> Even amid the glittering extravagance of the glam rock era, Peter Overend Watts, who has died of throat cancer aged 69, managed to stand out from the crowd. As bass player with Mott the Hoople, Watts was a lean and lanky figure, adorned with long, luxuriant hair and prone to performing in stack-heeled thigh-high boots and assorted androgynous costumes. Watts explained his hair care secrets thus: “I started off using Ford silver car paint on my hair and went on to Rolls-Royce silver. Crazy, but image is everything.”
> Watts and Mott the Hoople reached their apogee with their 1972 single All the Young Dudes, a No 3 hit in the UK in the summer of that year and the song that brought the group back from oblivion. They had split up that March, feeling that their career was going nowhere. Watts had heard that David Bowie was forming a new backing band and called to ask if he could audition. However, Bowie was appalled at the idea of Mott breaking up, and instead offered to supply them with a song. This was All the Young Dudes, and it stands as one of the defining anthems of its era.
> The song launched Mott into their period of greatest success. The Bowie-produced All the Young Dudes album reached 21 in the British chart, while Mott (1973) went to No 7 in Britain and 35 in the US, and yielded the UK singles Honaloochie Boogie and the Top 10 hit All the Way from Memphis. The Hoople (1974) cracked the US Top 30 album chart and went to 11 in the UK, and contained the hits Roll Away the Stone (No 8 in the UK) and The Golden Age of Rock’n’Roll. However, the group was now suffering a series of personnel changes, and when the vocalist, Ian Hunter, quit to form a duo with Mick Ronson, the golden age of Mott was over.
Saw them twice, once in the Glenn Ballroom in Llanelli of all places. The second time I saw them their support act was an up and coming young beat combo, known as "Queen".
