T. Rex (band)

Before finding teenybopper adulation as a 1970s glam rock pop group T. Rex began life as Tyrannosaurus Rex, darlings of the hippy/lighter weight end of the UK Underground scene in 1960s London. The band was founded by Marc Bolan in 1967 and gave exactly one performance as a five-piece rock band at The Roundhouse before immediately breaking up in disarray. Bolan retained the services of percussionist Steve Peregrin Took, and the duo began producing eccentric pastoral and folk-tinged ditties steeped in Tolkienian mythology, with spiritual homages to Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran thrown into the whimsical mix for good measure.

T. Rex

The next album, entitled simply T. Rex continued the process of simplification by shortening the name and completed the move to electric guitars. (Legend has it the Tony Visconti got fed up with writing the name out in full on studio chitties and tapes and began to abbreviate it. When Bolan first noticed he was supposedly furious, but later claimed it was his own idea.) The sound was altogether 'poppier' and the first single, Ride a White Swan, reached number one in the UK chart in late 1970.

Related Topics:
Tony Visconti - 1970

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Ride a White Swan" was quickly followed by a second single, "Hot Love". A full band was hastily formed and began to tour to increasing audiences, with teenage girls (teeny boppers) replacing the hippies of old. Chelita Secunda (wife of Tony Secunda, manager to The Move and for a brief period T. Rex) added two spots of glitter under Bolan's eyes before an appearance on Top of the Pops, controversially viewed as the official birth of glam rock (Some attribute it's beginnings to Alice Cooper, who would dress in torn women's clothing as part of his stage act.) After Bolan's glittery display, however, glam rock would sweep the United Kingdom and many parts of Europe during 1971/1972, producing acts of varying worth. (See: glam rock.)

Related Topics:
Hippies - The Move - Top of the Pops - Glam rock - United Kingdom - Europe

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The second T. Rex album, Electric Warrior, added bassist Steve Currie and drummer Bill Legend. Considered by many to be their best album, it brought great success to the group and namesake. Publicist BP Fallon coined the term "T. Rextasy" as a parallel to "Beatlemania,": it accurately described the atmosphere that quickly surrounded the band. A couple of years of regular chart success followed, with hit singles such as "Metal Guru" and "Telegram Sam" pouring off what came to resemble a production line.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Electric Warrior produced T. Rex's best-known song, (titled in the U.K.) "Get It On", which hit number one on the British charts, while becoming a Top Ten hit in the U.S., where the song was retitled "Bang A Gong (Get It On)" to avoid confusion with another song called "Get It On", also released in 1971, by the group Chase.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~