Well before Lady Gaga hot the stage with her glam rock performances there were rock stars like David Bowie as "Ziggy Stardust" and Marc Bolan. I was born in Scotland where glam rock fashion was not an easy thin to pull off. of all the places in the world Scotland was not a great place to look like a glam rock star. The street gangs of northern England were not well known at the time but they were all about ready to pounce on anyone looking a bit different. I was a bit removed from this as my family were middle class and we lived outside the city center of Glasgow which was a bit less hostile. The level of un employment and drugs on the street made life in the inner cities of Scotland pretty hard for a kid into glam rock
I was 11 years old when I first discovered glam rock stars like Marc Bolan and T Rex in the form of the single 'Jeepster' which I wore out twice on my parents' record-player. My class at school, in terms of pop sensibility was divided as follows: the boys were fans of either Slade or The Sweet, and the girls all adored Marc Bolan and glam rock. The latter was dismissed by the boys as 'a poof' even though Steve Priest, bass-player of The Sweet was clearly as glam rock & camp as anyone on the scene. But he got a pass for some reason. So I listened to my T Rex records in private, not letting on to any of my class-mates about my new obsession glam rock, fearing that I in turn would be instantly labeled as 'a poof'. My next major discovery was glam rock and Roxy Music's first album. The inside sleeve features glam fashion photos of the band looking like Science Fiction movie-stars, and it was this which first provoked the thought in me: 'I want to look like a glam rock star'.
The early experiences as a glam rock guy in London started by asking my mother for money to get some platform boots. it took a little while to perfect my own glam rock look as many of the top clothes were from Biba a famous shop in London that sold glam rock fashions for very expensive prices. Soon the clothes became available at the average shop and the prices really dropped, there was such a demand from the kids to look like a glam rock star that the fashion even got into the mainstream shops were the everyday shopper would now see it as somewhat normal attire. Looking at old footage of 70s films you can see the platform shoes and the spikey haircuts that were influencing designers of the high street fashions that normal people would shop.
The first act of personal attack upon me did not take place very long afterward. I walked the distance from a bus stop on the way home from a glam rock gig by a new band in town. I was being screamed at by about 20 kids from across the street, soon they came charging after me wanting blood. I was trapped and tried to reason saying it was just a fashion thing and all the girls dug it. Unfortunately this made them even more angry as I suppose they were not so popular with the opposite sex as at the time glam rock guys were getting all the dates and best looking women.
Since it was raining, walking in my socks wasn't really an option- so I hopped and hobbled to the bus-stop. On the bus I was mocked and jeered at by a group of teenagers for looking glam rock but finally made it home, war-torn and bloody. Thanks to the alcohol, I didn't feel any physical pain until the following day when I woke up with a black eye and what turned out to be a cracked rib. But it was the irreparable damage to my clothing which upset me more than anything else. Not surprisingly, I wasn't the only glam rock person in Dundee and I soon met and befriended other like-minded glam rock individuals. This enabled me to avoid developing a persecution-complex, realizing with some pride and satisfaction that I was pursuing self-expression without compromise in a hostile environment opposed to glam rock.
I was 11 years old when I first discovered glam rock stars like Marc Bolan and T Rex in the form of the single 'Jeepster' which I wore out twice on my parents' record-player. My class at school, in terms of pop sensibility was divided as follows: the boys were fans of either Slade or The Sweet, and the girls all adored Marc Bolan and glam rock. The latter was dismissed by the boys as 'a poof' even though Steve Priest, bass-player of The Sweet was clearly as glam rock & camp as anyone on the scene. But he got a pass for some reason. So I listened to my T Rex records in private, not letting on to any of my class-mates about my new obsession glam rock, fearing that I in turn would be instantly labeled as 'a poof'. My next major discovery was glam rock and Roxy Music's first album. The inside sleeve features glam fashion photos of the band looking like Science Fiction movie-stars, and it was this which first provoked the thought in me: 'I want to look like a glam rock star'.
The early experiences as a glam rock guy in London started by asking my mother for money to get some platform boots. it took a little while to perfect my own glam rock look as many of the top clothes were from Biba a famous shop in London that sold glam rock fashions for very expensive prices. Soon the clothes became available at the average shop and the prices really dropped, there was such a demand from the kids to look like a glam rock star that the fashion even got into the mainstream shops were the everyday shopper would now see it as somewhat normal attire. Looking at old footage of 70s films you can see the platform shoes and the spikey haircuts that were influencing designers of the high street fashions that normal people would shop.
The first act of personal attack upon me did not take place very long afterward. I walked the distance from a bus stop on the way home from a glam rock gig by a new band in town. I was being screamed at by about 20 kids from across the street, soon they came charging after me wanting blood. I was trapped and tried to reason saying it was just a fashion thing and all the girls dug it. Unfortunately this made them even more angry as I suppose they were not so popular with the opposite sex as at the time glam rock guys were getting all the dates and best looking women.
Since it was raining, walking in my socks wasn't really an option- so I hopped and hobbled to the bus-stop. On the bus I was mocked and jeered at by a group of teenagers for looking glam rock but finally made it home, war-torn and bloody. Thanks to the alcohol, I didn't feel any physical pain until the following day when I woke up with a black eye and what turned out to be a cracked rib. But it was the irreparable damage to my clothing which upset me more than anything else. Not surprisingly, I wasn't the only glam rock person in Dundee and I soon met and befriended other like-minded glam rock individuals. This enabled me to avoid developing a persecution-complex, realizing with some pride and satisfaction that I was pursuing self-expression without compromise in a hostile environment opposed to glam rock.
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