HW: Ariel Bender

[Steven Davies-Morris]

Actually the name *Ariel Bender* came about in a much less interesting
or amusing manner.  Luther Grosvernor had joined Mott the Hoople as
the replacment for Mick Ralphs, and the band was in Germany beginning
a European tour before returning to the studio to record *The Hoople*.
Ian Hunter had suggested to LG that he needed a *cooler* name (since
he was now playing guitar for a band that was periferaly glam, etc.)
so they were trying to come up with one.  They'd not found one that
anyone in the band liked so Hunter and Grosvenor went for a walk;
they passed an auto wrecking yard where two guys were bending the
ariels (radio antennas) of the cars, snapping them off.  Hunter looked
at Grosvenor -- said *Ariel Bender* -- and the rest is history.  The
source of this an interview with Hunter (originally conducted in MM)
that is reprinted in one of the IH/MTH bio-books in my brother's
collection.  Remember: truth is stranger than fiction!

Regards
Steven Davies-Morris davmor at deltanet.com

-----Original message-----
From: Ola Nyberg <ola.nyberg at SYSTEM3R.SE>
To: Multiple recipients of list BOC-L <BOC-L at LISTSERV.SPC.EDU>
Date: Thursday, January 22, 1998 7:16 AM
Subject: Re: HW : well HUW / Widowmaker


>>*Ariel* like in the Little Mermaid and *Bender* as in stringbender or
>>what? I wouldn't want to be called *Luther Grosvenor* either, but Ariel
>>Bender... Gimme a break.
>>
>>Ola
>
>>jon at COMICS.DEMON.CO.UK:
>
>>No, Ariel like a) appertaining to the sky   b) The angelic Name or c)
>>the elemental from Shakespeare's The Tempest ...and....
>>
>>Bender like a) 4-day-drinking binge or b) ambigous sexuality. basically
>>gay. <both English slang probably> It genuinely took some guts to call
>>yourself a bender in the early '70's.
>>
>>anyway, it doesn't matter what it means as much as how it sounds. It
>>sounds to me like some sky-writing hallucinating stunt guitarist but
>>each to his own. I'm indifferent to the man's guitar but *dig* that
>>name!
>>Jon
>
>"Sky-writing hallucinating stunt guitarist!" - I *DIG* that!
>
>Thanks for the enlightening info! I guess it sounds differently to you
>(whose native tongue is English and know a bit more about Shakespeare)
>than it does to me. I guess the reason Ariel doesn't sound too angelic
to
>me is that it makes me think of washing powder, mermaids and such. Given
>the real (original) meaning of it, it does seem a lot less uncool. I
must
>have associated to the wrong things, simply due to my poor knowledge of
>Shakespeare and English in general and, apparently, the influence that
>those TV commercials must have had on me! Bastards!
>
>Cheers,
>
>Ola
>
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