Mott The Hoople CD: "An Introduction to Mott The Hoople"

Fuel 2000

Review

Another day, another compilation of previously-issued Angel Air tracks. It seems like that anyway, as there have been no end of budget compilations of tracks from All The Way From Stockholm To Philadelphia and Two Miles From Live Heaven. Honestly, how many times can you make a compilation from two 2-CD sets and keep it fresh?

Actually the compilers have tried to do just that, and have thankfully kept this to a single CD. That is about the right length of an introduction and in many ways is better than the 2-CD collections that have been flooding the market recently. This is a US compilation, and therefore in many ways complements the UK compilation Hoopling - Best of Live, which came out on Angel Air a couple of years ago.

In that regard this is a worthwhile effort, although a note to the effect most of these tracks are live could have been more prominently displayed on the sleeve (it is there, but in small print on the back).

The sleeve notes, however, are poor and contain a few mistakes. Ian Hunter's Roll Away The Stone, we are told, was written by Richard Supa (he wrote a similarly-titled song five years after RATS was a hit). Verden Allen was apparently replaced by Mick Bolton who in turn was replaced by Morgan Fisher who was replaced by Blue Weaver. Having two keyboardists (Fisher-Bolton and then Fisher-Weaver) shouldn't be that confusing - anyone would think Mott got through keyboardists like the Greatful Dead...

However, poor notes do not make a poor album and if the casual fan wants to dip his toe into the water of Angel Air releases, this is a reasonable place to start.