Mott The Hoople

The Winkies were probably six months late in cutting and releasing their debut album – six months, and one set of sessions. The news, earlier in 1974, that they were in the studio with Brian Eno was greeted with wild enthusiasm and anticipation; the collapse of those sessions, and Eno's replacement with Guy Stevens, somewhat less so. Far from the maverick icon which his posthumous reputation canonizes, Stevens' mid-1970s reputation owed more to his unreliability than his knob-twiddling skills, and it was no surprise whatsoever when The Winkies finally arrived, bearing more in common with the pre-fame Mott the Hoople (of course, Stevens' last major project) than the glorious glam pub hybrid which the band had hitherto nurtured.

From a musical perspective, the Seventies didn’t really begin until 1972, when the sudden appearance of pioneering art-rock adventurers Roxy Music saw them spearhead a new generation of bands making the first genuinely post-Sixties music.

Hackensack - Up the Hardway, title track from their debut (and only official album for Polydor) album, released in 1974. Hackensack existed between 1968 and 1974 and released the abovementioned album and one single. They were formed by vocalist Nicky Moore, one of England's best frontmen. Their stage act was reminiscent of The Who and they built up a good reputation as a hard working and hard rocking blues/rock quartet. Their only album release is quite collectible today, and had a good mix of solid rockers as well as the odd tasteful blues track. Unfortunately its failure to do much led to the demise of the band in 1974. Moore subsequently joined Tiger, Samson and Mammoth, with drummer Simon Fox moving on to Be Bop Deluxe and guitarist Ray Smith (a.k.a. Ray Major ) moving on to The British Lions, an offshoot of Mott the Hoople.

Def Leppard dove into the classic-albums-in-their-entirety trend via an 11-date residency at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas, performing 1987's Hysteria from start to finish, adding other classic hits to round out the set. More interestingly, taking a tip from Joe Elliott's Mott the Hoople tribute side project the Down 'n' Outz, Def Leppard opened for themselves, performing as Ded Flatbird and running through rarities and early hits that they have rarely played live in the years since becoming superstars…