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Glam

Tyrannosaurus Rex, 1967

T. Rex

Marc Bolan started Tyrannosaurus Rex in London in 1967 as an acoustic duo with Steve Peregrin Took, playing hippie folk that John Peel championed on Radio 1. Mickey Finn replaced Took in 1969, the name was cut to T. Rex in 1970 and Bolan plugged in. Tony Visconti produced them through their peak, and Electric Warrior went to No. 1 in Britain in 1971. Their publicist BP Fallon coined the word T. Rextasy for the fan hysteria. They recorded at the Château d'Hérouville near Paris on Elton John's advice, and Ringo Starr directed a concert film of them at Wembley in 1972. Their last show was in Stockholm in March 1977. Bolan died in a car crash in Barnes that September, two weeks before his thirtieth birthday.

Andrew Loog Oldham, 1974

Brett Smiley

Brett Smiley was born in Washington, Indiana, in 1955 and spent part of his childhood playing Oliver on Broadway. In 1974 Andrew Loog Oldham, the Rolling Stones' former manager, took him on and produced an album, Breathlessly Brett. Smiley sang on Russell Harty's TV show, but sales were disappointing and Oldham shelved the album. It finally came out in 2003, and AllMusic described it as campy, flamboyant glam pop in the mould of Bowie and Bolan. He played the prince in a 1977 film version of Cinderella. Nina Antonia wrote a biography of him, The Prettiest Star, in 2005. He performed now and then in New York until 2015 and died in Brooklyn in January 2016. His demos from 1969 to 1973 came out in 2019.

Detroit, RAK, Chinn & Chapman

Suzi Quatro

Suzi Quatro was born in Detroit in 1950. In 1964 she joined her sister Patti's all-female garage band, the Pleasure Seekers, playing bass as Suzi Soul, and the band later became Cradle. Mickie Most brought her to England and signed her to RAK, where Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman wrote and produced her hits, with Quatro in a leather jumpsuit behind a bass guitar. In 1973 and 1974 she topped the charts in several countries, and she has been called the first woman to front a rock band as singer and bassist. She played Leather Tuscadero in Happy Days, starred in Annie Get Your Gun in London in 1986 and presented a rock and roll show on BBC Radio 2 for years. A documentary about her came out in 2019.

A cinema name, 1971

Roxy Music

Bryan Ferry picked the name Roxy from a list of old cinemas, for its faded glamour, and added Music when he found an American band called Roxy. He had auditioned to sing for King Crimson, and Robert Fripp and Peter Sinfield turned him down but helped him get a deal. Sinfield produced Roxy Music's first album in 1972, and Phil Manzanera, first offered a job as a roadie, learned the whole set and was hired on guitar. Their stage clothes and sleeves made them a glam band with an art-school edge. In America shops refused to display the cover of Country Life, so it was sold wrapped or with a picture of a forest instead. Eno did not take part in the 2001 reunion.

London, EMI, 1973

Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel

Steve Harley formed Cockney Rebel in London in 1972 with Jean-Paul Crocker, Paul Jeffreys, Stuart Elliott and guitarist Nick Jones, soon replaced by Milton Reame-James. EMI signed them after only five gigs. Their first album, The Human Menagerie, didn't chart in Britain in 1973 but became a cult record, with violin and keyboards instead of lead guitar. After a 1974 tour everyone except Elliott left, and the band became Harley's own project, with Alan Parsons co-producing. Across their career they had five chart albums and twelve chart singles. Original bassist Paul Jeffreys was killed in the Lockerbie bombing in 1988. Harley revived the band from 1989, kept touring for decades and died in March 2024.

The Collection