The U.K. 70s Singles & Albums Chart General Discussion Thread.

And all Donna Summer's moans and groans and sighs of satisfaction. And don't forget the Stranglers' 'Peaches'!

 

1977 was pure filth.

 

Wow! That is obscure. Well remembered. From A Bird's Eye View. 1970. It only ran for one season. Actually made in the UK but for the international market.

She was of course, memorably, Daphne Moon's mother in several seasons of Frasier and was a big noise on Broadway until relatively recently.

 

And fury.

 

I don’t know why I remembered that! It must have been on when I got home from school.

 

Yeah, it was great!

 

Some top tier guests on the Marc show,
Bay City Rollers, Mud, Alfalpha.
I can't remember exactly but I suspect that by late 77 their days at the top of the hit parade were now over...

 

And of course a couple of years previously, the Rollers had their own, very popular TV show on at the same time as this one!

 

And a year after Mr. Bolan's death, BCR were in America hosting another TV show, Krofft Superstars. Made their 1975 UK TV show look like Old Grey Whistle Test in comparison.

 

She was in "Frasier" for a few seasons.

 

I have very vague memories of Alfalfa on this show - I can only remember the band's name and had no idea what Alfalfa even was (I think it was referenced on Sesame Street once when I watched it)

There is very little about them online and their eponymous album from 1977 is not available on Apple Music or Deezer.

Five Reasons: Alfalpha - Alfalpha (1977) (featuring Nick Laird-Clowes)

One of the band (Nick Laird-Clowes) had more success in the 1980's with Life in a Northern Town by The Dream Academy

 

I have never heard or read anything about them.

 

Same here. Is this episode of Marc on YouTube?

Edit. Yes it is!



Second edit. Alfalpha’s song sounds like a Smokie B-side.

 

I actually don't like to watch those Marc shows.
In 71/72 Marc looked fantastic, really cool, androgynous and of course was the 70's first pop pin up. By 73 the champagne, brandy and drugs started to take their toll, Marc gained a lot of weight, looked sweaty and unhealthy.
Finally by spring 77 he had cleaned up and slimmed down, he was looking his best since 72 for sure, fit and healthy and his good looks had returned. This was the time of the Dandy in the Underworld album.
I don't know what happened but by the time of the Marc shows 6 months later he looked so thin, gaunt and ill. He looked older than his years and really tired.
Also for the shows he became ultra camp in an over the top way, even the outfits he wore on the show were awful.

It really not how I want to remember him.

 

I agree with much of that. Marc was only a few weeks off 30 here. A birthday he’d not see, of course. Still, he does look weathered for some reason. I think a good deal of Marc’s trouble was he never really moved on from his 1971/72 hey day musically or visually. When you compare all the changes later guest David Bowie had gone through by 1977…

This TV series was probably a bit of a lifeline for him in 1977, but he’s not very good at hosting it. He seems embarrassed and uncomfortable, especially when trying to link the show. I have to say even the Bay City Rollers looked more current than Marc here.

Nice to hear Celebrate Summer though. The last new single released in his lifetime. Not the best song to go out with.

 

And it wasn't as if things were getting better, the only other new song on the show was Sing Me A Song.
When you compare that to say Metal Guru...

 

I think Dandy In The Underworld was his best album since The Slider, but I don’t know if he would have made any kind of significant comeback had things gone differently.

 

Who knows.
David Bowie is apparently on record as saying that Marc had health problems during the time of the shows. They were hanging out together in London in those last few days/weeks.

Steve Harley about Marc in '77: "Did he clean up? Yeah maybe... he did lose weight but you don't have to go on a serious diet in order to lose weight, you can do it by not eating and doing drugs for chrissakes. I dunno... he wasn't looking after himself. I know he wasn't because I was there and he was alone. I could sense the personal pain. That house [in Richmond] was not habitable, all he had was a chesterfield, a bed, some books in the bathroom and several guitars. It was a complete shambles. He couldn't look after himself. He'd get bullied and poorly treated by the [plumbers and electricians]. He was there alone, all he ever talked about was the barbecue he was going to put in."

 

I thought he was with Gloria in 1977?

 

He was, but during those last week's Gloria was in LA recording her solo album. She arrived back just before the crash, the day before I think it was.
Marc was not somebody who could function alone.
He did seem completely lost during this period. There were rumours that he was very unhappy at this time.

 

Gee, who knew?

As for "The Soul Of My Suit," his vocal sounded almost like proto-"Free Fallin' " Tom Petty.

 

I actually really like that song and it has aged very well.
Marc was looking really good again at this time. If you check out the TOTP performance it's great, very understated and all the better for it.
Everything was finally going so right earlier in 77, but by the time of the Marc shows...

 

Let us, meanwhile, get to another record by a UK act that failed to make the UK charts, but did do business in the U.S. (and turned out to be their last Top 40 hit there) - "Baby Blue" by Badfinger:

 

I love Dandy In The Underworld and Futuristic Dragon, but I agree that his comeback would never have been a particularly big one. I doubt that it would have even matched the sporadic success Slade enjoyed in the early 80s. And I love Marc Bolan. Have done ever since I was about five or six. But I can't really picture him in the 80s or beyond. Having said that, I never expected Slade's mini-revival in 1981-84. We'll never know...

 

True, but I still enjoyed watching the show. I was just glad he was on at all.