GLAM ROCK Glam Rockers

CHRIS SPEDDING’s solo hit, ‘Motor Bikin’’ took him into glam territory, as did his session appearances with the likes of Roxy and…The Wombles. His early 70's solo recordings also deserve investigation. His mid-70's group SHARKS had the look, but not the sound.

While JEFF BECK could by no stretch of the imagination be classed as glam, his biggest hit, ‘Hi Ho Silver Lining’, paved the way for many a stomping glam anthem to come.

HEAVY METAL KIDS, led by future ‘Auf Wiedersehn Pet’ star Gary Holton, had the glam sound and make-up, but were a little too rough around the edges for the glam crowd to swallow.

Heavy rockers by reputation, their affection for futuristic imagery gave HAWKWIND some glam credibility, and their sole chart hit, ‘Silver machine’, definitely fitted in musically.

THE ROLLING STONES flirted with glam imagery around the time of 1974‘s ‘It’s Only Rock’N’Roll’, with Mick Jagger and Keith Richard both adopting the make-up and androgynous clothing of the times. The Stones had flirted with cross dressing in the late sixties (notably in their promo film for 'Have You Seen Your Mother Baby'), and had played no small part in freeing up the arena for the glam acts to follow.

THE KINKS made few glam concessions image-wise, but their 1972 album ‘Everybody’s In Showbiz’ did contain the unarguably glam-themed singles ‘Supersonic Rocket Ship’ and ‘Celluloid Heroes’. In addition to this, the group had prefigured the emergence of glam by a year or two with their 1970 paean to transvestitism, ‘Lola’.

Drummer COZY POWELL tends to be lumped in with the glam artists by virtue of having been on Mickie Most’s RAK label (somehow Alexis Korner’s C.C.S. managed to avoid the glam tag).

Of the rockers, GEORDIE are most frequently cited as being among the glam firmament, although their laddish image more closely resembled pre-glam Slade. Singles such as the stomping ‘All Because Of You’ however certainly cut the mustard.

BLACKFOOT SUE were forced by their record company to adopt some glam stylings when they hit the charts with ‘Standing In The Road’, but rebelled against this to the extent of writing the anti-glam album track ‘Glittery Obituary’. Their career suffered as a result.

A number of other regular chart visitors in the early-mid 70’s sometimes find themselves bunched in with the glam groups of the time simply by virtue of having been there at the time. Rock artists of varying heaviness such as ARGENT, ROD STEWART, THE FACES, ATOMIC ROOSTER, NAZARETH, STATUS QUO, FREE, MUNGO JERRY, MAGGIE BELL, VINEGAR JOE, THE HOLLIES (whose current line-up includes both Mud's Ray Stiles and The Move's Carl Wayne) and even EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER and more have all been lumped onto glam rock compilations with varying degrees of justification. BAD COMPANY at least had the benefit of former Mott guitarist Mick Ralphs on board, but their glam-ness stopped there.

Adoption of glam flavourings to their images did no harm to the careers of folk-rock artists either. THE STRAWBS adopted the make-up and platforms of the time when they hit No.2 with ‘Part Of The Union’ , though off-shoot band HUDSON-FORD had a more glam sound. ‘Now We Are Six’ became STEELEYE SPAN’s most successful album to date, no doubt aided by the curiosity value of it’s featuring DAVID BOWIE playing saxophone on ‘To Know Him Is To Love Him’. Fox's Noosha started out with folk outfit WOODEN HORSE, though there is little hint of her future greatness in their soft folk stylings.