Mott The Hoople - Show #1

Dave and I split for Monmouth around 2:30, this time leisurely making our way there. Having driven to the rehearsals yesterday, we knew the lay of the land a bit more and knew exactly where the Blake Theatre was, along with the nearby car park.

Arrived and parked up a few minutes before 5. Immediately ran into Pete Dutton, the FOH guy, and chatted him up for a few minutes. Then we were off to explore the village’s high street (main road). Checked a few menus as we made our way down to the end of the street, where we popped into The Robin Hood, a fairly large pub.

Had a couple of pints, and then wandered down the street. Decided to go ghetto for dinner, so we grabbed sandwiches and crisps (potato chips) from Waitrose (grocery store) and sat and ate them on a bench along the high street. Probably looked like a couple of vagrants to the locals, lol…

After we finished, we walked back over to the venue and made our way in. The lobby bar’s beer selection was pretty limited. I had a Stella, but it tasted like ass, so I switched to Beck’s. No beers allowed in the auditorium. WTF? That kinda sucked but it’s a real nice place, so I kinda understand.

As we were standing there chatting, Joe Elliott (the singer from Def Leppard) came strolling in with a buddy of his. Five minutes later, I’m engaged in conversation with him and he turned out to be a totally ordinary, nice guy. Like me, Joe’s a lifelong Mott fan. We talked about the Maltese Cross guitar he gave Ian Hunter for his 70th birthday back in June. Said he had two of them made, one for Ian and one for himself. We chatted a bit about our favorite Mott songs, and I made three or four attempts to excuse myself from the conversation and leave him alone, but he kept grabbing my arm to prevent me from walking away. He was SO excited about seeing Mott, maybe as much as I was.

Like me & Dave, he’s going to all 7 shows, the 2 warm-ups here in Monmouth and the 5 shows in London. He’ll even be opening one of the London shows, the last one (Oct. 6), as Joe Elliott’s Down & Outz. The band consists of Joe and members of The Quireboys. Just a one-off gig, not a new project or anything.

He said he’s wanted to see Mott since he was a 12-year old kid, listening to them on the radio. I can relate, except that I was 15 when I became a fan.

Finally slipped away from him, found Dave, and we made our way in. Great seats, except for the guy in front of me, who was easily 6’7” if he was an inch. I couldn’t see a fucking thing with him there, so I went back and stood by the mix position. It was only 4 rows back, so it was fine. Plus, I could see everything from there!

Dave stayed in the seats, kind of sitting across both, such that he could see just fine. With both of us there, though, he couldn’t do that.

The show was awesome. There were a few tunes that both Dave and I wish had been included, like “Thunderbuck Ram” and “Death May Be Your Santa Claus” but overall, it was a great set.

Here’s the setlist from the first Mott The Hoople show (with Ralpher and Phally) since 1973. Thirty-six friggin’ years!

There was no opening act and the show had a 10pm curfew, so we made it back to Dave’s house shortly before 1am.

What a day! I’m in heaven…