NME Originals - Glam

To be honest, they should just reprint the Xmas 'overview' issues.

The current Gods of Rock one is really good (though it's the only one I've read, and only then cos they'd mispriced it in HMV at £1.80, rather than the beyond extortionate £6 or so it was meant to be!).

Reading it reminded me of that early '70s jolly-public-school writing style which had crept into some of the weeklies.

Sort of along the lines of: "Gadzooks, Carruthers: that young Bolan chappie is a damned fine tunesmith, what? Methinks his latest ditty will be a veritable hit with the young people..."

I also miss the school-essay gig reviews:

"Suddenly, the house lights dimmed. As Messrs Holder, Hill, Lea & Powell took to the stage, an almighty roar went up from the hall..."

"...and with that, it was all over. As an exhausted but exhilarated crowd headed for the doors..."

Innocent times!

Sort of along the lines of: "Gadzooks, Carruthers: that young Bolan chappie is a damned fine tunesmith, what? Methinks his latest ditty will be a veritable hit with the young people..."

Wasn't John Peel responsible for a lot of such rubbish too (indeed about Marc Bolan)?

Yes, that was very much in his style - all those weekly Sounds columns - but (on the strength of these reprints) Chris Welch's singles review columns were also stuffed with this sort of meaningless whimsicality. Elements of the style live on with the Rocking Vicar newsletter, I suppose...

I was surprised at all the Bolan hate at the time. Firstly for selling out and going, as they saw it, teenybopper, and then after that for plagiarising himself and not coming up with anything new. There's barely a good word about him in there.

Which brings us back to Peel again, doesn't it?

Circa 1978, I remember Peel playing a Siouxsie & The Banshees cover of "20th Century Boy", then following it with the T.Rex version, and admitting that maybe he'd got it wrong about the Bolan "sell out" after all.

Bowie/Roxy excepted, there wasn't much love in the NME/MM for Top 40 glam rock in general - not with Proper Bands like Humble Pie and Wishbone Ash around.

There was an interview with Peel in the Independent the other week in which he was talking abouthis friendship with Marc Bolan. He said that Bolan just cut him dead after his decision not to play some single (can't remember which one), and never spoke to him again thereafter.