British Lions

British Lions essentially carried forward the post-Hunter incarnation of Mott the Hoople, keeping keyboardist Morgan Fisher, lead guitarist Ray Major, bassist Overend Watts and drummer Dale Griffin in the lineup while bringing in ex-Medicine Head singer/guitarist John Fiddler as frontman. In the same way that Mott had already moved away from the sound of Mott the Hoople, British Lions pushed the style further toward straightforward British hard rock. The group aimed its efforts squarely at American audiences, convinced that the UK circuit offered little welcome to established rock acts amid the rise of punk and new wave, and spent time on the road in the States opening for Blue Öyster Cult and UFO. Their single “Wild in the Streets” scraped the lower rungs of the Billboard Hot 100, and the band recorded an album for RSO that appeared in 1978. After completing a follow-up LP that the label shelved, the group disbanded; the unreleased set finally surfaced in the early 1980s. A third collection, Live and Rare, compiled live recordings from the 1978 American tour together with previously unheard demos and rehearsals and reached the market in 1999.