Brian
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Post by Brian on Jul 14, 2013 23:24:03 GMT -8
In honor of Ian's 74th birthday in June, let's launch a new page of his thread with this video from British TV:
That utterly fantastic You Tube clip from last month's Isle of Wight festival features the medley that Anni and I heard when they closed their shows here last winter: "Saturday Gigs," Mott the Hoople's final, autobiographical single, followed by "Life," the last song on Ian Hunter and the Rant Band's new album, then "All the Young Dudes," of course, along with a bit of the standard "Goodnight, Irene."
Since that festival gig, I've also enjoyed videos from the four concerts they just played closer to their homes around New York City. Ian Hunter and the Rant Band have five more dates scheduled back east later this summer and early fall before Ian flies to England for the second Mott the Hoople reunion mini-tour in November. I wish I could go. The bootlegs I've collected from the 2009 reunion erased all my fears about the five original members taking a stage after 36 years apart. In my dreams, Mott the Hoople will produce a DVD as good as the You Tube clip above capturing at least one of their upcoming shows.
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Post by Brian on Nov 10, 2013 1:07:26 GMT -8
For the next week, most of my attention on the Internet will be directed at the U.K., where Mott the Hoople is reuniting onstage for only the second time after 35 years apart. I couldn't be there in 2009 because of my job, but I collected concert audio on CD's and tracked the You Tube uploads. I have no excuse for missing them this time except not wanting to spend thousands of dollars for travel, lodging and tickets. Doesn't mean I don't regret my decision. I'll miss hanging out with guys my age who are as certain as I am that Mott the Hoople was England's best band onstage and on record between 1969-74, some of whom I've met at Ian Hunter shows and others only on Ian Hunter's message board. Most of all, I'll miss feeling the force of the band live in my tissue and bones, not just in my eardrums and my soul. So I'm relying on my compadres to post their best intentioned videos on You Tube, and on Concert Live to mail the official CD of one show. Back in July, I also ordered Concert Live's limited edition Mott the Hoople picture album for $400. Each of the 1000 books is numbered. I was online at 1 a.m. PDT and got 84. They ship this week with my bonus prize of a print from the band's archive. However the book turns out, I'm just glad to be handing my money more directly to Ian, Mick, Overend, Buffin and Verden.
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Post by Brian on Nov 17, 2013 0:54:50 GMT -8
That's the best clip I've found from the first two dates: "Roll Away the Stone" in Glasgow last Wednesday.
I've also been tracking my book on UPS. It arrived in Sylmar on Saturday, so I should see it Monday.
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Post by Brian on Nov 24, 2013 1:17:40 GMT -8
Concert Live in the U.K. published and printed only 1000 copies of the book and its box. My new favorite possession is one huge book, "We've Got a Great Future Behind Us" by Mott the Hoople. Like the band members and their long time supporters who provided the content, everything about this publication is first rate -- from the hand-binding to include the live autographs of Verden, Mick, Overend, Ian and Buffin to the added DVD of home movies of their 1974 tour by latter day keyboardist Morgan Fisher, when I saw them onstage. Each page -- big enough to read for a guy in his mid-50's, even the press clippings and concert bills -- is printed on the most gorgeous stock, thick and glossy, easy to flip. I bought in early and spent ten times more than I ever paid for any book, yet I kept my expectations low. Instead, I got a keepsake for life that documents the band's 44 years of regard for their fans. And on my copy, the ink from Mick Ralph's big felt pen leaves an imprint on the protective flyleaf. A spread from 1972: Photos of David and Angela Bowie in studio and the acetate of "All the Young Dudes."
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Post by Brian on Dec 1, 2013 2:44:10 GMT -8
A fan video of "Hymn for the Dudes," my favorite Mott the Hoople song, from their final reunion show.
Until the official Concert Live CD set of Mott the Hoople's London reunion show arrives in the mail, I've been searching You Tube for tidbits of euphoria amid the jerky camerawork and muffled bass lines, sifting through all five November shows they performed in the U.K. The pickings are slimmer than the first reunion tour in 2009, but the love of the band is always evident. Our videographer of the clip above provides decent sound and finally settles down to take in the entire band onstage in a wistful yet majestic rendition of a song from their best album, delivering on the promise made 40 years ago to their fans that we are not alone.
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Post by Brian on Dec 27, 2013 0:35:39 GMT -8
Our cat Bernard has been copying these posts in the Ian Hunter thread on Next Exit, another ProBoards forum. My long time Internet friend Sue in Chicago posted this link there to a page offering a download to a recording of the May 9, 1974 concert on Broadway. I didn't drive yet, and I didn't know anybody older who loved Mott the Hoople, so I had missed them in Los Angeles in late April. But I saw them a month later in Sue's hometown. My family happened to be in Chicago, staying at a hotel only a few blocks from the Auditorium, and my parents were cool enough to let me and my 14 year old brother walk there for our first rock concert. A May thunderstorm soaked us on the way to the elegant old theater. We were handed notices warning everybody to refrain from the new audience practice of hoisting lit Bic lighters in tribute to the band, lest we ignite the Auditorium. Then we squished into our seats for one of the best concerts of our lives, nobody knowing that it would be Mott the Hoople's last U.S. tour, not even the band members. Almost 40 years later, my face still gets wet listening to the official live albums and bootlegs like the one Sue posted. Maybe Ian was right in 1974, that you can never grow old, but I am getting soft in my late middle age like my Dad. I start crying happy tears during the recording of Holst's "Jupiter" theme as the band takes the stage. Ian's rendition of the opening verses of "American Pie" at the piano always strikes the right balance of homage and sarcasm -- Something touched me here inside , the day the music died -- until he adds, "Or did it?" It's good for your body, it's good for your soul, Let's go!, it's the golden age of rock and roll.
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