FOUNDER member of Mott the Hoople, Verden Allen – whose new band Soft Ground releases its first album Love You and Leave You tomorrow (Friday) – admits to having had a lifelong addiction to music.

He first played the piano as a child, given lessons by his godfather, an organist at the local church.

But it was his uncle who provided the real inspiration. “He was a very good pianist and he inspired me to want to play more,” says Verden, whose name was originally Terrence.

“When we did our deal with Island Records the producer came to find our names for the sleeve notes and said Terrence didn’t look too good, so I took my father’s middle name, Verdun, but it got spelled wrong,” he recalls. “My parents were shocked – they thought it wasn’t me.”

When he first moved to Hereford from south Wales, where he was born, Verden got a job at Belmont Road Garage and a spot in local band The Inmates. His time in the band looked likely to be doomed almost immediately.

“They wanted a guitarist, and I wasn’t very good,” he recalls.

“They took me to the Conservative Club and told me I was out of the band.” That was the point at which he sat down and played the piano, only to be told “If you don’t buy a piano, you’re out of the band.”

It is well known of course that Verden went on to become a member of Mott the Hoople, but before that he was also a member of Jimmy Cliff’s backing band, The Shakedown Sound. “There was an ad in Melody Maker and our bass player John Best, who was from Leominster, organised a meeting with him. Within a week we were in Paris, but in those days it was easier to get a job, so you could take a gamble like that.”

As it turned out, Verden never did get another job, and hasn’t had ‘a proper job’ since.

“I didn’t plan to do music,” he says. “After I left school we moved here to Hereford, and almost as soon as we arrived I found myself playing in bands.

“I’ll always be doing this,” says Verden.

“Even when it’s not working on a professional level, you do it as a hobby.”

One thing Verden was not pursuing as he joined band after band was the fame that came to Mott the Hoople, and when it did, it didn’t go to their heads: “We were working all the time, so we didn’t notice,” he says. “If it happens overnight I guess it affects people more.

“Every song on the album will be performed live on stage and it’s recorded more or less live. We didn’t go over the top for a big production– we tried to keep it as live as possible.

It won’t escape Hoople fans that the new band, in which Verden’s Hammond organ and vocals are complemented by Matthew Blakout on drums, Jamie Thyer on guitar and Rob Hankins on bass, takes its name from a Mott the Hoople track penned by Verden. And it’s a track that takes him back to his childhood in South Wales every time.

“We used to go up to this estate to pick conkers, but the landowner kept dogs.

“I remember trying to run but my legs wouldn’t move – it was like running on soft ground. That’s where the song came from,” he says.

“Sometimes when I’m on my own and listen to it, it takes me straight back to that particular feeling and I can see it clearly in my head.”

Soft Ground has an album launch night on Saturday from 8pm at Hereford Lads Club.

Tickets are available from MuscPlus or on the door.