CHRIS TOWNSON |
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It is with a very heavy heart, that I bring you the sad news that my best friend and fellow musician Chris Townson died today (Sunday, February 10th). I have known Chris since our school days together at Box Hill boarding school in Surrey, where we formed a friendship that took us into some of the wildest regions of rock and roll. |
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Liverpool Bop 2008
When: Saturday 15th March 2008 Where: The Octagon Room, Huyton Suite, Civic Way Liverpool, Merseyside L36 9GD (1 mile from J5 of M62) Time: 7pm-1am Tickets: £6.00 (+SAE). Available from Mike Bartram, 41 Brookside Avenue, Liverpool L14 7NA. For further info: Call Mike on 0151 222 3561 (email undergroundyard@aol.com) or Terry on 01352 715741(email TerryandJude@aol.com). See the dedicated website at Liverpool Convention Additional info: Bolan disco, free souvenir poster (with raffle tickets) stalls,and some of Mike's original posters and tour programmes on display. DJ is again Terry Hughes. Tribute act Ian Collinson will be performing. Big screen Bolan slide show. | ||
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The Birthday Bash (click image to enlarge) | ||
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"Life
On Mars"
Tracklisting: Introduction
- Dialogue - King Of The Jungle - Various Artist YOU CAN ORDER IT HERE | ||
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Tony Visconti: the Autobiography: From Bowie, Bolan and the Brooklyn Boy
A name synonymous with ground-breaking music, Tony Visconti has worked with the most dynamic and influential names in pop, from T.Rex and Iggy Pop to David Bowie and U2. This is the compelling life story of the man who helped shape music history, and gives a unique, first-hand insight into life in London during the late 1960s and '70s. Soon after abandoning his native New York to pursue his musical career in the UK, Visconti was soon in the thick of the emerging glam rock movement, launching T.Rex to commercial success and working with the then-unknown David Bowie. Since his fateful move to the land of tea and beer drunk straight from the can, Visconti has worked with such names as T.Rex, Thin Lizzy, Wings, The Boomtown Rats, Marsha Hunt, Procol Harum, and more recently Ziggy Marley, Mercury Rev, the Manic Street Preachers and Morrissey on his acclaimed new album 'Ringleader of the Tormentors'. Even Visconti's personal life betrays an existence utterly immersed in music. Married to first to Siegrid Berman, then to Mary Hopkin and later to May Pang, he counts many of the musicians and producers he has worked with as close friends and is himself a celebrated musician. This memoir takes you on a roller-coaster journey through the glory days of pop music, when men wore sequins and pop could truly rock. Visconti's unique access to the biggest names and hottest talent, both on stage and off, for over five decades is complemented by unseen photographs from his own personal archive, and offers a glimpse at music history that few have witnessed so intimately. | ||
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The press release for the forthcoming CD "The Final Cuts", which is being released via Demon/Edsel on 11 SEPTEMBER 2006
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Unreleased Recordings! A
stash of unreleased MARC BOLAN recordings have come to light, after
a former studio receptionist handed them to Marc's son ROLAN. The
tapes were snapped up by the employee at Air London Studios when
the music mecca was due to close down, as she feared the rare glam
rock tracks would be lost forever. She subsequently vowed to give
them to Rolan, now 29, when he was at an age when he could appreciate
them. Rolan, plans to release them this year in honour of his late
dad, was amazed to hear his mother GLORIA JONES' voice ringing out
from the reels too - Bolan recorded TO KNOW YOU IS TO LOVE YOU and
TAME MY TIGER with her. He says, "It was so exciting. I went
to this lady's home and she opened up the broom cupboard and took
out all these master tapes of my father's unreleased material. "I
was especially thrilled because it featured my father singing with
my mother on songs I had never heard." | ||
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NEW T.REX DVD!
OUT APRIL 2006! |
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Marc Bolan will be pirtrayed by an actor in the BBC TV series "Life On Mars" 30 Janurary 2006 | |
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18 NOVEMBER 2005 |
A HARP! version of 20th Century Boy is currently being featured in an television advert for Jameson's Whiskey. Needless
to say it is not Marc's | |
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MARC
BOLAN AND T.REX CONVENTION
Brenda
Shepherd 07 JUNE 2005 |
Wakefield
Sports Club
College Grove Road Wakefield 30th July 2005 IN AID OF CHILDREN WITH LEUKAEMIA | |
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20 MAY 2005 |
New OFFICIAL WEBSITE for BILL LEGEND iT CONTAINS SOME GREAT PICS! | |
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10 MAY 2005 |
THE
MOJO ICON AWARD 1.
David Bowie Voting has now closed! | |
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Tony Visconti Talks About "Born To Boogie"
25 APRIL 2005 Why
recording Marc Bolan was a real scream
Born To Boogie was made by Ringo Starr for his own Apple Films company and centred on T Rex’s Wembley concerts of March 18 1972. The film has been restored and the soundtrack remixed by original producer Tony Visconti for a DVD release next month. Here Visconti talks about that day, the hysteria surrounding Marc Bolan – and how the original recordings, lost for 33 years, were found in a dusty vault in London In 1972, Ringo Starr felt that he needed to be in touch with the new music. The Beatles had split and Ringo was all on his own and he wanted to direct films. He approached Marc, who couldn’t believe his luck that Ringo was paying attention to him and he took full advantage. He leapt into the situation. They decided to make the film very quickly, without a script. They knew they both liked Federico Fellini’s films and Marc loved A Hard Day’s Night. They had a lovely symbiotic relationship, they definitely needed each other and they genuinely got along very well. But I don’t think it was very deep. They didn’t remain friends but it worked for that period. On the day it was pretty crazy, like a Beatles concert. The girls were screaming from beginning to end, which was something you had to accept when you recorded them. Ringo said he had never seen the girls at Beatles concerts quite so maniacal as the ones here. He thought the energy and the hysteria was even greater. I can kind of vouch for that – I remember at the end of the concert we had to get the band out of Wembley and into their limos and there was no security. So [former Beatles roadie] Mal Evans was responsible for getting the entire band out of the venue and into the limo. I helped Mal get Marc into a waiting vehicle to get him away – in the process we were both beaten, our hair was pulled out, our clothes were torn, they took handfuls of hair out of Marc’s head. |
(cont)
The one thing I didn’t expect was to be asked to be in the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party scene. They had me conducting the string quartet so they had me in tails and white gloves. They were the same strings players that we used for the T Rex recordings. It’s a documentary of those times. It’ll never be quite like that again. And it was all a little bit homespun because it wasn’t serious business in those days, it was all a lark so it’s interesting to see how the whole thing was put together by a handful of people. Nobody really knew what they were doing, but we did our best. When we came to do the DVD everyone assumed the tapes would be at EMI Records but I had a feeling they weren’t because it hadn’t been a T Rex production, it was an Apple production. Ringo had paid for the whole thing. Also, shortly after Marc died, a lot of his tapes were just taken out of his house and mysteriously disappeared. They kept appearing on eBay or they were sold privately from fan to fan. We thought the worst, that these tapes would be scattered all over the world by now. I had a week to go before I was supposed to mix the soundtrack and we were going to use this bootleg quality recording of it which I really couldn’t do much with. Then, at the 11th hour, they found the tapes, so I was able to mix from the original, 16-track analogue audio tapes. They were discovered in a vault under Tottenham Court Road – there’s an archiving company that took care of them for Apple Corp – and clever detective work finally tracked them down. They also found 32 cans of colour negative film including footage of the afternoon concert. That’s how they’re able to give you five hours of T Rex on the DVD … the way they’ve restored the film, it almost looks like it was shot last week. That’s the eerie part.
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Screenings of a special film of the complete second Wembley show The following have been confirmed. Sorry there is nothing in the South of England, but hopefully everyone will get a chance to see this special film at one of the venues. There will be cinema trailers going out in the next week or so, plus local competitions on ILR radio stations with Born to Boogie goodie bags as prizes. The timings may change by around 30 minutes so please check with the cinema and book in advance if you can. NB: these screenings are of a special film of the complete second Wembley show and are not of Born to Boogie. Martin Barden Update 08 APRIL 2005 All
screenings will probably include an outing for the final 'Marc'
show as a bonus. Not sure whether this will screen first or second,
before or after the Wembley concert. Martin Barden |
FINALISED
DATES/VENUES Changes in white Manchester The Printworks, 6-8 Dantzic Street, Manchester M2 4AD April 25, 8.15pm Dudley
UCI, Merryhill Centre, Dudley DY5 1SY Edinburgh
UCI Craigpark, Kinnard Park, Newcraighall Road EH15 London
UCI Whitleys, Bayswater, London, W2 Nottingham
Broadway Cinema, 14 - 18 Broad Street, Nottingham, Sheffield
Sheffielf Showroom, Paternoster Row, Sheffield, S1 2BX Glasgow
Glasgow Film Theatre, 12 Rose Street, Glasgow G3 6RB Cardiff
Chapter Arts Centre, Market Road, Cardiff CF5 1QE Sheffield
Showroom
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2005
MOJO honours list
...Vote for Marc ! This years Mojo honours list has been announced:
we have the chance to nominate Marc Bolan MOJO
Icon nominee It's our chance to get Marc recognised ! Click Below To Vote.............NOW!!! DEADLINE 1 JUNE 2005! http://promo.emapnetwork.com/mojo/honours2005/ Tanx to John Wass for this information 03 APRIL 2005 |
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•
Features 38 classic and collectable
tracks drawn from
Marc Bolan’s entire career. • 9 top 5 hits including 3 UK number 1s. • Compilation and sleevenotes by former Blow Monkey Dr Robert, who like Bolan is no stranger to eye make-up, throwing shapes and the allure of a pink feather boa. | ||
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From
Beneath the Wizard's Gown:
Marc Bolan - Unglittered
Released
(July 1, 2005)
07 MARCH 2005 |
"The
father of glam rock, Marc Bolan, was renowned for glitter, make-up,
camp clothes and performances. His music evolved from ethereal,
Tolkienesque influences to stylistically original pop. He died at
a time when his persona was still engulfed in the commercialisation
of the pop character he had created, leaving the full enigma of
his mind untold. It endeavours to delve into the corners of Bolan's mind that made him the charismatic, mystical icon who wrote apparently senseless lyrics and aspires to restore a depth of understanding to his words enhancing his credibility as an artist, a wordsmith and a musician. The poetry, written in Bolan's own hand, has been aesthetically reproduced from its original form with an edited 'translation' of each poem giving an interpretation of what are perceived to have been Bolan's intended words. Enigmatic imagery, previously unpublished photographs of Bolan, depicting the naturally ethereal aura he possessed, punctuate the pages of this all encompassing, tactile probing into the roots of Bolan's thoughts that made him the intriguing Wizard like character who enchanted the music world with his lingual painting of mystical images. This book aspires to look into the eyes of Marc Bolan, unglittered" | |
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Tony Blair-Bolan Fan! Before
he went to university, he remembered being "thrilled"
by He said: "Marc Bolan used to come on stage with just his acoustic guitar, and this other guy played the bongos, and he would sort of sit cross-legged and just play. "And suddenly they went electric and it was an amazing thing, a complete revelation. The audience changed from being, you know, hippies to screaming girls. "I was never completely wild about their stuff - did I listen to it outside of parties and dances? Probably not - but it did interest me because I was always interested in trends. I think I was analysing it the whole time. "But
what Marc Bolan did I think was he crossed over between what - in
inverted commas - "cool" people listened to and what people
danced to. There was a time when the uncoolest thing a band could
do was release a single and 4 MARCH 2005 |
"I remember Marc Bolan sitting there cross-legged and saying 'more sound on microphone two' or something, and I remember being really thrilled. "And you know the way the roadies used to go on and fix up the microphones? "I'd look at them and think 'even that would be good'. You just wanted to be part of it. There's nothing like it, really." So, now we all know what the Prime Minister wants to be when he grows up. THE
full story of the Prime Minister's old band will be in | |
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The
entire project has been overseen by Rolan Bolan,
Born
To Boogie |
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INSIDE
T-REX 1970-1977 A CRITICAL REVIEW
This is the long awaited critical review of the music of Marc Bolan and T-Rex from the heady days of Ride A White Swan through to the very last recordings and Marc’s tragic death. Drawing
on extensive rare archive footage of T-rex, much of it never before
released on DVD, this ground breaking two disc set covers In
the company of a leading team of critics, Features 19 FEBRUARY 2005 |
Pre order from Amazon CLICK HERE Release Date 28 February 2005 | |
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BORN
TO BOOGIE - THE DVD
The
release date for the Born to Boogie two-DVD set is 12 February 2005 |
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JOIN
THE T.REX INTERNET MAILING/DISCUSSION LIST @YAHOO GROUPS
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