Thursday 30 June 2011

The Spirit Of The Age

From the velour goldmine that is ‘Marc’, here’s Hawkwind with the quarky, strange and charming ‘Quark, Strangeness & Charm’.


This incarnation of the group was fairly new, so when Marc refers to them as his ‘best mates’, he may just mean that they shared a manager. Dave Brock of the band doesn't appear as he couldn’t stand Bolan and didn’t want to be anywhere near him, which tells its own story about just how friendly they all were.

The man with the strap on bird of prey is Robert Calvert, a poet and songwriter who was an important but intermittent presence in the band’s history. Calvert was frequently hired, frequently fired, but he lends a very contemporary edge and style to this appearance.

5 comments:

  1. Awesome!!!! What a way to start the day.
    Altogether now ‘Quark, Strangeness & Charm’ ‘Quark, Strangeness & Charm’.

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  2. Great. I recall Charles Shaar Murray commenting on how Bolan dissed a lot of people on his way up, which might account for Dave Brock's unwillingness to participate in helping the late Bolan revival.

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  3. Bolan had a knack of dropping people and putting them down. Another account of this is his treatment of John Peel. Peel supported Bolan for many years and considered himself Bolan's friend. Alas Bolan's famous ego got the better of him, and because Peel did not like the single Get it On Bolan snubbed him. Peel phoned Bolan up one day and asked to speak to him.
    He heard Bolans voice in the background shout out "i'm not in".
    Bolan never spoke to Peel again.
    On the night of Bolan's death, his Management had lent his famous white Rolls Royce to Hawkwind . A tale which Dave Brock recounts to this day.

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  4. Blimey! I thought it was Steve Strange on vocals!

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    Replies
    1. The tale that Dave Brock recounts about Marc Bolan's white Rolls Royce (which was actually a Bentley with a Roller radiator) is complete bollocks. The car was actually in a garage in Queens Park waiting for a part. Brock and the rest of the Wind were busy packing to start their tour by coach, first date was the day Marc died, at The Palace Manchester.
      Jeff Dexter for the Management.

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