>> MARC BOLAN / T-REX

Tony and Marc Bolan at Trident Studios, London, during the making of "Prophets."

I am associated with Marc Bolan and his two bands, T.Rex and Tyrannosaurus Rex as the producer of 13 of his albums.

Around the time I met David Bowie, I also had the good fortune to meet Marc Bolan. In 1967 I had been working as an assistant producer to Denny Cordell for about six months on such projects as Procol Harum's second album, Denny Laine as a soloist, The Move, Manfred Mann and Joe Cocker. Denny told me it was time to produce my first recording on my own, and assigned me to produce a young man from India called Biddu. He was, for all intents and purposes, an Indian version of Elvis. His style was retro, even for those times, but Denny said he had a killer image and sent me into Olympic Studios to cut two sides. They were a disaster. I told Denny that I felt I had to produce something I really liked, so he suggested I do what all producers do: find new, unsigned talent in the clubs.

I opened a copy of International Times (London's underground newspaper) that afternoon, and a name popped out of the pages -- a group I'd seen advertised many times before. I was intrigued by the name, mainly because it was so long -- Tyrannosaurus Rex. What luck that they were playing at the UFO club, in Tottenham Court Road, just around the corner from our offices in Oxford Street, London. I stayed late and went to the UFO club a little later than the scheduled time for Tyrannosaurus Rex to perform. As I descended the stairs into the dark club I could hear some incredible, bopping acoustic music. When my eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, there were Marc Bolan and Steve Peregrine Took, sitting cross-legged on the stage playing this very strange music of theirs. What really threw me was that the audience of 300 or so kids was silently enraptured with Marc, not even clapping or screaming, but standing there swaying with the music as if in a trance.

Left to right: Marc, Bill Legend, Mickey Finn, Mama Visconti, Liz Hartley, Steve Currie. My mom always cooked for my British bands when they were passing through New York. This picture was taken in my parents house in Brooklyn, NY.

As much as I tried, I could not understand one word he was singing, and I don't remember Marc introducing songs, so I made the assumption that they were singing in a foreign language, possibly French. Marc was the more intimidating of the two, so I went up to Steve after the set and told him I was a record producer. Unable to see his eyes behind the shades he wore, or much of his face through his long straight hair, he mumbled, "I'm too bummed to talk, man. See him", pointing to Marc. So I cleared my throat and introduced myself to Marc, saying I really liked the group and would like to talk to them about producing them. Marc stunned me by saying, "You're the 8th record producer we've met this week. John Lennon was here last night and he wants to produce us!" This rang true because Lennon and McCartney had just started a label called Grapefruit and they were going around to the clubs to find talent. I later found out none of this was true. Marc nevertheless asked for my phone number and said he might give me a call. Even though I thought it was futile, I wrote my number on a piece of paper and left it with him.

I really wanted to produce this band. I came in early the next morning raving to Denny about Tyrannosaurus Rex. I told him how quiet the crowd was and how almost supernatural Marc's voice was! He smiled and said that if Lennon was interested we didn't stand a chance of signing the group. Just then the phone rang. It was Marc. He said he was standing on a street corner nearby with Steve. Could he come up and audition for Denny? I turned to Denny, almost in shock and said, "They're here! Can they come up now?" Denny said, "Sure", and by 10:45 am Marc and Steve were setting up in Denny's small office, sitting cross-legged on their own rug, where they performed the entire set I'd heard the night before. Denny played it cool. He listened keenly with his eyes closed but didn't act very enthusiastic. I, on the other hand, was bursting with excitement, just dying for my boss to love this band as I did. We didn't promise them anything except that we'd call back, and off they went into Oxford Street.

Denny said, "They're not bad. I don't understand the music, it's not my thing. But if you really like them, then we'll take them on as our 'token' underground group." I thought, "How condescending, but I've got my band!" Whereas Denny would spend a small fortune on each of his projects, I was told that my budget for the making of the album would be 400 pounds, plus 50 pounds for the artwork. That translated to four long days in the studio (I've made "live" albums that have taken longer). I couldn't be happier though. I was going to make the album I'd been dreaming about, and I felt that I had "discovered" the next Beatles.

>> SINGLES

It was to Marc's credit that he tried to avoid making his fans pay twice for the same song by having many of his singles and unique B-sides not appear on albums. So you'll have to track down the singles "King Of The Rumbling Spires", "The Groover", and "Truck On Tyke", to name a few. There are zillions of compilations where you can also find these recordings.

My deepest gratitude to Alex Forbes for her editorial suggestions.