Brother you guessed, I’m a dude yeah…
Mott The Hoople front man,
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“Just thought you’d like to know the Mott the Hoople reunion IS going to take place on October 2nd & 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.” – Ian Hunter
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And here’s how
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Mott the Hoople, the British glam-rock band that had a huge hit in 1972 with ?All the Young Dudes,? are reuniting to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the band?s 1969 birth. Mott has scheduled two shows, October 2nd and 3rd, at London?s famed HMV Apollo (formerly the Hammersmith Apollo). The concerts mark the first time the original lineup ? singer Ian Hunter, guitarist Mick Ralphs, organist Verden Allen, drummer Dale Griffin and bassist Overend Watts ? has performed together in 35 years.
?All The Young Dudes? was written and produced by the band?s fan David Bowie. In fact, the song was originally authored during the Thin White Duke?s Ziggy Stardust sessions and shares some thematic similarities to Bowie?s iconic album. He originally offered the band ?Suffragette City,? but they turned it down so he whipped up ?Young Dudes,? and the rest is glam rock history. ?Young Dudes? went on to become a hit single,
The band would never repeat the success of ?Young Dudes,? and the original lineup ultimately split in 1974 (Even though the ?band? with new members would release two more albums following Ralphs and Hunter?s departure.) Ralphs went on to form Bad Company with Free?s Paul Rodgers (now with Queen) and Hunter enjoyed a decent solo career, penning the song ?Cleveland Rocks? and authoring the rock memoir Diary of a Rock n? Roll Star. No word whether Mott?s reunion will be limited to the two Apollo shows or if a tour is in the works.
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And here’s the small print from the August 1972 American press ad above…
Indeed, Dudes did zoom upwards. After it’s initial entry in the UK singles chart at #22, it eventually climbed to #3 and became the band’s biggest hit. Ironically it became a bigger hit than Bowie’s three RCA singles that had been released up to that point: Changes, Starman and John, I’m Only Dancing. Though the 4th RCA Bowie single, The Jean Genie, eventually did the trick by making it to #2 in the second week of 1973.
All The Young Dudes continues to keep the name of Mott The Hoople alive. As one of the tracks on the JUNO soundtrack CD, it has recently returned to the Billboard charts. The JUNO soundtrack has been #1 on the soundtrack chart, #1 on the album download chart, and #2 on the Top 200 album chart!