3 April 1971
It happened on 24 March 1971, according to biographer Lesley-Ann Jones in her book Ride A White Swan. T. Rex were at the BBC to record ‘Hot Love’ for that week’s Top Of The Pops as the new UK number one. They had performed the track on the show before, but this time there was something different. At the suggestion of his assistant and stylist Chelita Secunda, Marc Bolan was wearing on each cheek a dab of glitter make-up, which was now catching the studio lights. And that’s how glam rock begins. (You can watch that Top Of The Pops performance below.)
A mere daub of glitter seems restrained now compared to the extravagant glam style that followed. What’s also fascinating about ‘Hot Love’ is how it also sounds less glam than the crunching chords and stomping beats to come, or even ‘Spirit In The Sky’ the year before. The goofy boogie of its guitar and bass, the lush strings, the winningly daft lyrics, the enraptured gasps and sighs: the first half of ‘Hot Love’ is great fun but also utterly beguiling and seductive. The second half, borrowing the singalong coda of ‘Hey Jude’ and maybe even improving on it, is then a gleeful and triumphant release of pure joy, with its banshee-wail backing vocals a proxy for the fan frenzy and pop-cultural pandemonium unleashed by ‘Hot Love’, Bolan, and glam. It’s a magnificent record, T. Rex are wonderful, glam is glorious, and thankfully we’ll have plenty more Irish-chart-topping opportunities to bask in the light reflected by the glitter of Marc Bolan, the greatest pop star ever to walk the Earth.
