Luther Grosvenor - I Really Don't Know (2025)

He was one of the most inventive guitarists of his generation, one of those bright young musicians who emerged in the late 1960s and turned everything upside down. Together with Brian May, Mick Ronson, and Paul Kossoff, Luther Grosvenor rewrote the rulebook for guitarists, simply remembering that technique is not everything; you also need to have fun. Grosvenor grew up in the English city of Evesham, where he and young Jim Capaldi formed their first bands together, and then went to London together, where their band Deep Feeling attracted the attention of producer Giorgio Gomelsky. However, each of them achieved fame on their own: Capaldi became one of the founders of the band Traffic, and Grosvenor became a member of Spooky Tooth, one of the most influential British rock bands of the late 60s and early 70s. Having released four albums, including Spooky Two, which sold millions of copies, the band toured extensively both in the United States and in Europe, gaining loyal fans, including even The Rolling Stones, who in 1969 approached Grosvenor with an offer to replace Brian Jones. He refused. Grosvenor left Spooky Tooth in 1972 and released his first solo album, Under Open Skies, after which he decided that a solo career was not for him. After a brief collaboration with Jerry Rafferty in Steelers Wheel, he received an invitation to join the band that was essentially the decade's answer to the original Rolling Stones line—up, Mott the Hoople. And this time, he didn't hesitate. He even changed his name to Ariel Bender for the occasion. Ariel Bender was the greatest rock guitarist. In an era when even the most ordinary guitarist was disguised as a walking mannequin and dressed to the nines, Bender stood out from the rest both visually and by ear. The name was given to him by singer Lynsey de Paul, a friend who shared his idea of the most outstanding guitarist in the world, and it suited him perfectly. Except he didn't just play the guitar. He could break them up with one chord. In the studio, Bender transformed Mott, and they recorded another studio album, The Hoople in 1974, an amazing live album and several immortal hits. But Bender made the strongest impression on stage: his mane was flying, he literally fought with Ian Hunter for the attention of the audience and gave out riffs as raucous as unrestrained. Posthumous publications from the band's concert archive further emphasized Bender's genius: the 30th anniversary edition of Live, which expanded from one short playlist to two hefty CDs, included some of his fiercest performances.Grosvenor left Mott in 1974 (replaced by Mick Ronson) and immediately formed the hard rock band Widowmaker, which found itself in the spotlight when it was invited to open for the Who on their last UK tour. Unfortunately, that was the end of it. Although Widowmaker released, in Grosvenor's words, "two great albums," by 1979 he was tired of this shit, but he didn't just leave the band. He's completely retired from the music industry. Instead, the idol of millions became a legend and remained so for the next 17 years. In early 1996, he returned to the studio to record two tracks — "Crying Won't Bring You Back" and "Merry Go Round" — for the Peter Green tribute album Rattlesnake Guitar. Thanks to old friends Jim Capaldi, Steve Winwood, Jess Roden, and former Spooky Tooth drummer Mike Kelly, the Ariel Bender Band pushed Grosvenor to finally record some of the songs he had written during his absence and release them in 1996 on the Floodgates album. Unfortunately, due to bad publicity and distribution, the album flopped, and it took another five years before an extended reissue (on the British Angel Air label) finally brought it back to life with a bonus edition that included two Rattlesnake Guitar songs, three songs recorded during the 1997 Spooky Tooth reunion, and an unreleased recording of Deep Feeling from 1966, made during the sessions in Gomel.Meanwhile, Grosvenor himself did not disappear without a trace.; He continued to perform live and even visited the studio from time to time to record a couple of songs for some new project, including an amazing cover version of "Roll Away the Stone" for the 2005 Mott the Hoople Family anthology.
© Dave Thompson /TiVo