Tag Archives: Morgan Fisher

Live review: Mott Fest 2025 at the Corn Exchange, Ross on Wye 3-4 October 2025

Glam rock, Live reviews, Music culture & history, Rock music, , , , , , , ,

Mott The Hoople were a band I happened upon quite by chance as a young teenager in the early 1980s while I was flipping through the second-hand album racks in Preston’s Action Records. Even though I’d never heard of Mott The Hoople (and with the name reminding me a bit of the fictitious Monty Python band, Toad The Wet Sprocket), I was somehow drawn to the bright pink cover of the Mott album and decided it was worth a punt. Getting it home, I was immediately transfixed by songs like ‘All The Way From Memphis’, ‘Violence’ and ‘I Wish I Was Your Mother’ and a lifelong love affair with the band began.

Mott The Hoople had been defunct for several years by then, of course, but in the years that followed I avidly followed Ian Hunter’s solo career, saw the band on each of the three Mott reunion tours and attended the previous Mott The Hoople convention in 2016.

Ross on Wye on the Herefordshire/Welsh border is quite some journey from Hastings but I thought I’d make a mini-Autumn break of it and so found myself a holiday apartment for four nights so I could do a little exploring of the local area as well as enjoying Mott Fest on the Friday evening and all day Saturday.

Ross on Wye from the banks of the River Wye

Friday

With the expectation that this would almost certainly be the last gathering of its kind, the historic but compact Corn Exchange venue was absolutely packed out. The acoustics of this high-ceilinged building, combined with the excitable background chitter-chatter of long time Hoople devotees reconnecting with one another meant that I struggled to understand a word of any of the spoken-word bits. Plus things were late getting started and the video screen wasn’t working. It was all promising to be a bit different from the previous convention nine years earlier, but from these ramshackle beginnings (not unlike the history of Mott The Hoople itself, as some wags may have put it!) the magic began to shine through.

Verden Allen performing on the Friday evening

The highlight of the Friday night was the live set from Verden Allen and The Worried Men, with whom Allen had worked with on his Soft Ground album. The set, with a mix of Mott The Hoople classics and material from his solo career, absolutely made the evening. It was just sublime to hear the familiar pounding of that distinctive Hammond in an intimate venue like this.

Selfie with Verden Allen
With Luther Grosvenor (Ariel Bender)
Selfie with Morgan Fisher

Saturday

Whether it was due to a better sound balance, improved audience discipline or my hearing starting to get used to the acoustics (probably a mixture of all three to be fair), the spoken word parts of Saturday’s line-up were much easier to follow and I could finely make out what was being said. Plus the video screen was now up and running!

Mott The Hoople/British Lions alumni in conversation with Kris Needs

After a panel discussion of Mott fans sharing their early memories of the band with veteran fan club founder and long-time music writer, Kris Needs, there was a similar panel featuring all of the surviving musicians who were present from Mott The Hoople and its Mott and British Lions offshoots (namely Verden Allen, Ariel Bender, Morgan Fisher and John Fiddler), as well as various short film segments, including a video message from Ian Hunter, now the only other surviving member.

Ian Hunter sends a video message to Mott Fest 2025

The afternoon also saw a charity auction for St. Michael’s Hospice and the Alzheimer’s Society. After being outbid for an original gold disc marking sales of the ‘Roll Away The Stone’ single, I ended up splashing out £40 on a band publicity shot signed by Overend Watts and Dale Griffin – the only two Mott The Hoople members who I never got to meet to ask for an autograph in person!

Luther Grosvenor (Ariel Bender)

Then it was over to the live music, with sets from Luther Grosvenor (Ariel Bender) featuring acoustic material from his recent solo albums and accompanied by Morgan Fisher on piano; from British Lions frontman, John Fiddler, accompanied by Dave Bucket Colwell (the man who played alongside and then subsequently replaced none other than Mick Ralphs in Bad Company); and from Morgan Fisher who also took on the role of Musical Director for the weekend.

John Fiddler and Dave ‘Bucket’ Colwell

The highlight of this latter set, and indeed the most moving and poignant moment of the whole weekend, was Fisher’s rendition of ‘Rest In Peace’ accompanied by a video montage featuring images of Dale Griffin (who passed away in 2016), Overend Watts (who passed away the following year) and Mick Ralphs (who died in June this year). Definitely a not-a-dry-eye-in-the-house-moment.

Morgan Fisher

The evening closed with a gloriously ramshackle finale, giving all of us present a chance to yell along to ‘All The Young Dudes’ and ‘Saturday Gigs’ at the top of our voices and featuring on stage Morgan Fisher, Ariel Bender, John Fiddler, Dave ‘Bucket Colwell, Kris Needs, John Otway and Dale Griffin’s brother, Bob, alongside key members of the festival organising team.

The grand finale

Sunday

This wonderful weekend of all things Mott rounded off on the Sunday with family members unveiling a memorial bench dedicated to Dale Griffin and Overend Watts and with the Mayor of Ross on Wye unveiling a blue plaque commemorating the location where the pair performed their first gig. A fitting end to a fantastic weekend.

Overend Watts’ sister Jane and Dale Griffin’s brother Bob at the memorial bench
Bench plaque
Crowds gather for the unveiling of the blue plaque
The Mayor of Ross on Wye unveils the plaque
The Mott The Hoople plaque

Related posts:

Live review: Mott The Hoople ’74 at Shepherds Bush Empire 2019

Ian Hunter at Shepherds Bush Empire 2016

Ian Hunter at Shepherds Bush Empire 2014

Ian Hunter at Giants of Rock 2016

Mick Ralphs Blues Band at Minehead 2016

Mick Ralphs Blues Band at Minehead 2015

Interview with former Mick Ralphs vocalist– Adam Barron

Mott The Hoople Fan Convention 2016

Mick Bolton: 1948-2021

Live review: Morgan Fisher at Fiddler’s Elbow, Camden 30/11/24

Glam rock, Live reviews, Rock music, , , , , , , ,

My introduction to Mott the Hoople was via the band’s final two studio albums, Mott and The Hoople, discovered while hunting through the second-hand record racks of Preston’s Action Records as a teenager in the early ‘80s. I was rebelling against the synth-heavy, over-produced music of the era and was on my very own retro-fuelled journey of discovery. Mott I absolutely adored, particularly Ian Hunter’s old-school rock and roll piano, and a few weeks later I also bought The Hoople, with Ariel Bender now on guitar and the one and only Morgan Fisher on keyboards. To me those last two albums, with all of that irresistible keyboard-playing, was the sound of Mott The Hoople and at the time I was completely oblivious to the earlier material featuring Verden Allen’s distinctive Hammond – although I soon came to love that as well.

Late-period Mott The Hoople was, therefore, very much my entry-point into what would be a life-long love affair with the band. So when I saw Morgan Fisher announce he was doing a one-off solo gig while he was over from Japan I booked my ticket straight away. I’ve witnessed each of the Mott The Hoople reunions and I’ve seen Ian Hunter perform solo many times but this was going to be unique: Morgan Fisher performing The Hoople album in full in a small sweaty music pub in Camden.

Dapperly dressed, as always, in keyboard-lapelled jacket and glass of red wine in hand, Morgan introduced ‘The Golden Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll’ (track one, side one of the original album) by saying that Ian Hunter had originally planned to play the keyboards himself, but after nailing the keyboards on the first take, Morgan’s Jerry Lee Lewis-inspired pounding is what you hear on the album. And on it goes from there. All of those unforgettable classic tracks, played and sung exclusively for a gloriously-enthusiastic 120-strong audience.

Morgan told us that the backing tape he was playing along to was actually the sound of Dale Griffin’s drums, isolated from the original album. He explained that while AI was a terrible way of creating music it was a great way of separating out certain sounds from music that had already been created. As well as the sound of Buffin’s drums (and a chance to really hear what a superb drummer he was) there were other embellishments along the way: the odd bass-line, certain guitar riffs and some of the album’s most memorable sound effects. For the ‘I’ve got my invite’ line in ‘Roll Away the Stone’, however, Kristy Benjamin (daughter of post-Hunter Mott singer, Nigel Benjamin) stepped up to the mic to do the honours, to huge applause when Morgan introduced her.

That last song, of course, ended both the original album and the first set of the afternoon in spectacular fashion. Then, after a short break, we were back with a mix of other Mott the Hoople classics (‘Foxy Foxy’, ‘Saturday Gigs’, ‘Dudes’) together with a Nigel Benjamin-era Mott song (‘Career’ dedicated, touchingly, to his daughter) as well as some highlights from Morgan’s solo career and other collaborations – plus a bit of Bach! As the second set moved to a close, Morgan reminded us that there was one song from The Hoople that he had not yet played, pointing out that the epic, classically-influenced ‘Through The Looking Glass’ had never been attempted on stage. Until now that is…

Morgan is, deservedly, clearly still proud of his time in Mott The Hoople and praised the quality of Ian Hunter’s sharp, observational song-writing. “He should have been recognised as Britain’s Bob Dylan,” he told us before launching into a poignant, spirited and triumphant rendition of Through The Looking Glass’.

Then it was time for an encore. I’d spotted John Fiddler in the audience at the start and hoped he’d be jumping up on the stage for a couple of numbers. Sure enough, as a special encore treat, he joined Morgan on stage to deliver rousing renditions of two songs the pair had performed together as part of the post-Mott outfit, British Lions, ‘Wild in the Streets’ and ‘One More Chance To Run’. What was equally touching was seeing the very obvious five decades of friendship playing out on stage between the two.

If you’d have told me in my mid-teens that one of the ways I’d be spending my late 50s would be a Saturday afternoon in a packed north London boozer listening to Morgan Fisher pounding out old Mott The Hoople classics, I’d have been very happy with that indeed. A perfect afternoon.

Set-list:

First Set

The Golden Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll

Marionette

Alice

Crash Street Kids

Born Late ’58

Trudi’s Song

Pearl ‘n’ Roy (England)

Roll Away the Stone

Second Set

Career (No Such Thing as Rock ‘n’ Roll)

Prelude in C Major

Rest in Peace

Foxy, Foxy

Moth Poet Hotel

(Do You Remember) The Saturday Gigs

All the Young Dudes

Through the Looking Glass

Wild in the Streets

One More Chance to Run

Related posts:

Live review: Mott The Hoople ’74 at Shepherds Bush Empire 2019

Ian Hunter at Shepherds Bush Empire 2016

Ian Hunter at Shepherds Bush Empire 2014

Ian Hunter at Giants of Rock 2016

Mott The Hoople Fan Convention 2016

Mick Bolton: 1948-2021

Live review: Mott The Hoople ’74 at Shepherds Bush Empire 27/4/19

Glam rock, Live reviews, Rock music, , , , , , , ,

Back in the early 80s, I was on a voyage of discovery voraciously buying up the back catalogues of some of the great bands of the late 60s and 70s. Many of the big beasts – the likes of Deep Purple and Humble Pie and, yes, Mott The Hoople had called it a day by then. Even though such bands were at their commercial height less than a decade previously they seemed to inhabit a completely different world to the early 80s music world of my teenage years. I loved the records. I absolutely adored both the ‘Mott’ and ‘The Hoople’ albums, in particular, but I never really entertained the idea of seeing Mott The Hoople live on stage. A brilliant slice of rock n roll history? Indeed. But they were the past and I could, at least, enjoy Ian Hunter’s impressive solo career.

That all changed in 2009, of course, when the short run of reunion concerts by the original line-up were announced. Jubilant, emotional and electric the one small niggle about the reunion, and of a further run in 2013, is that while they rightly celebrated the band’s original line-up, they didn’t do justice to the input of the later members – namely Ariel Bender on guitar and Morgan Fisher on keyboards.

Again, I accepted this as a small niggle in an otherwise perfect reunion. I never really entertained the idea that I’d get the chance to see it put right. On the way to Shepherd’s Bush Empire I was feeling quite emotional about having the opportunity to see it become reality after all, and remembering back to the time when I first happened upon this veteran band in a second-hand shop in Preston as a teenager. This was always going to be more than just a gig. I want it to be special. They more than deliver on that.

Songs from ‘The Hoople’ – Mott The Hoople’s brilliant final studio album (and the only one to feature Fisher and Bender) feature prominently: the camp splendour of ‘The Golden Age of Rock n Roll’, the glammed-up deliciousness of ‘Roll Away The Stone’, the glorious insanity of ‘Marionette’ and many more.

At earlier dates on the tour there had been some online disquiet from fans about the quality of Bender’s playing. True, he was never going to be Jimmy Page (or Mick Ralphs for that matter) but his over the top antics and tongue-in-cheek craving for adulation were an essential component of late-period Mott’s 70s stage act – and so it proves tonight. Moreover, Bender’s blunt in-yer-face guitar work really suits the proto-punk of those early Mott songs like ‘Walking With a Mountain’ and ‘Rock n Roll Queen’ that Bender made his own when he became part of the band.

Fisher, always a magnificently talented pianist, when he’s not tottering around the stage with copious glasses of white wine, gives us many wonderful musical flourishes on the keys. With the untimely deaths of Dale Griffin and Overend Watts the ranks of Hooples are sadly depleted but Ian Hunter’s long-time side-kicks in the Rant Band, gifted musicians all, do a seamless job co-opted into the on-stage madness that is Mott The Hoople.

Hunter’s unmistakable voice, as ever, is in fine form. At 80 he shows no signs of slowing down, of losing his grip as a performer or his creativity as a songwriter. However, if this tour is to be the final chapter in the ballad of Mott the Hoople it serves as a fitting end to the career of a wonderful, unique and utterly, utterly irreplaceable band. Mott the Hoople – thanks for a great trip….

20190427_211603

Set-list:

American Pie / The Golden Age of Rock ‘N’ Roll
‪Lounge Lizard ‬
Alice
Honaloochie Boogie
Rest in Peace
I Wish I Was Your Mother
Pearl ‘n’ Roy (England)
Sucker
Sweet Jane
Rose
Walking With a Mountain
Roll Away the Stone
Marionette
Jerkin’ Crocus / One of the Boys
Medley: Rock ‘n Roll Queen / Crash Street Kidds / Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On / Mean Woman Blues / Johnny B. Goode / Violence / Cleveland Rocks / You Really Got Me
All the Way From Memphis
Saturday Gigs
All the Young Dudes

https://mottthehoople.com/classof74/

Related reviews:

Ian Hunter at Shepherds Bush Empire 2016

Ian Hunter at Shepherds Bush Empire 2014

Ian Hunter at Giants of Rock 2016

Mott The Hoople Fan Convention 2016