One of my favourite bands that no-one's heard of is Mott the Hoople. In 1974, frontman Ian Hunter and guitarist Mick Ronson (having recently replaced Ariel Bender in the role) left Mott the Hoople to form a duo, and the band shortened its name to Mott. The last single to be released by the 'original' Mott the Hoople, then, was Saturday Gigs which reached the dizzy heights of #41 in the UK singles charts in October 1974. The song is a fittingly wistful look back over the difficult career of a rock band that, although not the longest lived (they released their first album, Mott the Hoople, in 1969 and did very little beyond 1974's The Hoople) were able to take the mick out of themselves (the theme and lyrics of Saturday Gigs does that well) and still have a fairly strong, almost cult following of fans to this day.
The video below was recorded by a fan at a concert of Ian Hunter and his Rant Band in 2009. At the end of Saturday Gigs, it goes into what is probably the best known of all Mott the Hoople songs, All the Young Dudes.
If you're into any British rock bands from the '60s and '70s, I recommend looking out some 'Hoople. They are mentioned in a few tracks from bands as diverse as Queen*, Reunion**, and R.E.M***.
And because it's my blog and I can, and because someone asked me to, here's one that more of you will have heard. It's Someday I'll be Saturday Night by Bon Jovi. It hit #7 in the UK Top 40 in 1995, and is about things being generally crap but hoping and believing that one day things will get better.
* Now I'm Here ("... down in the city just Hoople and me...")
** Life is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me) ("... B Bumble and the Stingers, Mott the Hoople, Ray Charles Singers ...")
*** Man on the Moon ("Mott the Hoople and the game of life, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah...")
Enjoyed that! :-)
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