BOLAN 40 YEARS ON:
Bolan died in Mini crash
Forty years after the rocker died in a car crash, child soldiers in the war-torn, disease-ravaged country have been dropping their guns and picking up guitars instead.
The chant “Marc Bolan, Marc Bolan” is heard as youngsters dart between ramshackle breeze block huts with tin roofs in the town of Makini.
They are on their way to the Marc Bolan School of Music – set up by the star’s long-term girlfriend Gloria Jones.
Dozens of kids attend the arts school each weekend to learn about song writing, music editing and producing – plus film-making and video editing.
Bolan, frontman of 1970s band T. Rex, would have loved seeing it.
He died aged just 29 when he and Tainted Love singer Gloria, now 71, crashed in a purple Mini just a mile from home in Barnes, South West London. It was September 16, 1977.
And today Gloria, who was driving that fateful night, tells for the first time how she is keeping his memory alive.
She said: “Marc would be absolutely thrilled with what we are doing here.
HAPPY
“When he made it as a star who was the heir to the Beatles and The Who he didn’t know how to read music. But he made great records.
“Marc was a child of the ’40s, when they didn’t have much, so he would identify with what is going on here. He was innovative, ahead of his time.
“That’s why he was turning to TV and film. I’m sure he would have become a director if he had lived. He just wanted to make people happy – to get them dancing while he was performing.”
School founder Gloria – who came up with the idea along with Marc’s only son Rolan – hopes to complete a permanent structure with a stage and studio before the rainy season starts next April.
Desks and computers given by backers from the UK are due to arrive later this month.
Gloria moved to South Africa in the late 1990s to help victims of Aids, moving on to Sierra Leone a decade ago.
Musician Rolan helped with the costs to set up the music school and continues to help raise funds. He said: “Please join me and my Mom in our mission to shine a light on West Africa’s talented youth of today.”
Gloria said: “The children are so grateful. To hear those kids walking through the village saying, ‘Marc Bolan, Marc Bolan’ – your heart just bursts. They just How school will look Glam rock giant Bolan