Tragic Marc Bolan Death Crash

Marc Bolan, born in September 1947, was killed in a car crash in London on 16th September 1977 just a few days before his 30th birthday.

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Glam rock icon, guitarist and poet Marc Bolan died on 27th September 1977. He had been a passenger in a car driven by his girlfriend Gloria Jones, (Marc couldn’t drive, despite owning several cars), when it hit a tree. At least, that’s what most people were led to believe but the tree that was supposed to have caused the Marc Bolan death tragedy was not in fact to blame.

However, following the release in 2012 of Lesley Anne Jone’s Biography of Marc Bolan, entitled “Ride a White Swan: The Lives and Death of Marc Bolan” we learn that, whilst Marc certainly died that night, in his Mini as reported, the tragedy that is Mark Bolan death was not directly as a result of hitting a tree.

For all those years, since the accident occurred in 1977 up until the publication of Jones’ book in 2012, it was widely believed that Marc Bolan was killed when his car hit a sycamore tree. It is now revealed however that Marc was actually killed when his Mini collided with a steel-reinforced fence post. Whereas before we had all believed he had been crushed to death in the mini, the book reveals that, in fact, he had suffered a terrible head injury caused by one of the bolts used on the fence.<br />

All of this detail becomes even more poignant after the somewhat belated interviews given by an eye-witness to the crash, a singer called Vicky Aram. Vicky had, apparently, been invited to accompany Marc and his entourage back from a party they had all been attending, in order to discuss various musical projects. As she had her own car, she followed them, thereby avoiding a direct involvement and possibly much worse, in the fatal crash.

Aram was at the scene seconds after the impact and is reported to have seen everything that happened. As a result, we now know the full story.

The crash was, of course, a tragic accident, made even more tragic by the fact that Marc Bolan was, at the time of his death, only 29 and at the peak of his career. Admired by many, idolised by many more, Bolan had, I’m sure, much more to offer.

By the time of his death he had already transformed his persona from that of a poet for whom music was played mainly as an accompaniment to the words, to a full-blown rock star with a catalogue of successful hits and a glam-rock image that many others emulated.

As we now approach the start of the fortieth year since his death, the memory of Marc Bolan as a talented icon who no doubt still had much to offer, I’d like to raise a glass to Fee Warner, the founder of the T Rex Action Group, who purchased the land on which the “fatal” sycamore tree stands in order to prevent it from being felled and still, with help form other volunteers, preserve it to this day.

Marc Bolan death memorial

Marc Bolan & T Rex information: http://www.marc-bolan.net/