Marc Bolan & Alvin Stardust

I recently went to Potters Holiday Resort at Great Yarmouth to see Alvin Stardust. What a Bolanic surprise that man was !

We went to see him because Rick liked him when he was Shane Fenton and loves the early stuff. Like most Bolan fans, I caught up with him when he became Alvin Stardust and we all used to watch Top of the Pops.

We arrived at the resort and eagerly awaited the show. In the magnificent ballroom, the band came on stage and Alvin talked us through the early years and mentioned having met Eddie Cochran just before he died and spoke about his influences – Elvis, Carl Perkins and particularly Gene Vincent. He performed all the hits as well as some
classics. The highlight for me was My Coo Ca Choo – I was straight back to 1973. Just before he played it, he spoke of how he changed his name from Shane Fenton to Alvin Stardust and said that like everyone else at the time, including David Bowie and Marc Bolan, he wanted a piece of glam action !

After the show, we had a chance to get items signed. Rick had bought some of the early stuff and when we were getting it signed, I thanked Alvin for mentioning Marc. He told me that he and Marc had been great mates and that he’d been due to meet him on the night he died and that he’d gone to the hospital afterwards. I was really surprised, as I’d never heard this story before. He went on to say that he’d also gone to the funeral and was very upset when he saw Marc’s mother’s distress.

He told me that he and Marc used to have a laugh together and on one particular occasion they were going out and Marc was in very tight satin trousers. Alvin said “@*&* Marc, you can’t go out like that. I can see you’re Jewish from here”. Needless to say, Marc wore exactly what he wanted to.

I told that Marc had a huge, devoted fanbase all around the world and that we all stay in touch via fan club forums, Facebook and MySpace, and that we also met up at Bops. I told him I was sure that he would be very welcome at any of the events.

I also spoke to him about the Celebration at Shepherds Bush on the 30th anniversary. He said that he hadn’t known anything about it. I said that I didn’t think anyone was aware of his connection and friendship with Marc, otherwise I was sure he would have been invited to perform.

He was a really nice person to talk to, especially as he and Dave, his helper, were trying to pack all the merchandise away as they had a four hour drive to get home.