Guest post by Nathan Arizona
Before TV fragmented so you never have to watch something that’s not exactly what you want, you had to take what they gave you. On music shows in music-mad, trend-crazy Britain, you could count on seeing hot new bands pretty much every week. But they sometimes had to jostle for screen time with square singers, bands with no chance and the kind of dancers who once would have been at home on the Perry Como show. That’s when Mom started paying attention.
“Marc” was a show like that. It aired in 1977, hosted by Marc Bolan. Bolan had left his working-class Jewish neighborhood in the East End in the early ‘60s to become the dandyish poster boy of the Mods, celebrated as much for his style as his music. Mods were fashion-conscious fans of American R&B. Some may remember the famous brawls between the Mods and Rockers, who were still fixated on ’50 leather and ducktail haircuts.
When Mod was no longer the big thing (it was hard to keep up with British trends) he became one of Britain’s top hitmakers and even broke through in the U.S., where pretty much everybody has heard “Bang a Gong,” which he recorded as T-Rex.
The hits were fewer by 1977, but he still had clout. So there he was hosting all six episodes of the ramshackle “Marc,” where he comes off as kind of a dazed but congenial and fashion-conscious hippie. Or maybe as a leftover from glam rock, itself influenced by Bolan and Mod. Later that year he was killed in a car crash.
The Jam were featured on the very first of episode (along with the Heart-Throb dancers!). The band was led by Paul Weller, who liked the sharp-dressed look of the original Mods and helped kick off the Mod revival of the late ‘70s. He would go on to start Style Council and then launch a Steve Winwood-influenced solo career that continues today and is well regarded.
Later episodes included Generation X with Billy Idol (“supposed to be as pretty as me”), the Boomtown Rats and David Bowie. Bolan joins Bowie for a song. Toward the end of it Bolan falls off the stage
The Jam came along about the time punk rock did, but Weller held himself aloof from the punks even though his music had that same kind of speed and energy. He looked more to the Kinks, The Who and the Small Faces, bands who in their early years were associated with the first Mod movement along with tight Italian suits, motor scooters and coffee bars.
In England, The Jam regularly topped the charts. But the group never broke through in America except with critics and hipsters. This annoyed Weller.
I was at a Jam show at the Tower Theater in 1978 that drew about 300 people in the 3,000-seat building. Fans gathered in a knot in front of the stage. When he finished, Weller stepped to the front and almost angrily announced that the Jam would be back to Philadelphia next year and by god we’re gonna fill this place.
But America never really happened for the Jam. In England they could be TV stars. Along with the Heart-Throb dancers.
Here’s the Jam playing “All Around the World” on “Marc.” Weller’s the tall one to our left.
Billy Idol would soon become a solo act and rise to stardom for a time. Here’s Generation X on “Marc.”
