Marc Bolan at The BBC - 6CD Box Set

 

Comprehensive career overview spanning from John's Children to right up to T.Rex in '77, contains several unreleased tracks.


Celebrate Summer indeed! This August sees the release of a 6CD box set of Marc Bolan's session recordings and interviews for the BBC. You'd have to be a real sourpuss with a dislike of classic pop music to not like the records Marc Bolan made with Tyrannosaurus Rex and T.Rex. From the folksy beginnings and on into the brash 'n bluesy classic Glam period. Even on into the later years where an influence of contemporary American soul crept in, you have to admit the guy could write and record great pop music. What joy then to hear that Universal Music have put together this set featuring pretty much everything he recorded for the nation's favourite station Radio One. Sessions for Saturday Club, John Peel's Top Gear, and In Concert are included along with sets recorded for Peter Powell, Dave Lee Travis, Bob Harris and "Diddy" David Hamilton.

For a more detailed description of what the set contains, click over the jump for the full press release.

Universal Music is pleased to announce the release of Marc Bolan at the BBC, a 6 CD Collection scheduled for release on August 26th. It is the most ambitious and complete collection of Marc Bolan’s BBC recordings so far – of the 117 tracks almost half appear here for the very first time. A 2 CD collection, Marc Bolan at the BBC – The Best of the BBC Recordings will be released simultaneously.

Marc Bolan at the BBC has been compiled and researched by Clive Zone, a veritable Sherlock Holmes of the Bolan scene, who has spent over five years working on this set, gaining access to collector’s ultra-rare reel-to-reel tapes and BBC Transcription Discs that even the BBC no longer seem to have in their archive. 

According to Clive Zone, of the 117 tracks in the box set, 16 of the Tyrannosaurus Rex tracks are previously unreleased. There are more than 20 previously unreleased T.Rex tracks and of the interviews 12 (many in depth) have never received an official release.

In addition, a number of the tracks that appeared on the now unavailable, 2007 Bolan At The Beeb box set are presenting in their entirety and in some cases utilising better quality recordings than in the past.

This stylish and comprehensive new 6 CD collection includes sleeve notes by Mark Paytress (author of Marc Bolan – A 20th Century Superstar) and was designed by Phil Smee and given a historic Radio Times look. Clive Zone spent weeks at the BBC Written Archives Centre in Caversham verifying information on sessions and concerts and pouring over copies of Radio Times at the Westminster Central Library to find the original entries used in the booklet.

Marc Bolan at the BBC promises to be a feast for the eyes and ears. 

Disc One opens with the one and only session recorded by Marc’s first band, John’s Children, recorded for the BBC Radio One – Saturday Club in June 1967 and also includes all of the sessions recorded for John Peel’s Top Gear programme between November 1967 and December 1968.

Disc Two contains 4 Top Gear sessions plus 3 interviews for the Night Ride programme recorded in June 1969 and the In Concert performance recorded in January 1970.

Disc Three contains the Top Gear session from October 1970, 2 songs from the long lost Bob Harris session from November 1970, a Dave Lee Travis session from December 1970 and 5 songs recorded live for the December 1970 broadcast of the John Peel Sunday Concert. 

Disc Four features 8 songs recorded for the Radio One Club and broadcast in March and July of 1971 plus a session recorded for the Bob Harris “Sound of the Seventies” show in August 1971 plus an interview with Tony Norman in 1971, Keith Altham in 1972 and a stunning recording of Telegram Sam for the January 1972 Peter Powell show. 

Disc Five and Disc Six contain mixes which were exclusively recorded for the BBC between May 1972 and January 1974 plus interviews with Marc which he did with Johnny Moran, Nicky Horne, Anne Nightingale and David Hamilton.