You just charted us on a course through unprotected waters

In a review of the forthcoming T. Rex box set [MOJO 342] I was amused by the comment that the band were The Beatles for a generation too young to experience Beatlemania. On my tenth birthday in November 1962, I inherited my first record player from a cousin. Initially a big Cliff and The Shadows fan, the emergence of The Beatles changed everything. However, the love of more guitar-fuelled music meant that the Stones and The Yardbirds were as important to me as The Beatles. My first live concerts in 1965 and 1967 were typical packages of the era featuring the Stones, The Hollies, Spencer Davis Group and Goldie & The Gingerbreads. As a Yardbirds fan I bought Led Zeppelin’s debut on the day of release and I was blown away. I was now into concert-going in a big way and saw Zeppelin in 1971.

However, I have never been blinkered when it comes to music, and I bought Electric Warrior, which to this day I rate as an all-time classic. So at the ripe old age of 19 I had lived through Beatlemania – which makes the notion that T. Rex were for another generation of music lovers a ridiculous statement. My friend and myself saw T. Rex twice in 1971 and then again in 1972. Unfortunately the 1972 gig was the parting of the ways for the band and myself. The fact that Marc Bolan seemed totally uninterested in playing his guitar made the concert a damp squid. This coincided with the fact that I found The Slider album a poor follow-up to Electric Warrior.I continued to buy the excellent singles but wasn’t surprised when Bolan’s career wilted. Unlike David Bowie, who killed the band after 18 months and went on to become one of the biggest megastars of all time, Bolan trod the same path too long and paid the price.

Jack Haynes, Manchester