This page will contain latest snippets of news in the Ian Hunter/Mott The Hoople camp. All of this news is second-hand, and has mostly already appeared on the mailing list; I present it here for completeness.
This page last updated 28th June 2009.
Ian Hunter will be performing at the City Winery in New York City on 23 July 2009. Tickets are available to City Winery VinoFile members and Ian Hunter's fans right now by clicking here. The venue has reserved seating at tables and bar stools, and tickets prices range from $30 to $45 for reserved seats. City Winery is the brainchild of Michael Dorf, founder of the iconic Knitting Factory, who wanted to create a space in Manhattan where he could combine his shared passions for wine and music.
28th June 2009
Mott The Hoople have been inducted into Mojo magazine's Hall of Fame. This was part of Mojo's annual awards ceremonies, held on 11th June 2009. The award was presented by Def Leppard's Joe Elliott, and attended by Ian Hunter, Mick Ralphs, Verden Allen and Dale Griffin.
14th June 2009
Ian's next solo album will be called Man Overboard. Ian has signed a world-wide deal with New West Records. I understand the album will be released on 21st July.
I understand the track listing to be as follows:
1st June 2009
At last, after months of speculation, it's official. The Mk 1 line up of Mott The Hoople (Ian Hunter, Mick Ralphs, Overend Watts, Verden Allen and Dale Griffin) will reunite for five gigs at London's Hamersmith Apollo on 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th October 2009. Fans may know the venue better as Hammersmith Odeon, which was renamed after the venue was sold in the early 1990's.
The gigs on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd October have now sold out. Due to this heavy demand, two extra dates have been added on 4th and 5th October.
However, fans who have already bought tickets for the other gigs should have received an email from promoter Mean Fiddler. There is also a special link from the official Mott The Hoople website to Ticketmaster which will allow fans to buy tickets before the "public" date. Please note that the Ticketmaster website uses Verified By Visa to check your credit card - you may need to adjust your browser's security settings to allow for this (I'm thinking particularly of Firefox with the Noscript extension).
Rumours were rife after organist Verden Allen appeared to spill the beans in a radio interview in September 2008. They were fuelled further by comments from Zeppelin promoter Rob Hallett who said that another legendary reunion could well happen, saying it would please a lot of people 'of a certain age'. "If you were a teenage boy in the pre-punk 70's, you're going to be very excited. Outside of Led Zeppelin, this is probably the biggest reformation that you could hope for."
A posting on Ian Hunter's website says:
Just thought you'd like to know the Mott the Hoople reunion IS going to take place on October 2nd and 3rd, 2009 at the HMV Hammersmith Apollo in London. It will be the original members - Mick, Pete, Phally, Buff and me. They've asked our esteemed webmaster, Justin, to formulate a Mott the Hoople site which should be up and running in the near future. Why are we doing it? I can't speak for the others, but I'm doing it just to see what it's like. Short of war, death, famine etc. ...it's ON."
Tickets went on sale on 22nd January 2009, priced at £42.50 and £36 from the following outlets:
www.ticketmaster.co.uk
www.seetickets.com (08700 603 777)
www.ticketweb.co.uk (08700 600 100)
7th March 2009
A live CD by MOTT was released on Angel Air on 9th February 2009. By Tonight - Live 1975/76 is a single CD containing live tracks recorded at Friars Aylesbury and Leeds Polytechnic in the UK, and The Forum, LA and Agora Ballroom, Cleveland in the USA. Tracks are as follows:
All tracks have been previously released (as the 2-CD set Over Here And Over There.
7th March 2009
Next year sees the 40th anniversary of Mott's formation. To coincide with this, a documentary film/DVD is currently in production. Unlike last year's under review (which was unauthorised), this one is being made with the full cooperation of the band.
The company, Start Productions, was formed four years ago and specialise in films about the bands they love and whose story has not fully been told. Their first documentary film was on the legendary 60's LA band LOVE. The film premiered at the London Film Festival in 2006 and had its US premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival in 2007. The DVD is now on sale (more details here www.myspace.com/lovestorydocumentary).
They tell me that should anyone out there have any film or photos of the band that they'd be happy for them to consider using in the film - please do get in touch.
If/when I have more details, I'll let everyone know.
6th August 2008
A 2-CD Ian/Mott compilation was released in August. Old Records Never Die features one disc covering Mott The Hoople 1969-74, and one disc Ian Hunter 1975-2007.
8th September 2008
A 4-CD live box set was released by Angel Air in August. This is a limited edition of just 2000 copies, and bundles up into one package the 1970 Croydon disc, the 1972 Philadelphia disc and the Live Heaven 2-CD set.
8th September 2008
There have been three recent compilations released. Roll Away The Stone covers Mott The Hoople (1972-74), MOTT but no solo IH stuff. Behind The Shades is a single CD taken mostly from Ian's 2004 Astoria show. All The Young Dudes is a compilation of previously-released live tracks.
(28th May 2008)
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