02 October 2009 (gig)
04 October 2009
Ah, youth culture, it’s a wonderful thing and in late twentieth century rock and pop music it found its voice. Here at last was a platform for young people to articulate the problems associated with growing up, first love, the struggle to make one’s way in life and the panic induced by the inevitability of growing old.
The band on stage at the HMV Hammersmith Apollo on Friday night, and indeed four other sold out nights this week, had plenty to say about young people’s issues ranging from mid-twenties suicide through to old rock stars going grey via hitting lucky on a Saturday night with a like-minded young lady.
But hang on a minute, the lead singer was 70 while the average age of the whole band weighed in at a whisker over 64.
Whether Ian Hunter, Overend Watts, Mick Ralphs, Verden Allen and Dale Griffin used their OAP travel cards to get to Hammersmith by bus or tube is open to speculation but once there they proceeded to shatter the myth that there comes a point when you’re too old to rock and roll.
It’s difficult to avoid clichés – 'not bad for their age’, this takes me back’, 'not exactly a rocking teen combo’, 'they showed the youngsters a thing or two’ but the fact remains that Mott delivered a set that bands with an average age some 40-odd years younger would love to pull off.
Owing to Griffin’s ongoing health issues, the drum seat was filled for most of the show by the Pretenders’ Martin Chambers who, at a youthful 51, brought the average age down a tad.
Was it nostalgia? Probably. Was it Las Vegas cabaret? Definitely not. Was it first rate heavy rock and roll? Most definitely. The majority of the set consisted of the bands lesser known work, that’s to say the stuff the general public doesn’t know but the fans all consider anthems. At the end and in the three encores, however, the audience was treated to a sequence of songs that were brilliant at the time of release and which are probably iconic now. All The Young Dudes, Honaloochie Boogie, Roll Away The Stone, All The Way From Memphis, The Golden Age of Rock And Roll and Saturday Gigs, each one a classic, each one impeccably performed, each one loudly cheered and applauded by the audience.
Speaking of the audience, yes there were the people who had seen them all those years ago but there were also plenty who couldn’t possibly have ever worn platform shoes or flares. There were many families where the children, now a good 30-odd, were dancing away every bit as enthusiastically as their parents.
This week of concerts at Hammersmith Odeon, as we old timers still refer to it, was simply a fortieth anniversary celebration of the band’s formation and there will doubtless be people who think messrs Hunter et al should leave it at that. Don’t be surprised, however, if there are a few more concerts up and down the country, music this good needs to be heard again and again.
Yep, youth culture, it’s a wonderful thing.
