All The Way To Memphis on The Midnight Special is peak Mott The Hoople and peak Ian Hunter hair

Ian Hunter on The Midnight Special: close-up — (Image credit: The Midnight Special)

The latest footage to appear on The Midnight Special's ever-growing YouTube archive features a 1973 appearance from Mott The Hoople.

Ian Hunter & Co's appearance on the long-running show came on October 19, 1973, three months after the release of their sixth album, Mott. They performed the classic All The Way From Memphis, as well as Rose, the b-side of that year's Honaloochie Boogie single, and it's the former that's now available online in lovingly curated original resolution, showcasing both the band's electrifying performance and Hunter's always magnificent hair.

The October 19 edition of The Midnight Special was hosted by War and also featured appearances by Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Climax Blues Band, New York Dolls and Danny O'Keefe.

Meanwhile, back in 2024, Hunter has announced the release of Defiance Part 2: Fiction, an apparent sequel to last year's Defiance Part 1, an album decreed the fourth-best album of 2023 by Classic Rock writers and staff.

For Defiance Part 2, Hunter has wheeled out the big guns, with the late Jeff Beck, Johnny Depp, Billy Bob Thornton and Lucinda Williams appearing alongside Cheap Trick's Robin Zander, Rick Nielsen and Tom Petersson, The Black Crowes' Chris Robinson and Rich Robinson, Pearl Jam's Mike McCready and Matt Cameron, Stone Temple Pilots' Dean Deleo, Robert De Leo and Eric Kretz, plus Phil Collen and Joe Eliott from Def Leppard.

The first single from the album, Precious, features Elliott alongside the late Taylor Hawkins and Queen guitarist Brian May, whose relationship with the Mott man goes back 50 year's to the two bands' shared UK and US tours in 1974.

"We got on really well with Queen,” Hunter says. “When you’re in a band you can get really bored with each other but they were just normal blokes, it was like being on the road with nine guys instead of just five. Freddie was hilarious and I’ve kept up with Brian to this day."

Defiance Part 2: Fiction is released on April 19 and is available to pre-order now.

Artists

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 40 years in music industry, online for 27. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.