|
Post by martine on Oct 28, 2009 12:57:44 GMT -8
Yes and they're winging themselves to you right now.
|
|
Brian
Administrator
Posts: 3,802
|
Post by Brian on Nov 1, 2009 1:00:22 GMT -8
"Anyone here born in 1958?" Ian Hunter asked the Hammersmith Apollo audience at the Oct. 2 Mott the Hoople reunion show. A big cheer goes up, from me too, first hearing this bootleg downloaded in Winnipeg. Then Ian adds, "That makes you older than the band. Much older than the band. I hope you realize that." Now I do. Within 24 hours, our letter carrier brought us all three concerts promoted in that poster above: the official package via the Royal Mail of the Oct. 1 concert and another with four CD's from Oct. 2 and 3 that must have been from Martine in Canada because there was French on the envelope. It's overwhelming, to be honest. Which is greater, the adoration of the fans for the band or the band for its fans? Or the music itself, which gave a subgeneration like mine too young to have participated in the Sixties fulfillment in the early 1970's and which presaged and inspired the British punk bands in the late '70's? These beautiful old guys have become the future of history.
|
|
Brian
Administrator
Posts: 3,802
|
Post by Brian on Nov 22, 2009 2:10:23 GMT -8
From left: Verden Allen, Ian Hunter, Dale Griffin, Overend Watts and Mick Ralphs circa 1971.In 2009, Overend Watts, Verden Allen, Ian Hunter, Mick Ralphs and Dale Griffin.I wish I could go camping right now with my boombox, as I always do, just to absorb the six CD's I got of Mott the Hoople's reunion concerts Oct. 1-3 at the Hammersmith Apollo through the magic of the Internets last month. I only have time to hear them on weekends, and last week I was off on a serious Ray Davies tangent. This is may be the wrong time of year to camp, but it's never too late for a rebirth. Geez, the old dudes sound great. Honestly, I never wanted the five original members to reunite -- they'd already achieved a perfect record for 36 years of staying off the same stage, unlike so many lesser groups who had their hits and disbanded in the 1970's. Still, I tried to buy tickets for those shows when they went on sale last January. Yeah, I should have gone to London and I probably need to retreat to the woods to deal with that fact.
|
|
Brian
Administrator
Posts: 3,802
|
Post by Brian on Nov 27, 2009 1:44:25 GMT -8
I will never fit everything I want to say about these Mott the Hoople concerts in London last month in one post, so I'll just start with this decent audience video of the opening of their Oct. 3 show. Underneath a backdrop of their last studio album in 1974, they take the stage with the "Jupiter" theme from Holst's "The Planets," just like they did at my first concert that year at age 16:
"Jupiter" alone is enough to make a silly old man like me cry. But then they launch into "Hymn for the Dudes" from their immortal "Mott" album, the song I want played at my funeral, I've always told next of kin. I can't say why. But it kills 36 years later as a concert opener, performed and sung from the perspective of history and their place in it. Ian Hunter has proven to be as adept at rephrasing his catalogue as Bob Dylan. And Mick Ralphs clearly kept his soul and his chops. Just like the fans. Hear their joy!
"Hymn for the Dudes" was the "Stairway to Heaven" for a few thinking adolescent boys back then. In that You Tube video above you can hear the first notes of a song from their debut album in 1969 -- "Rock 'n' Roll Queen," which should have been a hit or even a standard like "Jumpin' Jack Flash," in my contention -- continue in this next clip from Oct. 1 obviously shot from the front row:
Thanks to our friend Martine in Winnipeg, I have more Mott the Hoople videos than many hardcore fans, mostly from European television. In the 1970's, a band of their commercial stature was never captured on film like the Stones or the Who. Guys like me would sneak bulky Craig cassette recorders into auditoriums and arenas to record the sound. Some clubs would serve drinks around them at our tables. Now I'm living in the 21st Century, owning three quality CD sets of their reunion shows and watching them on the Internets.
|
|
Brian
Administrator
Posts: 3,802
|
Post by Brian on Nov 29, 2009 2:02:29 GMT -8
Mott the Hoople was never better than when they were breaking up. If they'd left us with that "Brain Capers" album above in 1971, it would have been enough to cement their legacy. But David Bowie saved the original line up for one more album and hit single, "All the Young Dudes," after which the band disintegrated through a few big hits in England that cracked the Top 40 here, like "All the Way from Memphis" and "Roll Away the Stone," until songwriter and lead singer Ian Hunter left at the end of 1974. So there was no reason to expect this reunion to be so glorious. A four-day weekend isn't long enough to even start appreciating the three shows I have, but the flow is clear. The official CD issue of the first night at the Hammersmith Apollo in London sounds great technically despite flubs and miscues by the band. The second and third concerts recorded from the audience show tremendous growth, and what they lack in high fidelity they provide in warmth -- you're right in the middle of all the applause, cheers and singalongs. The 21-song setlist was the same all three nights. Every Mott the Hoople album was represented -- resulting in such surprises as "The Original Mixed Up Kid" from "Wildlife" and "The Moon Upstairs" and "The Journey" from "Brain Capers" -- but they leaned heavily on "All the Young Dudes" and "Mott" with five songs from each. How would Verden Allen and Mick Ralphs perform on songs recorded 35 years after they quit? They leave a bigger impression than the 12-inch, long-playing record on that old album cover.
|
|
anni
Administrator
Administrating Designer
Posts: 1,608
Member is Online
|
Post by anni on Apr 7, 2010 15:03:46 GMT -8
Here's one of my favorite Ian Hunter songs... reminds me of this:
Skipper's post of BlueOysterCult (E. Bloom - I. Hunter's) song:
WhoooHooo POP!
|
|
Brian
Administrator
Posts: 3,802
|
Post by Brian on Apr 7, 2010 23:00:19 GMT -8
Wow, Skipper! I'm pretty sure that I never heard "Goin' Through the Motions" -- or even known that Ian Hunter had collaborated with Eric Bloom -- although I sold a lot of Blue Oyster Cult albums at the record store in Montrose back then. I certainly knew he sang on Ian's album a couple of years later. That is a great song -- thank you for posting the link and the lyrics in the other thread.
And I had never seen that video that Anni embedded of the original recording of "When the Daylight Comes." She loves the song even more than I do -- but not as much as Mick Ronson. Ian was so indifferent about his song that he was still smoking and talking in the alley outside the studio when tape rolled. That's Mick who sings the opening. The single was a decent size hit in England in 1979.
The latest since I last posted here in November: Ian Hunter and the Rant Band will play four dates in New York and Pennsylvania starting April 21 before heading to England for a seven-city European tour that ends in Finland. In my dream world, Anni and I would be at the House of Culture in Helsinki on May 8. The next month they open for Jethro Tull at amphitheaters in Boca Raton and Atlanta.
It feels like 1975, when Ian skipped the western half of the U.S. on the tour promoting his first solo album. Will he ever play songs from "Man Overboard" -- released last July! -- on the Left Coast?
|
|
|
Post by Skipper on Apr 8, 2010 12:40:42 GMT -8
How did my writing with 'Blue Oyster Cult' come about? I think Eric Bloom approached me and invited me to his house to write. He had an idea and we just embellished it.From: www.ianhunter.com/mouth043a.shtmlHow did you end up co-writing “Goin Through The Motions” with Ian Hunter? Ian and I used to play together. He came over my house one day and we wrote that one in my little four-track studio. Did you intend to record it with Blue Öyster Cult? It wasn’t intended for anything. I had some music and an idea for a lyric, and we just bashed it around. Over many years in the 70s, I used to go to his house or vice versa, and we’d try to fix stuff up. I actually sang on one his records, and we cowrote a couple of things over the years. Him and I and Mick Ronson sat around and wrote some stuff.From: www.vintagerock.com/ebloom_interview.aspxIt this photo it looks like Eric Bloom, Mick Ronson, Buck Dharma with guitars lower left. Joe Bouchard (BOC Bass) behind them. Ian Hunter and I don't know who's playing the sax.Only photo size was modified. anni
|
|
Brian
Administrator
Posts: 3,802
|
Post by Brian on Nov 12, 2010 0:00:35 GMT -8
Has it been a whole year since I drenched my head in those Mott the Hoople reunion concert CD's? I still enjoy listening to them and "Man Overboard," the brilliant album Ian Hunter released in July 2009. Since then, he has played good sized tours in Europe in the spring and in England last month, including one concert with Mick Ralphs, only days after Anni and I saw him in Bad Company at the L.A. County Fair. Tonight Ian performed the first of five shows scheduled back east. Because of economics and perhaps his age, 71 now, I might never enjoy Ian on the Left Coast again. At least I still have a computer.
I watched a lot of audience videos from last month on You Tube on this Armistice Day, and every one of them had serious problems in sound and vision. Instead I found Ian and the Rant Band appearing on Jools Holland's TV show in England this year, performing the classic "Once Bitten Twice Shy" from his first solo album and "Flowers," his anti-war song for a new decade, from his latest. Turn it up loud:
|
|
Brian
Administrator
Posts: 3,802
|
Post by Brian on Nov 17, 2010 1:11:34 GMT -8
Because of economics and perhaps his age, 71 now, I might never enjoy Ian on the Left Coast again. While I was writing my lament last Thursday night, Ticketmaster spit out its weekly e-mail. I didn't open it until the next day, so I didn't know that the Galaxy in Anaheim already had tickets on sale for "Ian Hunter (of Mott the Hoople)" on Jan. 30! The venue apparently jumped the gun -- ianhunter.com did not announce his California mini-tour until yesterday. Ian and the Rant Band will also play the Fillmore in San Francisco on Jan. 28 before landing here for a show at the El Rey Theatre in the Miracle Mile on Saturday, Jan. 29. Goldenvoice has a presale this Thursday before the El Rey starts selling tickets on Saturday. Seating -- or will it be standing? -- is general admission. From what I've seen and heard on jerky, overmodulated clips on You Tube shot back east last week and in England last month, Ian's age hasn't kept him from appearing before his true blue fans on the Left Coast for the past three and a half years. Indeed, it is the market, according to the official Ian Hunter e-mail that I got Tuesday: Now that Ian and the Rant Band are making a trek to the west coast, we need everyone to show the promoters just how many fans Ian has out there! Talk your family, friends, and co-workers into checking Ian out. Get on FaceBook and remind your old schoolmates how much fun it was to see Ian at The Roxy or the Old Waldorf. The more interest these shows generate, the more likely other promoters will be to add more dates or book Ian on future tours.This You Tube video from New York's Rockefeller Park in June 2009 was my introduction to the title song "Man Overboard" even before his latest CD came out. Soon I will finally be able to hear Ian perform his newest classic live, in person and in 3-D.
|
|