Introduction - Early Years
Marc Bolan - born Mark Feld on the 30 September 1947 – and died on the 16 September 1977) was an English singer-songwriter, poet and guitarist. He is best known as the frontman of glam rock group T. Rex.
Bolan grew up in post-war Stoke Newington, in the borough of Hackney, East London, the son of Phyllis Winifred (née Atkins) and Simeon Feld, a lorry driver. His father was Jewish and of Russian/Polish heritage and his mother was a Christian. Later moving to Wimbledon, southwest 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 2 I's in Soho. He appeared as an extra in an episode of the television show Orlando, dressed as a mod. At the age of nine, Bolan 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 behaviour.
He briefly joined a modelling 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 with two other models. In 1964, Mark met his first manager, Geoffrey de-la-Roy Hall, and recorded a track called 'All at Once' (a non-Feld penned song), which was later released posthumously by Danielz & Caron Willans in 2008 as a very limited edition 7" vinyl, after the original 1/4" tape recording was passed onto them by Mr Hall – this is now regarded as possibly the very first known track that the young Mark had put to professional studio tape. Mark Feld then changed his stage-name to Toby Tyler when he met and moved in with child actor Allan Warren, who was to become his second manager. This fortuitous encounter afforded Bolan a lifeline to the heart of show-business, as Warren saw Toby Tyler's potential whilst the latter spent hours sitting cross-legged on Warren's floor playing his acoustic guitar. A series of photographs was to be commissioned with photographer Michael McGrath, who later recalls that Bolan "left no impression" on him. Warren also hired a recording studio and had Bolan's first acetates cut. One track was the Bob Dylan song "Blowin' in the Wind". A version of Betty Everett's "You're No Good" was later submitted to EMI for a test screening but was turned down.
Warren later sold Bolan's contract and recordings for £200 to his landlord, property mogul David Kirch, in lieu of three months' back rent. Kirch was too busy with his property empire to do anything for him. A year or so later, Bolan's mother pushed into Kirch's office and shouted at him that he had done nothing for her son. She demanded he tear up the contract and willingly he complied. The tapes produced during the Toby Tyler recording session vanished for over 25 years before resurfacing in 1991 and selling for nearly $8,000. Their eventual release on CD in 1993 made available some of the earliest of Marc's known recordings.
After changing his name again, to Marc Bolan (via Mark Bowland), he signed to Decca Records in August 1965 and recorded his debut single "The Wizard". The Ladybirds sang backing vocals, while apart from Bolan's vocals, all other music was created by studio session musicians. "The Wizard" was released on 19 November 1965. Later in 1965 Bolan turned up at Simon Napier-Bell's front door with his guitar and proclaimed that he was going to be a big star and he needed someone to make all of the arrangements. Napier-Bell invited Bolan in and listened to his songs. A recording session was immediately booked and the songs were recorded but not released. One song, "You Scare Me to Death," was used in a toothpaste advertisement. The songs resurfaced in 1982 on the album You Scare Me to Death along with such other songs as "Mustang Ford," "Sally was an Angel," and "Hippy Gumbo." Napier Bell managed The Yardbirds and John's Children and was going to slot Bolan into The Yardbirds but settled for John's Children instead because of Bolan's writing ability, in early 1967. The band achieved some success as a live act but sold few records. A John's Children single written by Marc Bolan called "Desdemona" was banned by the BBC for its line "lift up your skirt and fly." His tenure with the band was brief. Bolan claimed to have spent time with a wizard in Paris who gave him secret knowledge and could levitate. The time spent with him was often alluded to but remained "mythical"; in reality the wizard was probably US actor Riggs O'Hara with whom Bolan made a trip to Paris in 1965. His song-writing took off and he began writing many of the neo-romantic songs that would appear on his first albums with Tyrannosaurus Rex.
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Latest News - 25th of August: 20th Century Boy voted in at Number 14 on the Top 100 Greatest Guitar Riffs of all time in a poll on Radio 2
