DANIELZ of T Rex tribute band TRextasy has always been a Marc Bolan fan and with his long dark curly hair and habit of wearing eye-liner, was made to star as his idol.
Not that life is always easy looking like a glam rock icon in an everyday world.
"These days you just have to wear something that’s bright and everyone looks at you," says Danielz.
"I grew up through the glam rock period. To me it has gone backwards since that time.
"It was a very colourful time when teenagers were making their mark and dressing differently.
"I’ve calmed down a lot. Still, because of my hair for one thing - it’s still quite long and curly, none of us wear wigs in the show - I look not much different when I walk offstage from when I’m on.
"I wear eye-liner every day when I go out, so I haven’t changed that much."
The clothes Danielz wears in the show that comes to the Ironworks on Tuesday reflect Marc Bolan’s own unique stage style.
"I don’t like people saying ‘Danielz will wear that in the show cos he wore it last time’.
"So I have a lot of different outfits.
"I wear a thing called a batwing Marc wore in ’73. It’s like a waistcoat with satin-like wings at the sides, sewn in. Sometimes I wear satin jackets, sometimes I wear green flares, sometimes yellow ones or sometimes I wear blue dungarees."
He laughed: "I don’t wear the batwing down the street, but I think people think I’m a little bit different - but aren’t we all from that era?"
"When I go out, people still give me second looks - and sometimes I get mistaken for a woman because of the hair and eye-liner, I suppose.
"When I go out with my wife, people say things like ‘Can I help you ladies?’ but I have had that all my life!"
And you could argue Danielz was born to pay tribute to Marc.
" I do own quite a lot of Marc’s clothing," Danielz revealed.
"So I know exactly how tall he was – the same height as me. And I’ve got Marc’s shoes so I know what kind he wore – and that I’m even the same shoe size he was!
"He was 5 feet 7inches tall, so he wasn’t the elf people sometimes think he was.
"But I feel fortunate that I am the same build and height as Marc.
"I’ve always known that I have had a kind of similarity with him, but the first time I took it further came after going, as a fan, to Marc Bolan fan conventions.
"I used to dress up to go to these things and always used to win a picture disc or something because of how I looked.
"I used to think ‘Well thank you very much!’ and then started to think I should take it further.
It was as a fan that Danielz evolved the TRextasy show.
"I started TRextasy, in 1992," he explained.
"It was 20 years last September and I think one of the reasons we’ve had that longevity is because I am a fan.
"I’m just lucky enough to be same height, similar build, I have the hair - I’m just fortunate with all that - it’s just a coincidence.
"But at the same time, I have the passion for Marc and his music that all the diehard fans have.
"I know what the fans feel because I am one and that is the difference.
" I started this band on the simple assumption that I was going to form a band to respect Marc’s songwriting and prove to everybody out there that he was a great performer, songwriter, instrumentalist and lyricist.
"This is how his songs sounded, this is how he performed - and isn’t he great? That has been my job, if you like!
I’ve taken that responsibility and I’ve never, in my eyes, faltered from there.
" I‘ve known where to take it and I’ve known my limitations as well."
He eplains that means he’d never take liberties or make laughs out of Bolan or his memory.
"Marc Bolan fans wouldn’t accept it and would wonder why I was trying to do that," Danielz said.
"It’s a very serious T Rex performance we do. People coming to see us for the first time, write to me afterwards and say ‘I wish I had come to see you before because I didn’t know the band would be like that!’ Many people think that tribute bands are a kind of a joke because some of them are.
"A lot of tribute bands use backing discs, we don’t.
"I think it would be fraud, that you should be 100 per cent live.
"I would prefer to see a band make 20 or 30 mistakes onstage to know they were live rather than it all sounding pure but being on a backing disc.
"To me, if you are a live band that would be a bit of a con.
"I have always prided myself on our band being 100 per cent live and doing it as it should be done."
Maybe that’s why T Rextasy are approved by both the legal management controllers of Bolan’s records. For pre-1972 material it’s Universal Music, formerly Westminster Music and post-72, it’s controlled by American company Spirit Music.
"They have given us their stamp of approval and Marc’s family is the same," claimed Danielz. "Marc’s son Rolan the first time he ever came to this country had never been onstage before, but joined us up there at a gig in Cambridge a few years ago - and Marc’s wife and his mum, Gloria Jones has also come onstageand sung with us.
" We’ve had ex T Rex playing in the band. It’s nice that it’s one big family really."
The show itself is two almost one-hour sets.
"It’s all electric this time. That’s why it’s called the I Love To Boogie tour, it’s all uptempo," xplained Danielz.
"There are so many good songs we try and accommodate casual fans who want all the hits, but also diehard fans who want to hear B Sides and album tracks too.
"We also tend to throw in the odd song if fans shout out for a song we weren’t going to play. I would play two or three verses on my own to add some spontaneity."
For Danielz, it seems playing Marc’s music is the ultimate tribute.
"The word genius gets thrown about, but to me he is a genius.
"He started so much off - and when you hear Marc sing, it couldn’t be anybody else.
"He also had his own unique guitar sound. When Marc Bolan played guitar you knew it was T Rex.
"So few people are lucky enough to have their own completely individual sound
"Every time I go on that stage and plug that guitar in and get started, I have a fantastic time."
