The winter 2019/2020 #marcbolan fanzine A THOUSAND MARK FELD CHARMS is out now! I never really know what I’m going to include when preparing a new issue, many a time I’m thinking ‘is this the end of the zine?’ but somehow something always turns up. Like this issue’s USA special. The idea just came to me one day when I wasn't really thinking of anything in particular.
It turned out so well I had too much to squeeze in so some has had to be held over for a future Charm!
Marc never did make it big in America. Five years too late for the ‘60s British invasion (Beatles, Stones etc.) and ten years too soon for second British invasion of the ‘80s (Duran Duran, Culture Club etc). The video age hadn’t begun in 1971 so Marc had to promote himself to journalists showing silent film of T.Rex whilst playing the records at press conferences. A world away from the flash brash 1981 New Romantics who would promote their wares on MTV not even having to set foot on American soil. It even took Bowie until the ‘80s to become a household name Stateside with the Let’s Dance album in 1983 that spawned some great music and video combinations. I would like to think a similar thing would have happened to Bolan had he been around. American mag ’16’ in June 72 wrote, ‘If you don't happen to be lucky enough to live in one of the cities Marc visited on his recent tour, you probably caught him on American Bandstand’. If Bolan did appear on the show there is no footage found… yet.
