Lot 117
117
Marc Bolan
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VA… Read more The following three lots encapsulate the era referred to as 'Glam Rock'. Marc Bolan and David Bowie were the two most successful and enduring stars to emerge from the pop movement known originally as 'Glitter Rock' [Marc Bolan famously appeared on Top Of The Pops to perform Hot Love with glitter applied under his eyes]. Glam provided a welcome antidote to the increasingly serious rock scene, which seemed to have lost touch with its audience. Leaving behind his own roots in the British rock underground, Marc Bolan reinvented himself as a pop star in 1970-71. His band, T. Rex, became the most successful singles act of the next two years, and Bolan was acclaimed as Britain's biggest homegrown pop star since The Beatles. Bolan's career began to falter in 1972, as he switched attention to the American market, and began to lose himself in drug abuse. His long-time friend David Bowie swiftly rose to take his place as the leading 'glam' icon of the time. As Bolan biographer Mark Paytress explained, "Smiling, vaguely camp Marc Bolan had been the prototype. Odd-eyed Bowie, with his bisexual declarations, painfully gaunt features, skin-tight costumes and dyed, lavatory-brush hairstyle, provided its most extreme manifestation." While Bowie's astute manipulation of the media and frequent changes of musical and visual style ensured that he has remained an icon ever since, Bolan proved unable to regain his peak of popularity, and slipped towards self-parody. After his death in 1977, however, Marc Bolan was eulogised as one of the most vital rock performers of the decade. Both he and Bowie remain highly influential on many young musicians today.
Marc Bolan

Details
Marc Bolan
A sailor-style cropped jacket of silver-grey velvet, the collar and sleeves trimmed with blue velvet stripes, the right side appliquéd with a sailing boat motif in blue, green and pink velvet, fastening with four black buttons decorated with an anchor motif, labelled inside Hollywood Clothes Shop; accompanied by a colour promotional poster, 1971, showing Bolan wearing an identical jacket -- 26x38½in. (66x98cm.) framed; and a receipt from The Official Marc Bolan Fan Club for the sale of a Marc Bolan "Sailor" Top, 19th June, 1998 (3)
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

Marc Bolan wore this jacket (originally part of a two-piece suit, the trousers have not survived) on Top Of The Pops on 10th March, 1971 for the first performance of Hot Love, which shot to number one, remaining there for six weeks, followed a few months later by a follow-up number one single Get It On [see following lot].

Bolan's sartorial taste, and his appearance in this jacket on national television, triggered a host of copy cats, and had an undeniable influence on groups that followed.

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