Mott The Hoople CD: "Greatest Hits - Live"

Sleeve and track listing

Purple Pyramid CLP 0823-2.

Review

Hmm. An odd one, this. A live album by Mott The Hoople would normally get a rave review from me, but I find it difficult to see the point of this release. The material has seen the light of day before, on the excellent Stockholm To Philadelphia 2-CD set, so a single CD featuring most of the Philadelphia performance and just one track from Stockholm seems almost pointless. Why not go the whole hog and just release the whole of the Philly show?

The title is also somewhat misleading as well. A "greatest hits" package that lacks Honaloochie Boogie, All The Way From Memphis, Roll Away The Stone and Golden Age of Rock 'n' Roll is a bit of a misnomer in my book. yes, I know they hadn't been written/released at the time this set was recorded, but that still doesn't excuse the "greatest hits" tag, there being only one "hit" on here, in the form of All The Young Dudes, which does at least feature David Bowie on backing vocals (his band introduction is included at the start of the CD as well).

About the only saving grace is new sleeve notes by Dale Griffin. Informative as always, they tell us for example that much of the crowd noise was in fact overdubbed by the stupid radio station - always a funny one that, the crowd apparently going nuts and yet Mick Ralphs saying "I thought the crowds were a bit more responsive than this..."

In summary, this one's really for the completist only. It you must have a sampler of Stockholm To Philadelphia, then check out the Live Dudes CD instead.