#7 T Rex
17th March, 1977
The Odeon, Birmingham
Support: The Damned (1st tour)
Anecdote about Rat Scabies:
At the conclusion of The Damned’s set, Rat would pour lighter fuel over his drum kit and set fire to it. Then as the flames exploded he would kick his kit into pieces all across the stage. The band were just about to leave triumphantly, when the Captain turned with a wry smile and said, “Oh! Shit! He’s letting us do an encore!” And Scabies had to rebuild his kit in full view of the audience. There was quite a bit of playful nonsense going on between the two bands all tour. The Damned would join in on the T. Rex encore. Glorious mayhem.
Note about the sound:
There are very few (unfortunately) recordings of T. Rex live performances. Those which exist often are of poor sound quality, having been taped on mono cassette-recorders, smuggled into the theatres. There are some recordings which are not too bad, but it’s difficult to find complete shows. Also the band was virtually completely different on every tour.
There is a tendency among fans and critics who did not see the 1977 ‘Dandy In The Underworld’ tour to suggest that the band had a rather wimpy keyboard-led sound, as evidenced by the existing poor tapes. This is because the guitar frequencies have often been lost. Nothing could have been further from the truth. There’s a great anecdote from one of Marc’s roadies, who was so fed up with him turning his guitar up to 10 (max) that he ‘fixed’ the volume on the amp to stick at 7, even though Marc thought it was 10!
On this tour there were two guitarists, Marc and Miller Anderson, who still plays his blues live today. The band was a powerhouse with Herbie Flowers (bass) and Tony Newman (drums) providing a rock-solid rhythm section. It was a slick professional outfit which rocked. If anything Dino Dines’ keyboards just provided the fills and underpinned everything.
There’s a youtube clip of the encore at Bristol which gives an impression of the guitar pyrotechnics on show.
The Review
Lights dimming……..
Jeepster
Chord. Pause. Chord. Pause. Chord. Pause. Chord. Pause.
Count-in. And we’re off. The unmistakable opening of Jeepster, which is much quicker than normal. It also emphasises the rockabilly parts more than usual as it bounces along with its energetic exuberance. Of course, at the end Marc shouts, “I’m gonna fuck ya!” to everyone’s amusement. Solid start, then.
Visions of Domino
On the previous tour, about 13 or 14 months earlier, Marc had premiered a song called Funky London Childhood. He obviously liked it because here it was revamped with different lyrics and a new title. This was a thunderous version with the two guitars propelling it along. It got the Odeon rocking. This band was taking no prisoners.
New York City
This one cantered along with a breezy confidence and some great guitar playing during the breaks. The bit at the end worked especially well.
The Soul of My Suit
For some reason this song, which sounds a bit timid on record, thrived in concert format, perhaps because it was longer and repeated different sections. Marc definitely played two separate ‘tastefully adept’ solos near the front of the stage. The audience certainly loved it. It was to be the latest single.
Groove a Little
Another new song followed. Another belter from the blues background. Again disappointing on the record but fantastic live, with everyone jumping around to the beat and the infectious interplay of the two guitars. Miller Anderson had been a shrewd recruit. At this point few could believe how good this was turning out.
Telegram Sam
Introduced as a kind of rock ‘n roller, the band played it uptempo with a new twist on the main riff. It also contained many
improvised verses with Marc referencing his mate, Dave.
‘Automatic shoes
Automatic shoes
Got 3D vision
And the David Bowie blues.’
And so on. It was great stuff. It went on for ages. Here was Marc, not dwelling morosely on his past, but revelling in reinventing it. Some people even tried to get up on stage. Then more of the impromptu lyrics:
’Me I fuck
But I don’t care
I ain’t no square
With my corkscrew hair.’
which is fairly ironic, since his hair is really just growing back from when it was quite short! What a card!
Hang Ups
Then the piece-de-resistance! Another new song. This was unheard-of for so many new tracks to be attempted or so neatly-rehearsed. Usually Marc would just tear into stuff and rely on making a racket. This song had the old Jewel / 20th Century Boy notes harnessing the riff, but it thundered along just like the others. However, what made it the centre-piece of this show was the solo in the middle, which was replicated at the end, too. Marc almost forgot to stamp on his fx pedal to boost the volume (so it separated more from the band), but he played a blistering solo which stunned everyone. Two minutes later to finish the song he did it again just to prove it wasn’t a fluke. Some performance from someone who was supposed to be washed up! The audience went ballistic. I started thinking about a couple of my mates who’d been unable to make the concert and how I was going to attempt to explain this show. Despite the existence of some audience tapes of the tour, they don’t do the performances any justice. And that includes the Edsel attempts.
Debora
Next up, a surprise. The band do a punked up version of Debora. This also had some lovely guitar parts in the choruses, which disappear on the bootlegs. Should have released this. Even the Captain thought this would have been a bold statement in the days of punk and the New Wave. Delightful.
I Love to Boogie
Then party time. The rockabilly throwaway bounced along and everyone jumped about. He introduced Herbie Flowers as the man who wrote Grandad. Grandad Flowers he called him. It was all good-humoured stuff.
Dandy In The Underworld
Then yet another new tune, the title-track from the new album. Slower and punchy, it sounded interesting. Another neat solo and creative guitar interplay made it a resounding success with the audience. He mentioned something about Steve Harley being involved with it and suddenly we were into another new album track.
Teen Riot Structure
Live, this seemed to have all sorts of weird guitar bits coming at you and solos at various intervals. It went down very well.
Hot Love
No showbiz crap, shouted Marc, and they flew into a deliberately-underwhelming routine version of Hot Love, probably for old times sake. They didn’t dwell on the second half of it but finished and bid ‘Good Night!’
It had been an ultra-professional but stunning display of musicianship.
Encore: Get It On
It was hardly surprising that they threw the kitchen sink at this. Tony Newman got an unbelievable solo in the middle and Marc provided some glimpses of his hedonistic early 70s guitar silliness. It was all good clean fun. We were treated to a ten-minute version of Bolan-as-Hendrix on speed. With the guitars left to feedback naturally, they were suddenly gone, and little did we know then, it would be forever!