David Bowie could have collaborated with Marc Bolan.
The glam rock icon – who died of liver cancer at the age of 69 back in 2016 – shared a music producer in Tony Visconti with the late T.Rex star, who claimed that David had suggested that the pair work together after they had been reunited on his show ‘Marc’ after initially losing touch.
Tony said: “It was on the cards that we were going to work together. Marc came down to the studio [after David had invited him], looked around, and said, ‘I’d love to see Tony again.”
However, any potential collaboration between David, Marc and Tony never came to fruition because a short while later – on September 16 1977 – the ‘Get It On’ rocker was involved in a car crash with Gloria Jones and was killed instantly when she drove her Mini into a tree just two weeks before his 30th birthday, while she survived.
Before his untimely death, Marc had been propelled to instant chart success with his fellow rockers in the late 1970s and enjoyed chart success with hits such as ‘Hot Love’, ‘Get It On’, ‘Telegram Sam’ and ‘Metal Guru’ but his success in glam rock was ultimately eclipsed by his “rival” Bowie, with Tony – who has also worked extensively with the likes of Hazel O’Connor and Elaine Paige – being down to the fact that he had adopted an alter ego in the form of Ziggy Stardust.
He told The Times: “By the time he released [‘Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow’], he was copying David Bowie. David trumped Marc by creating a persona with Ziggy Stardust, and Marc, who definitely saw David as his rival, tried to copy him with Zinc Alloy. It was sad.”
However, Tony did go on to explain that Marc – who shot to fame around the same time as David – was, along with T.Rex, “revolutionary” when it came to glam rock, implying that it all began with their performance of ‘Hot Love’ on BBC show ‘Top of the Pops.’
He said: “That [performance] was before Bowie started wearing dresses, so it was revolutionary. Chelita took Marc to shops like Biba and got him to wear little Mary Jane shoes, which worked brilliantly because he had an ability to look feminine and still be really macho. One time, he turned up to a session and kicked me straight in the bollocks. I doubled up in pain and said, ‘What was that for?’ He replied, ‘You’re a kung fu guy. You should have blocked that.’ It was his little power play to show he was still the Hackney punk, the leader of the gang.”