If you go into any town or city across the country on any night of the week the chances are there will be some tribute band or other playing covers by their favourite artists but you can be sure that there’ll be none with quite the pedigree of the Down ‘n’ Outz.
Formed by Def Leppard lead singer Joe Elliott and including members of the Quireboys and Vixen, at the personal request of Ian Hunter who wanted a band to open up for the long awaited Mott The Hoople reunion shows in London in 2009. Being a lifelong devotee of all things Mott The Hoople, Elliott jumped at the chance at sharing the stage with his boyhood hero. Interest from that single show mushroomed and an album and tour with Paul Rodgers soon followed with the Down ‘n’Outz covering material from right across Mott The Hoople’s back catalogue and associated solo recordings by various band members.
With a second album, The Further Adventures Of, hot off the press featuring another selection of Mott The Hoople classics it was time for a full blown headlining tour. With Elliott fresh off the road playing huge enormodomes in The States with Kiss this was an altogether more low key affair, playing small clubs the likes of which Elliott has not seen since the formative years of Def Leppard.
Elliott has never hid his love for Mott The Hoople over the years and has championed their music at every opportunity so this was a real labour of love for him and with Paul Guerin, Guy Griffin and Keith Weir from The Quireboys it would be hard to think of any other musicians quite as suited to a project devoted to the Mott cause. American bassist Share Pederson may have seemed like the odd one out but her grooves complimented the glitter and sparkle of Rock and Roll Queen, the Honky Tonk driven Who Do You Love and Whizz Kid to perfection and she matched the boys every beat of the way. She was a real class act.
Neatly side stepping the more obvious hits meant there was more space for the hidden gems that an uber fan such as Elliott would want to cover meaning no All The Young Dudes or Roll Away The Stone but leaving more space for One of The Boys and Drivin’ Sister and digging deeper to include Ian Hunter’s England Rocks and One More Chance To Run by the post Mott band British Lions making the set all the more special.
If Elliott’s aim was to expose an inquisitive crowd to the strength and depth of Mott The Hoople’s melody soaked back catalogue then this was a resounding success and set closer Good Times pretty much summed up the uplifting atmosphere in the Riverside at the end of a hugely entertaining evening.
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