| |
Whiskyfun
Home
(Current
entries)
Concert
Review
Index
(All Reviews
Since 2004)
Leave
feedback
 |
Copyright
Nick Morgan and crew
|
|
|
Concert
Review by Nick Morgan |
|
 |
|
MOTT THE HOOPLE
Hammersmith Apollo, London, October
1st 2009
They
said it would never happen, but in a year of the
most unlikely rock reunions, many prompted I’m
sure, by the devastating impact the credit crunch
and the fall in share prices has had on many a
rock-star’s personal fortune, it has. |
 |
| Mott
the Hoople, whose star as the improbable
doyens of glam-rock (as we liked to call it in the
UK) shone brightly, albeit briefly, in the early
1970s, leaving behind them some simply timeless
recordings, are back. Originally for one night only,
they have a week at the Hammersmith Apollo, and
on tonight’s opener, fathers have brought
sons, mothers have brought daughters, proud grandparents
have brought grandchildren, and I’ve brought
the Photographer, to witness a moment of rock and
roll history. Half of the Welsh Marches seem to
be here, pugnacious prop-forwards over-spilling
from the confines of their seats, to celebrate the
return of Ross on
Wye’s most famous sons. They’ve
been rehearsing down there for weeks, playing one
warm-up gig in Monmouth prior to tonight. And although
frontman Ian
Hunter has rarely stopped performing and recording
since he departed the band in 1974, even he seemed
a little overawed by the moment when the original
members of the band (minus an unwell drummer Dale
Griffin, replaced for the main set by Pretenders
sticksman Martin Chambers) took to the stage to
a tumultuous welcome. |
 |
I’m
not sure that I’m allowed to say how old Hunter
is but I can confide that although they’ve
dramatically changed colour, he still has the trademark
curls sweeping down over his face, and the ever-present
sunglasses. His nasal voice, sometimes close to
a very poor anglicised version of Bob Dylan, hasn’t
changed a bit. Guitarist Mick
Ralphs (you may recall that he went on to form
Bad Company with Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirk) is
chunking out riffs on his Les Paul, whilst bassist
Pete Watts is displaying a selection of no doubt
‘original’ seventies vintage clothing,
including a very natty pair of white slip-on shoes
“from Marks and Spencer in Ross”. |
| There’s
an unconvincing and rather uncoordinated air to
things as the band play through songs like ‘Sweet
Jane’, ‘One of the boys’; and
sadly ‘Born in 1958’ is probably the
low point of the set. But after that things picked
up magically, with even the hopelessly self-pitying
and clichéd ‘Ballad of Mott’
sounding good; the band just clicked into place
as they rolled away the years with Hunter in particular
showing he’d lost none of his rock and roll
moves. |
|
Ian
Hunter and Pete Watts |
| The
end of the main set and encore (when Griffin joined
on drums alongside Chambers) was reserved for a
triumphant rendition of those great songs ‘Honaloochie
boogie’, ‘All the young dudes’,
‘Roll away the stone’, and ‘All
the way from Memphis’. A potent chorus was
provided by a powerful backing vocal group (“Sha
la la la, push push”) comprising original
singer Stan Tippens and various members of Hunter’s
family. The crowd went predictably wild (well, as
wild as age permitted) and queues formed in the
foyer to buy the exclusive recording that was being
made of the show. In the end, after a few sticky
moments, it was all quite uplifting. But I was left
with one irksome question in my mind, a long unsolved
puzzle from the past uncomfortably reawakened. “Where”,
I had to ask myself, “where is Honaloochie,
and could it be anywhere near Puff the Magic Dragon’s
Honalee?”. - Nick Morgan (photographs
by Kate) |
Check
the index of all reviews:
Nick's Concert Reviews
|
|
|
|
|
There's nothing more down there... |
|
|
|
|
