HB: Many people say that the music is very monotonous, that it’s only loud, it goes out hammer and tongs…

MB: "A lot of people say a lot of things about a lot of stuff and most of them aren’t always very informed about what they’re talking about. Rock music is easily as important as any other music. Music is the thing that one feels about and enjoys, and if one doesn’t feel or enjoy it one shouldn’t really talk about it or listen to it.”

MB: “If I’m a dustman tomorrow, tough. I’ve never believed in security, and I still don’t. I do what I do for people who want to listen. If they don’t want to listen, crap ‘em, I don’t care. I do it because I believe in it.”
RH: “Do you ever waken up in the middle of the night and think, ‘in another 20 or 30 years I’m going to be 50 or 60. What shall I be doing?"
MB: I never think of that.
RH: It doesn’t haunt you?
MB: I don’t think I’ll live that long.

‘Back in spring 1975, there was a strangely-worded ad in Record Mirror saying, "If you know a lot about pop music, contact..." so I did. There was an 'audition' about a month later in London, and I passed that. (Later I found out that these auditions were more about working out if you could be in front of cameras without falling to bits, as much as answering pop music questions.)

Anyway, during the summer holidays, I went up to Leeds with my Mum and sister. On getting off the train, I saw Marc Bolan with Gloria Jones, about 200 yards away, getting out of first class, naturally.

"Oh look!" I said to Mum. "Marc Bolan!"
"Who, that man with the dog and the flat cap?"
"No, the man further up with the tall boots and the purple coat!"

Anyway, we got a cab to the Yorkshire TV studios, and arrived at the same time as Marc. So, he's going to be the first star on the first show. Great!

As part of the show, we got to ask him a question from our 'team' positions. What it was, I can't remember. But I remember some of the ones we weren't allowed to ask.

At the end of the quiz our team won! So, Marc graciously came over to give us our prizes with a flourish. "I was rooting for you, being another Mark," he said, and I blushed inside. Outside, I was "'ang on, you've given us the losers’ envelopes!" "Oops, sorry" he laughed. Anyway, they had to do a retake for some other reason, and he said, "Right ones this time!" He passed us a copy of "Bolan’s Zip Gun", and he chatted a bit as the programme ended.

Afterwards, there was a bit of milling around. We all got our individual copies of the album, and waited for his signature. As I was looking for a suitably white spot for his autograph, he grabbed the album, scribbled "Marc Bolan" on the near-black reverse and handed it back to me. After that, he dashed off. I don't think anyone got close enough to Gloria Jones to get her autograph.

Naturally I played that album a lot. Weirdly, I hadn't played it since 1975, when I dug it out and played it, earlier on in the day of the night he died.’

SM: “How do you get on as a businessman, are you very hard?”
MB: “I'm not a business man; I'm still a little kid. I just do what I want to do and hope it works out. I cheat a lot as well."

"Marc wanted to look pretty. He was very beautiful at a time when men did not want to be “beautiful.”

"I took him to meet John Lloyd at Alkasura who made suits which I wore and which Marc wore in nearly every colour under the sun. He was well up for it; he was always quite camp Marc, and it was fun."

"Marc had knowledge that goes beyond study; something that one can’t measure.”

"Thank you – goodbye – from all the boys in the band, David, everybody, all the cats, you know who they are.”

Marc Bolan

"I consider myself an artist you know: a writer, a poet, a guitar player, so if that’s what a star is, then I must be a star.”

Marc Bolan

"I remember being alone with him for the first time in God knows how long... I said, “You’re not Mark Feld, that tasty little geezer.” He said, “I’m going to get fit. How come you never got fat?” I said, “Because I never went over the top; I never over-indulged; I never went mad.”

"Marc Bolan was a major feature of white music and here comes a black American and she’s been perceived as his backing singer… many people didn’t understand that she had a great deal to contribute to his sound.”

"You just knew that Marc wasn’t going to live to be old. You sort of said, “OK, you kinda got what you always wanted. That grand fame, the biggest fame there is, dying too young, and not being able to ever see him fail.”