A band with such a complicated history, and such a meager recorded legacy, that only Mott the Hoople obsessives will want to know their whole story, which would run through several pages worth of fanzine documentation to fully explain. Suffice it to explain that future Mott the Hoople members Pete Overend Watts and Dale Griffin (Buffin) played together in several outfits in the 1960s before Mott was formed. One of them, the Silence, lasted for most of the latter half of 1965, and did not record. Another, just called Silence (no "the" included), existed in late 1968 and early 1969, and included Watts, Griffin, organist Verden Allen, and guitarist Mick Ralphs; when Ian Hunter replaced singer Stan Tippins, Mott the Hoople were born. The 1965 version of the Silence re-formed in 1990 to record enough material, in a British Invasion/R&B vein, to fill out an album, which was finally released in 1998 on a CD that also included the super-rare 1967 album by the Doc Thomas Group (a band that also featured Watts and Griffin). ~ Richie Unterberger, Rovi