Rockenstock TV Appearance: 1972

T.Rex
Feb 3, 1972
3 min read

T.Rex's French TV Live & Interview

On February 3, 1972, T.Rex recorded a special edition of Rockenstock for transmission on Antenne 2 France. Recorded live at le Chateau d'Herouville, this program was broadcasted on February 12, 1972 in black and white .

T.Rex played live Hot Love, Cadillac, Telegram Sam, Jeepster and Marc was interviewed by Pierre Lattès.

Marc's responses are humble and reflective: he downplays "star" status, emphasizes his artistry/poetry, explains his music's commercial evolution naturally, stresses lyrics' importance in England, discusses his intense work schedule, future plans (film directing, more books), flattery from Beatles comparisons, and his hands-on band leadership with a strong rhythm focus.

Interviewer: Marc... are you a star?

Marc Bolan: if I am a star, it feels all right, you know? It's— I don't know. People have said that, um... I consider myself an artist, you know, um... and a writer, poet, guitar player. So if that's what a star is, then I must be a star.

Interviewer: That's how... does it feel?

Marc Bolan: Yeah, nice, sure, nice.

Interviewer: You read them?

Marc Bolan: Not anymore? I look at them, but I don't read them anymore, you know...

(Transitions into "Hot Love" performance.)

Interviewer: Changing the style of the music slightly allowed it to reach a mass audience really—was it?

Marc Bolan: No, not at all. It just sort of came into it, you know. It moved into the realm of sort of commercial music, innit really. I think it's probably the only way that it can happen, you know—really, you know.

Uh, well, each song varies so much, um... and I do write poetry, um... we have a book out in England of poetry, um... so the words to me are important, um... but without going through every individual song I couldn't explain to you, but they're sort of surreal words really—so realistic.

Interviewer: Do you think that... do people listen to words actually in England?

Marc Bolan: Yeah, very much so, um... the sound is obviously important and the rhythm, you know, the funk of it, but it's um... the words are important.

Interviewer: You work much?

Marc Bolan I work all the time actually, um... it's been a hard year for it so, but in a couple of years maybe I'll have a holiday. How long? Um, doing rock and roll I'll probably do it for about four or five years more and I'm going to start directing film shortly, so that should be interesting—going into a whole another thing. And I've got some books out in England, new... new books, so I'll probably write...

Interviewer: So... and uh, how do you react to these things?

Well, I was very flattered because all the Beatles in their own way so that we were like their successes. Um, I'm not sure that it's true, but I'm very very flattered. It's nice—it's an encouraging thing, you know

Interviewer: How is the work? Do you do everything ?

Marc Bolan: Um... I write the material and sort of direct the whole scheme of the band, but um... on stage everyone contributes very much... um, their own thing, you know. I worked on getting a really powerful rhythm section, um... as you're here when we play the live things, um... so it really comes—when I write a song we'll run through it and then record it normally and then rehearse it for a while and then do it on stage, you know.

(Leads directly into "Telegram Sam" performance, ending the interview portions.)

Both the original black-and-white and a new color version are available on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWYkyrPmuq8