Dale Griffin: Drummer with Mott the Hoople who went on to produce sessions for the BBC's John Peel show
They were in the process of disbanding until David Bowie gave them his song ‘All The Young Dudes’
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Your support makes all the difference.The drummer Dale Griffin was a founder member of Mott The Hoople, who were an excellent live band but whose albums between 1969 and 1972 didn’t sell in large quantities. They disbanded in March 1972, but David Bowie encouraged them to reconsider, giving them a classic song, “All The Young Dudes”, which became their first Top 10 single.
Dale Griffin was born in Ross-on-Wye in 1948 and from a young boy, he was listening to his parents’ big band records. He loved the new rock’n’roll music and when he attended the local grammar school with Overend Watts, they decided to play together. Griffin played drums and Watts bass and when Griffin renamed himself Sniffin’ Griff Griffin, Watts changed it to Snigger Buffin, and he was known as Buffin forever more.
Griffin was also part of the Charles Kingsley Creation and was involved with the early days of Rockfield Studios. As a member of the Doc Thomas Group with Watts and guitarist Mick Ralphs, they had success in Italy. In 1968 the three musicians were joined by the organist Verden Allen and became the Shakedown Sound and then the Silence. The record producer and entrepreneur Guy Stevens wanted to sign them but they needed a good lead singer. They found him in Ian Hunter, who suggested a change of name to Mott The Hoople, the title of a book by Willard Manus.
They released four albums, Mott The Hoople (1969), Mad Shadows (1970), Wild Life (1971) and Brain Capers (1971), all for Island Records. They sold enough to get into the Top 50 album chart on occasion but they had an enormous following for their live shows, enabling them to play the Royal Albert Hall. Watts and Griffin were a solid rhythm section and the band played wild, extended versions of such familiar songs as the Kinks’ “You Really Got Me”.
The frustration at the lack of hits and internal squabbling caused their break-up in 1972 but David Bowie won them round with “All The Young Dudes”, his take on the current scene. The single climbed to No 3 and was the title song of their best-selling album. They had further hits with Ian Hunter’s “All The Way From Memphis” and “Roll Away The Stone”, and Griffin produced their 1974 hit album, Mott The Hoople – Live.
Allen had left in 1973, to be followed by Ralphs, who was replaced first by Ariel Bender and then Mick Ronson. Hunter collapsed with exhaustion before a European tour in 1974 and shortly afterwards, formed a new band with Ronson. Watts and Griffin developed a new line-up which worked as Mott and then with the addition of John Fiddler from Medicine Head, British Lions. They disbanded in 1980 because the music scene had changed.
Griffin and Watts formed Grimtone Productions and they produced the hit single, “Is Vic There?” for Department S in 1981. Griffin joined the BBC and produced numerous sessions, often for John Peel, with acts including Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Pulp and Nirvana. Many of those sessions have appeared on career retrospectives.
Griffin took a keen interest in Mott’s back catalogue, arranging the issue of rarities and a box set. He wanted to play at their reunion concerts in 2009 but because he was showing symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, he was confined to the encores. He and his partner, a former schoolfriend, Jean Smith, gave interviews to explain misconceptions about the illness.
SPENCER LEIGH
Terence Dale Griffin, musician and producer: born Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire 24 October 1948; partner to Jean Smith; died Brecon 17 January 2016.
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