Ian Hunter

Ian Hunter

Ian Hunter Patterson is a British rock singer-songwriter from Oswestry, United Kingdom, born in 1939. He is best known as the lead singer of Mott the Hoople, the glam rock and hard rock band he joins in 1969 and remains with until it breaks up in 1974. He later continues as a solo artist and also appears in the Ian Hunter Band, Ian Hunter & The Rant Band, Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band, and At Last The 1958 Rock & Roll Show.

Early musical work

Hunter starts out on bass guitar and later also plays rhythm guitar. Before his breakthrough, he performs in a skiffle group at a Butlin's holiday camp talent competition, singing "Blue Moon" with Colen York and Colin Broome. He then plays with York and Broome in The Apex, a band from Northampton, before forming Hurricane Henry and the Shriekers in 1963 while living in Northampton. That group works regularly in the town, and by 1965 includes Freddie 'Fingers' Lee as pianist and frontman.

In the mid-1960s Hunter moves to London and joins The Scenery with Miller Anderson, Dave Dufort and Dante Smith. The band records material with Bill Farley at Regent Sound, and some of it is issued in France and Japan without the band’s knowledge. He also works with Freddie Lee in At Last The 1958 Rock and Roll Show, which gets a regular booking at The Angel in Edmonton and releases the single "I Can't Drive" on CBS before changing its name to Charlie Woolfe and issuing "Dance, Dance, Dance".

During the 1960s he also plays sporadically with other groups, including The New Yardbirds, and backs Billy Fury, The Young Idea and David McWilliams. Away from performance, he works as a journalist, a staff songwriter for Francis, Day & Hunter, a road-digger for a local council, and a reporter for a local newspaper.

Mott the Hoople

In 1969 Hunter auditions for Silence, which soon takes the name Mott the Hoople. The band becomes a notable live act in England, though early American touring builds a following more slowly. Hunter’s trademark sunglasses become closely associated with him during this period.

Mott the Hoople does not achieve sustained commercial success at first, but after the band announces that it is breaking up in 1972, David Bowie offers the song "All The Young Dudes". The track becomes a UK No. 3 single and revives the band’s fortunes. The group then has commercial success with the albums All the Young Dudes (1972), produced by Bowie, Mott (1973) and The Hoople (1974). Other key songs from this period include "Roll Away The Stone", "Golden Age Of Rock 'N' Roll", "Honaloochie Boogie", "All The Way From Memphis" and "Saturday Gigs".

When Mick Ralphs leaves in 1973 to form Bad Company, Hunter takes over guitar duties until a replacement is found. Luther Grosvenor, also known as Ariel Bender, later joins on lead guitar and is briefly replaced by Mick Ronson after a live album follows The Hoople. Hunter leaves the band in December 1974, and the remaining members continue as Mott and British Lions.

Solo career and collaborations

Hunter’s memoir, Diary of a Rock'n'Roll Star, describes a U.S. tour with Mott the Hoople. In March 1975 he begins working with Mick Ronson, formerly of David Bowie’s Spiders from Mars and briefly a member of Mott the Hoople. His first solo single, "Once Bitten Twice Shy", reaches the UK Top 40.

His best-selling solo album is You’re Never Alone With A Schizophrenic, released in 1979 with Ronson and several members of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. Two tracks from that album become hits for other artists: "Cleveland Rocks" is covered by the Presidents of the United States of America and used as the theme for The Drew Carey Show, while "Ships" becomes a No. 9 pop hit in the United States for Barry Manilow later in 1979.

Throughout his solo career, Hunter frequently works with Ronson until Ronson dies in 1993. He also has musical links with Queen, Mick Jones of The Clash, Clarence Clemons, Jaco Pastorius, Dennis Elliott of Foreigner and David Bowie.

Later work

Hunter’s album Rant (2001) receives wide critical acclaim, and he wins Classic Rock Magazine’s Songwriter’s Award in October 2005. His 2007 album Shrunken Heads adds to a long solo catalogue issued under Ian Hunter Music Inc.