mott (1973) and The Hoople (1974). Lead singer Ian Hunter departed the band in 1974, after which the band's commercial fortunes began to diminish. They remained together with continuing membership changes until their break-up in 1980. The band have had reunions in 2009, 2013, 2018 and 2019.
History[edit]
Pre-Mott[edit]
The Doc Thomas Group were formed in 1966 with Mick Ralphs on guitar, Stan Tippins on vocals, and Pete Overend Watts on bass. Ralphs and Tippins had been in a local Hereford band, the Buddies, and Watts had been in a local Ross-on-Wye band the Soulents with Dale "Buffin" Griffin on drums. The Doc Thomas Group had a concert residency at a nightclub 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, 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, Silence. Silence recorded demos at Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, Wales, which were offered to EMI, Polydor, Immediate and Apple but with no success.
Early years[edit]
The group came to the attention of Guy Stevens at Island Records, 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 selected as lead singer and piano player. Tippins assumed the role of road manager.[1]
While in prison for a drug offence, Stevens read the Willard Manus novel Mott the Hoople, about an eccentric who works in a circus freak show, and decided to use it as a band name.[1] Silence reluctantly agreed to change the band's name to Mott The Hoople following their audition for Stevens in early 1969.[1] Manus's novel's title was in turn a reference to "Martha Hoople", which was the name of character from a comic strip called Our Boarding House, which was widely syndicated in American newspapers from 1921 to 1984.
The band's debut album, Mott the Hoople (1969), recorded in only a week,[1] was a cult success. 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).[2]
The second album, Mad Shadows (1970), sold poorly and received generally negative reviews. Wildlife (1971) fared even worse, despite gaining the highest UK album chart position of the band's pre-Glam years. It featured an overtly country-hippie stance and more acoustic instrumentation on some Ralphs-penned songs.
On 10 October 1970, Mott the Hoople, the Senator (aka. the Walrus), and Bridget St John were showcased on BBC2's Disco 2.[3] Even though the group were building a decent following, Brain Capers (1971) failed to sell well. The group decided to split following a depressing concert in a former gas holder in Switzerland.[1] When their UK tour with The Lothringers was aborted, the band were close to breaking up.
Glam years[edit]
David Bowie had long been a fan of the band. After learning from Watts that they were about to split,[1] he persuaded them to stay together and offered them "Suffragette City" which later appeared on his Ziggy Stardust album.[1] They turned it down. Bowie also penned "All the Young Dudes" for them and it became their biggest hit.[1] Released as a single in July 1972,[4] 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 concerts. Bowie produced an album, also called All the Young Dudes, which included a Mick Ronson strings and brass arrangement for "Sea Diver". It sold well, but stalled at No. 21 in the UK Albums Chart.[1] A casualty in the wake of All the Young Dudes was Verden Allen, who departed before the release of their next album, Mott.[1]
Mott climbed into the Top 10 of the UK Albums Chart,[4] and became the band's best-seller to date in the US. It yielded two UK hits, "Honaloochie Boogie" and "All the Way from Memphis",[4] 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.
In May 1973, following Verden Allen's departure, the band were augmented by two keyboard players. Former Love Affair and Morgan member Morgan Fisher joined as keyboardist[1] 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 Allen's official replacement in the band. Ralphs left in August 1973 to form Bad Company and was replaced by former Spooky Tooth guitarist Luther Grosvenor.[1] 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.[1] According to Ian Hunter, interviewed in the documentary Ballad of Mott the Hoople, the band were in Germany with de Paul for a TV show when Mick Ralphs walked down a street bending a succession of car aerials in frustration. De Paul came out with the phrase "aerial bender" which Hunter later suggested to Grosvenor as a stage name.[5]
In 1974 the band had a chart success in the UK with "Roll Away the Stone" recorded before Mick Ralphs left the band. Ralphs played lead guitar and the Thunderthighs provided female vocal backing and a bridge. It reached No.8 on the UK Singles Chart.[6]
In 1974, Mott the Hoople toured America with Ariel Bender playing lead guitar. In one of Bender's earliest performances with the band they played the Masonic Temple in Detroit on 12 October 1973 with a young Aerosmith opening the show. They were primarily supported on the '74 tour 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 No. 11 in the UK Singles Chart.[7] 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...'.;[8] and R.E.M.'s "Man on the Moon" begins with 'Mott the Hoople and the Game of Life, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah...'
In the afterglow of The Hoople (1974), a live album Live was quickly released, after which Mick Ronson replaced Bender.[1] The end was near when both Hunter and Ronson left the group to form a duo, following which the band abbreviated its name to 'Mott'.[2]
Hunter's book Diary of a Rock'n'Roll Star about the day-to-day life on the band's 1972 winter tour of the US, covering the ups and downs of life on the road,[1] was published in June 1974. It was out of print for many years but was reissued in 1996.[9]
Post-Hunter years[edit]
The new line-up consisted of Watts, Griffin, and Fisher along with lead guitarist Ray Majors (formerly of Opal Butterfly, Hackensack, and a brief stint with Andy Fraser and Frankie Miller) and front man Nigel Benjamin. This line-up released two more albums, Drive On (1975) and Shouting and Pointing (1976), both of which sold poorly.[1] After Benjamin quit in 1976, Mott briefly replaced him with Steve Hyams,[10] before joining forces with John Fiddler (formerly of Medicine Head), and became British Lions, recording two albums, British Lions (1977) and Trouble With Women (posthumously released on Cherry Red Records 1980) before finally splitting up without any chart success.[1] Hunter and Ronson worked and toured together sporadically until Ronson's death in 1993.[1] Hunter has continued his solo career.
In 1990, after a brief reunion in 1989, the former members of The Silence reunited in the studio to record a mix of new songs and staples from their days performing together. The resultant album Shotgun Eyes was released in 1998, combined with The Italian Job (a re-release of the Doc Thomas Group's self-titled album).[11]
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 Danny McCulloch, former bass player with Eric Burdon and the New Animals and Gerry Chapman, usually going under the band name of The Trybe. The album 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.
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 performance of 17 April, 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 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 Shepherd's Bush Empire, he was joined by Ralphs and Allen for the encore.