beatinst

Behind every success story there's a team of guitars. Marc Bolan decided to give his chosen few a taste of the publicity he's been getting and brought them all down to his London office to be photographed.
The man who was handling them as they were set up for the photographer was Marc's roadie, Mike O'Halloran. He's been with T. Rex for 21/2 years now along with Mike Gray, who's served 9 months and Steve Little, a recent addition who joined only 3 months ago. Whilst Marc wandered around the room, obviously very tired from the recording session the night before, Mike began introducing me to the guitars. The first one was a Gibson Flying Arrow in white which
had a large Electric Warrior
sticker stuck firmly to it. (The
publicity never stops !) Then

came a guitar which was especially made for Marc to his own specifications by A.C.
Zematis of London. The front
is silver plated and has the maker's name engraved on it with the year 1972
Next came a 1948 Gibson Les Paul. This guitar was soon to be having a new neck fitted as the original neck had been broken by a fall. As a result, Marc took it to be refitted but unfortunately neglected to take it back to its makers -Gibson. Because of this, the new neck which was put in by a small firm began twisting and , he's now been forced to take it back to Gibsons to have it refitted in the correct manner. As far as Marc knows, it's the only one of its particular model in the country.
Standing next to the Les Paul '48 was a Les Paul Special 1961 and a 1958

Fender Stratocaster. Besides
the Stratocaster he has a Fender Custom Telecaster which he's fitted with a Gibson pick up. This model was bought the year it came
out -1968. Mike pointed out that normally Marc goes for older models because they're already well worn in.
Marc has two Japanese acoustic guitars, one an Aria and the other an Astoria. Lastly he has a Gibson Special and a 1969 Epiphone.
Mike explained to me that Marc takes nearly every one
of these guitars to all of his gigs! During a performance he has them standing along the side of the stage and often swaps guitars after a number. To transport all of T. Rex's equipment they hire a five-ton Avis truck, or in the case of the huge Wembley concerts,seven-ton Avis. After each gig it

takes the roadies approximately five hours to clear away the gear.
'We use custom-built Vampower amps for the bass with 16 12-inch speakers explained Mike. 'Marc has a custom built cabinet as well as two H & H amps. He has two spare vamps and a Vox Supreme. For the P.A. Wl
use Kelsey & Morris -again custom built. We use 2,000 watts normally -3,000 at Wembley or stadiums of that size. Bill has a Hayman double bass drum kit and there's six congas for Mickey
'For practice amps we use Vamp or we've also got two Fender Champ Amps and a Vox AC 30 tune-up amp.' On top of all this there's the PA and a 12-channel mixing unit. Mike was careful to add at the end of his list, the fact they use a lift with the van! S.T.