Mott The Hoople CD: "Hoopling - Best Of Live"

Sleeve and track listing

Angel Air SJPCD121.

Review

Another day, another Mott The Hoople compilation... I'm sure many fans will be asking "Do we need another one?" The answer is a qualified "Yes, but..."

There have been two major live 2-CD sets released on Angel Air in recent years, Stockholm To Philadelphia and Two Miles From Live Heaven. Fans will, of course, have bought both sets but the casual buyer may not have been tempted. Hence this compilation, which is a supposed "best of" those two releases and is meant to tempt the casual purchaser into investigating further.

Fans can argue over the track selection (chosen by MTHAS editor Keith Smith) - I would have left off Golden Age in favour of, say, Marionette - but there's no doubting the power of Mott The Hoople is represented well here. Angel Of 8th Avenue is beautiful while Mick Ralphs delivers a great guitar solo in Ready For Love. Sucker broods with power and menace, while Roll Away The Stone/Sweet Jane is a killer combination that would remain in the live set till the end.

Rather than provide another biog of the band, the booklet instead wisely details each track, with comments from one or more band members. One omission though is the failure to mention which set the tracks come from, so the casual purchaser is left none the wiser if they wish to investigate the Mott The Hoople back catalogue further.

The booklet contains a few rare/previously unpublished photos, but apart from that the dedicated fan will already have everything on offer here. But for the casual fan, this is as good a way as any of dipping his toe into the water. Who knows, we may even pick up a few more converts...