Marc Bolan Car Crash Site

When you get to the end of the path cross Queens Ride road and join the unmade path behind the bank of soil the runs parallel to and below the pavement. Very shortly you will come to the Marc Bolan memorial. The site looks very much like a Shinto shrine with ribbons tied in the trees and ceramic white swans at the base of the bust. This is possibly because Marc Bolan has many fans and is still revered in Japan.

Marc Bolan was king of the kooks as a performer and defied many stereotypes, even for the world of rock and pop. He introduced us to both Glam Rock at the start of the 1970s and punk at the end of the decade.

It was on this site on 16th September 1977 that Marc Bolan died in a car crash, when his purple Mini crashed into a sycamore tree. It was two weeks before his 30th birthday.

The car was being driven by his girlfriend, American soul singer Gloria Jones, who recorded the original version of the song Tainted Love. The couple were returning from Rod Stewart's birthday party back to their nearby home at 142 Upper Richmond Road. Netiher were wearing seatbelts.

David Bowie attended Marc's funeral. Their friendship went back to the days of pitching for work along Soho's Tin Pan Alley. They also shared the same producer - Toni Visconti. David Bowie paid for Gloria and Marc's son to be put through schiool.

Gloria left the UK to set up the Marc Bolan Music School charity in Sierra Leone.