Monday, December 16, 2013

Mott the Hoople at The O2

Monday 18-November-2013

An opportunity to "carpe diem" and tick another artist off the yet-to-be-written, musical bucket list.

At work on that Monday I saw that a couple of cyber-chums were going to this concert. I'd never seen Mott The Hoople and "All the young dudes" was one of those evocative tracks from my teen years especially because of its mention of T.Rex.

I was home alone because Mary was on a business trip to Columbia and I thought "What the heck, why not?" The cats might be a bit peckish when I get home but there are plenty of nuggets for them to eat if they so deign.

Off to TicketMaster and purchased an excellent seat on the floor of the arena, Block A, Row H. Messaged my Facebook friends and said "hope to meet you there for a drink" and so it transpired.

I had briefly met Linda and Gordon at previous Bolan Bops but was not so egocentric as to be sure if they would remember me but at least I knew what they looked like. I spotted Linda behind me on the escalator and waited at the top to say hello.


Gordon, Rick, Linda. Alessandro


Alessandro, Mark (me), Linda, Gordon

The first support act was Fish of Marillion fame who Linda was keen to see so we all went in to catch the latter half of his set. We all reconvened for a beer and a chat during the second support act, Thunder, and then back into the arena for the main act.





They played a load of songs I didn't recognise and then all the greatest hits that the crowd were here to hear.



After the gig Gordon reckoned they were on a par with a fair pub rock band and the Telegraph was pretty much of the same mind: "The glam-rock giants overstay their comeback, but shine when they stick to energetic classics.

[...] the main set is largely composed of such stodgy, lumpen fare [...] Amid this muddy morass, the classic singles shine like diamonds. The magnificent The Golden Age of Rock'n'roll and All the Way from Memphis remain rollicking, rambunctious glam-rock anthems, alive to their own glory and absurdity, while All the Young Dudes and Roll Away the Stone are roustabout encore gems. Sadly, they come too little and too late to salvage a show that simply feels like a comeback too far."

Full review: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/nov/19/mott-the-hoople-review

A great evening and great to meet up with fellow T.Rex fans in real life.

No comments: