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On Track – The Hollies / Blur / Peter Hammill  & Decades – Mott The Hoople & Ian Hunter in the 1970s.

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Author:Andrew Darlington. Matt Bishop, Richard Rees Jones, John van der Kiste

Strange bedfellows make up the latest batch of publications in this long running and consistently enjoyable series of short but nonetheless in depth books.

Bus Stop, Look Through Any Window, Carrie Anne, On A Carousel, Just One Look, The Air That I Breathe, He Ain’t Heavy….a sample of The Hollies best sellers where just the title brings to mind the song and with it memories from many years ago. This book looks at this long enduring band’s story, the most interesting part for me being the period around the departure of Graham Nash for a very different life in California. This isn’t a band where you need to plough through all the albums over the last fifty years – a decent compilation of the hits is really all you need. Some great pop songs that have stood the test of time though, and a story well told, covering the band’s origins in 1960’s Manchester through to their induction into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in 2010 and beyond.

I wasn’t a fan of Britpop era Blur really, although I was aware of the hit singles. I did get more into their later albums, the 1997 self titled set followed by 13 and Think Tank, but for me their last effort, 2015’s Magic Whip, was an album too far and didn’t really recapture the old chemistry after a very long lay off. The book follows the tried and trusted album by album, song by song, look at their catalogue as well as providing background on their recording and what was happening in the band at the time. It was interesting to hear again the best of their music though in conjunction with reading this because they certainly came up with some great eclectic and inventive ideas once they’d found their feet. With Damon Albarn seemingly comfortable working outside the confines of the band, it seems we’ve heard the last of them in terms of new music but of course there’s always the option for lucrative live shows in the background if they should ever feel the urge.

I always think that whether you enjoy Peter Hammill’s music depends greatly on whether you can get along with his voice, which to be honest is something of an acquired taste. This book really gives an in depth look at his many solo efforts, which number far more than I realised, (35 studio albums plus numerous live sets and collaborations) and sits nicely as a companion to the previously published book on VDGG. Indeed, some of the early solo work is pretty much indistinguishable from VDGG, featuring fellow band members on many pieces. For me the early work is still his best, followed by a lengthy full with a pleasing resurgence in the last few years. Well worth checking out if you’re a fan of one of the key figures in the history of prog, as there aren’t too many books out there covering this area of his work.

‘Rock n roll’s a loser’s game’ wrote Ian Hunter once upon a time, and this book certainly bears that out as it documents the ups and downs of Mott The Hoople, a band that seemed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the seventies. Of course, Hunter’s take has already been told in depth in Campbell Devine’s authorised biography, but this book looks at the albums as well as the comings and goings in the ranks. It also covers the subsequent records released as Mott together with the British Lions albums, as well as the mixed bag of Hunter’s somewhat chequered solo efforts up to the end of the seventies. A brief but interesting read on a band that produced some great music, but you can’t help feeling never reached their full potential.

Length of Read:Short

Might appeal to people who enjoyed…

Those interested in an in depth look at these artists.

One thing you’ve learned

Always enjoy reading these short books, even if it’s an artist I’m not so keen on.

3

Comments

  1. Peter Hammill book already on order…

    Not sure there was any lengthy lull in Hammill’s solo career, unlike VdGG – he seemed release albums at a fairly steady pace over the years. A lot of focus is given to the early albums, presumably they appealed to the VdGG listener who stopped after Pawn Hearts.

    If anyone was looking for an ‘in’, I’d suggest listening to the consecutive run of five albums starting with The Future Now in 1978.

              • @Bargepole – sorry I’ve taken so long, had a weekend full of grandkids.

                I don’t know if these are on Spotify or your own favoured streaming service, but always good to have a listen first…

                To start: The Future Now, pH7 and Black Box are must haves. Sitting Targets and the two K Group albums are also worth the investment.

                At the other end: the post heart attack albums are excellent, that’s Singularity and Thin Air.

                In the middle: Roaring Forties is a must, if you like a band album with a proggy, multipart epic. The Noise is also a good loud band album, gets a mixed review from some for not being prog enough. I’d recommend And Close as This, if you like a solo piano, singer/songwriter album, good strong songs. What, Now is also a good collection. Bound to be more…

                Don’t know how my thoughts tally with the book that you were reviewing…

  3. To say The Hollies can be represented by a greatest hits is a bit of an understatement. Their run of psychedelia-inspired albums For Certain Because (Dec 66), Evolution (June 67), and Butterfly (Nov 67) – Graham Nash’s last – are well worth hearing.

    I also like 1970’s post-Nash CSNY-influenced Confessions of the Mind.

    • Butterfly is just gorgeous. Those voices! – up there with the Gene-era Byrds, with the Beach Boys, the Four Seasons, the Lurkers IMHO

      PS. Ian Hunter might have had a chequered early solo career but has had the mother of all Indian summers in more recent years.

      • Totally agree re Ian Hunter, he’s been on a roll since at least ‘Rant’ but you could probably add ‘The Artful Dodger’ to that even if it does sound like it was recorded on a budget of about 5p. He’s got a whole load of new songs recorded but isn’t saying when they are coming out.

    • I would suggest very few 60s bands who had great runs of singles also had parallel album successes, or had big album sales relative to the singles success rate. We all know the exceptions – the Fabs, the Stones, The Who probably, but the Kinks’ work is pretty patchy, despite having a great songwriter, and their stock has mostly risen retrospectively. The sheer quantity of Beach Boys albums diluted the output, with an obvious exception. The early Mersey era bands were soon hobbled by not being able to write their own material – it is instructive to listen to the (other) albums produced by George Martin in the early 60s and realise the alchemy that existed between him and the Beatles was unique. In a funny sort of way, the Hollies’ superb vocal performances almost highlight the fact that the material is often weak, particularly early on. Their chart performances are instructive too – besides the first album, which made No 2, their top album chart positions were for The Hollies Sing Dylan and Live Hits.

        • You know I’m a fan..?! I think their 5 Pye albums still sound pretty good – the first two are pure slabs of great Merseybeat, whilst the others are a fine mix of genres. Virtually all covers of course, which is what did for them. They only wrote one of their singles too.

          I just finished Mike Pender’s book….blimey, he’s a bitter man.

      • Kinks? Come on now! Face to Face, Something Else, Village Green, Arthur, Lola and I would add Kontroversy too, as well as Muswell Hillbillies, and along with great non album singles also stupendous B sides and EP tracks. Only one British band had better albums in that period for me

        • I knew someone would say this! My point was about albums from great singles bands, which the Kinks clearly were. I would maintain that their stock has risen retrospectively – only 6 charted in the UK at all, and only the first three made the top ten, ironically two of which weren’t on your list. I love the Kinks, but take away the singles from the albums and there aren’t many tracks that have made an impact, unlike the Fabs and the Stones. Village Green is indeed a classic, and Something Else too, and I did only use the term ‘pretty patchy’….! They were poorly served by their record company.

          • Don’t really care about chart positions. There are many great album tracks throughout that run that are not singles. And back on subject The Hollies’ albums are far patchier, the last 2 with Nash are pretty good though albeit still with a few clunkers.

            • Agreed on the Hollies. Sorry to labour the point, but my original comment was regarding sales success – the subsequent rumination on the Kinks was an attempt to explain it, possibly eroneously! Chart positions are an indicator of how much impact the albums had – obviously some retrospectively great albums never charted or sold well for whatever reason, but my basic point was that their singles far outperformed their albums, whether they were any good or not. You would intuitively expect the big singles to have driven people to the albums.

              Basically I think some bands were just considered as singles bands!

              • Ok fair enough, they probably only started selling decent album quantities in the US in late 70s. Have to wonder if there were promotion or distribution issues for their 60s albums, also not all sales were reflected in the charts (chart return shops), but they certainly sold far fewer albums than Beatles, Stones and The Who

  4. A forgotten gem in the early years of Mott is the album ‘Wildlife’ which is country rock in style with some cracking songs. The final lengthy live track is dreadful but skip that one and you have a really good album worth seeking out.

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