Ian Hunter (singer)

Early years

Ian Hunter was born in Oswestry, Shropshire, England. Because the war started, his family relocated to Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, to stay with his Scottish father’s relatives. He lived there until he was six and has said he feels Scottish, though he also identifies as English. He went to secondary school at The Priory Grammar School for Boys in Shrewsbury.

His music career began when he met Colin York and Colin Broom at a Butlin’s holiday camp. The three of them won a talent contest playing “Blue Moon” on acoustic guitars. York and Broom were in the Apex Group, a band from Northampton led by bassist Frank Short. Hunter moved from Shrewsbury, switched his apprenticeship from Sentinel/Rolls-Royce to British Timken in Northampton, and joined the Apex Group playing rhythm guitar.

He remembers leaping around on stage like a madman, saying music affected him deeply while the others just stood still. He left the Apex Group in 1958, just before they cut their first single. He played in a few local bands, but money troubles forced him to change course. He went back to Shrewsbury, settled down with a steady girlfriend named Diane Coles, and alongside his day job formed a harmonica duo with Tony Wardle, inspired by Morton Fraser’s Harmonica Gang.

Around late 1963 or early 1964, the Apex recorded a second disc as the Apex Rhythm & Blues All Stars. Hunter likely does not appear on that record, since it was made around the time he left the group for the second time.

Career

By 1969, Ian Hunter had two kids but still wanted to get back into music full-time. Around then, guitarist Mick Ralphs and organist Verden Allen were playing in Jimmy Cliff’s backing band, the Shakedown Sound. Ralphs, Allen, singer Stan Tippins, bassist Overend Watts, and drummer Dale Griffin later formed a group called Silence, which auditioned for British impresario Guy Stevens. They changed their name to Mott the Hoople, taken from a 1966 novel by Willard Manus.

The band needed a strong frontman, and Hunter—who had already started wearing his signature sunglasses—tried out as a joke and ended up with the job. They earned critical praise in the UK, counting future Clash members among their early fans, but never found lasting commercial success. After a 1972 show in an old gas holder in Switzerland, they called it quits. David Bowie, a fan, offered them a new song.

Hunter later said Bowie first played “Suffragette City,” which he didn’t think was good enough, then sat down in a publisher’s office and performed “All the Young Dudes” on an acoustic guitar. That single hit number three in the UK and revived the band. Ralphs recalled that Bowie showed them studio techniques, but a famous hand-clap-in-the-toilet sound came from Hunter’s own idea. Bowie’s guitarist Mick Ronson also shaped Mott’s sound, and Hunter would later work with him extensively.

Additional bibliography

Cato, Philip. All The Way to Memphis, The Story of Mott the Hoople, S.T. Publishing, Lockerbie, Scotland: 1997. Frame, Pete. The Complete Rock Family Trees, Omnibus Press. Guinness Book of British Hit Singles, 16th ed.

Guinness Book of British Hit Albums, 7th ed. Hunter, Ian. Diary of a Rock 'n' Roll Star, Panther, 1974. Hunter, Ian. Horse's Mouth, Issue No. 33, 18 July 2003. Hunter, Ian. Horse's Mouth, Issue No. 70, Part 1, 19 December 2006.

Ian Hunter and the Rant Band, Just Another Night, Live at the Astoria, London, DVD-Video, 4 October 2005. Short, Martin C. The Great Rock Discography 5th ed. Smith, Mick. On Track Ian Hunter, Sonicbond Publishing, UK Jan. 2024, US March 2024.