Peter Overend Watts

Pete "Overend" Watts, 2009

Peter Overend Watts (born May 13, 1947 in Yardley , Birmingham , † January 22, 2017 ) was a British musician , music writer and record producer .

Life

Peter Overend Watts was born in Birmingham to Joan and Ron Watts. In 1948 the family moved to Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire . Inspired by the guitar playing Hank Marvins of the Shadows , he began to practice on his father's acoustic guitar. Christmas 1961 he was given a Hofner Colorama 2, an electric guitar. He met Dale Griffin at Ross-on-Wye High School . With Griffin he played in various bands while he was learning to be an architect . In 1965, after having switched from guitar to bass , he decided to become a full-time musician. He went on a European tour with the Buddies, where he met Mick Ralphs . Watts, Ralphs and Griffin then played together in the Doc Thomas Group, later in the bands Shakedown Group and Silence. In 1969 all three went to London and got a record deal with Island Records producer Guy Stevens under the name Mott the Hoople . The group wanted to break up in 1972 and Watts tried to play as a musician with David Bowie , who refused Watts on the grounds that Mott the Hoople could not break up, and so the band got back together. From 1974 Watts was the main person responsible for the creation of new songs by Mott.

Watts and Griffin co-founded the production company Grimtone Productions after the end of Mott the Hoople. The company had success with The Cult , Hanoi Rocks and Department S .

In 2009 and 2013 Watts performed again with Mott the Hoople for a series of concerts.

In 1988 Watts left Grimtone Productions and the music industry and opened a business in Hereford which he gave up in 2003. He then devoted himself to fishing and long-distance hiking. In 2013 he published the book The man who hated walking , in which he describes his hike on the South West Coast Path .

Watts died on January 22, 2017 of complications from head and neck cancer .

Publications

• The man who hated walking, Wymer Publishing, 2013, ISBN 978-1908724076

Web links

• Adam Sweeting, Peter Overends Watts Obituary , in: The Guardian , January 25, 2017, accessed January 26, 2017