📰 Mickey Finn – Die Rocker mit dem heißen Schlag: Feb. 1972

A BRAVO exclusive spotlighting Mickey Finn — the quiet, animal‑loving, bongo‑playing heart of T. Rex — at the height of T. Rextasy.

Published February 16, 1972, this three‑page BRAVO feature reframes the T. Rex story through Mickey Finn’s eyes. While Marc Bolan dominated headlines, BRAVO presents Mickey as the band’s gentle soul: an ex‑zookeeper, animal rescuer, and unexpectedly charismatic figure whose calm presence balanced the frenzy of early‑’70s glam.

📰 Key Highlights

• Published in BRAVO Magazine (Germany), February 16, 1972

• Three‑page feature with large photo spreads

• Focuses on Mickey Finn, not Marc Bolan

• Written by Margit Rietti & Tim Merrit

• Includes anecdotes from Mickey’s pre‑T. Rex life

• Emphasises his love of animals and his background as a zookeeper

• Frames him as the “other” T. Rex star — quiet, kind, and adored

• Part of BRAVO’s ongoing T. Rex‑Story series

📰 Overview

This BRAVO feature is one of the earliest and most affectionate portraits of Mickey Finn. At a time when Marc Bolan dominated European teen magazines, BRAVO deliberately shifts the spotlight, presenting Mickey as a warm, grounded counterbalance to Bolan’s flamboyance. The article blends biography, fan‑friendly storytelling, and soft‑focus glamour photography — a classic BRAVO formula designed to deepen the mythology of T. Rex by humanising its most enigmatic member.

📰 Source Details

Publication / Venue: BRAVO Magazine (Germany)

Date: February 16, 1972

Format: Three‑page photo‑feature

Provenance Notes: Part of BRAVO’s serialized T. Rex‑Story coverage during peak T. Rextasy.

📰 The Story

📰 From Zookeeper to Glam Icon

BRAVO opens with a surprising revelation: before joining T. Rex, Mickey Finn worked in a London zoo, caring for sick animals.

He recalls nursing an ill monkey back to health with:

• a hot‑water bottle

• warm tea

• constant attention

This anecdote becomes the emotional anchor of the feature — Mickey as caretaker, not rock star.

📰 A Life Filled With Animals

The article emphasises Mickey’s deep love of animals:

• he owns a dog

• a cat

• a parrot

• and takes his tiny kitten on tour

The kitten, small enough to fit in his jacket pocket, becomes a recurring visual motif across the three pages — a soft contrast to the band’s explosive glam image.

📰 The T. Rex Story – Beyond Marc Bolan

BRAVO acknowledges that most outrageous T. Rex stories revolve around Marc Bolan, but insists that Mickey is equally compelling.

The feature positions him as:

• the band’s quiet centre

• a “good soul”

• a grounding presence amid T. Rextasy

• the bongo player whose rhythmic pulse helped define the early T. Rex sound

This is BRAVO’s attempt to broaden the T. Rex mythology beyond Bolan’s charisma.

📰 Music, Friendship & the Bongo Beat

Mickey is described as someone who plays guitar “for fun,” but whose true role in T. Rex is the bongo‑driven rhythmic spark that helped shape the band’s early acoustic‑electric hybrid sound.

The article subtly reinforces the Bolan‑Finn partnership:

• Marc as the flamboyant visionary

• Mickey as the steady, warm, quietly magnetic counterpart

It’s a dynamic BRAVO readers adored.

📰 Photography – Soft Glam & Gentle Intimacy

The three‑page spread includes:

• a large portrait of Mickey with his kitten

• a circular inset of Marc Bolan

• soft‑focus, warm‑toned images typical of BRAVO’s early‑’70s teen‑idol aesthetic

The visual message:

T. Rex may be explosive on stage, but offstage they are gentle, affectionate, and approachable.

📰 Visual Achieve

Mickey Finn feature, BRAVO Magazine, February 16, 1972.

📰 Related Material

Explore the tags below for connected posts and themes.

📰 Closing Notes

This BRAVO feature remains one of the most charming and humanising portraits of Mickey Finn — a reminder that behind the glitter and frenzy of T. Rextasy stood a gentle, animal‑loving musician whose warmth helped define the band’s early magic.

#MickeyFinn #TRex #BRAVO1972 #MarcBolan #GlamRock #TRextasy #GlamSlamChronicles

📰 Sources

• BRAVO Magazine, February 16, 1972

• Contemporary German teen‑press coverage of T. Rex

• Archival T. Rex biographical material

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The rockers with the In a hot blow

Exclusive report by Margit Rietti and Tim Morris

After the Beatles and Rolling Stones, no group is as famous, but usually only Marc Bolan's most outrageous T. Rex story explodes. But when you talk about T. Rex, you hear stories. We did that in the last BRAVO. This time it's about Mickey Finn. Afterwards, everyone will know: Mickey is also an incredibly good guy

For Marc, Mickey was initially just a purple stain in a vegetarian restaurant where Marc ate ​​raw food every day. Mickey wore purple socks, purple shoes, a purple suit.

Their first meeting was no more than a year and a half ago. But in this short time, they became just as famous as the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. Before that, both had done something completely different from music. Marc Bolan was expelled from school at 13½ and had worked in about fifteen different jobs.

It wasn't much different for Mickey. Music was initially no trace, except that he listened to it and had very specific idols.

He listed them off in BRAVO magazine: "Miles Davis, Benny Smith, Billy Halliday. Those were people you had to listen to. And then there was Eddie Cochran. But the one who impressed me the most was James Dean. He's still the greatest for me."

But first, Mickey attended elementary school in London's working-class district, where please turn the page

Mickey lets the cat out of the bag. Also in this report

For fun, they sometimes play cat and mouse. Marc has the mouse

Continued from page 20

Mickey also sings of love. But he himself is disappointed by it when he grew up. After school came the big question: "Hey, what am I going to do?"

Eventually, he became interested in art. So every day he walked to art school in Croydon. And here his first big disappointment awaited him. It was the teachers.

"I especially hated one guy who was always telling me how to design all my sketches. Until then, I had imagined that art was something very free, personal. I felt like I was on a construction site, not at art school."

But that was only one of his disappointments. The second happened when he was sixteen. Then the teachers threw his sketches in the wastebasket, gave him bad grades, and thought this art student was awful." Later, Mickey discovered that these very sketches had become advertisements for biscuit tins and beer

In other words, i.e., in Mickey's own words: "The teachers had stolen my designs and sold them to companies."

Mickey can still show examples of advertising posters that he designed but that don't bear his name.

Then came the semester break, and Mickey looked for the job where he could earn the most: working in a junkyard. That brought in 25 pounds, about 270 DM, a week.

Mickey was very popular with his colleagues, and in his anger over the stolen designs, he "forgot"

He left art school over the holidays. When he returned two months late, the director told him: "You are a very talented lad, but you don't have the right attitude towards our work."

So, even today, his leaving certificate contains the famous sentence: "Michael Finn leaves the college of his own accord."

A crazy time followed. First, Mickey joined the firm of two honorable, somewhat elderly London gentlemen. Their livelihood consisted of working for fairgrounds. They painted shooting galleries, carousels, and roller coasters in the most ludicrous colors. And Mickey enjoyed it. But only for a short time.

Then another opportunity presented itself. A friend said: "One should really become a mannequin. A menswear mannequin."

Mickey climbed down from the carousels and tried his hand at being a male model. However, it soon became clear that he wasn't the only one in London waiting for a job. "I earned so little that it was barely enough for food."

And then a new big opportunity came along, in a field he knew something about. This was around the time the four Beatles were enjoying their greatest success, in 1964. They wanted to open a boutique on King's Road. They were looking for a young, very pop-art painter. Mickey got the job. He painted the boutique super-pop: The shop was famous overnight.

Right after that, Mickey got into another job: in the film industry. Not as Mickey Mouse, but as a production assistant. And because actors or extras were needed here and there, he was an actor or an extra here and there

Then came his biggest dog. A group of enterprising people had the idea to open the "Apple Shop," a place where you could buy everything. They also had the idea to paint the whole house from the sidewalk to the roof.

Mickey 1972 It all started with drumming on an old crate. Today he makes the coolest rock music of the seventies on bongo drums.

The Most Honorable London City Council considered the plan and found the whole thing "impossible" and "indefensible." But Mickey made it happen.

He hired thirty students who, overnight, covered the whole house from bottom to top with crazy ornaments. And right at the very top, they put a giant apple

In the morning, the police arrived to intervene, but everything was already finished, and the entire London press had turned up to photograph the powerless police officers in front of the house. The boutique is still there today; it's a goldmine.

Just the evening before, Mickey had discovered his great love for music, just like that, in the most natural way. Since running away from home at 16 to live a gypsy life, he had been staying with all sorts of friends. That evening, at a friend's house, he had listened to music and beaten along on an old chest. His friends thought Mickey was an excellent drummer. And so, a few days later, they gave him a drum.

That was Christmas 1968

A month later, Mickey found out that drumming was boring. And since he was staying with another friend who owned a guitar, he strummed on it. That's when he discovered his true love for music. He bought himself one, too.

And because Mickey never does anything halfway, he formed a band at the same time. They made a few singles first, and then an LP.

Meanwhile, the band had continued working, but without any success. They had even written the music for a film. But the film was bad, too. Mickey thought he had no chance of success at all anymore.

Then he ran into his old love. Her name was Sue. He had known her since he was 16. "Sue was just the right type for me. Long-legged, long-haired, and pretty. But she wasn't the kind you could stick around with for long. Once I went on a trip on a new motorcycle, and when I came back, Sue was gone."

That hit him hard. And his attitude towards girls is completely different from Marc's because of this disappointment.

Marc has been married to June for a year and a half and is happy. Marc says about girls: "If they don't have brains, then I can't do anything with them. A woman has to be smart if I'm going to be interested in her."

Mickey says: "If Sue hadn't stood me up back then, I'd probably have the exact same opinion as Marc. But I think differently about girls. It doesn't matter where they come from, what language they speak, the main thing is that they're pretty."

BRAVO asked both T. Rex a tough question: "Suppose a stunningly beautiful girl comes into your dressing room. What do you do then?"

Marc: "I look at her, I'm friendly, and I give her an autograph. Then I let her go."

Mickey: "I look at her, and if she's pretty enough and exactly my type, then she gets more than my autograph. Then she can sleep over at my place."

The two perennial underdogs, who today drive all of England crazy as T. Rex, are at least different in one respect. Marc stays with one woman, and Mickey changes girls like other boys change shirts. And all this just because Sue once ran off on him. Surely he'll settle down with someone eventually, too.

Success seemed all but guaranteed when the group was booked for the "Paradiso" in Amsterdam. And Mickey thought his luck had finally turned. But Mickey doesn't like to remember that time.

"I remember exactly how we landed in Amsterdam. There were eleven of us, and we were all crammed into a single Citroën. That's how it all started. And because we had neither banknotes nor coins in our pockets, we didn't stay in a hotel or a boarding house, but slept in the dressing room of the Paradiso."

It was a flop. The group flew back to London. But without Mickey. He was ill. He spent about two months in an Amsterdam hospital before he saw his buddies again.

Marc and Mickey are such wild characters and such pronounced individualists that you'd think no other type of person could fit in between them. Basically, that's not even possible. But when T. Rex go on tour, they also have drummer Will Legend and bassist Steve Currie with them.

And what these four boys performed at their last concert in Boston, England, can be read in the next issue of BRAVO.

In the next issue of BRAVO: How T. Rex made rock explode

©1972 by BRAVO/Ferenczy Verlag A.G., Zurich