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January |
T-Rex have their 5th hit, Bolan is the most popular male popstar in England since Elvis.. |
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| Febuary | Slade duplicate their first hit and Sweet have a bizarre "calypso" song on their hands.. The Sweet of this period wore full red indian headgear and looked somewhat unhappy in all their press photos.. |
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April
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This was a re-release of an older twee T-Rex record, but anything with Bolans name on it would`ve beeen a hit in these times.. |
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"GLAM" Becomes a thing, it has a name, it's about to rule the charts..
And "Fake Glam" starts to rear it's ugly head.. ..fake glam will be anotated in red.. for evil. |
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May
Fake Glam:
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This is more like it.. with only the fledgling Slade as competition T-Rex are making the charts their own.
Elton starts to metamorphose from "sensitive guy" singer songwriter into someone famous for wearing naff sunglasses and dressing up as a duck.. he's quick to spot a trend but will be very slow to let it go.. a bit like the wig.. |
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June (Here we go!)
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Sweet manage to persuade their producers to harden their sound a bit.. not much.. but at least you can hear the guitars on this one.. Slade carry on their remorseless march up the charts but.. whats this .. "Gary Glitter"?
This is one odd record.. originally the 'b' side of a flop this record shares two firsts it's the first intentional rock "dub" ..GG didn't have another song for the 'b' side of his debut so he and producer Mike Leander re-mixed the 'a' side leaving off most of the vocal in the process and slapped it on the reverse.. it's also the first mention of "glitter" "glitter rock" was the other name for "glam rock" at the time.. it's dropped from comman usage in the intervening years tho.. After the 'a' side had failed to get any airplay some DJ's started playing the 'b' side as a novelty.. it took off! and led to the amusing site of GG's first Top Of The Pops apperance.. miming to a record he'd made as a solo vocalist, but with the singing all but removed.. however, we'd been introduced to the sound of two drummers playing that tribal beat.. things would never be the same again. |
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July
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Bowie had a hit in '69 with "Space Oddity" but this was a very different Bowie we found on our TV's.. I remember the moment I first saw Bowie and Ronson on Top Of The Pops doing this song in full length multicoloured knitted bodystockings.. my Dad was ouraged "What will they think of next " etc etc.. I was in awe! This is IT! "he told me.. let the children boogie..." the man was talking directly to ME. (Years later when I realised it was direct rip off of "Somewhere over the Rainbow" I felt a bit silly.. but deep inside I know there's still a Starman waiting..) Then Alice Cooper exploded onto the same TV (On the same Top of the Pops as Hawkwind's "Silver Machine" .. but that's another story..) I was blown away, the make-up the swagger.. "No more teachers No more school.." did these people know what they were doing to me?? (No university for this boy..) |
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| August |
ELO were formed from the ashes of the pretty good "Move" they'd actually been playing in a style very similar to Glam for years, but carried too much 60's baggage to be seriously included here.. the first ELO incarnation included the Moves prime mover "Roy Wood" and this song was an overlong beautiful over the top meisterwork..
Mott The Hoople were about to split, they'd made 3 flop albums and had reached an all time low... until Bowie saw them at a show in Croydon and gave them this song.. an instant and massive hit.. it's since gone on to be a rock (of any genre) classic, and re-launched Mott into the bigtime.. |
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September
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Look whats happening! The charts are getting really exciting! Roxy Music show up with an androgyne on keyboards playing another variation of the space age music Bowie was doing, Slade turn the volume up to 12 T-Rex give us an anthem and an identity.. Gary Glitter releases a record with singing on and starts on a series of TOTP apperances that get more outrageous each time he has a hit.. And blow me.. that squeaky band with the indian clothes have made a half decent record.. they're still a bit suspect tho'.. |
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October
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Bowie and Cooper keep the pressure up.. John I'm Only Dancing features the greatest guitar outro ever recorded and Alice made us feel like he really was the Amreican president thanks to a particularly over the top "film" (pre-video) that was shown on TOTP.. |
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November
Fake Glam:
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The Osmonds?! How did they get in here? well, they made one stonking great beast of a record is how.. one of them must have been on drugs or something, but even today this thing sounds great.. Slade are now rivalling T-Rex in the hits department. Elton probably has the windscreen wipers on his specs by now.. and has started wondering if he should reveal his sexuality.. after all that nice Mr. Bowie is doing quite well out of it isn't he.. |
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December
Fake Glam: |
2 records of this quality in the charts at the same time today? impossible. Poor old Jeff... one of the best rock guitarists in the world finds himself signed to Mickie Mosts "RAK" label.. RAK does have some glam legends on its roster, but poor old Jeff is shoved into his "hippie hat" and thrown onto Top Of The Pops like so much pop fodder.. mentally he will bare the scars for the rest of his life, and never forgive Most. |
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