Nigel benjamin biography
Nigel benjamin biography
Nigel benjamin mott the hoople...
The Early Days
Our story starts with a band from Hereford in the west of England called Silence. They were Stan Tippins (vocals), Mick Ralphs (guitar), Pete Overend Watts (bass), Terence Dale "Buffin" Griffin (drums) and Terry Allen ("Phally") on the Organ.
The band went through various line-up changes, and were also known as the Doc Thomas Group at various stages.
They played the usual dues-paying circuit of the pubs and clubs of England as well as Hamburg in Germany, but they had most success (such as it was) in Italy, where Stan became known as "the Sinatra of beat".
But they were going nowhere when Overend auditioned for the job of bass-player for a new Island band called Free.
He didn't get the gig, but noticed that when they played, all of Free shook their heads, which resulted in Guy Stevens (their manager) also shaking his. Overend mentioned this to Mick Ralphs, who immediately travelled up to London to see Guy, armed with a demo tape of Silence they had made a few weeks