Verden Allen

Best remembered as the founding keyboardist with glitter rock favorites Mott the Hoople, Terence "Verden" Allen was born May 26, 1944 in South Wales, joining his first band, the Inmates, two decades later. Upon leaving the group in 1966, he signed on with Lee Starr & the Astrals; as the year drew to a close the group traveled to London, where it was tapped as the backing band for emerging reggae star Jimmy Cliff, a turnabout that also inspired a new name, the Shakedown Sound. After a series of lineup changes, the Shakedown Sound gradually evolved into Mott the Hoople. Although...