Music In The Round with T.Rex: 1971

Marc drops The Slider bombshells live – the glam future starts here!

London Weekend Television's ‘Music In The Round’ featuring T. Rex was recorded on

December 8, 1971, and aired on April 23,1972, by which time the content had been radically altered. The original broadcast ran way over schedule; only two songs were performed, along with a longer interview between Marc and presenter Humphrey Burton, chat with the audience, as well as a demonstration by Marc of his guitar effects pedals and amps.

This version has remained out of the public domain since 1971 . . .

T. Rex's appearance on the LWT series "Music In The Round' was filmed on the evening of December 8, 1971. The series featured music from different genres of music. T. Rex had been chosen to represent rock music because they were so much in the headlines that year. The venue was the Cockpit Theatre, off the Edgware Road, which seats approximately 250 people. The programme caught Marc Bolan of a career high-point looking every inch the rock'n'roll star he always wanted to be, with a tint of glitter on each cheekbone, purple-blue velvet, mustard-yellow art deco-patterned trousers, Anello & Davide shoes, and the amber-orange Les Paul.

T.Rex featured their current single 'Jeepster' (no.3 in the Top 20 that week), and three as-yet unreleased songs 'Cadilac', 'Spaceball Ricochet', and 'Telegram Sam', which would be out in 1972. The band mimed to backing tracks, two mixed from the recent Copenhagen sessions, with Marc adding a live vocal; the acoustic Spaceball' was entirely live. The lucky audience at 'Music In The Round' were thus among the first people in the U.K. to hear Telegram Sam', about which Marc commented that by the time the programme was screened that it might have been the next single. (It was indeed, the first on the T.Rex Wax Co. label, and Marc's next no.1.)

In between songs Marc was interviewed by (later Sir) Humphry Burton, a distinguished arts and classical music broadcaster and writer. Sadly, with both men evidently out of their comfort zone, the edgy exchanges were not very illuminating. One thrilling moment was when Marc briefly demonstrated his guitar/amp set-up, WEM Copycat tape-echo, and Rangemaster Treble Booster. There was a sequence (mostly cut) where the audience was permitted to ask a few questions.

After the filming, which took about 75 minutes with all the stops and starts, T. Rex switched the amps on and played two songs fully live (these were not filmed). The sound was suddenly fuller, rawer, earthier. The first live song was either 'Jeepster' or 'Cadilac', and the second was probably 'Baby Strange'. These live performances would have done T. Rex's reputation more good than the mimed versions broadcast, and might have been a TV equivalent to Bowie's live TOTP 'Jean Genie' in 1973.

Contrary to a much-repeated myth, 'Music in the Round was not a live programme. This is proven both by the TV schedule for December 8 and by the internal evidence of Marc's own comment before 'Telegram Sam'. It was broadcast on two different dates (depending on the region) in April 1972. The version I saw in the West Country was not properly edited and faded out just as 'Spaceball' was about to be played. The full edit can be seen on the T.Rex on TV DVD.

Rikky Rooksby 2023

Marylebone Cockpit Theatre December 1971 Brochure - The Official Marc Bolan Merch Co.