The Born to Boogie DVD is now available worldwide and has enjoyed great sales successes. In the UK it was the number one Music DVD in the official sales charts for the week-ending 22 May 2005. It went on to spend four weeks in the top 5 and is still in the top 40. It went into the top 20 in the US and has enjoyed top 10 positions in Japan, Germany, France and Sweden.
Elton: Child of the Revolution
Elton John re-established his Bolan connections with a performance of Children of the Revolution at the Live 8 concert in London on 2 July 2005, as a duet with Pete Doherty of Babyshambles, formerly of the Libertines. Elton also mentioned the Born to Boogie DVD on BBC1’s Top of the Pops the previous Thursday. See more information here: http://www.nme.com/news/112884.htm
The winners of the DVD competition are: Andy Dodd (first prize), Gary Lester, Taku, Carl Ewens, Ron Dunn, and Maggie Hornby (runners-up), who will be receiving their prizes directly from Sanctuary Records. Thank you all for entering.
It is with great sadness that we report the death of Keith Morris, a close
friend of Marc Bolan, who photographed him extensively at the time of the
making of Born to Boogie. His photographs included the iconic shots of Marc
on the tiger.
As well as his career as a rock & roll photographer, Keith was an expert,
highly respected and innovative deep-sea diver, leading explorations of many
lost shipwrecks. He was on a dive on 17 June 2005, 20 miles from Guernsey
in the Channel Islands, and failed to re-surface; he is believed to have died.
Keith was 66, a father of two daughters (and a son who also died in a diving
accident, in 1991), and still in good shape. He had great respect and love
for Marc, despite initially having been a bit wary of him, not considering
him quite his sort of chap. He soon formed a strong friendship with Marc and
June Bolan, both collectively and individually. Keith would escort June to
clubs and events when Marc was away on tour, as June hated to be out on her
own as Mrs Marc Bolan. Keith lived in the same flat in Paddington, west London,
from 1969 to 2005 and it was here that the Bolans would hang out with Keith
and his partner. Some years later when Marc came back to the UK from exile,
Marc and Gloria Jones became regular guests at Keith’s flat.
Keith attended the Born to Boogie premiere on 26 April 2005 but only briefly,
not attending the after-show party. He said later, “Why did you include
Summertime Blues in the film? It’s awful! I sat through Marc murdering
that song so many times in the 70s!!”
Keith was a proud father and a really learned man, with holes in his jeans
and a wicked turn of phrase, who died doing something that he loved. May he
rest in peace
For a full obituary, click here: http://www.divemagazine.co.uk/news/article.asp?UAN=2082&v=1&sp=
To see messages posted by Keith’s friends, and the last photograph taken
of him on the fateful day, click here:
http://www.deepimage.co.uk/home_pages/keith_morris_tributeboard.html