Campbell Devine - Rock n Roll Sweepstakes: RocknRoll Sweepstakes: The Authorised Biography of Ian Hunter Volume 1

For Mick Ronson (19461993) and Richie Anderson (19482017)

All-American Alien Boy

Well I packed my bags, in the land of rags

Cos I dont believe, in them dimmo drags

Dont want to vote for the left wing, dont want to vote for the right

I gotta have both, to make me fly

Just a whitey from Blighty, heading out west

I got my little green card, n my bulletproof vest

Im going to old tube city, where the buzz is the best

On down the line, down the line

Well I was born, and I was raised

I was schooled, and I was fazed

And I was used, and I was dazed

I just had to split, cos I was crazed

And I remember all the good times, me n Miller enjoyed

Up and down the M1, in some luminous yo-yo toy

But the future had to change, and to change Ive got to destroy

Oh, look out Lennon here I come, land ahoy-hoy-hoy

All-American Alien Boy

Ian Hunter (1975)

Rock n Roll Sweepstakes is Ian Hunters story the life, the art and the heart the purpose, the passion and the perception in his own words and through the tales of colleagues and collaborators.

Long, long time ago, in November 1992, I was invited to compile a new fanzine feature on the late-lamented Mott the Hoople. Eventually, I surrendered and interviewed Verden Allen, and a wonderful trip to Hereford became the launchpad for a book.

Over a six-year period my original biography project was underpinned with input and support from Ian Hunter, the original members of Mott the Hoople and many associates of the band. Of note, the most active participant in that book was Mott drummer Dale Griffin. After six years of work, All the Young Dudes: The Official Biography of Mott the Hoople and Ian Hunter was released by Cherry Red Books as a companion to All the Young Dudes: The Anthology, a box set that I instigated with Sony Music and their superb team of Phil Savill, Chris Black and the late Hugh Attwooll.

The journey preparing the Dudes biography was interesting to say the least, confirming that the outside world largely sees one aspect of the music business the positive side. Fans and the record-buying public are mostly sheltered from the niggling and negative elements, and so, whilst I tried to document stories told and untold in that 199298 period, I also embraced loyalty and humour. Crucially, I respected the code of the road and I have continued to adopt the same tone.

This biography, fully authorised by Ian Hunter, is based on acres of new work and fresh collaborations. After All the Young Dudes, a wider field opened up and over 200 people have assisted directly on this project through interviews, discussions and emails.

Ian Hunters life story spans fifty years of accomplishment and musical magic, so Omnibus Press decided that Ians unique journey should be travelled via two volumes.

Rock n Roll Sweepstakes: Volume One covered Ians youth and formative rock n roll days alongside the likes of Freddie Fingers Lee and Miller Anderson, Mott the Hooples formation, David Bowies intervention as a fan of the band, Motts rise to international stardom and their tortured break-up.

Volume Two reflects on Hunters partnership with guitarist Mick Ronson, his collaborations with the likes of Jaco Pastorius, The E Street Band and Ringo Starr, and his colossal solo achievements across an astonishing artistic landscape.

Collectively, the two volumes look in depth at Mott the Hooples classic albums Brain Capers, All the Young Dudes and Mott as well as Hunters eclectic solo recordings from the commercially successful Ian Hunter and Youre Never Alone with a Schizophrenic, through the left-field All-American Alien Boy and Short Back n Sides, to the astonishing Shrunken Heads and Fingers Crossed.

Devoid of borrowed information and recycled press clippings, Rock n Roll Sweepstakes contains inside stories, controversial quotes and previously unpublished views. I have collaborated with Ian Hunter, who provides revealing anecdotes, and there are contributions from all the members of Mott the Hoople, Hunter Ronson and The Rant Band, Queens Brian May, Mick Jones of The Clash, Def Leppards Joe Elliott and many other important sources.

With this personal input from key players, Rock n Roll Sweepstakes traces strife and stardom with honesty and humour. Peppered with untold tales, this is a story of determination, adversity and triumph. It is a unique and exciting musical journey that will be welcomed by committed and casual rock readers and by all Dudes young, post-young and now quite old.

Twenty years after publication of All the Young Dudes, the time had arrived to update Ian Hunters remarkable story not just because his decade as the driving force behind Brain Capers, Mott, The Hoople, Ian Hunter, All-American Alien Boy and Youre Never Alone with a Schizophrenic assured him legendary status, but because he remains one of the most interesting figures in popular music thanks to a stunning quintet of albums, starting with Rant in 2001 and extending to the recent Fingers Crossed; because these remarkable, riveting and resonant recordings have been widely acclaimed; and because Ian consistently delivers emotional performances that put many younger artists to shame.

Hunters influence on fellow musicians has been significant. In 2005, Classic Rock presented Ian with the magazines first Classic Songwriter Award, and, in 2016, his career was celebrated with the thirty-disc box set Stranded in Reality. The book from that project included a section titled Go Tell the Superstar and I received dozens of quotations from luminaries and legends who were all eager to pay homage to Ian. Longer passages were written by some of the collaborators, and so, adopting a Hunter-style Do what you want to do mantra, four wonderful essays are presented in the two volumes of Rock n Roll Sweepstakes.

It has been a privilege to share such close and unprecedented observations of Ians work and life. He has defied the recognised arc of commercialism by being his own man delivering some of his best music over the last twenty years.

It was once expounded that anything is classic if it endures.

Ian Hunter has.

Campbell Devine

September 2019

Its 1973 and Im in Mott the Hoople. Were riding high with our album Mott, after the success of our previous release, All the Young Dudes, saved us from the brink of breaking up. There are huge adoring crowds, chatty DJs and reporters who want to know everything about us, travel to exotic places like Cleveland and Los Angeles in other words, all the rewards and shackles of fame. The high point of each day for me is playing All the Way from Memphis and I Wish I Was Your Mother. The low point is, the rest of the band doesnt know who I am, the neighbours are constantly complaining about the noise, and Im thirteen years old and every morning I must drag myself to school instead of sleep in late in some posh hotel suite. Life is bittersweet.

Had my time machine not been broken, I would have been able to not feel so down over the next twenty-five years, because I would have known then that I would someday meet Ian Hunter and play in his band again, only this time with a real guitar instead of one made of air. The years we spent apart did us both some good. For Ian, the foreboding black shades lightened a bit. And though this may have made his appearance seem softer, his already astute songwriting skills sharpened to katana sword-like ferocity. His ability to cut to the chase of a situation, to describe a feeling or setting, and to sheath it in a musical scabbard that very few are worthy to wear always catches me by surprise the type of cut that at first appears like nothing, but then you notice youre suddenly bleeding all over the floor, wondering how it happened.