BP Fallon is a DJ and publicist, working at that time (1971) mainly for bands like King Crimson, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Roxy Music, and T-Rex. And it was BP who got me my first ‘gigs’ in the industry, photographing those bands I just mentioned, and introducing me to Sounds magazine.
In late 1970, around the time I arrived in the UK, T-Rex (abbreviated from their original name of Tyrannosaurus Rex) started moving away from their psychedelic folk roots towards what evolved into Glam Rock, and released the single ‘Ride A White Swan’ which got to No 2 in the charts. At the point where BP introduced me to Marc Bolan, he was preparing material for what would become ‘Electric Warrior’, the best-selling album of 1971. I did the cover photo for the album and the poster that went with it.
I went to several of the album recording sessions. One evening, Marc and Tony Visconti were putting guitar over-dubs on Get It On and Jeepster. They also decided both tracks needed some handclaps. No sampling or sequencers in those days, so Tony, BP and I myself got in the mood and added the claps. We found the best way to get the feel Tony wanted was to flamenco dance around the studio microphone …
I went to many T-Rex gigs throughout this period, and they were always great fun. The band enjoyed success at a level not seen since the Beatles’ heyday. Screaming girls, hundreds of fans waiting at the stage door for the band to emerge after the gig, four consecutive Number One singles, using me as a decoy … let me explain that last bit: in those days I had long curly brown hair (lots of it) quite similar to Bolan’s. We were all in the dressing room of the Lewisham Odeon after a gig, and Bolan said – “Murph, stick your head out the window and see if there’s still a crowd down there”. The dressing room was a couple of floors up at the back of the theatre, it was 10.30 at night, so when I stuck my head out, I was greeted by massive screams from below. I hadn’t quite realised what happened, but Marc and June were crying with laughter. “They thought your hair was Marc’s”, June explained … so we used that tactic many times over the coming months. “Get Murph to do his number” became the refrain …
Marc, June, BP and his girlfriend Eileen and I would often sit up until the early hours discussing life, money, religion, politics, the whole damn thing. I was initially quite surprised to realise that I was actually more of a hippie than Bolan was. I had vaguely left-wing ideals in those days, and I had assumed that Marc did too – his whole public persona was based on this somewhat ditzy other-worldly hippie image. In fact Marc was an unashamed capitalist and was in it to make money. I don’t have any negative judgement on his view nowadays, though at the time it did seem treasonous.