Tony Mott Photography Show

Australia’s most loved and celebrated rock photographer isn’t actually Australian. But he is loved and celebrated.

His name is Tony Mott, but his name isn’t actually Mott – that comes as a result from his love of Mott The Hoople and an understandable desire not to be known as Tony Hoople.

And he might look a lot like Ronnie Wood, but he definitely isn’t Ronnie Wood, although he has taken Ronnie Woods photo – which must have been a little weird for both of them.

Mott emigrated from England, Sheffield to be exact, in 1981 and as a rank amateur started photographing bands in Sydney pubs. One of those bands was a early version of Divinyls and one of Motts photos was used by the band for a tour poster. He got $20 for that which incidently was only slightly less than what I paid him for an InPress cover shot about a decade later.

He also got his name on the door at Divinyls gigs although he did spend several weeks trying to find that elusive door that had his name emblazoned on it.

One thing led to another and eventually Mott became the photographer of choice (at least in this part of the world for the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Fleetwood Mac and any Australian band ever to stand in front of a fish eye lens. He also became the official touring photographer for the Big Day Out.

But why am I telling you this?

Well Sydneysider Tony Mott is coming to Melbourne for one night only at the rather lovely Thornbury Theatre to talk about his photos and show a slide show. Its probably the best nights entertainment you can get for $10 in Melbourne on April Fools Day. Mind you, in the $10 price bracket the competition probably isn’t great. The good news is its only $5 if you pre-book.

The night is called Every Picture Tells A Story which is also the name of his book and which is cute on any number of levels.

Mott The Hoople Reform

The spate of extraordinary reformations, reunions and revivals continues. Following some amazing returns being announced from the likes of  The Faces, Magazine, Echo and the Bunnymen, Buzzcocks, The Saints and numerous others comes the news that Mott The Hoople are playing a series of shows later in 2009.

Now for the uninitiated who or what was Mott The Hoople?

The strangley named band was formed in England in 1969 when Ian Hunter joined Verden Allen, Dale Griffin, Overend Watts and Mick Ralphs. Mott The Hoople released their self titled debut album that same year.

They are best know for one song in particular – the fantastic All The Young Dudes which was written for them by their friend David Bowie. Its one of the great songs and the momentum created by that song carried a highly combustible band through a few years and albums before their demise in 1974, not long after guitar hero Mick Ronson had spent a year or so in the band.

Ian Hunter went on to have a long and successful and generally very interesting career. He too is best known for one song – Once Bitten Twice Shy but the fact is that he turned out a series of great albums in the 70’s – including All American Alien Boy, Overnight Angels and You’re Never Alone With  A Schizophrenic.

Hunter is no shrinking violet when it comes to extolling his own virtues but he’s clearly been a major figure in Anglo-American rock with artists such a the Clash, Kiss, Def Leppard, REM, Motley Crue, Blur and Oasis citing him as an influence.

He’s been joined on stage by Ian Astbury of The Cult, Axl Rose and Slash, Roger Daltrey, Meat Loaf and Bryan Adams amongst others and there are now over 50 different cover versions of Ian’s songs from artists as diverse as Great White, The Presidents of the United States of America, Status Quo, Blue Oyster Cult, Bonnie Tyler, Barry Manilow, The Pointer Sisters, Willie Nelson, Thunder and The Monkees.

He continues to record and tour today with his new album Shrunken Heads, finding Jeff Tweedy (Wilco) collaborating on three tracks.

It was on Hunter’s website that news of the Mott The Hoople shows was announced.

“Just thought you’d like to know the Mott the Hoople reunion IS going to take place on October 2nd & 3rd, 2009 at the HMV Hammersmith Apollo in London. It will be the original members – Mick, Pete, Phally, Buff and me. Why are we doing it? I can’t speak for the others, but I’m doing it just to see what it’s like. Short of war, death, famine etc. …it’s ON.”

It is fitting that the 2009 shows are at Hammersmith Apollo – this is where one side of the famous ‘Mott The Hoople Live’ album was recorded in 1973 and was the venue they had to play twice in one day to satisfy ticket demand, the second show ending in near riot when the curtain came down on their final encore. The other side of this legendary album was recorded during Mott’s week-long residency at the Uris Theatre on Broadway, the first time New York theatreland had played host to a rock band; support on these shows came from the little known Queen.

In later news the reunion has now been extended to include three more shows – Mott The Hoople have announced the final dates of their HMV Hammersmith Apollo residency. The original nights two nights (2nd & 3rd October) sold out in a weekend, and the first additional night (1st October) has now also sold out. So due to high levels of public demand, Mott The Hoople have added two final shows at the Apollo on the 5th and 6th October.