Pete Overend Watts
Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2017 3:54 pm
Pete Overend Watts, best known as the bass player in 70s glam rock outfit Mott the Hoople has died age 69. I only found this out yesterday as there was an obituary in The Guardian.
I knew Pete, not through any musical connection, but because he was a shy member of the Bongo Fury club. Indeed, he was going to attend this year's Bongo Bash to present this year's Bongonaut of the Year award.
In his later years, and in between various Mott reunions, Pete was a carp fisherman, antiques dealer, published author and, above all else, a keen long distance walker. His Bongo was bought to support himself on his travels. The only long distance trail in Britain that he failed to conquer was the Owain Glyndwr Way. There was talk of us completing it together in 2018.
Pete was notorious here at Bongo Mission Control, both for being a thoroughly nice man, and also because of the sense of alarm within the team when he rang. It was a case of "Oh no! What's happened to Pete now?"
This was due to various things, the most memorable sequence of events being that
a) his local garage discovered a nest of mice in his air intake during a routine service,
b) having removed the visitors, garage left oily rag in air intake,
c) Pete's Bongo filled with smoke on the A40; and
d) while parked overnight outside garage to get remains of oily rag removed, someone stole his catalytic converter.
There are other stories I could tell, but Pete would have been embarassed.
So farewell Pete Watts, you will be missed here at Bongo HQ. And yes, your middle name really was "Overend". And you really were the first to wear thigh length hi-heel boots on Top of the Pops. How cool was that?
Here's a tribute: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R-eyw3eHAU
I knew Pete, not through any musical connection, but because he was a shy member of the Bongo Fury club. Indeed, he was going to attend this year's Bongo Bash to present this year's Bongonaut of the Year award.
In his later years, and in between various Mott reunions, Pete was a carp fisherman, antiques dealer, published author and, above all else, a keen long distance walker. His Bongo was bought to support himself on his travels. The only long distance trail in Britain that he failed to conquer was the Owain Glyndwr Way. There was talk of us completing it together in 2018.
Pete was notorious here at Bongo Mission Control, both for being a thoroughly nice man, and also because of the sense of alarm within the team when he rang. It was a case of "Oh no! What's happened to Pete now?"
This was due to various things, the most memorable sequence of events being that
a) his local garage discovered a nest of mice in his air intake during a routine service,
b) having removed the visitors, garage left oily rag in air intake,
c) Pete's Bongo filled with smoke on the A40; and
d) while parked overnight outside garage to get remains of oily rag removed, someone stole his catalytic converter.
There are other stories I could tell, but Pete would have been embarassed.
So farewell Pete Watts, you will be missed here at Bongo HQ. And yes, your middle name really was "Overend". And you really were the first to wear thigh length hi-heel boots on Top of the Pops. How cool was that?
Here's a tribute: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R-eyw3eHAU
