What is glam rock

�A.� Ah, musical categories, don't you just love 'em It's a peculiarly British press phenomenon, the urge to lump certain bands and artists together under a common label. From 1970 to 1975, the singles charts were dominated by a style known initially as 'glitter rock' but very soon known by the more accurate tag of 'glam rock'.

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Q.� How did it all start

A.� As is the way when people realise they've lived through a major musical style, everyone looks back and tries to pinpoint exactly what was the start of glam rock. Opinion has narrowed it down more or less to two major players, David Bowie, and Marc Bolan.

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Q.� So which is it

A.� Although it's impossible to say when any musical style begins, or indeed ends, the first hint of what was to become 'glam' was the appearance on Top Of The Pops by Marc Bolan, who's band had undergone a major visual and musical metamorphosis form hippy stalwarts Tyrannosaurus Rex into the poppy hit-single machine T.Rex.�Bolan decided to add a touch of glamour to his appearance by making up his eyes, and sprinkling glitter on his hair and cheeks. Their song Ride A White Swan was a hit, and 'glam' was off and running.

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Q.� What came next

A.� Five years of killer pop songs and a style of dress and presentation that sent pop kids into a frenzy, and pop kids' parents into apoplexy, in other words, pop doing what it is so good at, simultaneously uniting one generation, and proving utterly abhorrent to another.

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Q.� Just what was the problem

A.� Glam rock became an excuse for grown men to re-define the boundaries of behaviour, appearance and overall demeanour, not so much blurring the boundaries between the sexes, as eliminating them altogether.

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Most people remember The Sweet's lead guitarist Steve Priest with his hair teased into bouffant curls, ruby-lipped pout, and camp scream over the band's super-stomper Ballroom Blitz. That captured the mood of the time as much as anything�- bands producing four-on-the-floor pounding three-minute classic hits and singing them from behind pancake slap and above teetering stack heel boots.

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Of course, in reality, The Sweet were an accomplished rock band who could hold their own with any metal band of the day, and Steve Priest could, and probably did, take issue with anyone who wanted to discuss his masculinity, but this was the era of pure pop and candy-floss images, and The Sweet were enjoying the fame and fortune that went with it.

Q.� Who else was up there in the glam vanguard ��

A.� The list can be gleaned from the top ten singles providers of that period�- Gary Glitter, David Bowie, Suzy Quatro, Slade, who are always included as a glam band, mainly due to the visual style of lead guitarist Dave Hill who wore silver foil suits and glittery hair with the best of them, Mott The Hoople, again because of the silver-and-blue hair of bassist Overend Watts, and that's really about it.

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Q. Surely there's more than that

A.� Not if we're talking strict glam credentials�- if you blur the edges a little bit, the doors are open for a host of 'on the border' outfits who crop up on compilation albums because they had hits at the time, but they don't really qualify for true� 'glam' status. Bands like Roxy Music, thanks to their early image with Bryan Ferry's heavy eye make-up and Eno's feather boas, Barry Blue who wore glittery suits, occasionally,� confirmed retro rockers Showaddywaddy who were by no stretch of the imagination 'glam' get squeezed into the scene by some people. Even Elton John makes it into some people's lists, missing the point even further. Glam isn't just about dressing up!

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Q.� Was it just a British phenomenon

A.� Yes. Oh all right, there were a few honorary American bands but again, they weren't always the real thing. Genuine glam from America came in the form of Suzie Quatro, but other interlopers are included as well. Alice Cooper is reckoned to be glam, although his music was dirty rock and roll, and his eye make-up owed more to Screamin' Jay Hawkins than Marc Bolan. Including bands like Kiss is simply missing the point entirely. Yes they wore make-up, but they were science-fiction comic book characters, miles away from the notion of glam rock.

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Q.� What happened next

A.� By about 1975, the whole thing was running out of steam. Bowie had moved on, T.Rex had lost it, and punk was just around the corner, rooted very firmly in the rebellious roots of glam. It is the right of each generation to demand its own musical styles and heroes, and that means that styles move on, and glam got left behind, at least in the UK. The genre stayed on longer in the US with bands such as Motley Crue and Poison picking up the baton and running into the 1980s with it.

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Q.� Will it ever come back

A.� Not with its original bite and wit it won't, because like all genuine musical styles, glam rock was a product of its time. Music was moving out of the hippy era, and British youngsters were looking for something different. There will always be 'revivals' of a sort, but to reiterate, each generation wants its own styles, its own heroes, and apart from the 'retro style' 70s revival, glam rock remains a phenomenon rooted firmly in the first half of the 1970s, and should be left there as a misty-eyed memory. Great songs though!

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