HE’S REAL GONE Overend Watts
On January 22nd this year Peter ‘Overend Watts’ sadly lost his fight with cancer and passed away leaving behind this posthumous release. Overend was of course a founding member and bass guitarist of Mott The Hoople, later just Mott after Ian Hunter and Mick Ralphs departures. Known and loved for his zany character its typical that upon realising this album wouldn’t be released til after he’d passed its original title of ‘She’s Real Gone’ was changed by himself to ‘He’s Real Gone’. Brave and class and so very him. Recorded over a long period and indeed his only solo release Overend sticks to no genre but just gives us a lyrically light hearted, witty and humorous look inside his head, just look at a sample of titles ‘The Dinosaw Market’ ‘Prawn Fire On Uncle Sheep Funnel’ Caribbean Hate Song’ and my personal favourite, so far, ‘Belle Of The Boot’ which just brings a smile to my face, listen to it we’ve all been there! But this is no comedic album ‘Belle’ has a hook many songwriters would envy. Indeed all thirteen tracks are well crafted and Overend played (or programmed) all the instruments. Its in retrospect a crying shame it took him 40 years to make a solo album because based on this he had so much to offer outside of his fundamental contribution to MTH.
Like labelmates Stackridge I reviewed recently Overend is a one-off defying putting in a ‘box’ quirky, delightful and yes heartwarming. Echo’s of glam. punk, Jilted John tease thru the 60 odd minutes running time but in the end its a unique album from a unique artist who may have physically left us but whose musical legacy will live on to delight his many fans. If I have a down day i’ll be slapping this in the disc drawer without fail.
For more information go to http://www.angelair.co.uk
Til next time…………..Colin