MARC BOLAN / T.REX -'CATCH A BRIGHT STAR' CLEAR VINYL 12" ALBUM WITH FULL INSERT

	£		15
	$		20

MARC BOLAN / T.REX -'CATCH A BRIGHT STAR' CLEAR VINYL 12" ALBUM
SIDE A
1 : Jeepster 2 : Cadilac 3 : Baby Strange
SIDE B
2 : Debora 2 : Spaceball Ricochet 3 : Telegram Sam

It’s the summer of 1972 and T.Rex are the hottest band in the land. Single handedly accounting for a staggering 3.5% of all records sold in the UK that year (and that’s when records really did sell in their millions). In a three month period Marc Bolan saw no less than three of his albums top the UK charts. ‘Electric Warrior’, which was still selling in huge quantities since it’s release on 24th September the previous year, went back to the coveted number one position for a second time in February. Bolan’s acrimonious parting of the ways with Fly records in the autumn of 1971 (as he set plans in motion for launching his own ‘T.Rex Hot Wax’ label on New Years day 1972), left his old label who had already scored a massive hit by unofficially issuing 'Jeepster' the previous Christmas, keen to both exploit and maximise their lucrative Bolan back catalogue. First up they reissued the first two Tyrannosaurus Rex albums ‘My People Were Fair/ Prophets Seers and Sages’ as a double-back album in May. Following this up less than a month later with a nicely compiled best of entitled ‘Bolan Boogie’ . Both topping the charts within weeks of release. As if all that wasn’t enough he scored another top five album in July with the release of ‘The Slider’. As well as his fourth number one single in just over a year with ‘Metal Guru’. Fly records also licensed off 12 tracks to the budget priced MFP label who issued the ‘Ride A White Swan’ album in July. Mid-priced albums weren’t included in the official chart placings at that point. Otherwise Bolan would have had another number one album as ’Ride A White Swan’ went on to sell a staggering 3 million copies, making it both the biggest selling album of 1972 and the largest selling mid-priced album of all time.

As a live touring act T.Rex were also major league players, comfortably filling out arenas around the globe. In the UK this hit an amazing peak with two triumphant gigs at Wembley Empire Pool on 18th March (creating the biggest single artist concerts ever seen in the UK), and prompting front page headlines in the major music weeklies such as ‘Bolan’s Triumph’ and ‘20,000 Screamers And The Day Pop Came Back’. The momentum from the Wembley gigs and the ‘Born To Boogie’ movie borne out of that event, created an afterglow which continued to burn brightly throughout the remainder of 1972. It was the staggering success of those gigs that prompted Bolan to make a surprise announcement to the UK press on the 6th May, that T.Rex were to go back out on the road for a short summer UK tour. As Marc conceded ‘The reaction to Wembley was such a gas, though many fans have complained that they could not get to London so we are going to them, as we have done in the past.’ The tour commenced with two shows at the Birmingham Odeon on 9th June followed by two shows at Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre on the 10th. The following week the band played Manchester Belle Vue on the 16th before finishing off with two shows at Newcastle City Hall on the 24th.

This was the short set of gigs that prompted the UK daily papers to feature headlines such as ‘T.REX FANS IN TICKET RIOTS’. The New Musical Express also carried as it’s front page headline on 24th June (the day of the Newcastle shows), ‘BOLAN TO QUIT TOURS?’ They developed their front page further by stating that : ‘With T.Rex fan fever reaching unprecedented heights Marc Bolan said this week he may be forced to give up gigs in Britain after one more “farewell” tour of the country. Speaking after hysterical scenes during Rex’s concert in Manchester, Bolan told NME’s Nick Logan that security difficulties were making it “almost impossible” to tour. He added “One more tour, I should think, and that will be the last. It becomes impossible to handle at a certain point.” During the sell-out show for which tickets had sold within 20 minutes of opening the box office. One fan suffered a broken jaw and dozens of seats were damaged in the crush to reach the stage front. Eye witnesses said many more were “smashed to pieces”, and a spokesman for the T.Rex office told NME that after the show the theatre resembled a battleground. Bolan told the NME that the “pressure from fans is also causing him to become a recluse” adding “I haven’t been out of the house for two weeks. It’s like living in a goldfish bowl.” This great full front page was accompanied by two additional pages inside of Bolan’s conversation with Nick Logan, as well as an NME exclusive review of ‘The Slider’ album..

Bolan was however, deadly serious about the lack of security at UK venues. Remember this was an era where ex-army commissionaire's (most of whom were in their mid 60’s), were hung out to dry against the rampaging hordes of crazed teenagers, many on a mission to get as close to Bolan as was physically possible. Getting in and out of venues was becoming impossible, with limousines routinely destroyed as fans went to ever greater lengths to get close to the band..Perhaps this state of affairs was partly responsible for T.Rex spending so much time away from the UK, at a time when they should perhaps have been consolidating their position within it. With the exception of the Christmas Shows at the Edmonton and Brixton Sundown's on 22nd- 23rd December, these June concerts would be T.Rex’s last gigs on their home turf for over 2 years. By which time the sands had shifted dramatically under Marc Bolan’s feet.

The album you are holding represents T.Rex at a major turning point. At the time of the Cardiff concert on 10th June, ‘Metal Guru’ was still sitting pretty at number one on the singles charts, whilst ‘The Slider’ had yet to to be released. You can hear the relentless screams of the audience ploughing their way in hysterical unison with the band throughout most of the songs. The screaming may be well down in the mix on this soundboard recording taken directly from Bolan’s mixing console. However an entirely different experience awaited anyone who can remember attending these performances in person. A young Morrissey attended his first ever gig at the Manchester show and described the experience thus, “It was a complete mess, a very exciting mess. But you could not hear the music because of people screaming”. The fact the band were still performing to such a high standard with such madness breaking out all around them is great testimony to how good a band they actually were when on good form.

The gigs were a watershed moment on many other levels as well. ‘Cadilac’ was never performed live again. ‘Debora’ was also dropped from the live set for the first time and wouldn’t be reinstated until Bolan’s final tour in the spring of 1977. Bolan realised with these gigs that he’d taken T.Rex as far as he could as a four piece. Much in the same way as he’d outgrown the confines of the Tyrannosaurus Rex format a few years earlier. ‘I’d like to use other people on gigs another drummer, back-up singers - Howard and Mark (Kaylan & Volman), or maybe a couple of black chicks.‘ quipped Bolan when interviewed just after the summer tour finished. He continued ‘It would be very boring for me just to go out and do the things I have. I want to spread out. I’d like maybe to find another guitarist to play unison things, to get off on each other. You know, it’s the first time I hear myself say this. I still don’t believe we’ve really started.’ By the time of the November gigs in America the ‘black chicks’ were in place and Howie Casey’s sax made an appearance in time for the Christmas shows. The augmentation of a second guitarist, and an additional drummer over the ensuing year showed Bolan very capable of implementing his ideas. This album represents T.Rex at their peak featuring the classic four piece line-up of Marc Bolan, Mickey Finn, Steve Currie and Bill Legend.