FEE - A BOLANIC HISTORY

Fee started organising her own Marc Bolan Party which was held at Malvern Winter Gardens. As well as writing letters to her Bolan Pen Pals, Fee did the organisation for the Rexmas Marc Bolan Party at work too.

One day she was called into her boss's office and her letter of dismissal cited "doing Marc Bolan and T.Rex work in company time". "Whoops!" thought Fee. She phoned her Mum, who went, not unexpectedly, mental at the news. Fee told her she's been sacked and that she shouldn't expect to see her for a while as she was off to London. ("Horray" thought Fee as she set off for London!)

Fee alternated with stays in Bristol and times in London when she stopped at Simon Slider's flat in Fulham.
"Off the King's Road" we'ed say when really it was off the New King's Road which wasn't nearly such a good address!

Simon's flat was often full of Bolan fans including Ros Davis; Colm Jackson; (who had been in the process of setting up a T-Rex Fan Club in 1977 until Marc died); members of 'Swell Maps'; 'Stevie Treatment'; and Steve Burgess who filmed the 'Eat a Peach' video.
At the weekends it was full to bursting. For Marc's First Anniversary even more so, as Fee invited Judy from Bristol to come so they could visit The Tree.

When in London there were times when Fee got the feeling Simon would rather her not be there, so she kept herself out of the way and stayed out most of the time. The Tree became a daily focus. A time to sit with her cassette recorder listening to Tyrannosaurus Rex. Musing on the unfairness that someone could die so young, when he was needed by so many.

Then there was Ladbroke Grove Fee had 'discovered' Portobello Road & Ladbroke Grove around 1973/4 as her musical tastes had developed and generally taken an 'Undergound' direction. The reissue of the Tyrannosaurus Rex albums had brought Fee, as it did to many other Bolan fans into the heady world of 'Hippy Trippy' Marc. At first Fee found them difficult to listen to but over time she'd 'grown into' them and by 1974 her favourite album of that year was 'Beginning of Doves'. As a side note: At Reading Festival in August 1978 Fee took a Marc Bolan flag with flag poles tied to the side of her little motorbike and met Martin from Bristol whom she met again, with his wife at the Bristol Convention in February 2000!

Fee also got to know Marc's parents & visited & wrote to them on a regular basis. Phyllis have Fee Three of Unpublished 'Contact Print Sheets' which Fee naturally treasured & got negatives made so she could have enlargements done of the best photos. One sheet was T-Rex in Concert while the other two were from a Holiday in Cannes, France with Ringo Starr & George Harrisson & were therefore wonderfully personal shots. Fabulously, Marc had marked the back of all three sheets with photos he particularly liked! :-)
In time The negatives, prints and enlargements of two of these photos (including the only one of George Harrison & Marc together) were donated by Fee to the TAG auction. Phyllis gave them to Fee so she thought it only right to donate them to the project to improve the Tree site. They fetched over £300 towards the Steps. The Linda Phyllis refered to in the larger version of the letter (on the Marc's parents Page) was a wonderful girl, Linda Stamp from Nailsea who had a heart condition and died at the age of twenty one, only a couple of years after Phyllis wrote about her here. Linda's death was a great loss as she was a wonderfully kind hearted person.

MARC BOLAN'S FIRST ANNIVERSARY - 1978

 

 

Left: Fee at Golders Green 16th September 1978. Try and count the number of Bolan Badges on Fee's waistcoat! There was an iron-on Marc Bolan transfer on the back too! Photo) sent in Eddie. Fee's the one on the right apparently being 'strangled'! Fee still has the waistcoat pictured on the 16th September 1978. Although of no monetary value it is the waistcoat Fee was wearing while she was sitting in June's home & bounced June's Baby Daughter Ilona on her knee in Fulham in late 1978 when Fee was aged 19. June commented on this waistcoat & said she liked it!! :-O Obviously that made this Waistcoat which was actually just a standard Men's Waistcoat with hand sewn patched - Very, Very Special! Read Fee's first-hand recollections of meeting June Here. Bottom Left: In September 2005, Twenty Seven Years Later, Fee wore the same waistcoat to meet Ilona for the second time at the Memorial Plaque Ceremony at The Shrine where a Memorial Plaque had been installed for June :-)

BOLAN-IFIED CLOTHING!

As soon as Fee saw the 'Crimson Moon' poster she knew that it would make the perfect photo for a painting.
Soon a piece of material, cut to fit the entire back panel of her jacket, had been painted and hand stitched in place.

When the jacket worn-out the painted panel was removed and has been kept safely ever since.
To give an idea of scale the two CD's which Fee has been involved with releasing* are shown with the painted panel. Everywhere Fee went that needed a thick jacket she wore her red one proudly!

Right: When her red jacket was no more, Fee used the 'latest technology' to transfer the image from a black & white photocopy to the back of her new jacket.
When this one wore out, she cut the image off as she couldn't bear to throw it away. It went into the 'Special Bolan Box' along with the red painted jacket panel, letters from Marc's mum and the contact print sheets Phyllis had given Fee.
* See Below for details of the two albums - Tyrannosaurus Rex Live at Middle Earth on the 23rd September 1967 'There Was a Time' and 'Steve Took's Horns 'Blow It!!!'

Below: Fee's Son Rohan aged nine months at Golders Green Crematorium on September 16th 1981.
His first visit!

WEARING BOLAN BADGES LEAD TO LOTS OF SPITEFUL JOKES!

Left: Fee in October 1978 sporting two Marc Bolan badges. Right: An Enlargement of the badge in the photo on the left. Fee wrote it and it was made into a badge for her. The text reads Marc Bolan You are my love, my life, my everything! Come Back I need you. An interesting note is that this was the jacket Fee remembers wearing when she met Steve Took. Read Fee's memories of her encounter with Steve Took Here

1978 Midland Marc Bolan Party in Ilkeston
On Marc's 31^st Birthday (30^th September 1978)

Sadly Fee doesn't still have the photos from Marc's 31st Birthday Party. There was a birthday cake with candles which everyone blow out on Marc's behalf after singing 'Happy Birthday'. NOTTINGHAM FOREST FOOTBALL FANS RUIN THE NIGHT! Fee remembers that night well as does Bolan Gary Clinton! Marc's fans were set upon by local football yobs. When the trouble started and Bolan fans came out of the convention to help they were set upon by hoards of football hooligans. The pub landlord shut the doors and locked the unfortunate outside where many huddled in the pub doorway while the football yobs threw 'flying kicks' into the group. Fee was one of those so attacked. In the middle of it one of Fee's friends Cherry's boyfriend at the time started having a fit. Fee cushioned his head until an ambulance arrived. As you can see from the press cutting (Right) four fans were injured enough to have to be taken to hospital! It was not until a chance meeting and resultant chat while waiting for the doors to open at Pennington's Nightclub for the Mickey Finn's T.Rex gig in April 2000 that Gary exclaimed "It was you! I often wondered what happened to the girl who was with me waiting for the ambulance!" ON THING FEE DOES REMEMBER IS THE RAFFLE A Lucky Fan won the raffle which was the famous pair of purple trousers Marc can be seen wearing in the 'eat a peach' film footage. Marc's parents donated them. They came out of the suitcase full of clothes Harry was able to recover from the burglary. Fee did have a photo of herself holding them proudly. Happy simply to have had an opportunity to hold them.

FEE SEEKS OUT THOSE WHO KNEW MARC

Fee met Andy Ellison (from Bolan's brief stint in 'John's Children') when his band 'Radio Stars' played at Malvern Winter Gardens in 1978 intend of finding out about Marc. On the right is a backstage dressing room shot where Andy poses for the camera.

The gig was poorly attended because, as Fee tactlessly told Andy: "Everyone I know's saving their money because Hawkwind are playing next week!"

Fee's First hand accounts of Marc Bolan concerts - 1976 & 1977
Fee's meeting with June Bolan
Fee's friendship with Marc's parents
Fee's meeting with Steve Peregrin Took
2000 - 'There Was A Time' The release of the earliest known live recording of Tyrannosaurus Rex performing their debut gig at Middle Earth, London from the 23rd September 1967.
2002 - Pennington's Fee travels with 'Steve Took's Horns' original guitarist 'Judge' Trev Thoms to guest with Mickey Finn's T.Rex and Rolan Bolan. At the same time, Fee is working with 'Judge Trev Thoms as joint producer of the 'Horns' album Blow It!!!
2004 - 'Steve Took's Horns' Album released. Purchase of the rights to use the multitrack master tape was funded jointly by Fee and David Mantell.
2018 - Fee Warner Authors Steve Took's Official Biography with foreword by Steve Took's son Luke Took, born in 1974 - 12 months before Rolan Bolan was born. The link will open in a new tab/window

REXMAS BOP - DECEMBER 1978 - MALVERN WINTER GARDENS

Just over a year after MARC Bolan's death Fee held a 'T-Rex Party' at the Malvern Winter Gardens in Worcestershire. One of Fee's reasons for holding a Marc Bolan Convention was to show all her friends (and indeed 'not friends' too) that she wasn't the only one! That there really WERE other Marc Bolan fans! They might think her 'weird', but at least she wasn't alone in this 'weirdness'! And it worked! They talked about three hundred Marc Bolan fans in Malvern for years! :-) Malvern Winter Gardens was a venue used by all the leading bands of the time as a tour venue. Bands who played there included Thin Lizzy; Mott the Hoople; Dr. Feelgood; Siouxsie and the Banshees; Barclay James Harvest and Hawkwind to name but a few. That made it the perfect choice. The ONLY choice because Marc deserved the BEST and also because Tyrannosaurus Rex (Marc and Steve Took) had played there ten years earlier in 1968. It was an adventurous project for an eighteen year old to hire the entire Malvern Winter Gardens. THE IMPORTANCE OF MALVERN WINTER GARDENS RECOGNISED IN 2007 The Importance of this Venue was recognised when Malvern Winter Gardens was, along with Marc's Rock Shrine, recognised by Discover England (formerly The English Tourist Board) as a Site of Rock 'n' Roll Significance in their New Guide "England Rocks", both in the Web Version with 190 sights & in the Printed Version with just 113 sights listed. For More Information on this Guide Click Here. AN AMBITIOUS PROJECT It was expensive because as well as the high venue hire charge, the management insisted that Fee employed and paid the wages for their security men to be 'on duty' at the event! As it was, the only thing the security guards had to do, as there was no trouble, was clear people off the stage periodically because fans were keen to 'tread' the same 'boards' as Marc. At the time probably no one did it because it's where Steve Took had also stood. And Fee certainly didn't give Tookie a thought at the time, even though later she would realise that two people were responsible for producing the Tyrannosaurus Rex 'sound' she so loved. If you notice she even cut Mickey off the Convention poster so she could make Marc's face bigger.

Above: The 'Last Week' version of the Poster. Although with today's technology its easy to make better ones, in 1978 this wasn't bad and is pretty eye-catching! Tickets were available from a leading record shop in Worcester as well as a ticket agent in Malvern. The event was also advertised nationally in 'Record Mirror' and people travelled from all over the UK and Europe to attend. Right: The 'Worcester Evening News' Feature on the Event. (Fee was known at the time by her full first name of Fiona).

Unfortunately, in late 1978 when Fee contacted Golders Green Crematorium they rejected the proposal for a Memorial Plaque for Marc :-( Fee discussed this with Marc's parents Sid & Phyllis. At the time marc's parents didn't know when they would see their grandson Rolan again so with their agreement Fee donated the money to charity. Sadly, Fee was so busy with the convention organising that she forgot to take a camera and has no photographs of the event, only the memories including a local friend 'Little Kev' running out of the men's toilets in a state of alarm saying repeatedly "There are men in the toilets putting on make-up!". (Malvern wasn't somewhere men did that!) At the Tree Site on September 16^th 2003 a lady came up to Fee and said "I know You!" After a brief pause she exclaimed "Malvern!" She had recognised Fee twenty five years after the Convention!

OUR LIVES ARE TREES OF POSSIBILITIES

Fee came back to Malvern for her Marc Bolan Party with the intention of returning to London in the New Year. Had she done so she would have continued to roam London searching for people who know Marc and continuing to hang out around The Grove. As it was, while in Malvern Fee met Kev and as they say "The Rest is History". Kev has always been to Fee what June was to Marc. A totally complimentary Yin & Yang. Fortunately for Fee, she was wise enough to know that anyone with a mercurial personality needs someone 'sensible' to set the boundaries. Perhaps subconciously she knew this from seeing what had happened to Marc after he had been allowed to indulge himself as much as he wanted in whatever he wanted. They married in 1979 and Kev insisted that Fee took his surname which she did reluctantly.

CONTINUING 'CLOSET' FANDOM

While Fee was pregnant Kev refused to even consider the possibility of the name 'Marc' if the baby was a boy. Not even for a second name. But Fee had a cunning plan (to quote from 'Black Adder'). Literally the moment the midwife said "It's a Boy" Fee asked "And his middle name can be Marc can't it?" and so it was. After that Fee juggled being a wife and mum with being a 'closet' Bolan fan which Kev tolerated - to a point! But whenever Fee felt 'down' Marc was always there, even though at times Kev said that he felt that there were three people in the marriage. For that reason Fee didn't join the fan club, but did buy Marc's records as they arrived in the local record shop whose proprietor knew he had a regular customer for a copy of everything put out by Rarn Records, later Marc on Wax. These new 'treasures' were 'smuggled' into the house, hidden and listened to while Kev was at work. 'SMUGGLED' WREATHS Knowing that Kev considered spending money on Bolanitary matters was money wasted Fee sneaked off to the florist each year to order a wreath. When she travelled from the Midlands to London by Train she would collect the wreath early on September 16th. When she got a car in 1987 (interestingly a Mini) Fee would collect the wreath late on the 15th September and hide it in the boot so Kev wouldn't know she was "wasting money". Kev grudgingly allowed her to visit London for the anniversary though, but only during the day and not to go to any events hapening in the evening. Only many years later after many 'smuggled' wreaths did Kev admit that as he had previously worked for the nursery which supplies many of the florists in Kidderminster when he'd bumped into the owner of the florist Fee used she had told him what Fee was up to so Kev'd known all along! So much for 'sneaky'!

MARC BOLAN'S FOURTH ANNIVERSARY - 1981

Above: Kevin and Fee's son Rohan Marc aged nine months at Golders Green Crematorium ... His first 'out-of-womb' visit.

MARC BOLAN'S TENTH ANNIVERSARY - 1987

From left to Right: 1) Fee's wreath of white flowers and red roses/carnations. 2) Fee standing by her wreath and a lovely guitar. 3) Six year old Rohan Marc in the same place.

TYRANNOSAURUS REX APPRECIATION SOCIETY

By 1991 Fee had returned to education. First for a year of A-Levels before going on to take her degree. There, the students had 'pigeon-holes' for their mail. This could be 'internal' so that students who didn't live 'on campus' needed to check the relevent lettered 'pigeon-hole'. Imagine Fee's surprise when she discovered an A4 envelope addressed to another student which had "Tyrannosaurus Rex Appreciation Society" and an address printed on it! How could she not join this? So what the heck, she did. By now Kev and Fee had been married for over ten years and he'd relented a little. He'd been warned not to go out with Fee by his friends because they said she was "Bolan Mad" and he'd hoped she'd 'grow out of it' but obviously she never had!

University meant computers and the small but expanding Internet. As a mature student Fee couldn't use the IT rooms because of children commitments and had to get a PC for home. Before she finished her degree she was on the Internet at home too. She was disappointed that she couldn't find the sort of UK Marc Bolan web site she wanted to find. Those that there were in those early days were limited and generally American.

WORKING ON THE "IF IT ISN'T DONE - DO IT YOURSELF' PRINCIPLE

Fee set about teaching herself html.

In those early days there weren't the 'what you see is what you get' programmes to write pages easily with little knowledge or experience.

Fee printed off web pages and also opened up the 'source'; printed off the html 'code' and compared the two to see what code did what on the page.

The code (right) is just a little of what is 'behind' this page.

Fee used the University scanner (they were still expensive at that time) to be able to include newspaper and magazine cuttings and to scan some of the 35mm photographs she'd taken while sitting one time, in the Essential Cinema in London in 1978.

Teaching herself html while doing her degree didn't stop her from gaining a BSc First Class Honours, something only 3% of students at Worcester manage. In fact she came top in the Biological Science Degree students that year and beat off other applicants to go straight on to do research for a PhD.

Fee's Marc Bolan & T-Rex Site was launched onto the World Wide Web and by the time of Marc's 20^th Anniversary in 1997 the site had grown to be the biggest UK site on the web at the time.

Her Site was given a BIG 'thumbs up' in an early review of 'Bolan on the Web'.

See the scans on the right.

MARC BOLAN'S TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY - 1997

 

Above: Flowers at Golders Green Crematorium.

 

Above: Marc's Shrine in 1997 - The Tree and Flowers at the newly unveiled Performing Right Society Memorial at the bottom of embankment in Barnes.

1998 - MARC'S 21^st ANNIVERSARY - GOLDERS GREEN & THE TREE

Click Here for a Photo Gallery from 16^th September 1998 (including some lovely ones of Rolan), with two photos from October 1998 (One at The Tree plus One at Marc's Rose Bush at Golders Green)

1999 ONWARDS ...

This is covered in THE HISTORY OF MARC BOLAN'S ROCK SHRINE

Go Back to the Main History of Marc Bolan's Rock Shrine