Dave Thompson - Children of the Revolution: The Glam Rock Story 1970–1975

Not everything, thats for certain. Nobody has, because nobody could, ever catalogue every Glam record released in the UK between 1970 and 1975, simply because nobody can ever agree on what a Glam record is. Websites such as Robin Wills redoubtable http://purepop1.uk/blogspot and the leviathan http://www.45cat.com both serve up startling overviews of the sheer wealth of material being thrown into the marketplace during this period and it is for readers and collectors alone to decide what is and isnt Glam.

Or bubblegum, or pub rock, or belated psych-pop, or proto-punk, or any of the myriad other genres we now declare were burgeoning then. And which will also have slipped into these pages.

I certainly make no distinction between what might be called High Glam (Bowie, Cockney Rebel, the Doctors of Madness, Be Bop Deluxe etc) and Low Glam (Slade, Chinnichap, the Glitters etcwith Marc Bolan walking the thin line between the two). Rather, I agree with Virginia Scott, Mellotron Queen of Beggars Opera (yes, theyre in here too) when she told me, Glam Rock was fashion. I am not so sure that what is now called glam was any different from a lot of the progressive rock at the time except that the songs were shorter/more accessible and ultimately more banal and Dadaistic.

It is, she reminds us, simply a question of stylistic tectonics whose plates were noisily siding into punk.

Instead, Glam Rock: The Definitive Chronology attempts to delineate the widest boundaries within which Glam could be found, both musically, visually and, for readers of a certain age, culturally. Several of the groups and many of the records referenced here really cant be described as true Glam Rock. Some of the artists themselves would furiously deny any association whatsoever with the genre. But they are guilty by association, chronologically caged within a genre that may not have been of their own making, but which allowed them to make something of themselves all the same.

The layout of the book is simple. It can be used as a straightforward A-Z: go to the index at the front of the book, find the band you wish to look up and then follow the month-by-month references from there. It can be left in the bathroom, to be randomly dipped in and out of as and when nature calls.

Or, and this would be my preference, you could start at the beginning, read through to the end and emerge with an understanding of the era not as a piece of ancient pop history, littered with theories, condemnations and thoughts; not as an encyclopaedia in which every band has its own nice, neat entry but as it actually unfurled, with bands reacting to one anothers releases, with flops and follow-ups falling into place in the context of the other acts they were all competing against.

Read it like that, and its one helluva story.

At the end of each month, additional listings are compiled under the titles On The Radio, On The Box and On The Shelves. The first notes live radio sessions recorded by the bands in the book for and broadcast by the BBC, the second notes their television appearances broadcast during that month and the third is concerned with other record releases of interest. These listings are not inclusive or complete; other artists played sessions, other artists appeared on the listed shows and other artists released records. But they werent Glam.

Another point to bear in mind is that this book is only concerned with British Glam in Britain. There was a wealth of bands springing up on the continent and beyond, usually in response to the UK example and another entire book could be devoted to their activities and histories. Likewise the United States, where Glam scenes flourished in both the New York and Los Angeles undergrounds and burbled elsewhere too.

Of course, these restrictions are abandoned when it suits me, but that in turn requires the band in question to have made some sort of impact on British shores Jobriath being advertised on the back of a London bus, the New York Dolls on the Old Grey Whistle Test, Arrows Alan Merrill trailing Japanese stardom and so on.

For the most part, though, I refer you back to that immortal Times headline from 1909 (or so). Fog in channel, continent cut off.

I hope that you have as much fun reading this book as I did writing it and, maybe, if we all wish real hard, the last 40 or so years will roll back right now and we can relive it.

Are you ready, Steve?