• Ian Hunter, legendary lead singer of Mott the Hoople - April 23
• 10:00pm

Ian Hunter's musical pedigree should require no explanation, but, for the uninitiated, the primer is as follows.

Born in Oswestry, Shropshire and fuelled musically by the likes of Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis, Ian Hunter Patterson played in various bands throughout the sixties, including The New Yardbirds and, as a bass player, backed Billy Fury, Freddie Fingers Lee, The Young Idea and David McWilliams. He also worked as a journalist and staff songwriter for Francis Day and Hunter before joining Herefordshire band, Silence, in 1969.

Renamed Mott The Hoople by manic mentor and producer Guy Stevens, Hunter became the group's vocalist, principal songwriter and focal point with visually striking corkscrew hair and omnipresent dark glasses. Mott recorded four crazed but critically-acclaimed and highly influential albums for Island Records and possessed enormous live prowess, but poor record sales led to a temporary split and a move to CBS/Columbia. Mott The Hoople hit superstar status between 1972 and 1974 - seven hit singles, four chart albums (including 'Mott' - still regarded as a seventies' classic); they were the first rock band to sell out a week of Broadway concerts in New York's theatre-land,

Hunter's lyrical foresight and percipience were astonishing - "The Moon Upstairs" pre-empted Punk Rock by five years, "Crash Street Kidds" predicted social unrest and British street riots in the early '80s and Queen must have been listening to Ian's five minute operetta, "Marionette", an obvious precursor to their #1 smash hit, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody'.

Various personnel changes in Mott The Hoople ended with the recruitment of the highly talented Mick Ronson as lead guitarist, but personality clashes and strains within the group resulted in its demise after Hunter suffered a physical breakdown in the USA. In spite of the considerable pleadings of their original guiding light, Guy Stevens, Ian traded the safety of Mott the Hoople for unknown and risk-laden solo territory.

On paper, the combined potential of Mott and Ronson was frightening and Ian's first stunning solo album, recorded with Mick, illustrated the considerable opportunity that was missed. Hunter was soon trailblazing again and his second LP, released fifteen months later, whilst labeled commercial suicide, was soon mirrored by Sting after he quit The Police and issued his first solo records in a style reminiscent of "All American Alien Boy".

Ian has been cited as a major inspiration and reference point for numerous bands including the Clash, Kiss, Def Leppard, REM, Motley Crue, Blur and Oasis. Hunter's influence has remained incalculable; accompanied on stage by Ian Astbury of The Cult, Axl Rose and Slash, Roger Daltrey, Meat Loaf and Bryan Adams amongst others (and at their request), 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 - further evidence, surely, that he is one of our greatest-ever songwriters.

Freddie Mercury of Queen enquired of a former Mott member in the '80s why Hunter had never reformed such a successful and influential group, a resistance which Mercury failed to comprehend. The clue is in the unprecedented diversity of albums such as "All American Alien Boy", "You're Never Alone With a Schizophrenic", "Short Back n' Sides" and "YUI Orta" which bear witness to Ian's belief that artistic honesty and independence outweigh any commercial consideration whatsoever.