News

If you thought Edsel’s box set edition of T. Rex’s The Slider (or UMC’s super-deluxe Electric Warrior) was as big as it could get for the glam rock legends, it might be time to rethink things: SpinCDs reports a six-disc box set encapsulating all of Marc Bolan’s performances for the BBC – including both tracks by T. Rex and John’s Children – will be released in the U.K. this fall.

Marc Bolan At The BBC is hardly the first compilation to collect these live-in-studio recordings – 2006’s out-of-print triple-disc Bolan At The Beeb was the latest – but it considerably ups the ante by including every known surviving recording Bolan did for the BBC. (It was long the BBC’s policy to erase tapes after use, unwittingly rarefying moments of rock history like these.) This includes not only all of the officially-released recordings (including a full two discs of album tracks specifically remixed for the BBC), but a heap of alternate sources, including BBC transcription discs and reel-to-reel recordings. The variety of sources may not make for a consistent listening experience, but this set should hopefully present these recordings in the best possible way.

All of it was compiled by producer/unabashed fan Clive Zone, over a period of six years. Zone’s efforts have allowed for much to be presented anew, including a rare 1968 set from Bolan’s first psychedelic group John’s Children and early John Peel sessions for the band first known as Tyrannosaurus Rex. The box will also feature a new essay by Mark Payress, the author of the Bolan bio Bolan: The Rise and Fall of a 20th Century Superstar); all tracks are remastered by Keiron McGarry at Universal Mastering Studios London to their best possible fidelity.

The box is expected out on August 26. A tentative Amazon U.K. link is here; in the meantime, the full track list is after the jump.

Marc Bolan At The BBC (Universal (U.K.), 2013)

Disc 1: John’s Children and Tyrannosaurus Rex

John’s Children: BBC Radio One – Saturday Club (transmitted: 6/17/1968)

1. Jagged Time Lapse
2. Interview with John Hewlett
3. The Perfumed Garden of Gulliver Smith
4. Daddy Rolling Stone
5. Hot Rod Mama
6. Top Gear jingle

BBC Radio One – Top Gear (recorded 10/30/1967)

1. Highways (with chat)
2. Dwarfish Trumpet Blues (with chat)
3. Scenescof (with interview)
4. Child Star (with chat)
5. Pictures of Purple People (with interview)
6. Hot Rod Mama (with interview)

BBC Radio One – Top Gear (transmitted 3/24/1968)

1. Knight (with chat)
2. Frowning Atahuallpa (with chat)
3. Strange Orchestras
4. Afghan Woman (with chat)
5. Deborah (with chat)
6. Mustang Ford (with chat)

BBC Radio One – Top Gear (transmitted 7/14/1968)

1. Stacey Grove (with chat)
2. One Inch Rock (with chat)
3. Salamanda Palaganda (with chat)
4. Eastern Spell (with chat)
5. Wind Quartets (with chat)

BBC Radio One – Voice of Pop (transmitted 9/21/1968)

1. Juniper Suction (Poem)
2. Juniper Suction (song with interview)

BBC Radio One – Top Gear (transmitted 11/10/1968)

1. The Friends (with chat)
2. Conseuala (with chat)
3. The Seal of Seasons (with chat)
4. Evenings of Damask (with chat)
5. The Travelling Tragition

Disc 2: Tyrannosaurus Rex

BBC Radio One – Top Gear (transmitted 2/16/1969)

1. Pewter Suitor (with chat)

BBC Radio One – Top Gear (transmitted 5/11/1969)

1. Interview with Brian Matthews
2. Chariots of Silk
3. Once Upon the Seas of Abyssinia (with chat)
4. Nijinsky Hind (with chat)
5. The Misty Coast of Albany (with chat)
6. Iscariot (with chat)

BBC Radio One – Night Ride (recorded 6/11/1969)

1. A Star of Youth (Poem with Interview)
2. A Ship of Rhythm (Poem with Interview)
3. The Winged Man with Eyes Downcast to the Moon (Poem with Interview)

BBC Radio One – Top Gear (transmitted 11/17/1969)

1. Interview with Brian Matthews
2. Fist Heart Mighty Dawn Dart
3. Pavilions of Sun
4. A Day Laye
5. By the Light of a Magical Moon
6. Wind Cheetah

BBC Radio One In Concert (recorded 1/1/1970)

1. Hot Rod Mama
2. Deborah
3. Pavilions of Sun
4. Dove
5. By the Light of the Magical Moon
6. Elemental Child
7. The Wizard

Disc 3: T. Rex

BBC Radio One – Top Gear (recorded 10/26/1970)

1. Ride a White Swan
2. Jewel
3. Elemental Child
4. Sun Eye

BBC Radio One – Sounds of the 70s (transmitted 11/16/1970)

1. My Baby’s Like a Cloud Form
2. Funk Music (Jam)

BBC Radio One – Dave Lee Travis show (recorded 12/9/1970)

1. Summertime Blues
2. Jewel
3. Hot Love

BBC Radio One – In Concert (transmitted 12/20/1970)

1. Debora
2. Elemental Child
3. Woodland Bop Medley: Woodland Bop/Conesuala/The King of the Mountain Cometh/Woodland Bop
4. Ride a White Swan
5. Jewel

Disc 4: T. Rex

BBC Radio One – Radio One Club (recorded 3/9/1971)

1. Woodland Rock (with chat)
2. Beltane Walk
3. Seagull Woman (Backing Track)
4. Hot Love
5. Interview with Keith Altham (4/16/1971)

BBC Radio One – Radio One Club (recorded 7/20/1971)

1. Jeepster
2. Get It On
3. Electric Boogie (with chat)

BBC Radio One – Sounds of the 70s with Bob Harris (recorded 8/3/1971)

1. Bob’s On (jingle)
2. Sailors of the Highway
3. Girl
4. Cadilac (with chat)
5. Jeepster
6. Life’s a Gas
7. Christmas is a Good Time (jingle)
8. Interview with Tony Norman (12/14/1971)
9. Telegram Sam (Peter Powell Show – 1/29/1972)
10. Interview with Keith Altham (2/5/1972)

Disc 5: T. Rex (all mixes done specifically for the BBC)

1. Metal Guru
2. Interview with Andrew Salkey (5/13/1972)
3. The Slider
4. Mystic Lady
5. Rock On
6. Main Man
7. Interview with Johnny Moran (8/26/1972)
8. Children of the Revolution (transcription, September 1972)
9. Solid Gold Easy Action
10. 20th Century Boy
11. Free Angel
12. Interview with Nick Horne (3/6/1973)
13. Rapids
14. Mad Donna
15. The Grover (David Hamilton Show – June 1973)
16. Midnight

Disc 6: T. Rex (all mixes done specifically for the BBC)

1. Interview with Anne Nightingale (6/26/1973)
2. Black Jack – Big Carrot
3. Truck On (Tyke)
4. Sitting Here
5. Teenage Dream
6. Interview with Michael Wale (1/11/1974)
7. Light of Love
8. Explosive Mouth
9. Zip Gun Boogie
10. Space Boss
11. New York City
12. Dreamy Lady (David Hamilton Show – 9/23/1975)
13. Do You Wanna Dance (David Hamilton Show – 9/23/1975)
14. Interview with David Hamilton for Insight
15. Interview with Anne Nightingale for Insight
16. I Love to Boogie (David Hamilton Show – 6/18/1976)
17. Celebrate Summer (David Hamilton Show – 8/19/1977)