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Mott The Hoople and Ian Hunter

Mott The Hoople CD: "Sea Divers Live In London"

Sleeve and track listing

Cantare CANTCD 05. (3 stars!)

  1. Ohio
  2. (Introduction)
  3. No Wheels To Ride
  4. (Introduction)
  5. Rock n Roll Queen
  6. (Introduction)
  7. The Debt
  8. (Introduction)
  9. Walking With a Mountain/Jumping Jack Flash
  10. Keep a Knocking
  11. Interview

All tracks recorded 15th Oct 1970 at the BBC Paris Theatre, London

Review

An odd one, this. An early BBC live recording would normally be pounced on by fans, eager to hear what Mott sounded like in the early days. It is well documented that the BBC wiped tapes after broadcast, so the source here is an off-air tape, recorded on a mono deck from (we think) an AM (not FM!) source. Thus, the sound quality is not the greatest (although better than the Rock n Roll Circus disc).

Having said that, what's here is quite enjoyable. Ohio is a powerful opening number, while things calm down for a bit with No Wheels To Ride. Mott up the tempo again with a blistering Rock n Roll Queen and after the calm of The Debt there is the barely-controlled mayhem of Walking With a Mountain and Keep a Knocking.

We are not sure of the status of this release. I got my copy from Amazon which suggests a legit CD. But we've not heard of the label (Cantare) before, there are no songwriting credits, recording credits or any other such information, which suggests this is a bootleg. So who knows?

Not for the casual fan, but for Mott completists this is worth having.