Mott the Hoople
Mott the Hoople
Posted: 17 Nov 2013
Newcastle City Hall
16 November
Forty years to the week
since they last played the City Hall, this was the middle night of a five-date
reunion tour by a band at their peak in the early ‘70s, a time when their
previous appearance at the same venue was marked by them having Queen as support.
With a packed audience
standing from start to finish, the crowd were determined to roll away the
years. Missing only drummer Dale Griffin from the original five-man line-up, a
band who split amidst rumours of trademark rock-and-roll acrimony displayed little
stage bonhomie but plenty of individual enthusiasm. This was reflected in
plenty of rough edges to the sound. So much so it was reminiscent of The Kinks,
a fact highlighted when Mott burst into The Kinks’ You Really Got Me – a number
that opened Mott’s first album way back in the late ‘60s.
Powering their way through a
back-catalogue that went down well with the audience, Mott the Hoople put all
their eggs in one basket by keeping all of their hits for a big finish. Closing with Honaloochie Boogie, The Golden
Age of Rock and Roll and All the Way from Memphis left the audience baying for
an inevitable encore of All the Young Dudes.
Ian Hunter and co duly
obliged – though with cameras for the big screen turned onto the audience for
the first time there was ample evidence that the dudes weren’t quite so young
any more! Roll Away the Stone ended the night on a high but it had been a slow
burner.
Rob Mason
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