Mott The Hoople and Ian Hunter

Ian Hunter unofficial CD: "Bald At The Station"

Sleeve and track listing

Tendolar (77:57). (2 stars!)

  1. England Rocks
  2. Marionette (live)
  3. Great Expectations
  4. You Stepped Into A Dream
  5. Venus In The Bathtub
  6. Golden Age of Rock 'n' Roll
  7. Easy Money
  8. I'm The Teacher
  9. Once Bitten Twice Shy
  10. Gun Control
  11. Central Park 'n' West
  12. I Need Your Love
  13. Boulevard Of Broken Dreams
  14. Fuck It Up
  15. One Of The Boys
  16. My Revolution
  17. All The Young Dudes/Roll Away The Stone/Ships
  18. Is Your Love In Vain

Review

Oh dear. I think I've sussed what the guys at Tendolar are up to, and it ain't pretty. Knowledgeable fans sharing rare/unreleased material with the rest of us they are not. Money-grabbing so-and-sos putting out compilations of easily available material more like.

OK, so England Rocks can almost be classified as rare, appearing as it did on two official (but now deleted) CDs (in poor quality on The Very Best of Ian Hunter and in better quality on the rare Shades of Ian Hunter and Mott The Hoople, from which this track is taken). Marionette (live) is also from that rare Shades of 2-CD set. I think the mix on this track is dreadful - other unofficial releases have taken the KBFH mix, which is far superior. The ending and fade-out are cut off here as well.

Great Expectations is next, one of the movie soundtracks Ian wrote in the mid-80's. This is a powerful rocker, and has since appeared on the OBTS compilation. I'd love to see Ian do this live - I can see great audience participation in the middle of this ("you never know what, you never know what, you never know what to expect!"). Sadly, these butchers cut the end off the fade-out again, spoiling the listener's enjoyment somewhat.

Next up are two tracks from the Long Odds and Outtakes CD that formed part of the Short Back 'n' Sides 2CD set. Don't ask me why...

Next up is Golden Age of Rock 'n' Roll, which is altogether more interesting. This is a Quadraphonic mix (played back through a stereo deck) and it certainly is strange after listening to the "proper" stereo version all these years. In fact it almost counts as a rarity (heavy sarcasm). Ultimately, tho', I still prefer the proper stereo version.

Next up is Easy Money, from the Secret Sessions - another easy to find official release (again, with the fade-out cut off), followed by I'm The Teacher, another of Ian's movie soundtracks subsequently released on OBTS. The official release does not, of course, have the fade-out cut off, as it is here.

OBTS, Gun Control, Central Park 'n' West and I Need Your Love are all live performances from the Dr Pepper Festival that was released on video in the late 80's. I think these tracks may even have been taken from the video, or maybe from an FM broadcast of the show. Again, hardly rare material. The editing between Central Park and I Need Your Love is again clumsy, but by this time it's par for the course, as is the cut-off in the middle of I Need Your Love.

Next up is Boulevard Of Broken Dreams, which is in fact Hanoi Rocks. OK, so Ian co-wrote the song but to the best of my knowledge he doesn't play on it. Incredible. Fuck It Up is, I suppose "rare" in the sense it was only on the Artful Dodger single (do they still call them b-sides now that we're talking about CD-singles?). One Of The Boys is Mott The Hoople again, this being the US single version. My Revolution was the Norwegian single from Dirty Laundry, but again is cut off at the end.

ATYD/Roll Away/Ships is also taken from the Dr Pepper show, and again is hardly rare. Finally another rare track, Is Your Love In Vain, is taken from a TV appearance in 1981. It is nice to have but on its own is not enough to buy. Sound quality is just a B on this track.

I find it difficult to get enthusiastic about CDs like this one. This could have been a quite worthy CD, collecting together several interesting and otherwise hard-to-find items. Sound quality is quite reasonable throughout. However, several tracks are widely available, and there are far too many fade-outs cut off mid-stream. Accordingly I feel compelled to again class this as "for completists only" - a shame as with just a little extra effort it could have been so much better...

Since I wrote the above review pretty much all of the material here has been (re)issued in excellent sound quality. Really, there should be no reason whatsoever to buy this. As always, support the artist and buy the official product.