Live: Over Here and Over There -- 75/76

A double-CD of previously unreleased live performances from 1975-1976, the first disc recorded in England, the second in the U.S. If this was by any old band, it wouldn't get the lowest rating. It's average, if boring, mid-'70s hard rock that sometimes boogies too long, and some of the lead vocals have that annoyingly high-pitched warble that British hard rockers of the era often adopted as a specialty. But we're talking the group that used to be Mott the Hoople here, although by the time of these shows, Ian Hunter was gone and the group was simply called Mott. Ian Hunter wasn't the only creative member of Mott the Hoople, but he was indisputably the most important. This music suffers mightily in comparison, not only because of his physical absence, but also because only a couple of Hunter songs are on this CD ("All the Way from Memphis" and "Violence"). Otherwise, the set is dominated by Overend Watts songs, along with the de rigueur covers of "Sweet Jane" and "All the Young Dudes," not to mention a pointless version of the Doors' "Love Me Two Times."