Sunday, September 20, 2009

The London Bop 2009

Wednesday was the annual gathering of Marc Bolan fans in Golders Green. This was the, I think, fourth one of these I have been to and one of the more enjoyable. Part of that I attribute to live music from Tyrannosaurus Jed and Remco.

Marc Bolan London Bop 2009 - 1
Tyrannosaurus Jed

Also the venue has changed. In previous years it was held in Klub Xtreme a somewhat pokey basement underneath The Rectory pub. This year it relocated to the White Swan in the main pub area. A great improvement as you could both see better what was going on and also hear yourself think which made talking to other Bolanites easier - which is part of the whole reason for going.

Marc Bolan London Bop 2009 - 2
Tyrannosaurus Jed

I hardly needed a disco as the songs are already grooved into my brain so it was very refreshing to hear alternative live interpretations especially from Tyrannosaurus Jed who played songs from the earlier era before Tyrannosaurus Rex became T.Rex.

Marc Bolan London Bop 2009 - 3
Remco - from Holland

For just one man with a guitar Remco produced an amazingly good sound. What you can't see in this photo is the huge crowd behind me. Standing immediately in front of me was a lady with a Marc Bolan tattoo on her shoulder done in some fine detail.

Marc Bolan London Bop 2009 - 5
Marc Bolan Shoulder Tattoo

I met up with a number of people I had met through Facebook and it was good to put faces to the names.

Footnote:
It is appropriate that I post this on my birthday as it was on this very day in 1977 that I first learnt of Marc's death - several days after the event. I was on holiday in Greece and out of touch with dear old Blighty. As it was my birthday I treated myself to a several-days-old Times and there was the small paragraph announcing his death in a road traffic accident.

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