Verden Allen - 20 Year Holiday (2023)

Best remembered as the founding keyboardist with glitter rock favorites Mott the Hoople, Terence "Verden" Allen was born May 26, 1944 in South Wales, joining his first band, the Inmates, two decades later. Upon leaving the group in 1966, he signed on with Lee Starr & the Astrals; as the year drew to a close the group traveled to London, where it was tapped as the backing band for emerging reggae star Jimmy Cliff, a turnabout that also inspired a new name, the Shakedown Sound. After a series of lineup changes, the Shakedown Sound gradually evolved into Mott the Hoople. Although Allen's distinctive Hammond organ remained a key component of the group's heavy glam rock sound, none of his original compositions appeared on LP prior to their fourth album, 1971's Brain Capers, a situation that precipitated Allen's exit from Mott's ranks in early 1973. He then signed to Polydor as a solo act, adopting the alias Mooni for his debut single, "Wine Ridden Talks"; Allen's next project, the band Cheeks, featured guitarist James Honeyman-Scott and drummer Martin Chambers, who later reunited in the Pretenders. Following Cheeks' 1976 dissolution, he formed High Mileage, followed by Verden Allen's Seven Inches; in 1978, he also teamed with latter-day Mott the Hoople guitarist Luther Grosvenor for a single, "On the Rebound." After a four-year hiatus, Allen returned to recording in 1982 with the solo "Colleen," issued on his own Spinit label; "This Way Now" appeared a year later, but he was otherwise out of the spotlight for the remainder of the decade, finally resurfacing in 1994 as a member of Thunderbuck Ram on their lone LP, Long Time No See. An Allen solo effort, For Each Other, arrived in 1999, followed by a pair of 21st century efforts, 2002's 20 Year Holiday and 2009's My Masochistic Side. © Jason Ankeny