20th Century Boy Tribute

“The bill at the Palladium was T.Rex, with Argent and the Doobie Brothers as opening acts,” recalls Edward Rogers. “The Doobie Brothers were the new guys. That’ll give you an idea of how long ago this was. I didn’t even think there’d be tickets available, but the lady told me I could have first row seats on the balcony. So I’m walking away, and there’s Marc Bolan doing an interview with the BBC. It was 11:30 in the morning, and he was totally glammed out, and telling the BBC how the tour was going great, and T.Rex was about to begin three sold-out nights at Madison Square Garden.”

“And there I am with the tickets I just bought. So I went up to Marc when he was done, and I politely explained that he’d mixed up the venues, and that he was playing the Palladium. He looked at me and said, ‘It’s all showbiz, kid.’”

Marc Bolan certainly knew about showbiz and self-promotion. And while T.Rex never got their sold-out nights at the Garden, the glam superstar—who died in a 1977 car accident—is getting an impressive evening in Central Park. Rogers and Joe Hurley will be hosting the upcoming “20th Century Boy: The Marc Bolan and T.Rex 30th Anniversary Celebration” at the Delacorte Theater.

The Carpenters and Scott Walker are opening, as respectively interpreted by Justin Bond (along with Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters) and David Driver.

Marc Bolan and his legendary ’70s glam act are still getting the full star treatment, and that’s just from the illustrious backing band. Guest artists include Robert Gordon, Richard Barone, Michael Cerveris and Sylvain Sylvain and Steve Conte from The New York Dolls. The bloodline is also represented with a turn by Marc’s son, Rolan.

Local music fans might recall the big 20th anniversary celebration of Bolan’s life and death. That was also put together by Hurley, best known locally for his longtime act Rogue’s March. As a London-bred Irishman, Hurley didn’t need to rediscover the genius of Marc Bolan.

“My childhood was spent singing ‘Hot Love’ with my school friends, and having a row over who was the biggest T.Rex fan. That, and rows over football. That was it—the violence of English football and loving a makeup-wearing pop star who was heavy on the androgyny and women’s high heels. Come to think of it, a lot of the football songs sung on the terrace were lifted from the glam tunes of the time. Somehow, those two worlds co-existed and made a dreary childhood come alive.”

Meanwhile, English boy Rogers had been relocated to an America where T.Rex was a one-hit wonder. The success of “Bang a Gong” made Marc Bolan a slightly bigger glam act than Kaptain Kool and the Kongs.

He was always more visionary than any band he inspired. Bolan was essentially an electric Dylan with sci-fi influences and a better understanding of the blues.

He would also become one of the few ’70s acts to get respect from the punks. Bolan had gone briefly out of fashion, but he was set for a comeback right before his sudden death—which, in a rare display of bad showbiz timing, came awfully close to the demise of Elvis Presley.

“When Elvis died,” says Hurley, “there was an interview with Marc discussing how it was terribly sad, and that everyone would miss Elvis, but that Marc was awfully glad that he hadn’t died that day because then his death wouldn’t have made the front page. Then Marc died a month later, after releasing his best album in years, and with a TV show where he was bringing a lot of punk bands on the air for the first time.”

That’s how you make a legend. This tribute show is part of another epic tale, presented as part of the Joe’s Pub In the Park series. Hurley and Rogers are veteran local acts who were also around for the early days of Loser’s Lounge—back when it was a humble gathering of pop geeks performing the songs of their favorite composers to each other. Today, a Loser’s Lounge tribute doesn’t gear up without multiple nights being booked at Joe’s Pub. In terms of slavish devotion, the Bolan tribute is like The Knack playing Shea Stadium.

“Randy Newman and Harry Nilsson might be more popular now,” says Rogers, “but we started out in the days before the Internet. It was harder to learn about those kinds of acts. Loser’s Lounge was simply a way for people to get together. The first time I met Joe was for one of the T.Rex tributes at Loser’s Lounge. He’d been doing T.Rex tributes since he came to New York, and they needed a drummer one night.”

“The tribute thing may be getting out of control,” adds Hurley. “I even hesitate to use the word with this show. We’re embracing a side of childhood that’s stuck with us all these years, with music about castles and wizards.”

“Marc had a book of poetry that came out in the early ’70s called Warlock of Love. It was the biggest-selling book of poetry in England, and Marc liked to say that he was bigger than Shakespeare,” says Hurley. “Now his music is being performed in the home of Shakespeare in the Park. We know he’d get a kick out of that.”   Sept. 29, Delacorte Theater, Central Park, enter at W. 81st St. at CPW or E. 79th St. at 5th Ave., 212-967-7555; 7, $40.