Mottober

Ian Hunter Rocks the Fillmore

2011-02-09T18:55:00.001-08:00

January 28 2011 The Fillmore
San Francisco

I couldn't resist the chance to see Ian Hunter play at this classic venue and decided to make the trek from Vancouver to see the show. So we flew in Friday afternoon with just enough time to check-in to our hotel and head over to to the Fillmore. We had a beer or two with some fellow board members in a pub nearby and headed over to the hall.

The show was fantastic. The band was great and Ian rocked like it was 1974. He made what I thought was an unusual song choice to begin the show with Sea Diver but it is such a great song it turned out perfect and he remained seated at the keyboard for the first 6 songs.

Sea Diver

Life After Death

Cleveland Rocks

Dancin' on the Moon

Shallow Crystals

Irene Wild

He moved away from the keyboard and picked up an acoustic guitar for a rousing version of "Arms and Legs", an obvious fan favourite from the latest album "Man Overboard".

Arms and Legs

Flowers

Soul of America

Man Overboard

Wash Us Away

23a Swan Hill

Then Ian gave the crowd a choice of which song he would play next. The choices were "Boy" and "Michael Picasso" and althought there were cheers for both, The touching tribute to best friend Mick Ronson was obviously the crowds choice.

Michael Picasso

Sweet Jane

I thought "Sweet Jane" was one of the weak spots (if there was one) during the reunion shows and not my favourite MTH song anyway but they finished the first part of the show with an absolute rocking version of the Lou Reed classic.

The band returned to a thunderous applause and slowed down the pace with a few unusual live choices including "Somewhere," a song from "West Side Story"

Letter to Brittania

Ballad of Little Star

Somewhere

They got back to some serious Rock and Roll where Sweet Jane had left off with Ian playing his birthday gift Maltese Cross replica guitar, which he explained was a 70th birthday present from Joe Elliott.

All the Way From Memphis

Walkin' With a Mountain

Rock & Roll Queen

Once Bitten Twice Shy

The band left the stage again but the crowd screamed for more as everyone knew there were a couple of songs that he never leaves out. After a good few minutes of applause the band came back for the last time.

Roll away The Stone
Saturday Gigs
All the Young Dudes

Scott McCaughey from REM joined the band for Dudes looking a lot like the late Jerry Garcia.

After a bit of a lie in Saturday morning I was able to get around to some of the sights of San Francisco. Saw much of the downtown hanging from the side of a cable car.

Had a bread bowl of awsome clam chowder down at Fisherman's Warf

Standing at the famous corner of Haight and Ashbury, the center of everything duri ng the Summer of Love. Peace!

Oh, and I ate my delicious official Fillmore apple. If you didn't grab a free apple out of the box at the Fillmore you really missed out!

S-Ian Fr-Iancisco

2010-12-10T20:10:00.000-08:00

Well it has been over a year since the glory of Mottober and it seems like it was last week. The great news is that Ian Hunter is making a rare appearance on the west coast. Vancouver? Seattle? No, that would be too good to be true. But he is playing three nights in California and I have tickets to the Friday night show in San Francisco on January 28 2011. So what better place to post my trip blog than right here.

Stay Tuned!

After Lights

2009-10-15T16:14:00.000-07:00

Well, Mottober has come and gone. I can't believe it was eight months ago when this whole thing began. It seems like a just a few weeks ago. It was definitely THE best concert experience of my life. This reunion was 35 years in the making and I know a big worry for many, myself included, was that it couldn't possibly live up to our great expectations. I was worried that the concerts would be five old men who used to be Mott The Hoople.

People have asked me why I would travel across the ocean to see a band that few have even heard of here in Canada. Why would I do it for any band for that matter? People thought I was crazy. I can tell you that there is no other band I would travel 8 time zones to see. Of all the great bands of the 70's, why Mott? I don't know the answer to that. I guess it is just magic. When those five guys get together to make music, magic happens for a just a few of us on this planet that I am sure none of us could explain. But we can feel it!

And magic happened on that stage at the Hammersmith Odeon for five nights in Mottober. It was not five men who used to be Mott the Hoople. It was not Ian Hunter with a back up band. It was Mott The Hoople. And it was great!

Tuesday Mottober 6th

2009-10-07T16:03:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately when Mott The Hoople took to the stage for the fifth and last time, Mark and I were likely somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean. Our flight was arranged prior to the announcement of the last two shows and we were flying home Tuesday. Mott The Hoople went on without us. I would have loved to have seen
Joe Elliott's Down N Outz. I hear they were great. If anyone reading this was there, please comment on what was great or different about this fifth and last show.

Mott the Hoople Reunion Concert No. 4

2009-10-06T08:22:00.000-07:00

The Monday night show would be the last one for us. We had booked our flights before the 4th and 5th shows were announced and were flying home on Tuesday. Mott would have to go on without us. It felt strange to think there would be a show without us there. Since the set list is the same for all nights there is less and less to say about the show each time. I can say that they were just getting better and better and the last show for us would have us in our best seats right at the front. So this was the BIG show for us. I got some pretty good shots so I will match up the the pictures song for song.

Hymn For The Dudes

Rock & Roll Queen

Sweet Jane

One of the Boys

Sucker

The Moon Upstairs

Original Mixed Up kid

James Mastro from Ian Hunter's Rant Band helps Ian on with his acoustic guitar for the set of slow songs.

I Wish I was Your Mother

Ready For Love

Born late '58

Ballad of Mott

Sweet Angeline

Walkin With a Mountain

The Journey

Golden Age of Rock and Roll

Honaloochie Boogie

All The Way From Memphis

Roll Away the Stone

Ian and daughter Traci Hunter who does the female bit in Roll Away the Stone.

All the Young Dudes

Joe Elliott from Def leopard joins Mott to sing a verse of "Dudes" for the third time in four nights.

Anyone know who this guy is?

Keep a Knockin

Saturday Gigs

As Ian was singing "did you see the suits and the platform boots", Joe Elliott came out on stage parading around holding up a bright blue platform boot.

Ian directs the crowd in a chorus of "goodbye, goodbye" as the band leaves the stage.

Monday Mottober 5th

2009-10-05T08:06:00.000-07:00

Monday morning arrived with sadness and excitement and both for the same reason. Tonight would be the last of the four Mott The Hoople shows we would attend and it was our last day in London. I have been to London a couple times before and being a big Beatles fan, surprisingly hadn't been to Abbey Road. So a visit to that famous Beatles location was first on the agenda. I had to get a picture walking across that intersection. They say 250,000 people a year visit that corner and I guess it drives the cars a little nuts with all the people running out into traffic to get their picture taken. Well, Mark and I were no exception and after a few honks and a close encounter with a big red double decker bus, we had the photos we were after.

And at the address 5 Abbey Rd is of course, Abbey Road Studios

Sunday Mottober 4th

2009-10-04T18:26:00.000-07:00

Sunday was a day off for the band and mostly a sight seeing day for Mark and I. We were staying in Mayfair and made the short walk across the park Sunday morning to Buckingham Palace. There was a crowd gathered out front and a band we couldn't see was playing but we were not sure what was going on.

We took a few obligatory snapshots of the palace before watching the Queen's Guard come marching out and over to their nearby barracks.

Then we took the Tube to the Tower of London and then walked to the Tower Bridge from there.

We hopped back on the Tube and back to Camden Town to the markets once again to pick up a few thing for our wives. After all they did allow us this trip to London without them.

After dinner we went back to Tower bridge for a few shots of the bridge lit up at night.

Saturday Mottober 3rd - Reunion Concert No. 3

2009-10-04T10:08:00.000-07:00

Hymn For The Dudes
Rock & Roll Queen
Sweet Jane
One of the Boys
Sucker
The Moon Upstairs
Knockin' On Heaven's Door (part)
Original Mixed Up kid
I Wish I was Your Mother
Ready For Love
Born late '58
Ballad of Mott
Sweet Angeline
Walkin With a Mountain
Your Cheatin' Heart (Hank Williams)
Let's Talk About Us (Jerry Lee Lewis)
The Journey
Golden Age of Rock and Roll
Honaloochie Boogie
All The Way From Memphis - after about 20 second of the intro a drunk fan starts to dance on the stage and is escorted off by Stan Tippens. The band stops playing and starts over.
All The Way From Memphis
Roll Away the Stone
All the Young Dudes
Keep a Knockin
Saturday Gigs

Here are a few pics from the Saturday show. Will update later.

The above pic is during Honaloochie Boogie with Mott`s original vocalist Stan Tippens

singing the verse.

The boys take a bow before the first encore.

Joe Elliott take a verse of All the young Dudes.

Camden Town

2009-10-04T09:35:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning Mark and I headed to Camden Town and spent most of the day there browsing through
the market stalls and having lunch and a Guinness at a pub. Camden Town is a pretty cool area with tons of
shops and market stalls to search through including a few vinyl shops that we had no problem sniffing out.

Stonehenge

2009-10-03T19:09:00.000-07:00

Friday morning we got up early and took the train to Salisbury to take a tour of Stonehenge. We took a bus from Salisbury that dropped us at Stonehenge about half an hour later. I had Spinal Tap going through my herad the whole time. I couldn't find a little Stonehenge to dangle on the stage at Hammersmith tho'. Stonehenge was pretty impressive and I took lots of pictures and will upload a few tomorrow as well as fill you in on the second night of Mottober.

Friday Mottober 2nd - Reunion Concert No. 2

2009-10-03T08:19:00.000-07:00

The set list for the each night was the same as all nights with just a few changes during the slow section where they move up to sit along the front of the stage. It was another great show and the band definitely seemed looser and less stiff than the first night. In fact the shows just got better and better each night. The boys looked like they were having a great time up on stage and Pete IS still a rock and roll star. He seemed to be having a great time and Ian seemed happy to let him have much of the time in the spotlight at the front of the stage.

Hymn For The Dudes
Rock & Roll Queen

Sweet Jane
One of the Boys
They sang the "We're just two of the boys, We're just three of the boys..." part for the second show and all the rest but did not play it that way the first night.

Sucker
The Moon Upstairs

At this point Ian spoke to the crowd asking how everyone has been after all this time.
"How many are doing well?" (cheers)
"How many are doing medium?" (cheers)
"And who's crapped out? (big cheer!)
then Ian said "Join the club" (and a bigger cheer)

Again they all sat on chairs along the front of the stage to do the ballads.

Original Mixed Up kid
I Wish I was Your Mother

Ready For Love

Born late '58

Ballad of Mott
Sweet Angeline
Walkin With a Mountain

The Journey
Golden Age of Rock and Roll
Honaloochie Boogie - Once again, Stan Tippens came on to sing the verses and this time his microphone worked.
All The Way From Memphis

Roll Away the Stone

I remember Deep Purple being in the Guinness Book of Records for being the loudest band in Rock. I think Pete should be inducted for having the loudest shirt!

All the Young Dudes
Keep a Knockin

Saturday Gigs

The crowd sang the "goodbye" part long after the band left the stage and didn't stop until the lights came up.
This was the only night (of the four we saw) where Joe Elliott did not make an appearance on stage but he was there that night as my friend and I spotted him in the lobby after the show and asked if we could get a
picture taken with him. He was very nice and chatted a bit. He pointed at my t-shirt and said "see that" (pointing at the lizard graphic from the 1st LP) and then pulled up his sleeve to expose a tattoo of the same thing on his upper arm.

I was also introduced to John Fiddler (thanks Davey) who chatted with me a bit and introduced me to Ray Major who was with him. John told me he would be in British Columbia, Canada next summer because it is wine country in the Okanagan and he does a winery tour. He said he would also be playing at a club somewhere and to Google it next summer to find out where it would be.

Mottober

2009-10-02T16:47:00.000-07:00

We arrived Wednesday night in London about 10:30 so other than a couple brews in the room we were pretty dead after many hours on the plane and crashed.

Thurday we went on a tour of several vinyl record shops in Soho, Knotting Hill and Portobello Rd.
I picked up a copy of Mott (UK version) that was better than mine and well as a paper back from Panther Press called Rock File 2. The second in a series (of two??) the other of which is Diary of a Rock and Roll Star.

I also picked up an exellent copy of the Apple Walls Ice Cream EP for £35. Great deal!

Of course Thurday evening was the first of the Mott but that will have to wait till tomorrow as it is late (after the 2nd show) but suffice to say it was f**king awsome!!

Thursday Mottober 1st - Mott the Hoople Reunion Concert No. 1

2009-10-02T11:18:00.000-07:00

Well the time finally came to head to Hammersmith for the first of the four shows we will be going to.
The opening band Joe Gideon and the Sharks?? opened the show but didn't interest me at all. Mott the Hoople finally took to the stage sometime around 9 o'clock.

While the stage was dark the familiar Jupiter played through the speakers as the band made their entrance to a standing ovation that lasted the whole show. I will run through the set song by song.

Here is the running order of the songs they played...

Hymn For The Dudes
Rock & Roll Queen
Sweet Jane
One of the Boys

They played these first four songs straight through without a break. The sound wasn't the best at first but
after some adjustment got much beter. Ian spoke to the crowd for the first time saying.."Good evening!, It's good to be back" (meaning Hammersmith) but went on to say that they were promised 15 dressing rooms
but got only one small one and that it was "scruffy" saying it was the same as 30 years ago but dirtier and suggested to the management to fix things up.Then he said

"For those of you with backstage fantasies - it's crap!"

Then they continued with ...

Sucker
The Moon Upstairs - By the time they got to this song they were rocking! This was one of the highlights of the show for me. You could close your eyes and it felt like it could be 1971.

Then all the members moved to sit on chairs along the front of the stage (including Martin Chambers who at this point was still the only drummer on stage. (Buffin would not appear until the encore.) Ian told the crowd "there's a quiet side to us too" and they played ..

Original Mixed Up kid
I Wish I was Your Mother (Ian had the crowd singing the last verse)

Then he introduced "Mr Ralphs" who did

Ready For Love

and "Overend the rock god" who played..

Born Late '58 - Pete asked the crowd who was born in 1959? After the cheers he said "You're too late"

Ballad of Mott (Ian emphasizes singing "and Pete's still a Rock and Roll star"
Sweet Angeline (probably the biggest surprise song but one of my favs and another highlight for me.)
Walkin With a Mountain - Ian Brought out his nice white Maltese Cross guitar for this song.
Like a Rolling Stone (portion) and then a bit of Laugh at Me. Then he said he's forgot that one but it was the one that got him the job.

Ian moved over to the piano for the rest of the set ... Traci Hunter and another girl Phoebe (will insert last name later) joined to sing backing vocals.

The Journey - which was incredible!

Golden Age of Rock and Roll
Honaloochie Boogie - Stan Tippens joined to sing parts but his mic wasn't working so you really couldn't hear him. He was doing the I got this friend he was a screwdriver Jiver" Also joining the show from here on was Ians son Jesse and Mick Ralphs' son.

All The Way From Memphis was the end of the set and they went off.

The Encore..

Buffin was helped on to the stage and up to his drums by two people to a big applause

Roll Away the Stone (the female bit sung by Traci Hunter)
All the Young Dudes - Joe Elliott came out and sang one verse with Ian and went off again.
Keep a Knockin

Second encore

Saturday Gigs - with the crowd singing "Goodbye" as they left the stage for the last time.

All in all it was a great show. Maybe a little stiff at time but that seemed to disappear the second night and I will get to that one tomorrow. I will hopefully get a few pics posted as well. Anyone who was there feel free to add any details I have left out.

Take Off eh!

2009-09-30T05:32:00.001-07:00

1 day to go!!

-- Post From My iPhone

2 days to Mottober...

2009-09-29T07:23:00.000-07:00

7:25am Well I am on the train to the vancouver airport. Flying to Toronto for an evening and to meet up with my partner in crime, Mark, and we will fly to London together Wednesday morning.

-- Post From My iPhone

One Week to Go!

2009-09-24T12:13:00.000-07:00

Wow! Only one week left till I will be sitting in the Hammersmith Odeon watching Mott the Hoople perform live! The nine or so months since we first ordered our tickets have flown by so fast. I picked up my passport this morning, so it is starting to feel real to me now. The anticipation and the build up to this has been so exiting that I almost wish it wasn't so soon as in two weeks from now it will all be a memory. Only five days until I get on the plane so that will be my next entry here.

beseeingyou

31 Days til Mottober!

2009-08-31T12:00:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that Mottober is only one month away!

Welcome to my blog. I will be leaving for London on the 29th of September on the first leg of "The Journey".
I will fly to Toronto and spend the night at my parents house in Stoney Creek. My friend Mark and I will meet up the next morning and head to the airport where we will leave for London together.

Mark and I have been Mott the Hoople fans from the day I first brought home the Live album in 1975. I put the record on and played it for several of our friends but Mark and I were the only ones to "get it" and the two of us have been hooked ever since.

I don't know what internet access I will have in London, but I hope to update the blog at least daily and I will report on the four reunion shows we will be attending. Unfortunately we booked our plane tickets before the 4th and 5th shows were announced and are leaving for home the Tuesday of the final show.

I hope you will check in to my bog daily in Mottober. I will report back on events as they happen and try to re live the excitement in the blog as best I can.

"I've wanted to do this for years!"