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MARC BOLAN
IN THE CURRENT ON-LINE PAGE THE REASON FOR THA NAME CHANGE FROM MARC BOLAND TO MARC BOLAN IS GIVE: 'He signed to Decca Records in August 1965. At this point his name changed to Marc Bolan via Marc Bowland. There are several accounts of why Bolan was chosen, including that it was derived from James Bolam, that it was a contraction of Bob Dylan, and – according to Bolan himself – that Decca Records chose the name.'

THE ACTUAL TRUE REASON WITH BACK-UP CONTENT IS AS FOLLOWS:

In 1965 Jim Economides arrived from America where he had been a recording engineer at Capital Records and had engineered for The Beach Boys, Dick Dale, Bobby Darin, The Letterman, Bobby Vee and others. He was now freshly arrived in London but not as recording engineer instead he’s now a Record Producer, to, as he said, “Get in on this swinging London scene”. Jim Economides and his wife took a large elegant apartment at 48 Albert Gate Mansions Knightsbridge which also acted as his office. Mike Hurst ex of The Springfields, worked for Jim Economides for a while but he soon left after coming across a singer called Cat Stevens and he produced Cat’s first record I Love My Dog, and he then went on to record Manfred Mann, The Move and Spencer Davies, Shakin’ Stevens, Prince, amongst others. On the floor above Jim Economides in the same mansion block was Shel Talmy, also from America, having been in London nearly year he was now recording the Kinks and The Who. Jim’s stable of groups were not quite in the same league namely Those Fading Colours and The Clockwork Orange. I ( NORMAN P COXALL )was managing Those Fading Colours and we recorded for Ember Records and had a minor flurry with Just Like Romeo and Juliet, I think about 109 in the top 100 but we did OK with an EP in Europe and they’re still available on ITunes under Ember Records albums. One morning I was waiting in the office for someone from the Arthur Howes Agency to discuss being added to one of the many tours they put on for The Kinks, Dave Dee etc. Jim came into the office and spread some photos across his desk, “what do you think of him”, the photos were of Marc, his hair was shortish and he was wearing a black pea coat. “Can he sing and play the guitar” I asked, “well, sort of “ replied Jim, “sort of” I said, “ isn’t that a bit risky for a solo singer”, “Well” said Jim “It’s like this, he thinks he’s brilliant, I mean really special, says there’s nobody like him and he’s going to be big, I mean really big” , “ Wow, so he’s that good” I said, “Well, that’s the thing, I don’t know, he talked it up so much that I thought I’d better sign him just in case he turns out to be what he says he is, because he will either be one  big hit or one big flop, there’s no in between with this guy, it’s a gamble” Marc Boland turned up an hour or so later, wearing what looked like a policeman’s cape which was covered in hairs, dogs or cats I thought or maybe just from sleeping rough, he was carrying a 12 string acoustic guitar, holding it by the neck, in those days I never saw him with a guitar case. He said to me pretty much everything he said to Jim. He was, the best this, the greatest that, he said he had written a song called The Wizard and Jim was going to record it. I told him that someone from the Arthur Howes Agency was coming to the office to discuss up and coming tours headed up by The Kinks and Dave Dee etc. and that maybe Marc could also join the tour”, that didn’t go down well,  “What” he said "as a support act Mark Boland doesn’t do support, If I tour I’m the lead act I top the bill and they support Marc Boland”,  I thought he was in for a surprise and that the business, the industry, the pop world, would soon bring him down to earth, which for a while after it did but then he rose up again as T Rex.                                      In due course, over the following weeks he chilled, we used  to go for a drink at a pub on Knightsbridge Green or for coffee in a café near the office, he told me the truth about the wizard nonsense and lots of other stories, he used make stuff up all the time on the basis that if you can’t big yourself or make up something incredible and put out as the truth people will think you’re just ordinary and being ordinary was something he almost feared.

The mansion block had a cage-like lift that ran in the middle of the up and down staircase. If it was on the ground floor when you entered the block you would use it to go up to Jim’s office on the 3d floor. You always had to be sure to slide the lift door across and hear it ‘click’ to lock it, if you didn’t do it correctly the lift would just sit there, stuck on that floor and anyone downstairs could ring the lift bell forever but the lift wouldn’t budge. On the top floor of the block lived an elderly lady and she would go to the top of the block and constantly leave the lift door open or if she remembered she’d slide the door across but never quite get it to ‘click’ into place as a consequence the lift was often stuck on the top floor which used to drive the Hall Porter mad as he had to up to the stairs to the top of the block and bring  the lift back down. Being an older style building the actual stair steps could be described as ‘chunky’ and a bit steep and had a way of making you trip on the way up. Many a time someone came into the office cursing that the lift was stuck at the top and those bloody stairs caused them to trip up. ''' One afternoon Marc arrived at the office cursing “the bloody lift, the bloody stairs”, he was carrying, as usual a guitar, but with the neck broken off and it was hanging together  by the guitar strings. He had to use the stairs because the lift was stuck at the top and he had done what we had all done at one time or another, he’d tripped on a stair. He was still holding the guitar by the neck, shot his arms out to stop his forward motion against the next step and as he did so the neck of the guitar came crashing doing down between the two steps snapped the neck off. At that point in his career Marc was not what you might call a guitar virtuoso, he could hardly get a decent tune out of a 6 stringer, you could just about recognise or pick-up what he was trying to play but there was much fumbling and many a bum note so I was surprised to see that the broken guitar was a 12 stringer. I said that I could fix the guitar with wood glue but he didn’t seem overly bothered about it, “You can have it, I’ve finished with it”. I took it home and it ended up in the loft and in 1980 or thereabouts it was eventually sold at an auction for £6000.

Marc had recorded The Wizard with Jim Economides producing. Not long after that on 23rd November 1965 Jim said we have to watch the TV at 5pm because Marc is on the  5 O’clock Club singing The Wizard. We sat and watched in silence, It was underwhelming, could that really have been the guy who’s going to rule the world, it was like a nervous audition for the school choir, needless to say it didn’t do anything and there then followed a flat spot. I was during this flat spot that Jim Economides decided that “this guy’s going nowhere, it’s time to cash in the chips”. Although Marc’s record was on the Decca label he didn’t belong to Decca, he was signed to Jim Economides Record Productions, as were we all, but after the 5’Oclock Club appearance Jim decided to off-load Marc to Decca Records. When the agreement with Decca was finalised Marc came into the Knightsbridge office to sign the Jim Economides half of the contract. We had a chat about it and he was keen to get going with Decca which he saw as “at last, the big time”.  At the time Jim’s wife acted as his secretary and she had typed names under where they would sign on the contract. After Marc had signed we had planned to go for a coffee but he had to rush over to Decca to sign their half of the contract.' '''As soon as Marc left the office Jim came out and said “ come over here look  at this, what do you see” he was very excited, the contract was laid out on his office desk and  looked down at it  but had no idea as to what I was supposed to be looking at “ well, what do you see”  I didn’t see anything so he pointed out the names at the bottom, I still I didn’t see anything odd till finally Jim points to Marc’s name “what about that”  “Well” I reply “it’s bit of a squiggle but signatures often are”. Jim gives up “not the signature, the typed name it should be Boland with a d but it’s Bolan with no d my wife miss-typed it” Jim was still exited “I’ve changed his name and it sounds much better, I’ve just called Decca and told them”, “do you have to re-do the contracts all over again” I said, “ no, they’re OK with it they’re not bothered but I think it’s great, I almost want him back again”.Italic text'' ''' Marc always thought Decca made the error that changed his name and was quoted as saying “The only good thing Decca ever did for me was to change my name”. The only ones who knew about the name change were Jim Economides, his wife acting as his secretary and me.

Fast forward to 18 months or so to The Bluesette Club Leatherhead, a regular venue for Those Fading Colours. We were usually a support to the top of the bill groups such as The Herd and others, this time when I called the manager to ask as I always did “who are we supporting next Saturday” I was surprised to be told “ you’re not supporting you’re top of the bill”. Those Fading Colours and we always went down very well at the Bluesette “but if we were top of the bill who’s supporting us” I asked, “the support is John’s Children”, “What, are you sure you’ve got that the right way round, I mean they’ve been on TV and even had a bit of a hit record”, “ Yes I know but for months now it’d been clear  they can’t carry on the way they are, I’ve had complaints from the clubbers,  it’s all noise, you can’t dance to it, it’s all nonsense and no music, why can’t we have the ‘colours’ they ask me cos they’re like the Stones and you can dance to that, so I’ve got them the colours”. Wow, John’s Children as our support, how must they feel after always topping the bill, OK, it’s not the London Palladium or Finsbury Park Empire but nevertheless. Marc ended up in Johns Children after knocking on Simon Napier-Bell’s door out of the blue and pretty much asking for help. Simon managed Johns Children so he stuck Marc in with them, Simon also owned The Bluesette Club. Marc was always so full of himself and he’s the guy who said “If I do a tour they’ll be supporting me, I don’t do support” and that was a tour with The Kinks and Dave Dee etc. but that’s OK it was ‘his thing’ and we both laughed about it. Seeing Marc as just being a band member and not the solo star, was going to be interesting and it was. I just didn’t expect to have Marc pleading with me all night to take him on as our group’s singer. On the Saturday night we had hardly got through the door when Marc came over to me and leaned in conspiratorially and whispered, “I’ve got to talk to you, it’s urgent, now”. The rest of our guys stacked the drums, amps and guitars to the sides and the back of the small stage on which JC’s (Johns Children) had already set-up their kit as they were first on, then our guys joined up with JC’s to get something to eat as Marc and I went into a huddle at table set back from the dimly lit dance floor. It’s a nightmare, I’ve got to get out of it”, “Why what’s happened” I asked, “It’s not about something that happened it’s about the whole thing, it was all wrong from the start, I let myself get talked into it, it’s totally wrong for me”, “ Well what are you going to do?” Marc replied “ I’ll join your lot as the lead singer, I’ll do it now, I’ll just tell them I’ve left them and I’m not going on  tonight”, the thoughts went through my head like an express train, good grief, no bloody way do we need a diva, it’s a non-starter. “Look Marc that would never work, we’ve got a lead singer, he also a brilliant musician, he’s brilliant on the harmonic, 6 or 12 string guitars and the banjo, he can play the piano, even the bloody violin and the Indian sitar for God’s sake, pops, classics the lot, I mean in all honesty it’s not a job you could do is it?”                                                             Marc had his head in his hands and I thought he was going to burst into tears, he certainly looked like he just might. “Look Marc I said “when we heard that you were in John’s Children we were all surprised not to say shocked, you’re not a group guy, not that kind of group anyway, where did it all go, you know, star billing, top act on the tour and all that ,I know we used to laugh about it but, well, it was like your yellow brick road, it was as though it was a planned out ahead of you as it was your road to follow but then you took a wrong turning, left the road you should be on and ended up here, look joining another group and being just another group member is never going to work for you so just leave this lot and put your own thing together and get back on your yellow brick road and stay on it and make it all happen”. Marc brightened up a bit now and he nodded, “Your right, after tonight I’m out of it”. Johns Children including Marc did their set, it was awful, a disorganised shamble at a very high volume.

August 1967, I was driving along Kings Road Chelsea towards Sloane square and stopped for someone on the central island to cross the road, it was Marc. We stared at each other for a moment and then both called out I shouted Marc as he shouted Norman. I pulled into a side road and got out for a chat. Marc was meeting a PR man at a Bistro further down Kings Road but said he was early and suggested we went for a coffee. We had a detailed catch-up, Marc was now Tyrannosaurus Rex and he was back on his yellow brick road. “you’ve done it” I said “No” said Marc “you did it, that night at The Bluesette Club in Leatherhead”, I said “well you’re have to manage on your own now mate”, we both roared with laughter. On the evening of Thursday 15th September 1977 at about 8pm I was having dinner with friends at their house in Barnes, the second house on the left in Queens Ride, just over the slight rise in the road. My wife and I left about 11pm. At 5am early Friday morning 16th September 1977 Marc Bolan was killed in a car crash on Queens Ride. The car hit the metal barrier and then a tree on the left side of the road just over the slight rise. It’s about 100 yards from where we were having dinner 6 hours before.