Peter Overend Watts, the bassist with Mott The Hoople, has died aged 69.

His death was confirmed by his former bandmate Ian Hunter on Twitter.

Oh dear
My extremely eccentric, lovely mate – Peter Overend Watts – has left the building.

Devastated.

Ian Hunter

— Ian Hunter (@IanHunterdotcom) January 22, 2017

Born near Birmingham, Watts first performed with Mick Ralphs in a band called Buddies, which eventually became Mott The Hoople after Hunter joined in 1969.

He adopted the stage name Overend Watts at the suggestion of manager Guy Stevens. Ralphs and Hunter left the band in 1974, but Mott carried on until 1979, after which Watts became a record producer, producing albums for rock acts such as Hanoi Rocks.

The original line-up of Mott reunited for a series of 40th anniversary reunion shows in October 2009.

Mott’s drummer Dale “Buffin” Griffin died last January, after being diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s.

Click here to read Uncut’s archive feature on the making of Mott The Hoople’s “All The Young Dudes”

The March 2017 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring our cover story on The 101 Weirdest Albums Of All Time. Elsewhere in the issue, Ryan Adams tells us about his new album, Greg Lake (in one of his last interviews) remembers Emerson Lake & Palmer, and our free CD collects great new tracks from King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Duke Garwood, The Necks and more. The issue also features Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle on his best recorded work. Plus Michael Chapman, Buzzcocks, Rick Parfitt, Paul Weller & Robert Wyatt, John Waters, St Paul & The Broken Bones, Tinariwen, Dirty Projectors, Cream, Lift To Experience, New Order and more, plus 131 reviews