It's a good time to be a Mott the Hoople fan in Milwaukee.
On Friday, the landmark British band's front man, Ian Hunter, plays at the South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center at 8 p.m. with his Rant Band. Tickets for the show are $39 and $49.
Hunter's latest solo set is 2009's "Man Overboard."
Once you catch a performance by a guy that influenced The Clash and others, you can either revel in the familiarity of – or get the backstory by – watching "The Ballad of Mott the Hoople," a feature-length rockumentary about the band, which also featured Mick Ronson, Mick Ralphs and other '70s era notables, and was one of the stalwarts of the glam era.
Using rare and unseen archival footage and interviews with Hunter and many of his bandmates, the 101-minute "The Ballad of Mott the Hoople" – directed by Chris Hall and Mike Kerry – tells the story from the group's early days in 1969 until it imploded in 1974 at the height of its success.
The film is released on DVD in the U.K. in October and here in the States on Nov. 15. The booklet includes liner notes written by notable Mott fan Morrissey and the disc has more than an hour of bonus stuff, including footage from Mott the Hoople's reunion a couple years ago.
Watch the trailer here.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
