Marc Bolan

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Marc Bolan (1973)

Marc Bolan (* the 30th September 1947 in Hackney , East London as Mark Field , † 16th September 1977 in Barnes , London) was a British singer , guitarist and songwriter . He became known with his band T. Rex as one of the inventors and protagonists of glam rock .

Life

Childhood and youth

Sign on Bolan's childhood home at 25 Stoke Newington Common, Hackney

Bolan grew up as the son of Jewish parents in simple circumstances in Hackney , London.

He developed his first relationship with music through his parents' record collection. When he was eight years old, his father bought him a record by Bill Haley , which he said was the decisive factor in his later career as a rock 'n' roller or songwriter . He taught himself to play the guitar on homemade instruments and played the tea box bass when he was twelve . His parents gave him a drum kit and a real guitar.

In 1958 Marc Bolan joined the first band at his school - Susie & The Hullahoops . The singer was Helen Shapiro . After he left school in 1961, he got by with a number of odd jobs. Bolan worked at 2i's Coffee Bar , a café on Old Compton Street , where Tommy Steele , Adam Faith and Joe Brown started their careers. He felt drawn to the current youth culture of mods , took care of his clothes with a lot of effort and was known in the relevant scene. It was here that he met David Bowie , who was the same age and who would later become a friend, but also a professional competitor. Due to his appearance, he got a job as a model for a London fashion magazine for one summer, worked in various bars and cafés, including in the cloakroom of a discotheque on trendy Wardour Street in Soho . At the age of seventeen and with an acoustic guitar, Bolan tried to penetrate the folk scene . He called himself Toby Tyler from now on and played a mix of Dylansongs . Since his recording You're No Good was rejected by EMI , Toby Tyler disappeared again after a short time. The tapes that Bolan recorded as Tyler reappeared in 1991 and sold for $ 8,000. In 1993 these recordings were released on CD. Disappointed with the music industry, he went to the Royal National Theater and worked with moderate success as an actor, but was able to secure smaller roles in television productions. After Bolan recorded The Wizard at Decca Records , he signed a contract with the music label . When he was sent a test recording, he found that Decca had changed his real name from Mark Feld to Marc Bowland. The name change didn't bother Bolan, only the fact that Decca did it without his consent. He insisted that Decca change the name to Bolan.

After a long weekend with an alleged "magician" in Paris , he trundled through London in 1964 as a successful street musician . During this time he tried to get a record deal, which he succeeded in 1965. He recorded the single "The Wizard" on Decca Records , which he also featured on the popular TV show " Ready, Steady, Go ". However, it was otherwise largely unsuccessful.

In 1967 his manager Simon Napier-Bell offered him a position with Small Faces or John's Children . Since Bolan believed that he could not play a prominent role in the Small Faces , he decided on John's Children . He spent three months with them; Among other things, he accompanied her as the opening act for The Who on a tour of Germany. In the same year he met June Child , whom he married in 1970, in the office of the management agency Blackhill Enterprises , which worked for him .

Tyrannosaurus Rex

Together with Steve Peregrin Took , he founded the acoustic formation Tyrannosaurus Rex in 1967 . Bolan was the sole head of the band from the start. In keeping with the taste of the hippie culture, he wrote songs about fairies, elves and wizards, which he provided with psychedelic sounds. The band stood out for the unusually high vocals of Marc Bolan and the vocal improvisations of the two musicians. Bolan and Took performed it acoustically, with guitar and percussion, sitting on a carpet. So she got to know the up-and-coming American producer Tony Visconti , who produced her records until 1974 and played a key role in the development of the group sound. In addition, Bolan became close friends with the British radio DJ John Peel , who promoted them. After a smaller US tour, the drug addict Took had to leave the band in the late summer of 1969 and was replaced by Mickey Finn .

In addition to his musical ambitions , Marc Bolan also wrote poetry and poetic stories. In 1969 he published his book The Warlock of Love , which hit the UK bestseller charts.

T. rex

Marc Bolan's memorial stone at the scene of the accident on Queen's Ride in Barnes

In 1970 Bolan expanded the band to include bassist Steve Currie. Bolan swapped the acoustic for the electric guitar. The band name was shortened to T. Rex and Bolan radically changed his image: He took off the colorful hippie clothes he had worn until then and dressed in glittering suits in the style of the old rock 'n' rollers. He also wore women's shoes and feather boas. He got up while making music, danced and also interacted physically with the audience.

The music also changed: With Ride a White Swan , Bolan wrote a simple song referring to rock 'n' roll of the 1950s, to which Tony Visconti added a string quartet. The song became Bolan's first big hit, which many would follow in a similar pattern over the next few years.

In early 1971, drummer Bill Legend joined the band. For an appearance on the popular TV show Top of the Pops , Bolan glued glittering stars on his face. This is considered to be one of the defining moments of glam rock , a music-historically relevant trend in British rock music that lasted until 1974 and of which Bolan should be one of the most important protagonists. For two years, the handsome bolan was a teen idol, mostly in the UK. Around this time he started his own record label Wizard Productions and was in control of the release of the songs recorded on the T. Rex label.

Despite 40 million records sold at the end of 1973, the success waned; Visconti left in 1974 because he couldn't push through any changes. Bolan fired his fellow musician Mickey Finn and temporarily disbanded the band. He went to New York for tax reasons , where he lived with his girlfriend Gloria Jones (* 1945). He had separated from his wife June in 1973. Bolan, who had previously allegedly been more interested in macrobiotic food than heavy drug use, began drinking and using drugs more intensely.

Rolan Bolan with his mother Gloria Jones in Hollywood 2014

However, when Gloria Jones became pregnant - son Rolan Seymour Field Bolan was born on September 26, 1975 - Bolan tried to revive T. Rex. Only bassist Steve Currie was part of the original band. Bolan released a new album and made a successful small test tour through England, where he now lived again. The records weren't as high in the charts as they used to be, but he still managed to sell out venues. On his last major tour he engaged The Damned as the opening act, which represented the new generation of punk musicians .

He also became a journalist and got his own column on the “ Record Mirror ” and his own television show called “Marc” near Granada . Here, Marc Bolan in 1977 proved to be ahead of his time and dedicated bands like the Boomtown Rats , The Jam or Generation X . In doing so, he gave the emerging punk movement a stage. Later greats like Bob Geldof or Billy Idol had their first television appearances in the “Marc” show. His glam rock colleague David Bowie was a guest on his last show .

death

Grave of Marc Bolan in the Garden of Rest of Golders Green Crematorium in London

On September 16, 1977, Bolans' Mini Clubman Mini 1275 GT driven by Gloria Jones had an accident . Gloria wanted to bring Marc Bolan back to his apartment in Richmond after a visit to a restaurant in central London's Mayfair . While driving, she lost control of the car in Barnes and hit a concrete post at the side of the road and then a plane tree . Co-driver Marc Bolan was killed instantly, two weeks before his 30th birthday, while his girlfriend survived the accident, seriously injured, broken her jaw and suffered shock. There are various rumors about the cause of the accident, ranging from insufficient tire pressure to tire damage and insufficiently tightened wheel nuts. Marc Bolan was cremated in Golders Green Crematorium , the oldest crematorium in London, and his ashes were buried there next to his parents under a rose bush. Today there is an official memorial at the scene of the accident.

June Bolan, from whom Marc Bolan never divorced, died of a heart attack on August 31, 1994 while on vacation in Turkey at the age of 51.

Books

Discography

Albums

  • The Beginning of Doves (1974)
  • You Scare Me To Death (posthumous, 1981)

with Tyrannosaurus Rex / T. Rex (see there)

Singles

Marc Bolan

  • The Wizard / Beyond The Rising Sun (1965, not Germany)
  • The Third Degree / San Francisco Poet (1965, not Germany)
  • Hippy Gumbo / Misfit (1966, not Germany)

with John's Children

  • Desdemona / Remember Thomas A. Beckett (1967, A-side only)
  • Come And Play With Me In The Garden / Sara Crazy Child (1967, B-side only)

with Tyrannosaurus Rex / T. Rex (see there)

as Dib Cochran & The Earwigs
(Bolan, John Cambridge, Rick Wakeman, Tony Visconti)

  • Oh, Baby / Universal Love (1970, not Germany)

Marc Bolan & Gloria Jones

  • To Know You Is To Love You / City Port (1976)

(German publications, unless otherwise stated)

DVD

see publications in the article on the T. rex group

Trivia

The German music producer Dieter Bohlen named his first son "Marc" in memory of Bolan .

Web links

Commons : Marc Bolan  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ knerger.de: The grave of Marc Bolan
  2. ↑ Trivia ( Memento of the original from February 14, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.altersvorsprung.de
personal data
SURNAME Bolan, Marc
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Feld, Marc (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British singer, guitarist and songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH September 30, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Hackney , East London
DATE OF DEATH September 16, 1977
Place of death Barnes , London