Mott the Hoople bassist Peter Overend Watts has died at the age of 69. He had been suffering from throat cancer.

His Mott bandmate, Ian Hunter – the group’s singer – tweeted: “Oh dear. My extremely eccentric, lovely mate – Peter Overend Watts – has left the building. Devastated.”

Watts had been inspired as a teenager by the guitar playing of Hank Marvin, and took up the guitar aged 13. He switched to bass in 1965, playing in a series of groups that eventually merged into Mott the Hoople.

Watts stopped being Peter and became Overend at the bidding of Mott’s manager, Guy Stevens, who felt Peter Watts was too commonplace a name, whereas his middle name had glamour and mystery.

Mott’s website credits Watts with being responsible for the group’s striking image. “To stand out in a band as visual as Mott the Hoople takes some doing, but it would have been hard not to notice Overend Watts in his thigh-high platform boots, silver hair with a custom-made bass guitar in the shape of a swallow,” the site notes.

After Mott the Hoople split in 1974, Watts co-founded the successor group Mott, then joined British Lions. By the early 80s, he was working as a producer, making albums with Department S and Hanoi Rocks, before leaving the music industry to become an antiques and memorabilia dealer.

He returned to the bass in 2009, when Mott the Hoople reunited for a series of wildly successful reunion gigs. His Mott bandmate Dale “Buffin” Griffin died in January 2016, aged 67.