hunter-mott.com
Mott The Hoople and Ian Hunter

Various Artists DVD: "Beat Club: One The Road Again"

Sleeve and track listing

  1. Beat Club: Trailer.
  2. Steppenwolf: Born To Be Wild
  3. The Animals: CC Rider
  4. James Gang: Walk Away
  5. The Byrds: Chestnut Mare
  6. Humble Pie: Sad Bag Of Shaky Jake
  7. Eric Burdon & War: Spill The Wine
  8. Canned Heat: Let's Work Together
  9. Mott The Hoople: At The Crossroads
  10. New Riders of the Purple Sage: Truck Drivin' Man
  11. Steve Miller: Jackson Kent Blues
  12. Little Feat: Oh Atlanta
  13. Bachman-Turner Overdrive: You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet
  14. Poco: C'mon
  15. Dr Hook: At The Freaker's Ball

Region 2 (PAL) DVD. 4:3 picture.

Review

Very little Mott The Hoople survives on video. In their day, they made a few promotional films for singles in the 72-74 period, a USA TV show or two, a few BBC Top Of The Pops appearances and a couple of slots on the German Beat Club show. And it is the latter that finally sees some Mott The Hoople released on video (or to be more precise, DVD) for the first time.

The format is very much like the BBC's own Old Grey Whistle Test, where we see the band playing live in the studio (sometimes to a studio audience). Well, Steppenwolf appears mimed, but the majority of the DVD looks live - Mott The Hoople certainly are, and the performance is stunning. Watts' and Ralphs' hair is impossibly long, Phally is tucked off to the right somewhere, Buff's drums are up front in the mix, and Ian with curly hair and shades looks so damn cool...

The rest of the DVD isn't bad either. A good mix of late 60's pop-psychedelia and early 70's rock, with a bit of sould thrown in for good measure. Picture quality is, as you would expect, perfect.

At the time is was the only DVD to include Mott The Hoople. It is still (January 2018) the only place you'll get to see this performance of At The Crossroads. As such, it gets a big thumbs up from me.