Mr Big - Seppuku (2023)

Produced by Mott The Hoople’s Ian Hunter, this is the Mr Big album that got away. Mr Big received much attention in 1976 when they had a chart hit with ‘Romeo’. Signed to EMI, the label passed on their third album ‘Seppuku’ and ever since it has become the Holy Grail for fans of both the band and Ian Hunter. EMI released two songs from the Seppuku sessions as a single, one of which was the track ‘Senora’ co-written with Ian Hunter.

After an appearance on Top Of The Pops to promote the release, and a brief tour, the band split. Vocalist and songwriter Dicken recalls: ‘The lack of support from almost everyone who’d been involved with us…Also there were a lot of personal problems within the band, conflicts regarding the musical direction and so on. Then there was the punk thing and the new wave thing happening all over the UK, and we didn’t fit in either…We soon realised how fickle the music business could be.’