In the early 1970s, David Bowie encouraged other musicians to record versions of his songs, the most memorable of which was All the Young Dudes by Mott the Hoople, a hard–rock group from the west of England. The group’s drummer was a founder member, Dale Griffin, who has died aged 67 after suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. In later years, Griffin had a second career as a record and radio producer, working on many sessions for John Peel’s Radio 1 show while maintaining Mott’s heritage through the issue of CD compilations of the band’s work.
He was born in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, and grew up with his parents’ collection of big band records before being attracted to early rock’n’roll in the late 50s. At Ross grammar school, he played drums in various shortlived bands with the bass guitarist Peter Watts. Watts gave Griffin his lifelong nickname “Buffin”, amending the sobriquet Sniffin’ Griffin’ to “that bugger Griffin” and finally “snigger Buffin”.
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