MARC BOLAN / T.REX : 'T.REXTASY' - LIVE DOUBLE LP & CD SET - DELUXE PACKAGING

	£		27
	$		36

MARC BOLAN / T.REX : 'T.REXTASY' LP & CD BUNDLE (Easy Action Recordings EARS132LP/CD) -  Containing the live double album on limited edition Gold Mirror Board sleeve. Taken direct from Marc's own multi track masters. Features full double sided insert sheet. Plus Deluxe Double cd in large digi-pack format, complete with stunning 16 page booklet, complete with extensive liner notes and rare photos.  

SIDE 1

Bob Harris  introduction

Cadilac  

Elemental Child 

Beltane Walk

 SIDE 2

Spaceball Ricochet 

Girl  

Rip Off /Debora  

Cosmic Dancer 

SIDE 3

One Inch Rock  

Instrumental Jam 

Ride A White Swan 

Thunderwing  

Baby Strange 

SIDE 4

Jewel 

Jeepster 

Hot Love  

Get It On 

Summertime Blues

DISC 1

Bob Harris  introduction

Cadilac  

Elemental Child 

Beltane Walk

Spaceball Ricochet 

Girl  

Rip Off /Debora  

Cosmic Dancer 

DISC 2

One Inch Rock  

Instrumental Jam 

Ride A White Swan 

Thunderwing  

Baby Strange

Jewel 

Jeepster 

Hot Love  

Get It On 

Summertime Blues

The term ‘T.REXTASY’, first entered the lexicon of British musical culture on the 21st May 1971, when the Glasgow Herald had the headline ‘T.REXTASY’ emblazoned across it's front page, on the morning of the band’s sold out performance at the cities Green’s Playhouse.The dynamics around T.Rex were shifting at a crazy pace during the first months of 1971. The year commenced with their debut single 'Ride A White Swan' (Fly Bug 1) still climbing the UK singles charts (finally peaking at Number 2). T.Rex (at this point still a three piece unit featuring Bolan, Finn and Currie) then played eight shows around England in January, with the gig at London’s Lyceum Ballroom on 25th, prompting Melody Makers Chris Welch to proclaim wildly that “Marc Bolan became a star and T.Rex a supergroup on Monday as over 2,000 jammed London’s Lyceum”. Perhaps slightly premature with his pronouncement, however the wheels were now firmly in motion and the buzz around Bolan and his band was seriously picking up momentum. Friday 12th February saw the release of 'Hot Love' (Fly Bug 6) as the follow up to 'Ride A White Swan'. Taking only a matter of weeks to hit the number one spot, where it remained for a staggering six weeks. During much of that period T.Rex complete with their new drummer Bill Legend, were touring America and to some extent unaware of the changes starting to unfold back on their home turf.

The band returned to Britain a matter of days prior to the commencement of a fourteen date UK tour, which kicked of at Bournemouth Winter Gardens on 9th May. Bolan’s good friend Radio One’s Bob Harris was co-opted as the tour DJ (doing a set and bantering with the audience as they took their seats). Before taking over as compare where he introduced the band each evening to the sound of utter pandemonium (as can be heard on the opening track of this album). Harris reckoned it was the second gig of the tour at Portsmouth Guildhall on the 11th when the mayhem really kicked off. “You couldn’t hear a note, as the noise of the audience was so loud”. Scenes he hadn’t witnessed since seeing The Beatles at Wembley in 1966. Escaping the venue that evening was also noticeably different from what had went before. Normally the band would hang out for an hour or so, unwinding, talking to journalists and mingling with the handful of fans that managed to get into the backstage area. However on this evening, the noise from outside the venue sounded as though the entire audience had decamped at the stage door. When the band finally decided to leave the Guildhall, they found dozens of police attempting to open a pathway through the crowd to enable the band, and their entourage to get to the cars - five luxury Vauxhall Crestas. The cars were already a mess. Everything that could be ripped off them had been removed, including the car number plates, windscreen wipers and even the door handles.

Harris recalled how the crowd surged forward the second Marc appeared at the stage door and the entire entourage were immediately surrounded. “Girls were trying to get his jacket off as he struggled to get free. There were flashes of steel at exactly eye level, as a dozen pairs of scissors tried to cut locks from Marc’s corkscrew hair”. They finally got into the cars and began to inch forward as fans clambered all over the bonnets and roofs, along with dozens of other hysterical teenagers, their faces squashed against the glass of the cars windscreens and side windows. Someone was even trying to smash a window to get in. Suddenly there was a grating crunch as the suspension of the main car collapsed under the weight of so many bodies. Three of those five cars were written off that night. Yet Harris remembered how “Marc had simply leaned back into his seat, with a big impish grin spreading across his face, absolutely loving it!” Bolan had spent his entire life waiting for this moment to happen, and he grasped the opportunity with both hands. Journalist Barry Dillon was also at the Portsmouth gig and reviewed it for Sounds magazine. “Bob Dawbarn in his Sounds column appealed for excitement to return to rock. Well it would have warmed the kernels of his heart to have seen T.Rex in concert at Portsmouth Guildhall. When the group launched into 'Hot Love' midway through their act, it was a signal for most of the capacity audience to besiege the stage area. And there they stayed for the remainder of the concert, dancing and jostling all the while, it was the sort of warm atmosphere you expect to find at a friend's party. As Marc Bolan gyrated around the stage like the new Elvis Presley, girls clambered on the stage to kiss him. Others, with a touch of hero worship reached their arms across the stage to grab him as he hop-scotched around. The few to remain seated jumped up and down like dervishes as T.Rex pounded their exciting message home. Most of the music was good driving rock, like the encore number 'Summertime Blues', though the group did include 'Debora', for old time's sake Bolan told me afterwards.”

After the madness of Portsmouth Guildhall gig, security plans were seriously revised. From then on with the final notes of 'Summertime Blues' still reverberating around the venue, Bolan and his band were already in the cars speeding back to their hotel, complete with obligatory Police escort. The overnight transformation from successful rock band to 'Super-stardom' may have happened, literally overnight. However the harsh reality of this overnight success was seven years of relentless touring and recording, along with an undying belief in his destiny and God given talent. One person integral to Bolan's plans during this period was his newly acquired publicist B.P. Fallon. One of rock music's truly great characters. By 1971 he had already worked with everyone from John Lennon to Led Zeppelin. It was Fallon himself who initially coined the phrase 'T.Rextasy' as the madness of the May 71 tour continued to explode, and it was his conversation with the Glasgow Herald that led to the headline of 21st May and a phrase that was used over and over again in many a publication as the year unfolded.

'Get It On' (Fly BUG10) was issued on 2nd July and like it's predecessor quickly made it's way to the top of the UK singles charts, where it remained for a month. Bolan mania was now in full flow and a couple of gigs were quickly slotted in at the Birmingham Odeon on 2nd July and the following week at the Lewisham Odeon (a matinee and evening performance at both venues). Tracks from the Lewisham gig are featured on this album. Journalist Steve Peacock was in attendance for the evening performance of the Lewisham gig and wrote this review for Sounds magazine. “Marc opened the set with an amazing solo electric guitar number using pedals and feedback and a remarkable sense of time and dynamics. I got strong memory flashes of Hendrix as he stood alone on that stage. The band joined him for 'One Inch Rock' and then Marc did a solo song called 'Girl' with Spanish guitar, sitting cross-legged on the floor in a blue spotlight. There are very few musicians around who have that understanding of an audience, combined with the feel and understanding of rock music that allows them to reach such a wide audience. I can't imagine who could remain unmoved by it all, and while I wouldn't want rock music to be solely T.Rex, I wouldn't like to be without them.” The band continued to work on what would eventually become the 'Electric Warrior' album in between an almost constant demand for personal appearances on TV shows throughout Europe. A few gigs were slotted in towards the end of August including Stoke On Trent on 22nd, an open air gig at Clifton Park, Rotherham on 28th as well as the headline spot at the Weeley festival on the August Bank Holiday weekend. Tracks from both the Rotherham and Stoke gigs make up some of the set list for this album and show how the band were continuing to grow and gel. Roy Carr wrote in NME at the end of August that “T.Rex are a strange band. When electrified they encompass the basic rudiments of rock music. Bolan seems to be the 20th Century schizoid rock man, for as he draws on all the traditional mechanics of rock he's suddenly transformed into a reincarnation of that person. Chuck Berry as he duck walks across the stage, Eddie Cochran as he belts out a repetitive riff. Pete Townsend playing at human windmills. Hendrix doing his sexual symbolism sequence. Indeed Bolan did just about everything except smash his guitar and take off into space. You can't compare either Bolan or T.Rex to other bands, they are a power unto themselves and an essence that needs savouring on more than one hearing.”

With the release of 'Electric Warrior' (HiFly 6) on the 24th of September and it's inevitable climb to the top of the British album charts, a full scale UK tour was planned to maximise on the albums release. The sold out 'Electric Warriors Tour' of October and November 1971 consolidated Bolan and T.Rex's position as the biggest band in the land. On the final night of the tour at the Wigan ABC on the 10th November the venue manager actually halted the show during the performance. He strode purposefully to the centre of the stage where he pronounced with a genuine fear in his voice that the balustrade encircling the orchestra pit had cracked under the weight of the thronging masses and that “There's a likelihood that people will be maimed if this concert goes on.” B.P Fallon who along with Bob Harris was still touring as part of the T.Rex entourage had witnessed all this insanity close up, he recalled that event in Melody Maker just after the completion of the tour. “When all the riots started and the kids went crazy, he (Marc) had fantastic control of that. I remember one gig; the whole place was shaking and the manager came out and said: ”Unless everyone sits down, the show’s cancelled. People are going to get hurt.” And from his point of view, the theatre manager was talking logic. So Marc took the mic and said : ‘No one’s going to get hurt, are they?’ And everybody shouted back “No!” And nobody did, which was extraordinary, really, because it was pandemonium. He could quieten an audience down, and he could raise it up again. You can tell how strong a Rock n’ Roll band is sometimes, when you look into the audience and all the people look like the star, and that happened. It was incredible.”

With the consolidation of his bands success in Britain, Bolan turned his attention firstly towards the European market that was proving very lucrative. Followed later in the year by extensive tours of America, Australia and Japan. British gigs became far more sporadic, with the performance at the Starlight Rooms in Boston, Lincolnshire on the 15th January (tracks from this gig are featured here), being T.Rex's only UK performance prior to the legendary Wembley Empire Pool gigs on 18th March (the biggest single artist concerts ever seen in the UK). Gigs that prompted front page headlines in the major music weeklies such as ‘Bolan’s Triumph’ and ‘20,000 Screamers And The Day Pop Came Back’. Concerts that spawned the legendary 'Born To Boogie' motion picture directed by Ringo Starr and released through Apple films.

A short summer tour in June saw the band playing matinee and evening performances in Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester and Newcastle. This was the gigs that prompted the UK daily papers to feature headlines such as ‘T.REX FANS IN TICKET RIOTS’. The NME also carried as it’s front page headline on 24th June (the day of the Newcastle shows), ‘BOLAN TO QUIT TOURS?’. This was followed with a sub section which read : '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.” 'T.Rextasy' essentially ended at this point, although Bolan and his band were very much at the peak of their creative and commercial powers throughout most of 1972 and into 1973. The use of the word as a term to describe the madness of a T.Rex concert prematurely ended after the Newcastle City Hall gigs on 24th June. Whether this was of Bolan's own making, over genuine fears for his safety. Or perhaps the prospect of conquering the rest of the globe now that Britain and Europe were well and truly under his magic spell we shall never really know.

What is known for certain, is it would be a further eighteen months before Bolan would set foot on a British stage again. In January 1974 the 'Truck Off' tour landed in the cold winter landscape that was Ted Heath's Britain. The tour still sold out, and the signs of insanity were again repeated. However it was during this tour that Bolan told the British press that he was leaving Britain as a tax exile, and that his marriage to June had ended. A new darker chapter of Bolan's life was about to begin. Most of it out of the glare of his adoring British public. Fan hysteria it would be fair to say followed Bolan throughout the remainder of his all too short life. But there was never anything quite like that first flush of total insanity. Thankfully captured for posterity on these recordings, taken from Marc's own reel to reel tapes. The excitement generated from these performances is almost palpable, from Bob Harris's introduction through to the stage invasion during 'Spaceball Ricochet'. The police messages coming through the PA during 'Elemental Child' and Bolan's incredible retort about the audience “not getting paranoid, and if you've got any coke come backstage”. His between song banter and interplay with the audience during and impromptu rendition of 'Rip Off', to the wonderful improvisational Blues Jam that occurred when the pa for the vocal mics blew... It's all here, spread over four glorious sides of vinyl or two cd's. This is the ultimate T.Rex live experience. As B.P. Fallon famously said of T.Rex during this period “On stage, when it was good. It was never bettered by anybody”. Now sit back, close your eyes, turn up the volume and relive the magic that was indeed 'T.Rextasy' . . .

Sleeve Note extracts © 2017 Andrew James Gardner / Easy Action Recordings