Lost Bands of Yesteryear #1 - Mott The Hoople

hello hello and welcome once again to the guitar historian channel today we're introducing a new series like forgotten fretmasters which focuses on lesser-known and underrated guitarists i'm proud to introduce lost bands of yesteryear a series that will focus on bands that were short-lived under the radar commercially are just plain one-hit wonders that deserve more recognition for our very first episode we're going to look at a band that is notoriously hard to categorize and had a tempestuous and winding road to their eventual success the one and only mot the hoople is our subject next on the first episode of lost bands of yesteryear [Music] hi friends and welcome once again to episode one of lost bands yesteryear which is all about math the hoople but do me a favor and hit that like button below if you like rock history content like this so that youtube will know that others of our fellow rock lovers would like to see it it really helps the channel grow by getting more people to see the content now let's get on with the video the story of the band that would eventually become motherhoop started way back in 1966 when a group of musicians from hereford herefordshire england formed a band telling you the name of this band is a little complicated however as they actually had multiple names depending on the country in which they were playing guitarist mick ralphs who would go on to join bad company in some years bassist pete over and watts organist terry allen or fally as he was known drummer buffon griffin and vocalist stan tippins were known at times and most famously as the doc thomas group in italy where they had secured a recording contract with the italian record label diskey into record the band also had a residency at a nightclub in an italian resort town but when they would return home to the uk however the band used different names for some reason first using the name shakedown sound and then the name silence shakedown sound came from a previous band who had been the backing group for reggae artist jimmy cliff who would go on to some notoriety in the 70s with the movie the harder they come but once that gig ended the members of the band merged to form the band silence which is when the architect of our story manager and producer guy stevens would enter the picture stevens was a ubiquitous figure in the british r b scene having his hands in a number of bands and moments from the rock scene in the mid to late 60s stevens first claim to fame was running an r b night at the scene club in soho where he would dj and spin a number of obscure records from motown stacks and chess records mods from all over england became gravitationally attracted to the club and members of the who the small faces the rolling stones and even the beatles were known to frequent stevens r b knights stevens is credited with supplying the early stones with a number of their cover songs that they would use before they began to write their own material later stevens would guide a band called spooky tooth and rename them after a cat's pedigree name to prokalharam but stevens would miss out on haram's early success as he would be arrested on a drug charge and spend some time in jail while in stir stevens would read a book called mott the hoople by willard mattis which was an unknown comic piece that told the wandering story of a protagonist named norman mott and his sometimes fantastic and not so fantastic adventures the book not important but the name stuck in steven's mind and he envisioned it as the band name of what he began to form in his mind as the perfect rock band which combined dylan-esque vocals the keyboard sound of prokelharam and the rhythm section of the rolling stones stevens had this vision in his back pocket even as he began to work with young blues rock band free and where silence came into stevens view was when pete over and watts unsuccessfully auditioned as the bass player in free when pete told mick ralph's about his near-miss later ralph's decided to travel up to london to see guy and supply him with a fresh demo tape of silence that they had just made it was early in 1969 at this point stevens was surprised that ralph's would make the trip and was impressed at his gumption and so agreed to audition the band a few days later at a small upstairs studio stevens was further surprised when he saw the band lugging a massive hammond organ up the flight of stairs and their stick-to-itiveness impressed him even more stevens would like the final product all except stan tippins is the lead vocalist which didn't fit in his vision of the perfect band over the course of the next few weeks the band would audition a number of hopefuls none of which seemed to fit finally engineer bill farley chimed in saying quote i know a bloke and he would phone up his friend ian hunter initially hunter was hesitant as the trip would have taken some bus changes but he eventually relented and agreed to come up to the studio hunter up to that point had meandered around the hamburg musical scene like so many others eventually forming a group called hurricane henry and the shriekers he'd worked as a road digger and was currently employed in a factory at the time of farley's phone call even though it took some cajoling hunter eventually agreed that he didn't want to spend the summer in the factory farley told him quote they're weird but they may like you when ian arrived at the audition he told stevens that he had been quote essentially a bass player and would fumble through what he called a bass symphony to the band member's horror eventually guy would ask him to play something on the piano and hunter would play like a rolling stone by bob dylan the clouds parted and the angels sang stevens had found his man hunter's overtly laid-back look was a huge plus in his procuring the gig of course mick ralph's remembered that ian arrived wearing a donkey jacket open-toed sandals and a pair of thick black sunglasses to quote hide his fat face as ralph's reported but hunter's undeniable cool factor distinctive lead vocal would fit the vibe that guy stevens was looking for in the band ian cheekily demanded a wage from stevens who was so taken with hunter's perfection for the project that he hardly agreed to the 15 pound a week demand hunter to his credit went on a crash diet to get his image together and took the role of lead vocalist and songwriter in the band extremely seriously and credits stevens with giving him his big break to this day hunter would say quote with guy it was special because if it wasn't for guys seeing that little spark that certainly i wasn't aware of i would still be in the factory right now next however would come the name still hiding the mop the hoople name in his pocket he presented it to the band who was less than thrilled about it but felt that steven's clout and experience was something to be feared and respected and so they went with it stevenswood convened the band into the studio quickly and their first album would be recorded in less than a week the self-titled first album was originally meant to be titled talking bear mountain picnic massacre disaster blues however the recording process didn't really adequately showcase the raw power of the band in those days and so it failed to make much noise in the charts only managing to cut into the low ends of the top 50 for a short time the band began to hone their live sound both in their old stomping grounds in italy and in the uk and amusing aside comes from the italian fans belief that hunter was actually blind due to his use of the sunglasses as the band fumbled through the early numbers they were surprised on the first night when the fans went wild but they soon found the reason was that the fans believed they were lending support to a blind man once they found out that the sunglasses were just ian's look the support um well it stopped it would take several months for matahupal to cement a sound and following in their mother uk with their hybrid of several styles in their early days drawing crowds from many disparate styles ralph's hard rocking guitar kept the band firmly in the rock genre but hunter's esoteric and whimsy lyrics wedged a counterpoint which occasionally forays in a proto metal punk and his time went on glam rock styles this drew an eclectic crowd of many different types of music fans including a young songwriter who just had a hit with 1969's space oddity named david bowie who was another musical act who walked effortlessly between many different musical styles but more on him a little later mata huppo continued to build a decent live following through 1970 but this following did not add up to the success in the record sales department with mott's second album mad shadows released in september of 1970 hunter took over as the main songwriter of the band but the stevens produced effort only managed to number 48 on the album charts and was not critically well received many listeners found the album's sound to be murky and muddy the band would quickly turn around five months later with their third effort wildlife which was mostly produced by the band itself and featured a brighter more punchy sound critics took notice of the new direction and generally agreed that it was a stronger album but it still did not lead to more sales interestingly it wasn't the only album released in 1971 with the name wildlife with paul mccartney also choosing the name to kick off his new band project wings's first album the band continued to enjoy a small but fierce group of underground fans in the live scene and wear ubiquitous presence on many bills throughout the early 70s their explosive and well-received shows did little to boost their success in the album department however and their dejection at the lack of commercial success was beginning to weigh on the band they would play several strange shows in 1971 including one in an abandoned gas storage chamber in switzerland that would lead them to question whether continuing on in their current configuration was truly worth it they would push out one more album in 71 called brain capers in november which despite getting more somewhat favorable reviews from critics would be the first album by mata hoople that failed to chart at all in either the uk or the us the album also became known for matt's decision to turn down a song from mod superfan and burgeoning rockstar in his own right david bowie who had put forth suffragette city for the band to record not the hoople would politely turn the song down however feeling it wasn't right for their sound but the band continued to feel like they were only going backwards and they were on the cusp of breaking up for good bassist pete over and watts was friends with young singer songwriter david bowie and he discussed the band's decision to break up asking david if he'd known of any gigs available bowie expressed his love for the band and convinced watts to convene a meeting with them although bowie star was on the rise this was before ziggy stardust so the band figuring they had nothing to lose by meeting with him remained cautiously optimistic bowie again pushed for the band to record suffragette city but they again felt that the song wasn't right for their sound but we then played them a demo of another song that he felt encapsulated his vision for math the hoople the song was all the young dudes and the reaction from the band was instant and definitive ian hunter recalled quote i knew immediately that was it i'd waited all my life to sing a song like that the band would secretly rush into olympic studios to record the song and even though they were still technically signed to island records bowie's management at main men were able to pull them from ireland and resign them to cbs before the singles release the reinvigorated matahuba would spend the next few months recording their fifth album also to be called all the young dudes to support the upcoming hit engineer mickey most poked his head out of the control room to tell the band quote you've got a hit there bowie replied that he felt that it was a number one hit most replied number three that july a few months before the album's completion all the young dudes was released as a single and did in fact get to number three on the charts becoming a defining moment in the glam rock genre and cementing the band forever into the annals of fm classic rock radio the supporting album is generally regarded as mata hoople's best album release and the band went from a declining commercial institution to an overnight success in rolling stones rundown of the 500 greatest albums of all time all the young dudes was ranked number 491 the album also features some work from our first forgotten fret master mick ronson who arranged the strings on the song c diver it also featured an early version of the future bad company hit ready for love which mick ralph's would rework into the paul rogers fronted outfit the man's next release simply titled mott in july of 73 would become their highest charting album ever reaching number seven in the uk album charts and their single all the way from memphis reaching number 10 in the us charts but mott would be the last album with original guitarist mick ralph's who left to form bad company with rogers and simon kirk from the ashes of free i think bad company's history and many hit singles are well documented mott would continue by replacing ralph's with ariel bender who went back to spooky tooth and steelers wheel for a time and would put out their last classic era album with the hoople in march of 1974. the album would again be a successful entry into the album listings reaching number 11. the single roll away the stone would also reach number eight in the uk charts the next period of the band's history is a little hazy but one thing is certain it would end with hunter and ronson joining up to record ian's first solo album rather than continuing on in motherhoop initially the band was mostly enthusiastic at replacing bender with ronson because the band felt that bender didn't contribute much to the songwriting artistic direction of the band ronson's time is limited to some live work but his appearance with the band on the old gray whistle test shows the power that he brought to them for a short time despite the shot of juice they were beginning to get burned out with hunter even suffering from mental exhaustion and having to be hospitalized in america after flying over to sign papers on a new house after this ian hunter unexpectedly decided that it was time to fly on his own and he would take mick ronson to begin a solo career that would last many years beginning with april 1975's ian hunter hunter and ronson would also release several efforts under the title of the hunter ronson group there had been speculation as to exactly why hunter departed the group when he did and he put that question to rest in an interview later saying quote i didn't want mick ralph's to leave i offered him half my royalties on a total songwriting partnership and i was writing 10 times what he was but he wasn't interested it wasn't losing a limb it was like losing half the trunk that was the end for me looking back hunter's biggest solo contribution came from his first album track once bitten twice shy which was covered to a smash hit in 1989 by hard rock band great white but in my opinion ian's sneering sexuality dripping vocals on the original track is still the best version after hunter's departure mata hoopa would change its name to simply mott and reform with guitarist ray major and vocalist nigel benjamin releasing two more albums in the 70s neither of which did much commercially after a time they would join forces with singer john fiddler formerly of medicine head and renamed the band british lions again to little success commercially matahubal's reputation in connection to the continuing success of david bowie however kept the band's name and intellectual property alive over many years all the young dudes has remained a classic rock radio staple ever since its release in 1972 the band has been credited as an inspiration by many disparate musicians in many disparate musical styles including hard rock punk rock and folk as a result the band was consistently teased over the course of many years to reform finally in 2009 as one of the rare 60s rock acts to boast that all of its original members were still alive at the time matt the hoople finally decided to reunite for two shows at the hammersmith odeon in london all but drummer buffon would perform with his poor health leading him to only playing encores so the pretenders drummer martin chambers sat in the shows were favorably reviewed and led the band to appear several more times over the years notably in 2013 2018 and 2019. some of those shows were even joined by guitarist bender and keyboardist fisher once again mott was set to tour the us in 2009 but ian hunter's tonight is flared up and the tour was canceled in the prior years original members drummer dale griffin died in 2016 and bassist pete overend watts was lost in 2017. amazing that the youngest death in the band was 67 one of the few long-lived 60s bands that exist hunter original keyboardist verdan allen and guitarist mick ralphs are still alive and kicking and performing from time to time mata hoople is one of those bands that seem almost impossible to categorize having a hand in blues r b jazz folk hard rock made them one of the most interesting and unique bands of the early 70s explosion of glam rock even though they rode that wave for a time it's hard to totally categorize them as just glam because they had such an eclectic mix of recordings over the course of their career and even though their biggest hit came from another writer hunter and ralph's acquitted themselves quite well in the songsmithing department with a number of really strong tracks surviving down the years to fill a greatest hits album or two so even though mata hoople gets a lot of love from those musicians who were inspired by their fearlessness to creatively explore new genres they're hard rocking and explosive live shows and they're uncompromising and eclectic sense of fashion they should really get more mainstream notoriety as a classic rock band that truly pushed the boundaries of what rock and roll was and what rock and roll could be but that's the first episode of lost bands of yesteryear i hope that you enjoyed it and i'm happy to hear any suggestions in the comments below for more bands to examine here on the guitar historian channel also i'm doing a fundraiser for an amazing charity this year called parent project muscular dystrophy which is a group that advocates for the research and development of muscular dystrophy treatments and connects families across the country who have boys who are battling this tough disease my son jake was just diagnosed a few months ago and your donation to this great cause would really mean a lot to me and our family you can donate by clicking the box right over here to my left i'm also donating a portion of my youtube proceeds every month thanks for giving me a moment to talk about that but as always i thank you so much for watching and we will see you next time on the guitar historian channel

Channel: The Guitar Historian

Views: 184,419

Keywords: Lost Bands of Yesteryear, Mott The Hoople, Ian Hunter, Mick Ralphs, David Bowie, All The Young Dudes, Once Bitten Twice Shy

Id: YPahlyuKeY4

Length: 19min 15sec (1155 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 05 2022