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IRISH EXAMINER | October 7th, 2020
T THHEE IIRRIISSHH EEXXAAMMIINNEERR show Top of the Pops in March 1971, wearing glitter and satins, is often cited as the
beginning of the glam rock movement. Music critic Ken Barnes called Bolan “the
man who started it all”.
T. Rex’s 1971 album ‘Electric Warrior’, with all songs written by Bolan, including
M MUUSSIICC AANNDD EENNTTEERRTTAAIINNMMEENNTT the UK chart topper ‘Get It On’, has been described by AllMusic as “the album that
essentially kick-started the UK glam rock craze.” Producer Tony Visconti, who
would also work with another major glam rock pioneer David Bowie, stated, “What
G GUUIIDDEE:: RROOCCKK,, CCOOUUNNTTRRYY,, JJAAZZZZ,, I saw in Marc Bolan had nothing to do with strings, or very high standards of artistry;
what I saw in him was raw talent. I saw genius. I saw a potential rock star in Marc –
right from the minute, the hour I met him”.
T TRRAADD,, FFOOLLKK,, BBAALLLLAADDSS,, BBLLUUEESS,, 1977, a memorial stone and bust of Bolan, Marc Bolan’s Rock Shrine, was unveiled
Bolan died at the age of 29 in a car crash two weeks before his 30th birthday. In
at the site where he died in Barnes, London. As a member of T. Rex, Bolan will be
C CLLAASSSSIICCAALL AANNDD LLOOTTSS MMOORREE posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020.
Bolan was born at Hackney Hospital and grew up in Stoke Newington, in the
borough of Hackney, east London, the son of Phyllis Winifred (née Atkins) and
Welcome to our regular music and entertainment guide, brought Simeon Feld, a lorry driver. His father was an Ashkenazi Jew of Russian and Polish
ancestry, while his mother was of English descent. Moving to Wimbledon, south-
to you by Paddy McCarthy for your reading enjoyment west London, he fell in love with the rock and roll of Gene Vincent, Eddie
Cochran, Arthur Crudup and Chuck Berry and hung around coffee bars such as the
2i’s in Soho London.
Bolan was a pupil at Northwold Primary School, Upper Clapton. He appeared as
an extra in an episode of the television show Orlando, dressed as a mod. At the age
of nine, he was given his first guitar and began a skiffle band. While at school, he
played guitar in Susie and the Hula Hoops, a trio whose vocalist was a 12-year-
old Helen Shapiro. During lunch breaks at school, he would play his guitar in the
playground to a small audience of friends.
At 15, he was expelled from school for bad behavior. Bolan briefly joined a mod-
elling agency and became a ‘John Temple Boy’, appearing in a clothing catalogue for
the menswear store. He was a model for the suits in their catalogues as well as for
cardboard cut-outs to be displayed in shop windows. Town magazine featured him
as an early example of the mod movement in a photo spread. It is suggested that
Bolan was in fact bisexual in his life according to those in the music scene.
The Who’s Pete Townshend stated in an interview, “I remember Marc Bolan
with full make-up on, working as a rent boy to buy clothes, in and around the Scene
Club. He was about 15”. When asked about his sexuality during an interview in
1975, Bolan said that he was bisexual.
In 1964, Bolan met his first manager, Geoffrey Delaroy-Hall, and recorded a slick
commercial track backed by session musicians called ‘All at Once’ (a song very much
in the style of his youthful hero, Cliff Richard, the “English Elvis”), which was later
released posthumously by Danielz and Caron Willans in 2008 as a very limited edi-
tion seven-inch vinyl after the original tape recording was passed onto them by
Delaroy-Hall. This track is one of Bolan’s first released. In June 1966, a second offi-
cial single was also released, with session-musician accompaniment, ‘The Third
Degree’, backed by ‘San Francisco Poet’, Bolan’s paean to the beat poets. Neither
song made the charts.
There are two plaques dedicated to his memory at Golders Green
Crematorium in North London. The first was placed there in the mid-1990s in white
marble and was installed by the Tyrannosaurus Rex Appreciation Society with the
This week I start with one of Ireland’s best-known singers Tony Murphy whose help of fans worldwide. The second was installed by the official Marc Bolan fan club
stage name is Tony Stevens who was on the verge of being a super star. The decade and fellow fans in September 2002, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of his
of the ’90s was a memorable one for Tony. But on December 23, 1992, at the height passing. The inscription on the stone, which also bears his image, reads “25 years
of his fame, his van crashed at Milltown, Co. Galway, when he was on his way home on – his light of love still shines brightly”. Placed beneath the plaque there is an
from a festive engagement. appropriate ceramic figure of a white swan.
The sad thing about all of this is that his career was really taking off at the time of In 2006, TV series ‘Life on Mars’, William Matheson portrays Marc Bolan, circa
the accident where he suffered severe injuries, including multiple fractures to his 1973, in a bar in Manchester. Time-travelling Sam Tyler recognizes him, has a fan
ribs, pelvis and legs. He was hospitalized over Christmas at Galway University boy moment, and warns him to be careful of riding in Minis. In the American ver-
Hospital before being transferred to Cork University Hospital in January, 1993. He sion of the series, the character is replaced by that of Jim Croce, who died later that
spent over 250 days in and out of hospital at a time in which he was in the prime of year in a plane crash, and Sam warns him. However, the T. Rex version of ‘Get It
his life. On’ is played in the New York
Tony was a popular singer who performed both pop and country and western. dance club in that scene.
He accepted he would never perform again because of his injuries. Many who have In 2007, the English Tourist
just accepted that, but not Tony Stevens who has had the perseverance and fight to Board included Bolan’s Rock
come back to almost perfect health and is now ready to perform again. Tony should Shrine in their guide to
have been in the same league now as Daniel O’Donnell is today and I do believe he Important Sites of Rock ’n Roll
will once he can get back on stage when this pandemic is under wraps. interest ‘England Rocks’. A
For a man to go through so much and still perform after all this he deserves star- musical, ‘20th Century Boy’,
dom and again I believe he will. Here’s a little background on Tony: when he was based on Bolan’s life, and fea-
backed by his band, Western Union, he gigged early and often, playing inoffensive turing his music, premiered at
covers and making regular appearances on RTÉ’s light entertainment shows, plug- the New Wolsey
ging his numerous releases, of which a cover of ‘To All The Girls I Loved Before’ is Theatre in Ipswich in 2011. In
easily his best known. September 2020 a tribute
As such, he’s an unlikely starting point for a story about U2 and that group’s long album produced by Hal
association with Cork city and its people. U2 opened for Tony Stevens in a venue Willner is to be released fea-
called The Garden of Eden, Tullamore, County Offaly. It was then a four-hour drive turing covers of T. Rex songs
away. U2 were scheduled to play a ninety-minute set, supporting the night’s head- by a variety of artists includ-
liner, Tony Stevens and his band. Now that was back in 1980 when the Showband ing Nick Cave, U2, Elton
performing was just changing and it did. Now look at U2 the biggest band in the John, Joan
World, so Tony keep it going as you never know. Jett, Nena and Todd
Marc Bolan was an English singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, and Rundgren. Again, one of my
poet. He was the lead singer of the band T. Rex and was one of the pioneers of most favorite artist in the
the glam rock movement of the 1970s. Bolan’s appearance on the BBC’s music world, RIP Marc. C