CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Mott the Hoople, the legendary British band that helped define glam-rock and proceeded to influence generations of punk, garage and metal bands, is reuniting for its first American tour in 45 years.
“We’re doing eight shows in America and another eight in Europe and that’s it,” says Mott the Hoople singer Ian Hunter, via phone from his home in Connecticut. “We’re not just a bunch of fat old blokes trying to milk this. We’re excited to be playing together because the band sounds great.”
Story by John Petkovic, The Plain Dealer
Photo by Tia Haygood, Ross_Halfin, Trudi_Knight.
Hunter will be joined by Morgan Fisher on keyboards and Ariel Bender on guitar – three-fifths of the lineup that toured America for the last time, in 1974. The other two members of band’s ’74 lineup, drummer Dale “Buffin” Griffin and bassist Pete Overend Watts passed away in 2016 and 2017, respectively.
Columbia Records
The line-up for the 2019 tour will be rounded out by members of Hunter’s long-time backing band, the Rant Band.
The eight-date tour – dubbed "Mott the Hoople ’74" -- opens April 1 in Milwaukee and concludes April 10 in New York City. It features a Cleveland stop April 6 at the Masonic.
There are no dates on the west coast; the furthest west is Minneapolis on April 2. Here are the Mott The Hoople ’74
The Plain Dealer, 1974
“We wanted to make sure we did Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee – cities that were loyal to us,” says Hunter. “We insisted on Cleveland because that’s where it started for us. I remember doing places with halfhearted responses and then we’d come to Cleveland and it was the first city to welcome us with open arms.”
Hunter’s special relationship with the city would inspire him to pen “Cleveland Rocks,” the 1979 song that has become city’s unofficial anthem.
The Plain Dealer
“We’d play L.A. and there would be more people backstage than in front of the stage,” says Hunter. “Cleveland was hipper than anywhere else -- with Mott the Hoople, but also with David Bowie and Roxy Music. So when I’d see these late-night comedians telling jokes about Cleveland I’d think they were idiots.”
Mott the Hooples’ final album, “The Hoople,” topped the WMMS radio local charts when it was released in 1974. The station played an instrumental role in the career of Mott the Hoople and countless other bands in the 1970s.
The band’s final tour included two sold out shows at the Allen Theatre in Cleveland -- May 25, 1974.
The year also saw the release of Hunter’s acclaimed memoir “Diary of a Rock’n’Roll Star.” Filled with acerbic wit and a keen eye for detail, it is considered one of the best books written about rock 'n' roll – and is being reissued in the spring (Omnibus Press).
“We were getting quite big in 1974 and were the first band to play Broadway,” says Hunter, referring to a week of sold-out shows at Uris Theatre that were recorded for the band’s 1974 live album. “We’ll play a lot of songs we played on the ’74 tour. This band is the class of ’74 and that’s what the tour is about.”
Plain Dealer Historical Photograph Collection
Mott the Hoople rolled out would-be stars in the opening slot for that 1974 tour, from KISS to Queen to Aerosmith to the New York Dolls.
“Queen was destined for greatness,” says Hunter. “Freddie was so outrageous and the band was so talented and they were also so intelligent.”
He remembers something very different about KISS.
“They stunk,” says Hunter.
Not the music. He’s literally talking about a stench.
“They only had one outfit for the entire tour and I remember one night in Detroit going through their dressing room to get to ours,” says Hunter. “I never smelled anything like that… It was leather gone bad.”
The April tour will include classics from “The Hoople” such as “The Golden Age of Rock n’ Roll” and “Roll Away The Stone.”
The band will also roll out the hits, many of which appeared on the 1974 Mott the Hoople Live album.
Of course, that includes “All the Way From Memphis” and “All the Young Dudes.” The latter song, penned by David Bowie, not only became a hit and a glam anthem; it also provided a new life for the band when it came out in 1972.
“Mott the Hoople had broken up -- we weren’t going anywhere,” says Hunter. “Bowie was a big fan so he approached us with a song for us to do.”
The song a classic, though not for Mott.
“He offered up ‘Suffragette City,’ but we turned it down, because it was too similar to some of our songs and we needed something to get on the radio,” says Hunter. “Then he played us ‘All the Young Dudes’ and I’m like, ‘Jesus, why are you giving this away?’ I knew right away that we had a great hit on our hands.”
Photo by Harpic Bryant
U.S. Tour dates. Tickets go on sale Friday through Ticketmaster and venue sites.
April 1 – Milwaukee, WI – Miller High Life Theatre
April 2 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
April 3 –Chicago, IL – Chicago Theatre
April 5 – Detroit, MI – The Fillmore
April 6 – Cleveland, OH – Masonic
April 8 – Glenside, PA – Keswick Theatre
April 9 – Boston, MA – Orpheum Theatre
April 10 – New York, NY – Beacon Theatre
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