The Dagenham Roundhouse hosted more legendary rock bands than you could shake a drum-stick at, so it was a great venue for artists to be seen and heard.
On the 12th September 1970, T-Rex was the headline act, with Bram Stoker as support.
As we were setting up, I discovered a broken string on my guitar and I couldn’t find the one I needed among the spares. Disaster! All I could do was to go cap-in-hand to the only other guitarist in the house and ask for help.
So I banged on Marc Bolan’s dressing room door to introduce myself.
“Hi Marc, I’ve broken my G string – I don’t suppose you have a spare?”
For Marc, this was too good an opportunity to miss and I was just met with a camp grin and we both burst out laughing.
“Yeah, help yourself, I’ve got plenty”, he said, pointing to a guitar case.
When I opened it, a tidal wave of guitar strings burst out all over the place.
“F**k me Marc! You don’t half break a lot of strings!”
He explained that he was sponsored and well stocked by the company that supplied them and that I could take as many as I wanted. Just as desert nomads are famed for their generosity, there is a wonderful solidarity among musicians – and I was very grateful to the legendary Marc Bolan for rescuing me.
It was a good gig, that night, and Bram Stoker headlined at the DR on 31st October.
