Ian Hunter, lead vocals, piano
We were losing money and Island Records were losing patience with us. They booked us to play the Gaskessel in Berne, Switzerland, which is basically a gas tank. We were so fed up we decided to split up, then had a great time on the trip home because all the tension was gone and we were done.
Our bass player Pete Overend Watts called David Bowie to ask for a job playing bass, because David was putting together his band. Then Pete rang me to say: “Bowie doesn’t want us to split up. He’s got a song for us.” David came to see us in Guildford dressed up to the nines. We all got in a limo, which was very impressive. David and Angie Bowie were on either side of me. Angie whispered: “It took him four hours to get ready.”
David offered us Suffragette City first, but I said no. Then I remember going into a room in Regent Street where David sat on the floor and played us All the Young Dudes. Chills went down my spine. I knew it was great and I knew I could sing it.
David’s manager, Tony Defries, managed to get us off Island and signed us to CBS/Columbia. David produced the song in a couple of days at Olympic Studios. I think I did three takes of the vocal. The opening lines are about a kid who wants to live ’til he’s 25 and end it, but I never thought too much about what the song meant. “Dude” was an Americanism. We had to change the line, “Wendy’s stealing clothes from Marks and Sparks” to “… stealing clothes from unlocked cars” so it wouldn’t breach advertising regulations, but it seems to be the “Marks and Sparks” version that’s on the radio today.
The end rap is something I’d done at a gig earlier in New York. We used to get the audience to yell obscenities at us for a laugh. So I’d shouted, “Hey you with the glasses – I’ve wanted to do this for years,” and poured a bottle of beer over this poor kid’s head. All good fun. Then we had a party, came out at 4am and that kid was standing there asking for an autograph. It was the 70s!
Verden Allen, Hammond organ, backing vocals
We were a Hereford band called Silence, but just before we were due to go to London to see potential new manager Guy Stevens there was a fight in Hereford. Our singer Stan Tippins went to break it up and someone smacked him in the mouth and broke his jaw. So when we visited Guy, he suggested getting another singer in to replace him and changing the name. Ian came along to audition and he was the perfect frontman for Mott the Hoople and we were the perfect band for Ian. So I remember thinking: “How can we split up when we haven’t had what we wanted – a hit record?”
Bowie had liked our album Brain Capers, came to see us, then sent a telegram saying: “I’ve written your hit single.” He’d already booked the studio. Island didn’t know anything about it. It was funny that we ended up on CBS because they’d turned Bowie down, but his manager asked them: “Are you going to miss out on Mott the Hoople too?” Bowie’s name, together with our live following, meant there was a buzz about us.
This article was originally published by a www.theguardian.com . Read the Original article here. .