Songs from "Marc" - RSD26

Newly unearthed and 100% previously unreleased – the definitive ‘MARC’ show recordings from 1977.

Marc Bolan’s celebrated 1977 six-part Granada TV series, ‘MARC’, renewed his position as a central force in the UK music scene as he broke new ground hosting his own show.

During the series Marc, backed by a mostly new T.Rex (Herbie Flowers on bass, Tony Newman on drums with Dino Dines on keyboards), delivered fresh versions of highlights from his stellar career alongside a sprinkling of new songs and well-chosen covers of 1950s classics. It’s unclear whether the 1977-version tracks were recorded in London or Manchester, but it is most likely that T.Rex used a studio in the capital: they were made specifically for the show and Bolan had several studios at his disposal in his hometown. The tape box, unearthed in December 2024, offers no further clue.

The shows were filmed in Manchester in pairs: Granada’s Studio 6 hosted Marc, his band and many guests over three 48-hour periods. Shows one and two were filmed on 9 and 10 August 1977; three and four on 22 and 23 August, with the final pair captured on 6 and 7 September. Transmission began on Wednesday 24 August at 4.20pm, with the sixth episode screening on 28 September, 12 days after the tragic accident which took Marc’s life.

The songs on this collection are from shows 1 to 4, recently discovered on a long-lost ¼” tape and newly mastered. Each track is complete: intros, full songs and endings all present and correct, also benefitting from an absence of overdubbed audience noise. (There was no actual audience in the Granada studios.) Of particular note is Hot Love, running to over four minutes with the distinctive vocals of Lynn Garden accompanying Marc on the coda, and Dandy In The Underworld, an instrumental take as the broadcast version featured a live Bolan vocal.

Almost 50 years after the event, MARC is presented here with better clarity than ever before.