leonardcohenforum.com

On BBC 4 tonight at 9pm there is a program on British 70's music featuring Badfinger,Stautus Quo, Free ,Babe Ruth,Stone The Crows, Man,Heavy Metal Kids and Thin Lizzy. This is followed by The Ballad of Mott The Hoople,a decent documenrary about the band.Their idea was to combine the swagger of The Rolling Stones with the poetic appeal of Bob Dylan, but it was David Bowie who provided them with their biggest hit,All The Young Dudes.

Well-worth watching! I believe this is a 60 minute version of the 1 hour 40 version of "The Ballad of Mott the Hoople" directed by Mike Kerry and Chris Hall (who also directed the film about Arthur Lee and Love). I love the Island label Mott the Hoople albums and also the "Mott" album, during the Bowie crossover. I used to see Mott a lot in the early Seventies - at places such as Croydon Faifield Halls, the Buxton Festival and the John Peel show at the BBC Paris Studios, where they caused chaos when the audience got up and danced. I was also lucky enough to see one of their excellent reunion shows at Hammersmith Apollo, a few years ago (with Hunter still very much the rock star at 70!). By the way, I also think Babe Ruth's "Black Dog" is a great track. I saw them perform that live at the John Peel show, too.

thanks for the alert, hope it's still on iPlayer.