14 September 1973, Hollywood Palladium
Copyright belongs to the original artist; no copyright infringement intended.
1973.09.15 Disc (UK) Changing Face of Mott
This gig, other than the TV recording at the Aquarius Theater, is the first live stage performance of Luther Grosvenor (Ariel Bender) after he replaced Mick Ralphs on guitar from the original lineup.
British rock news of the period noted the change in the lineup.
1973.09.08 Melody Maker (UK) news item Ralphs Quits Hoople [by Tony Stewart]
1973.09.15 Disc (UK) article Changing Face of Mott
1973.09.15 Melody Maker (UK) news item Ralphs Linked with Free Men
1973.09.15 New Musical Express (UK) news item Ralphs Quit Mott - to Join Free? [by Tony Stewart]
1973.09.29 Record Mirror (UK) news item Hail Ariel and Farewell Mick
The supporting players were changing as well.
Mick Bolton reminisces:
In May 1973 I auditioned for MOTT THE HOOPLE as piano player. They had a huge hit in 1972 with David Bowie's song All The Young Dudes and, following the release of their 1973 album Mott and the departure of organist Verden Allen, they were about to take on a piano-player and a Hammond organist to promote their new album. I didn't get the piano job - it quite rightly went to Morgan Fisher. But a couple of days later Stan Tippins the band's manager phoned to ask if I could play Hammond organ. When I answered yes I was told I had got the job.
Our first rehearsal was on June 15th in London and on July 27th we began a 42-date headlining US tour at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago with REO Speedwagon and Joe Walsh as support acts. The US and UK tours were virtual sell outs and we played some memorable concerts with some great support acts:-
- The Felt Forum, Madison Square Gardens, New York City supported by the New York Dolls
- Kennedy Centre, Washington D.C supported by Iggy Pop
- two nights at Bill Graham's Winterland, San Francisco
- two shows at the Schubert Theatre, Philadelphia supported by Aerosmith
- Hollywood Palladium supported by Blue Oyster Cult and Joe Walsh
- Spectrum, Philadelphia in front of 14,000.
- Radio City Music Hall, New York City
There were several TV appearances:- a show for ABC in NY City with Uriah Heep - a Midnight Special recorded in Los Angeles with Earth Wind and Fire and also a Don Kirschner Show, also recorded in Los Angeles. Four clips from the Don Kirschner Show can now be seen on YouTube. I can be heard on two of them - All The Young Dudes and Sweet Angeline - they show guitarist Ariel Bender in great form on only his second performance with the band.
http://www.mickbolton.com/bio
1978: LAPL Photo database - Sergieff, Mike., Herald-Examiner Collection
Drivin' Sister
All The Young Dudes
All The Way From Memphis
Sweet Angeline
Recorded Live during 4th US Tour 14th September 1973 Hollywood Palladium
Ballad of Mott The Hoople (26th March 1972, Zürich)
"My fave Mott song! Saw them @ the Hollywood Palladium on Sunset Blvd. in 1973 w/ Joe Walsh and Barnstorm opening the gig. During Mott's encore Iggy Pop ran on stage and grabbed the microphone from Ian Hunter and yelled cuss words until security carried Iggy off stage. After order was restored, Hunter said, "God bless Iggy." Great night of rock!"
Blue Oyster Cult fans weigh in on the event.
http://www.hotrails.co.uk/history/1973.htm
Friday 14 Sept
Bands on the Bill:
1: Orphan
2: Blue Oyster Cult
3: Joe Walsh and Barnstorm
4: Mott the Hoople
Blue Oyster Cult:
Eric Bloom vocals/guitar
Buck Dharma guitar/vocals
Allen Lanier keys/guitar
Joe Bouchard bass/vocals
Albert Bouchard drums/vocals
Gig Promoter(s):
Pacific Presentations
Stealthtip
The show was in California at the Hollywood Palladium and the actual date was September 14, 1973. I still have the ticket stub! There were four bands in all, opener - Orphan, then BOC, then Joe Walsh, then Mott the Hoople
BOC played 7 or 8 tunes that evening - maybe 45 minutes max.
I believe they played all of side one from Tyranny and Mvtation along with COF, Before the Kiss, A Redcap, either Workshops or Transmaniacon(???) and a rolling stones cover of It's Not Easy. This would be very close to the actual set-list that night.
As for Mott the Hoople - Mick Ralphs had just left the band prior to that gig and lots of people were shouting where's Mick during the show that evening. He had just been replaced by very short notice with one Aerial Bender on guitar.
Steve Weidemann
My first Mott the Hoople concert was at the Hollywood Palladium, August 1973. Opening acts were Cactus (I think), Joe Walsh and Barnstorm, and Blue Oyster Cult.
No seats resulted in "festival standing". Enjoyed the hell out of the night! Bummer of the night was that someone tried to break into my Vega.
Originally posted on weidemannia.com on 2 March 2003
Metal Mike Saunders
FEW GROUPS in recent memory have had as successful a California debut performance as Blue Oyster Cult's here this September. Third-billed to Joe Walsh and Mott the Hoople, BOC stole the show musically and elicited an extremely enthusiastic crowd response that was equal to that for the two more popular groups.
The surprising thing is, the crowd was with the Cult from the start. Yells for Manny Bloom and specific Cult songs filled the air. Astute as you'd expect them to be, BOC's set list answered with the first three cuts from Tyranny And Mutation and the crowd was on their feet from the start.
Visually, the group's focal point was Manny Bloom (the guy with the frizzy hair, glasses, and greaser black leather), strutting around the stage with his red Gibson SG like a John Kay Honcho - totally jive but totally alive. The Cult's stage act is impeccably professional, flowing from one highlight to another without a letup, essentially the same stage presentation (although with different material) that the group spent two months in seclusion working up in early 1971.
Highlights of the Oyster Cult's 45-minute set included the thunderous 'Cities On Flame', 'Buck's Boogie', and an extended rendition of the Stones' 'It's Not Easy' replete with quotes from 'Born In Chicago', 'Land Of A Thousand Dances', and 'Walking The Dog'. Not since the Flamin' Groovies has a group walked the dog, much less their guitars across stage! 'Born To Be Wild' was the encore as usual, Manny Bloom and Buck Dharma crossing their guitars above their heads in a sonic blitzkrieg. The music rumbled on, Alan Lanier's skill on rhythm guitar making the Cult one of the few groups around with an awesome four guitar lineup (drummer Albert Bouchard also plays guitar) when they want it.
No doubt about it, Blue Oyster Cult slayed the crowd as well as this fan, and Joe Walsh's interminable 60-minute Grand-Funk-gone-bad tuneup jam and Mott The Hoople's vaguely disappointing set of English arrogance (lots of fans upfront yelling "where's Mick?" at Ariel Bender's fucked up guitar playing) were pretty much an anticlimax (although Mott finally drew big response towards the end of their set and several of the editors of this magazine insist they were great).
With a live show this impressive, it seems highly possible that Blue Oyster Cult will break big within the next year or two, joining the handful of fellow heavy metal groups at the top of the charts. BOC have had good success so far, selling over 100,000 with both albums already, but potentially they have the ingredients to go far beyond that, all the way to solid gold.
Asked for the reasons and the roots behind the Blue Oyster Cult's brand of metal mania, manager Sandy Pearlman (who is to the BOC something of what Andrew Loog Oldham was to the Stones) summed it up succinctly: "A technical attitude from the Yardbirds, and Ideas from the Doors". That's a pretty cerebral combination, probably the reason for an extreme musical calculation that is BOC's one major shortcoming, but otherwise it works out just fine. R. Meltzer wasn't in California, and hence unavailable for comment on Mr. Pearlman's analysis ("It was a good gig - just like Chicago!"), but I have the feeling he'd agree. This group looks like a big one.
November 1973 in "Phonograph Record"
Ralph
"It was a good gig - just like Chicago!"??!!
That would seem to indicate that I'm missing a Chicago gig from this adjacent time-frame... obviously, they played there back in January, but Sandy Pearlman would seem to be referring to a gig a bit closer to September than that with such a comment...
6215 Sunset Blvd.
90028
Hollywood, CA, US
"My fave Mott song! Saw them @ the Hollywood Palladium on Sunset Blvd. in 1973 w/ Joe Walsh and Barnstorm opening the gig. During Mott's encore Iggy Pop ran on stage and grabbed the microphone from Ian Hunter and yelled cuss words until security carried Iggy off stage. After order was restored, Hunter said, "God bless Iggy." Great night of rock!"
Blue Oyster Cult fans weigh in on the event.
http://www.hotrails.co.uk/history/1973.htm
Friday 14 Sept
Bands on the Bill:
1: Orphan
2: Blue Oyster Cult
3: Joe Walsh and Barnstorm
4: Mott the Hoople
Blue Oyster Cult:
Eric Bloom vocals/guitar
Buck Dharma guitar/vocals
Allen Lanier keys/guitar
Joe Bouchard bass/vocals
Albert Bouchard drums/vocals
Gig Promoter(s):
Pacific Presentations
Stealthtip
The show was in California at the Hollywood Palladium and the actual date was September 14, 1973. I still have the ticket stub! There were four bands in all, opener - Orphan, then BOC, then Joe Walsh, then Mott the Hoople
BOC played 7 or 8 tunes that evening - maybe 45 minutes max.
I believe they played all of side one from Tyranny and Mvtation along with COF, Before the Kiss, A Redcap, either Workshops or Transmaniacon(???) and a rolling stones cover of It's Not Easy. This would be very close to the actual set-list that night.
As for Mott the Hoople - Mick Ralphs had just left the band prior to that gig and lots of people were shouting where's Mick during the show that evening. He had just been replaced by very short notice with one Aerial Bender on guitar.
Steve Weidemann
My first Mott the Hoople concert was at the Hollywood Palladium, August 1973. Opening acts were Cactus (I think), Joe Walsh and Barnstorm, and Blue Oyster Cult.
No seats resulted in "festival standing". Enjoyed the hell out of the night! Bummer of the night was that someone tried to break into my Vega.
Originally posted on weidemannia.com on 2 March 2003
Metal Mike Saunders
FEW GROUPS in recent memory have had as successful a California debut performance as Blue Oyster Cult's here this September. Third-billed to Joe Walsh and Mott the Hoople, BOC stole the show musically and elicited an extremely enthusiastic crowd response that was equal to that for the two more popular groups.
The surprising thing is, the crowd was with the Cult from the start. Yells for Manny Bloom and specific Cult songs filled the air. Astute as you'd expect them to be, BOC's set list answered with the first three cuts from Tyranny And Mutation and the crowd was on their feet from the start.
Visually, the group's focal point was Manny Bloom (the guy with the frizzy hair, glasses, and greaser black leather), strutting around the stage with his red Gibson SG like a John Kay Honcho - totally jive but totally alive. The Cult's stage act is impeccably professional, flowing from one highlight to another without a letup, essentially the same stage presentation (although with different material) that the group spent two months in seclusion working up in early 1971.
Highlights of the Oyster Cult's 45-minute set included the thunderous 'Cities On Flame', 'Buck's Boogie', and an extended rendition of the Stones' 'It's Not Easy' replete with quotes from 'Born In Chicago', 'Land Of A Thousand Dances', and 'Walking The Dog'. Not since the Flamin' Groovies has a group walked the dog, much less their guitars across stage! 'Born To Be Wild' was the encore as usual, Manny Bloom and Buck Dharma crossing their guitars above their heads in a sonic blitzkrieg. The music rumbled on, Alan Lanier's skill on rhythm guitar making the Cult one of the few groups around with an awesome four guitar lineup (drummer Albert Bouchard also plays guitar) when they want it.
No doubt about it, Blue Oyster Cult slayed the crowd as well as this fan, and Joe Walsh's interminable 60-minute Grand-Funk-gone-bad tuneup jam and Mott The Hoople's vaguely disappointing set of English arrogance (lots of fans upfront yelling "where's Mick?" at Ariel Bender's fucked up guitar playing) were pretty much an anticlimax (although Mott finally drew big response towards the end of their set and several of the editors of this magazine insist they were great).
With a live show this impressive, it seems highly possible that Blue Oyster Cult will break big within the next year or two, joining the handful of fellow heavy metal groups at the top of the charts. BOC have had good success so far, selling over 100,000 with both albums already, but potentially they have the ingredients to go far beyond that, all the way to solid gold.
Asked for the reasons and the roots behind the Blue Oyster Cult's brand of metal mania, manager Sandy Pearlman (who is to the BOC something of what Andrew Loog Oldham was to the Stones) summed it up succinctly: "A technical attitude from the Yardbirds, and Ideas from the Doors". That's a pretty cerebral combination, probably the reason for an extreme musical calculation that is BOC's one major shortcoming, but otherwise it works out just fine. R. Meltzer wasn't in California, and hence unavailable for comment on Mr. Pearlman's analysis ("It was a good gig - just like Chicago!"), but I have the feeling he'd agree. This group looks like a big one.
November 1973 in "Phonograph Record"
Ralph
"It was a good gig - just like Chicago!"??!!
That would seem to indicate that I'm missing a Chicago gig from this adjacent time-frame... obviously, they played there back in January, but Sandy Pearlman would seem to be referring to a gig a bit closer to September than that with such a comment...
6215 Sunset Blvd.
90028
Hollywood, CA, US
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