Book Intro:

                  This book is the result of over ten years of research. It represents the most comprehensive attempt to date to chronicle the career of Marc Bolan. I'd love to be able to claim that this is the first attempt, but it isn't. The kudos for that must go to Dave Williams who, back in 1985 or 1986, included a live date chronology in his privately published book The Motivator. I remember looking at the book at Nikki Suddenís place in 1986 and being suitably impressed.

\My interest in doing this project was further stimulated on the same visit to Nikki's place. I was reading a Fairport Convention fanzine which contained an article about the group's BBC sessions. After reading the article, I realised it was possible to obtain the same information about Marc Bolanís radio sessions with Tyrannosaurus and T. Rex. A few weeks later I found myself at the BBC Written Archive Centre in Caversham, near Reading in England, where I spent two days, coming away, not only with details of the radio sessions, but also of the many T. Rex BBC television appearances. Iíd like to thank the staff at BBC Written Archive Centre for their assistance, particularly John. If you're reading this, I've forgotten your surname, but thanks; you're to blame for this monumental act of folly! This research subsequently formed the basis of articles that I wrote for Record Collector magazine in England.

From there the project just seemed to explode. At first I was just content to add to Dave's core information; tweaking it a bit here and there. However, I soon realised that there was a serious problem with his chronology. I then decided that the whole project needed rethinking and the first step was to return to the sources of Dave's original data in the weekly British music press. I spent hours carefully checking old issues of the British weekly music press, scouring the news and live ad pages, re-reading interviews, record and concert reviews, all in an attempt to try and piece together a chronology of what actually happened and where and when. In addition to the British music press, I also spent a great deal of time looking at newspapers and magazines from North America, Europe and Australia.

Most of the work was done at the following libraries: National Sound Archive, Kensington, London; The British Newspaper Library, Collindale, London; The British Library, Bloomsbury, London. Iíd like to thank the staff at these institutions for the (unwitting) assistance they gave me.
Rereading the press was an education in itself. Memories of half remembered interviews were stirred. Unfortunately, the sheer venom and spite exhibited by the press towards Marc, which I had largely forgotten about in the wake of posthumous rehabilitation, was something I didnít particularly wish to be reminded of. In the beginning the British music press were generally favourably disposed towards Marc. 1971's breakthrough and the initial rush of success was also championed by the majority. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line, there was a change in mood. The knives came out and these were viciously wielded. One or two journalists (Chris Welch, Rosalind Russell) stuck by Marc, but on the whole, the majority, a bunch of disaffected pseudo-radical hippies, took the opportunity to settle old scores. True, Marc was no angel and he often deliberately baited the press with a series of provocative statements. However, a large amount of the material about Bolan and T. Rex which made it into print, couldnít, under any liberal definition of the word, be described as criticism. It was abuse, plain and simple. With the onset of punk and a new generation of music critics, the press began to take a more measured view of Marc and his music. The venom that had been prevalent from mid-1972 to early 1976 largely dissipated. Iíve tried to give a flavour of all this by including extracts from contemporary record and concert reviews.

Anti-press diatribe over, the following British music newspapers proved to be invaluable sources: Disc (And Music Echo), Melody Maker, Music Now, New Musical Express, Record Mirror and Sounds. Other magazines and newspapers which were consulted include the following: Abendszeitung M nchen, Beat Instrumental, Berlingske Tdende, Best, Billboard, Bravo, Calgary Herald, Chicago Tribune, Edmonton Journal, Frankfurter Allgemeiner Zeitung, Frankfurter Rundschau, Gandalfís Garden, General-Anzeiger Wuppertal, The Globe and Mail Winnipeg, Hamburger Abendblatt, Information (Copenhagen), International Times, Leatherhead Advertiser And Country Post, Los Angeles Times, Mannheimer Morgen, Music Now, New York Times, N rnberger Nachrichten, N rnberger Zeitung, Radio Times, Record Collector, Rheinische Post, Rock et Folk, Rolling Stone, Saarbr cken Zeitung, San Francisco Chronicle, Svenska Dagbladet, Tageszeitung M nchen, Time Out, The Toronto Star, Trouser Press, TV Times, Univibes, Vancouver Sun, Washington Post, Westdeutsche Allgemeiner Zeitung, Winnipeg Free Press.
Several fanzines T. Rex fanzines also proved to be invaluable sources. I would especially like to credit Cosmic Dancer, Electric Warrior Free Press, Rumblings and T. Rex Unchained. I also re-read the original T. Rex Fan Club Newsletters.

Of course not everything in this book is down solely to my research. I had considerable help from many individuals. Major assistance above and beyond the call of duty has come from Uwe Klee for detailed proofing, correction, research in German libraries and other services. Rick Dalvano provided Internet assistance and expended a lot of energy publicising the project among the T. Rex Internet community. Peter Todd came through at the last minute with a lot of new information regarding Marc's recording sessions, which helped me to correct a lot of suppositions regarding dates. Jorg Gunther and Claus Rasmussen helped with details of various European and non-British television appearances. Nikki Sudden provided flashes of inspiration. Russ Thomas also helped provide Internet publicity. Finally I'd like to thank J rgen Angel for the beautiful photos. Jorgen has a wonderful Internet site (http://www.angel.dk) which features photos of many other artists besides T. Rex.

Numerous individuals also helped (wittingly and unwittingly) with snippets of information. Oh the joys of E-mail (and the pain of huge phone bills)! In alphabetical order: Ruth Anderson, Mark Arscott, G ran Assner, Keith Badman, Martin Barden, Bolle Gregmar at the Blue Oyster Fan Club in Los Angeles, Boz Boorer, Irving Campbell, Billy Chainsaw, Jorgen Claesson, Ros Davies, Jeff Dexter, Peter Doggett, Thomas Freitag, Caesar Glebbeek, Christian Douglas Goodwillie, Steve Gridley, Clinton Heylin, Colm Jackson, Syd Jerram, Paul Johnson, Klemens J ger, Wolfgang Kowalski, Bill Legend, Natalie McDonald, Bill Manny at Medford Mail Tribune, Mark McLellan, Serge Mironneau, Patrick Motteau, Anne Nightingale, Alys Palmer, Mark Paytress, John Peel, Nigel Pickup, Mike Plumbley at Isle Of Wight Rock, George Rab, Ian Russell, Steven Severin, The Till Dawn subscribers list, Johan Tommervik, Peter Van Houten, Tony Visconti, Barrie Wilkinson, Wesley Willis, Wolfgang W st and Clive Zone. Credit for photos should also go to Steen M ller Rasmussen (plagi@centrum.dk) and Nikki Sudden. If there's anybody Iíve missed out, profuse apologies and blame it on the tequila.

Now the big confession - I don't guarantee that everything in this book is 100% accurate. No doubt in a few places Iíve put two and two together and come up with five. Concert dates get cancelled. New dates are added to a tour at the last minute. Others are rescheduled, or the venue is changed. I've done my best, spending hours and hours checking and rechecking information. Iíve had help doing this from a variety of quarters. So, if I've got it wrong somewhere, please let me know, but in the nicest way possible. Similarly any comments or new information would be gratefully received. I can be contacted either via the publisher or by E-mail at klif@hotmail.com. Iíll try to make any new information public, either via the Internet or one of the T. Rex fanzines.

Finally, this book is dedicated to all the people who have had to put up with me during the course of its writing. Thank you, thank you, and thank you. But especially, it's dedicated to my parents and my wife Martina.

Cliff McLenehan

Brno, Czech Republic April 1999