Classic Rock - Robert Plant - USA (2019-12)

A

fter first manifesting 50 years ago, Mott

The Hoople finally hit paydirt with

Bowie in 1972 before the following

July’s Mott showed that Ian Hunter could write

hit singles like All The Way From Memphis,

compounded by Roll Away The Stone. After

guitarist Mick Ralphs split, Ariel Bender arrived

as a wild-card shot in the arm, and the world

seemed at their feet when they hit

Hammersmith Odeon for two shows on

December 14, the closing date of the UK tour

that had started over a month earlier, with

relatively unknown support band Queen.

As Mott’s fan club president, this writer

witnessed the gig ringside as Bowie and Jagger

cavorted behind the amps, including the mayhem

that erupted when the Odeon tried to enforce its

curfew with its steel safety curtain – ably halted by

Morgan Fisher using the venue’s grand piano.

This classic episode of rock’n’roll carnage should

never be allowed to overshadow the colossal

glam-attack impact and sparkling raunch of this

short-lived Mott line-up, affirmed when the

whole set graced 2004’s 30th-anniversary CD.

Exploding in an era of bomb scares,

pay freezes and power cuts, the band

swagger with platform-booted flash,

hot-wired by Bender’s swan-diving

guitar salvos and Fisher’s elegant

piano. They’re on blistering form

tearing through Drivin’ Sister and

Sucker, crowing recent hits and

finishing with a 16-minute crowd-

stoking medley of album tracks and

rock’n’roll chestnuts, climaxing with

Violence. Only Sweet Angeline and

Bender guitar showcase Walkin’ With

A Mountain remained intact from the

Island Records years.

Everything had changed by the

time Live appeared in November 1974,

Hammersmith fragments sharing an LP with

that May’s Broadway stint. Bender had departed

after recording The Hoople, his replacement Mick

Ronson failed to gel, and Hunter was going solo,

rendering Live Mott’s posthumous farewell.

Marking 45 years since that historic show, the

whole set makes its vinyl debut over two LPs, in

fresh packaging with tour poster. If the absence

of visual accompaniment renders the medley

somewhat you-had-to-be-there, it remains

a worthy document of this uniquely incendiary

band when everything seemed to be going right

• if only for a moment.
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  Kris Needs

well), they long ago perfected
the art of being thereabouts at
pop’s leading edge.
1994’s Gratuitous Sax
& Senseless Violins (8/10) came
after some five years supposedly
in the wilderness. In fact it was
a period in which they were
attempting, unsuccessfully, to
launch a film project with Tim
Burton called Mai The Psychic
Girl. The album sees them dust
themselves off, tell themselves
“We are Sparks” and get back in
the saddle. Eurodisco-flamboyant
and wittily mordant by turns, the
titles alone (Ghost Of Liberace)
are indicators of its quality.
Among the many bonus tracks,
some only now seeing daylight,
highlights include Young Man
Ain’t Angry No More featuring
a rare, deadpan Ron Mael vocal,
and a frenetic electronic take on
The Who’s Boris The Spider.
David Stubbs

Goddo
Reissues ROCK CANDY
The greatest band you’ve
never heard of. Finally.
Exploding on to
the Canadian
rock scene in
the mid-70s,
Goddo were
genuine arena-rock superstars

in their snowy corner of the

globe but, shamefully, virtually

unheard of anywhere else.

A power trio led by charismatic

bassist/frontman Greg

Godovitz, they were equal parts

shimmery Beatles harmonies

and anvil-heavy Grand Funk

bludgeon. Their first three

albums are seminal slabs of

strutting, swaggering, hook-

heavy rock’n’roll which echo

everything from Queen to

Cheap Trick while remaining

uniquely Goddo.

Rock Candy are noble and

true to the band’s legacy with

these crucial CD reissues. The

self-titled debut (7/10) has

remixes of the singles, Who

Cares (9/10) has a plethora of

alternative and instrumental

mixes, and while An Act Of

Goddo (8/10) has no bonus

tracks the remastered audio is

crisp and dynamic. All three

have lots of photos, notes and

interviews that will provide you

with all you need to know about

these elusive legends.

It’s fine to pretend you were

hip to these albums decades

ago, no one’s gonna check your

teenage record collection for

accuracy. The point isn’t when or

how you come to Goddo, it’s just

that you get there. This is the

real deal, man. A genuine lost

treasure. Minds - and eardrums

• will be blown.
  Sleazegrinder

The Band

The Band UMC

It was half a century ago...

The Band were

too traditional,

too rootsy to

reinvent

anything, but

they blended genres like nobody

had blended before. And when,

in spring 1969, they gathered in

Hollywood legend Sammy Davis

Jr’s pool house to record their

second album, their resulting

first masterpiece would gently

tilt rock’s axis.

With the band simultaneously

looking to America’s past and

rock’s future, constantly

swapping instruments and lead

vocalists, their impeccably

played melange of gospel,

country and blues invented

Americana. Here, though,

Richard Manuel’s vocals on

Whispering Pines, the epic The

Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

and the apocalyptic King Harvest

(Has Surely Come) were from

another dimension entirely.

This lovingly crafted

remastered version includes

a slew of hitherto unreleased

takes, most notably a radically

different, snail’s-pace version of

Rag Mama Rag, and a Rockin’

Chair which shows that the

Beach Boys weren’t the only

band of the era who had

mastered the art of vocal

layering. There’s also the set they

played at Woodstock a few

weeks before The Band’s release,

and while they didn’t actually

play anything from it, their Loving

You Is Sweeter Than Ever was

rock-soul in excelsis. For all their

studio subtleties, they could rock

with the best of them. This, by

any yardstick, is great music.

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John Aizlewood

Fleetwood Mac

Before The Beginning

1968-1970. Live

& Demo Sessions SONY LEGACY

Big Mac, no cheese.

Long before the

band became

the multi-

million-selling

AOR juggernaut

of Rumours and the rest, the

Peter Green-led original

Fleetwood Mac of the late 60s

to 1970 were the best blues

band Britain has ever produced.

So the recent discovery of tapes

of two concerts from 1968 and

1970 and their release as a big

chunk of this package is groovy

blooz news indeed.

There appears to be

something of a consensus

among Mac anoraks that all or

much of this newly discovered

live material has actually seen

the light of day previously, but

the vastly improved sound

quality of this official release

renders it a must-have for fans

of Green-era Mac.

Whether it’s properly new or

just polished hardly matters.

There are some wonderfully

rough-edged and punchy live

performances here, notably of

band classics such as The Green

Manalishi, Shake Your

Moneymaker, Oh Well and

Rattlesnake Shake, featuring

some exquisite guitar playing

from Green and Danny Kirwan,

plus some fine gritty examples

of slide guitarist Jeremy

Spencer’s obsession with Elmore

James’s Dust My Broom lick.

A handful of demos are listen-

to-once curios, but the live

material is where it’s at.

Available as three CDs or two

volumes of three vinyl discs

(Vol 1 now, 2 later).

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Paul Henderson

Mott The Hoople

Live At Hammersmith 1973 MADFISH

No sleep at Hammersmith; impressive double-

vinyl incarnation of 30th-anniversary CD.

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