Glitter Under the Eyes
On 24 March 1971, Marc Bolan appeared on BBC One’s Top of the Pops to perform “Hot Love” as the new UK number one. His stylist, Chelita Secunda, had applied teardrops of silver glitter beneath his eyes. He wore a satin sailor suit. The performance lasted three minutes. It is widely cited as the moment glam rock began.
Bolan had spent the previous five years running Tyrannosaurus Rex, an acoustic psychedelic folk duo. The shift started in 1970, partly inspired by Mungo Jerry’s chart success with “In the Summertime.” Bolan shortened the band name to T. Rex, added electric guitars, and recorded “Ride a White Swan” with producer Tony Visconti on 1 July 1970. It peaked at number two. Then “Hot Love” held the top spot for six weeks, and everything accelerated. From 1970 to 1973, T. Rex scored eleven UK top ten singles, four at number one, generating a fan frenzy the British press called “T. Rextasy.”
Electric Warrior, released 24 September 1971, was the album that made it stick. Recording began at Trident Studios in London, then moved to Wally Heider Studios in Hollywood and Mediasound Studios in New York. Visconti’s sonic techniques included flanging, tape loops, backwards guitars, and plugging Bolan’s guitar directly into the console to overload the mic preamplifiers. Rick Wakeman played piano on “Get It On.” Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman of Flo & Eddie contributed androgynous backing vocals. Visconti’s string arrangements gave the record grandeur without bloat.
Ziggy and the Spiders
On 5 July 1972, David Bowie recorded a performance of “Starman” for Top of the Pops at BBC Television Centre. It aired the next evening to roughly fifteen million viewers. Bowie, in full Ziggy Stardust costume with dyed red hair and a quilted jumpsuit, draped his arm around guitarist Mick Ronson’s shoulders during the chorus, revealing white-painted fingernails. Musicians who later cited the broadcast as a formative moment include Bono, Robert Smith, Boy George, and Adam Ant.
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, released 16 June 1972, had been recorded at Trident Studios with co-producer Ken Scott. Ronson, a classically trained musician from Hull, played a 1968 Gibson Les Paul Custom with the finish stripped off (he believed bare wood improved resonance) and pickup covers removed for more bite. He ran it through a Marshall Major 200 with a Cry Baby wah-wah pedal moved slowly through its travel until he found the right frequency, then left fixed. Most of the album was tracked nearly live. Bowie sometimes hummed Ronson’s solos to him before takes.
The Pop Factory
Below Bowie and Bolan sat an entire tier of acts engineered for the singles chart. Nowhere was the machinery more efficient than in the partnership of songwriters Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman. Between 1973 and 1974, the pair landed nineteen singles in the UK Top 40, five at number one, writing for Sweet, Suzi Quatro, and Mud, often conceiving songs overnight.
Sweet became the primary Chinnichap vehicle. “Block Buster!” topped the UK chart in January 1973, followed by three consecutive number-two hits: “Hell Raiser,” “The Ballroom Blitz,” and “Teenage Rampage.” The band strained against the arrangement, wanting harder material, and eventually wrote their own album tracks while Chinn and Chapman kept supplying the singles.
Slade took a different route. Noddy Holder, Dave Hill, Jim Lea, and Don Powell had been a Wolverhampton skinhead band before manager Chas Chandler repositioned them for glam. Between 1971 and 1975, they placed thirteen singles in the UK top ten, six at number one. “Cum On Feel the Noize” entered the chart at the top in 1973, the first single to do so since the Beatles’ “Get Back.” The deliberate misspellings were a trademark: “Mama Weer All Crazee Now,” “Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me,” “Gudbuy T’Jane.”
Gender, Leather, and the Art School Wing
Suzi Quatro arrived from Detroit in 1971, signed to Mickie Most’s RAK label, and became the first female bass player to front a major rock act. She performed in a black leather catsuit, playing and singing simultaneously. “Can the Can” reached UK number one in 1973; “Devil Gate Drive” repeated the feat the following year.
At the art-school end, Roxy Music recorded their self-titled debut in a single week at Command Studios in London in March 1972, with Peter Sinfield producing. Their managers at EG paid 5,000 pounds out of pocket, with no record deal yet signed. Bryan Ferry sang; Andy Mackay played saxophone and oboe; Phil Manzanera handled guitar. Brian Eno, invited by Mackay, brought his Ferrograph reel-to-reel and Mackay’s VCS3 synthesiser, treating instruments in real time. When Ferry asked for a sound “like the moon” on “Ladytron,” Eno obliged. Roxy Music shared glam’s theatricality but pushed toward art-rock dissonance and electronics, a template that fed directly into new wave.
Rescue and Ruin
By 1972, Mott the Hoople were on the verge of splitting after four albums and poor sales. The low point came at a gig in an abandoned gasholder in Switzerland. Bassist Pete Overend Watts called Bowie to ask for a job. Bowie told them not to break up, wrote them “All the Young Dudes,” then produced the album with Mick Ronson. The single reached number three, transforming Mott into glam avatars.
Across the Atlantic, the New York Dolls formed in late 1971: David Johansen on vocals, Johnny Thunders on guitar, Arthur Kane on bass, Sylvain Sylvain on guitar and piano. After original drummer Billy Murcia died of an overdose during a 1972 UK tour, Jerry Nolan replaced him. Their 1973 debut, produced by Todd Rundgren, paired Thunders’ ragged guitar with Johansen’s camp swagger. The Dolls sold poorly but influenced nearly every punk band that followed. Malcolm McLaren managed their final shows, then returned to London to assemble the Sex Pistols.
The Fadeout
By 1975, glam’s chart dominance had collapsed. Bowie had retired Ziggy on 3 July 1973 at the Hammersmith Odeon and pivoted toward soul. T. Rex’s singles stopped reaching the top ten. Slade decamped for the American market and lost momentum at home. The UK economy was in recession, inflation past fifteen percent. When the Sex Pistols and the Clash arrived in 1976, they took glam’s directness, stripped away the satin, and plugged the gap.
Marc Bolan, staging a comeback with a BBC series called Marc, died on 16 September 1977 when the Mini driven by his girlfriend Gloria Jones struck a tree in Barnes, southwest London. He was twenty-nine. Bowie attended the funeral at Golders Green Crematorium. Bolan never saw thirty, but glam’s four peak years had redrawn the boundaries of what a rock musician could look like, sound like, and mean.
Essential Listening
- T. Rex – Electric Warrior (1971)
- David Bowie – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972)
- Roxy Music – Roxy Music (1972)
- Mott the Hoople – All the Young Dudes (1972)
- Slade – Slayed? (1972)
- New York Dolls – New York Dolls (1973)
- Sweet – Desolation Boulevard (1974)
- Suzi Quatro – Suzi Quatro (1973)
- David Bowie – Aladdin Sane (1973)
- T. Rex – The Slider (1972)
- Roxy Music – For Your Pleasure (1973)
- Sparks – Kimono My House (1974)