Block Buster! British Glam Rock of the 70s

In late 1970, the pioneers of British Glam Rock achieved their first chart hit in that genre.

Formally Tyrannosaurus Rex, T.Rex had dented the UK Top 40 with a couple of whimsical ditties in the late Sixties, but it was Ride A White Swan (the single which marked a change from acoustic to electric guitars), that started their avalanche of Top 5 Glam hits.

The diminutive Marc Bolan fronted the band and the story goes that before an appearance on Britain's Top of the Pops TV show, he decided to add two spots of glitter under his eyes. As a result many mark this moment as the arrival of the era of Glam (or glitter) Rock.

Above image of Marc Bolan available at Allposters.com

20th Century Boy:
The Ultimate Collection

Discography (for this period)

As T.Rex

1970 Ride a White Swan
1971 Hot Love
1971 Get It On - (In the US - retitled: Bang A Gong)
1971 Jeepster
1972 Telegram Sam
1972 Metal Guru
1972 Children of the Revolution
1972 Solid Gold Easy Action
1973 20th Century Boy
1973 The Groover
1973 Truck On (Tyke)

Marc Bolan and T.Rex

1974 Teenage Dream

T.Rex

1974 Light of Love
1974 Zip Gun Boogie
1975 New York City

T.Rex Disco Party

1975 Dreamy Lady

**Marc Bolan & T.Rex catalogue available for download at

Where Are They Now?

Marc Bolan was killed when his vehicle, driven by girlfriend Gloria Jones, hit a tree in Barnes, South West London, less than a mile from his home. He died two weeks before his 30th birthday on September 16, 1977.

Mickey Finn, percussionist and bass player, formed a new version of T.Rex in 1997, after having left the original band in 1975. He passed away in January, 2003 at the age of 55 from liver problems.

Action:
The Sweet Anthology

While T.Rex began their domination of the top of the British charts in 1971, another band were also starting their chart career. The Sweet were soon to give Marc Bolan a run for his money.

Although they had issued previous singles, it was not until they had teamed up with song writers Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman that The Sweet were able to conquer the UK Top Ten. Their first hit Funny Funny just missed the upper ranks of the chart in March (Number 13), but their next single Co-Co took them to Number 2 and they continued to release Top 40 hits until 1978.

The earlier singles were simple bubblegum fayre, which didn't reflect the band's true identity as out and out rockers. It wasn't until the release of Wig-Wam Bam, a Top 5 hit in September/October 1972, that their own sound started to emerge. This was the first A-Side under Chinn/Chapman on which they had played their own instruments, and while the song was still bubblegum orientated, it showed a harder edge to previous releases. This sound was built upon with the release of the group's next single Block Buster!, which occupied the Number 1 position at the beginning of 1973.

By 1974, The Sweet had grown weary with the stranglehold of Chinn/Chapman compositions and decided to sever the relationship and produce their own songs. They had always composed the B-Sides to the earlier singles, and these songs were really what the band was all about. The first single released during this period was Turn It Down, which only managed to reach Number 41, due to a lack of airplay blamed on the lyrical content. However, they returned to the Top 5 in March/April 1975 with Fox On the Run, the fifth of their singles that achieved a Number 2 placing. It would be another three years before the band would hit the Top 10 again, with Love Is Like Oxygen, and this single would mark the final time the band enjoyed a British chart hit.

The Sweet were possibly one of the most underrated groups of the Glam era - their reputation being tarnished early on because they did not play their own instruments on their first few singles. However, they were Glam Rock giants and often mocked their own dress sense and sound on numerous TV appearances in the early Seventies.

The Sweet are perhaps best remembered for their early Glam stage clothing - glitter, platform boots, chain mail shirts, and makeup - practically defining the camp extreme of the glam rock look.

1971 Funny Funny
1971 Co-Co
1971 Alexander Graham Bell
1972 Poppa Joe
1972 Little Willy
1972 Wig-Wam Bam
1973 Block Buster
1973 Hell Raiser
1973 The Ballroom Blitz
1974 Teenage Rampage
1974 The Six Teens
1974 Turn It Down
1974 Peppermint Twist/Rebel Rouser (Australia only double A-side).
1975 Fox On The Run
1975 Action
1976 The Lies In Your Eyes

**The Sweet catalogue available for download at

Wall of Hits

Slade were one of the most recognisable acts of the glam rock movement and were, at their peak, the most commercially popular band in the UK. During the height of its success, Slade out-performed chart rivals Wizzard, Sweet, T. Rex, Suzi Quatro, Smokie, Gary Glitter and David Bowie.

Band members during this period:

Noddy Holder - Lead Vocals, guitar
Jim Lea - Bass, guitar, violin, piano, keyboard
Dave Hill - Lead Guitar, backing vocals
Don Powell - Drums

In the UK, the band achieved 12 top five hits from 1971 to 1974, six of which topped the charts. In total, Slade had 17 Top 20 hits between 1971 and 1976 including six Number 1s, three Number 2s and two Number 3s.

No other UK act of the period enjoyed such consistency in the UK Top 40, and Slade actually came the closest to emulating The Beatles' 22 Top Ten records in a single decade (1960s). Three of the group's songs entered the charts at Number 1 and the band sold more singles in the UK than any other group of the 1970s.

Partly due to changes in music trends and the advent of punk rock and New Wave music, Slade's success faded somewhat by the late 1970s. However, a new run of chart success occurred during the 1980s, though not on the large scale of the 1970s heights. Slade had another two UK Top Ten hits in 1984, with the singles Run Runaway and My Oh My (Number 2 UK, Number 36 US). Run Runaway reached Number 7 in the UK, and would be the group's second Top 40 hit in the USA - and the first since Gudbuy T'Jane, which barely made the Billboard Top 40 in 1972.

Above image of Slade available at Allposters.com

Where Are They Now?

Noddy Holder is now the regular TV critic and reviewer for The Mark Radcliffe Show on BBC Radio 2, where the two often talk about Holder's rock star past. He also presents Dumber & Dumberest, which is broadcast in the UK on Five.

Jim Lea lives quietly out of the public eye in Brewood, a secluded area of rural Staffordshire, England.

Dave Hill decided to carry the group on as 'Slade II'. Don Powell and singer Steve Whalley joined him, among others, and they still tour Europe. In 1997 the name of Slade II was shortened back to Slade.

Don Powell: In 2004 he moved to Denmark where he now lives with his Danish girlfriend. Continues to play with Slade, along with Dave Hill.

1971 Get Down And Get With It
1971 Coz I Luv You
1972 Look Wot You Dun
1972 Take Me Back 'Ome
1972 Mama Weer All Crazee Now
1972 Gudbuy T' Jane
1973 Cum on Feel the Noize
1973 Skweeze Me Pleeze Me
1973 My Friend Stan
1973 Merry Xmas Everybody
1974 Everyday
1974 The Bangin' Man
1974 Far Far Away
1975 How Does It Feel
1975 Thanks For The Memory (Wham Bam Thank You Mam)
1975 In For A Penny
1976 Let's Call It Quits
1976 Nobody's Fool

**Slade catalogue available for download at

Gary Glitter:
Greatest Hits

Gary Glitter (born Paul Gadd) arrived on the UK chart in 1972 with the glam anthem Rock And Roll (Part 2), known invariably in the US as the Hey Song.


His style blended glam rock with a driving, upbeat 1950s style rock and roll. Glitter's most popular hits included I'm the Leader of the Gang (I Am), Do You Wanna Touch (Oh Yeah) and I Love You Love Me Love. His Another Rock And Roll Christmas remains one of the UK's Top 30 Christmas hits of all time, and despite some serious personal problems, Glitter's career produced 21 hit singles in the UK, earning him a position among the Top 100 most successful British chart artists.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Glitter experienced a career revival, but this was cut short by his arrest on child pornography charges in 1997. After a lengthy investigation and trial, he was convicted in 1999 and served a short jail term.

Where Is He Now?

In November 2005, Glitter was arrested in Vietnam for committing obscene acts with two young girls. On 3 March 2006 he was sentenced to three years in prison.

Discography (1970s Singles 1972-1975)

1972 Rock and Roll (Parts 1 and 2)
1972 I Didn't Know I Loved You (Til I Saw You Rock 'n' Roll)
1973 Do You Wanna Touch Me? (Oh Yeah)
1973 Hello, Hello, I'm Back Again
1973 I'm the Leader of the Gang (I Am)
1973 I Love You Love Me Love
1974 Remember Me This Way
1974 Always Yours
1974 Oh Yes! You're Beautiful
1975 Love Like You and Me
1975 Doing Alright with the Boys
1975 Papa Oom Mow Mow

**Gary Glitter catalogue available for download at

Best of Bowie

Bowie's Ziggy Stardust character paralleled the early years of Glam Rock and came to public notice with the Number Ten placing of the single Starman. This single and its parent album made Bowie a star and 1972 was a continued success with the non-album single John, I'm Only Dancing peaking at UK Number Twelve.

The 1973 album, Aladdin Sane, was Bowie's first Number One album in the UK. Aladdin Sane included the UK Number Two hit The Jean Genie, the UK Number Three hit Drive-In Saturday, and a rendition of The Rolling Stones' Let's Spend the Night Together.

Pin Ups, a collection of his versions of 1960s hits, was released in 1973, giving Bowie a UK Number Three hit in Sorrow and itself peaking at Number One. This resulted in David Bowie becoming the best-selling act of 1973 in the UK.

By this time, Bowie was trying to escape from his Ziggy persona. Bowie's own back catalogue was now highly sought. The Man Who Sold the World had been re-released in 1972 along with the second David Bowie album (Space Oddity), whilst Hunky Dory's Life on Mars? was released as a single in 1973 and made Number Three in the UK, the same year Bowie's record from 1967, The Laughing Gnome, hit Number Six.

1974 saw Bowie discarding his Glam Rock image and creating his Thin White Duke persona and his brief move into soul and R'n'B.

Singles Discography (1972-1975)

1972 Changes
1972 Starman
1972 John, I'm Only Dancing
1972 The Jean Genie
1973 Drive-In Saturday
1973 Life on Mars?
1973 The Laughing Gnome (re-release)
1973 Sorrow
1974 Rebel Rebel
1974 Rock 'N' Roll Suicide
1974 Diamond Dogs
1974 Knock on Wood (live)
1975 Young Americans
1975 Fame
1975 Space Oddity (re-issue)
1975 Golden Years

**David Bowie catalogue available for download at

The Best Of Alice Cooper:
Mascara & Monsters

One of the few American bands to embrace the British Glam Rock era was Alice Cooper, later the adopted name of its lead singer, Vince Furnier.

The band's mix of glam and increasingly violent stage theatrics stood out amongst the denim-clad hippy bands of the time. Their first hit single in the USA was 1971's I'm Eighteen (not a UK chart hit), and its success together with their North American tour of 1971 - which also saw their first tour of Europe to massive success - was enough encouragement for their record label to offer them a new multi-album contract.

By mid-1972 the Alice Cooper stage shows had become infamous due to concerts which featured a boa constrictor hugging Furnier onstage, the murderous axe chopping of bloodied "dead babies", and by then, the choice of onstage execution had developed into death by hanging - The Gallows. That summer saw the release of the single School's Out. It went Top 10 in the US and was a Number One single in the UK. Their smash hit had arrived.

Billion Dollar Babies, released in February 1973, was the band's most commercially successful album, reaching No.1 in both the US and the UK. Elected, a 1972 Top 10 UK hit included on the album was followed by two more UK Top 10 singles, Hello, Hooray and No More Mr Nice Guy, the latter being the last UK single from the album. It reached No.25 in the US. The title track, featuring guest vocals by Donovan, was also a US hit single.

Muscle of Love, released at the end of 1973, was to be the last studio album from the classic line-up, and contained Alice Cooper's last UK Top 20 single of the 1970s, Teenage Lament '74.

Alice Cooper image above available at Allposters.com

Classic Alice Cooper discs for this period:

School's Out
Under My Wheels
Billion Dollar Babies
Be My Lover
Desperado
Is It My Body?
Only Women Bleed
Elected
I'm Eighteen
Hello, Hooray
No More Mr. Nice Guy
Teenage Lament '74
Muscle of Love
Department of Youth

**Alice Cooper catalogue available for download at

Mud: The Singles 67-78 : Available at Amazon

Suzi Quatro: Wild One: Greatest Hits at Amazon

The whos, whats, whys, whens and hows of Glam Rock.

Glam rock (also known as glitter rock) is a style that developed in the UK in the early 1970s, which was "performed by singers and musicians wearing outrageous clothes, makeup, hairstyles, and platform-soled boots". The flamboyant costumes and visual styles of glam performers were a campy, theatrical blend of nostalgic references to science fiction and old movies.

Glam rock visuals peaked during the mid 1970s. Authorities cite the most famous exponents of the genre as David Bowie, T. Rex, Roxy Music, and Gary Glitter. Other influential Glam Rock performers include: Queen, Sweet, Mud, Mott the Hoople, The Glitter Band, Elton John, and Suzi Quatro.

More of this article can be read here.