From 1972 and directed by Ringo Starr (who also appears in film and we have seen before in
Son of Dracula,
the Magic Christian and
Lizstomania), this was a one hour film that had TV studio footage and concert footage of Marc Bolan and T-Rex as well as fantasy sequences.
The thing holds together brilliantly musically but perhaps not too well as a film – there is no cohesion to the sequences, one is literally a goof outtake as Bolan (in the main) and Starr fluff their lines through giggles. The DVD has two full concerts on it as well, however.
So why vampire? Well it’s not down to Jeepster, though the song certainly appears along with the lyric, “
Girl I'm just a vampire for your love… I'm gonna suck you”. No it’s for percussionist Mickey Finn and a persona he takes on in a fantasy sequence… ish. You’ve got to love it when I say ish…
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| the mad hatter |
The sequence was filmed in John Lennon’s estate (the same location as the Imagine video) and is a tea party replete with barbeque in the park and string quartet. Eventually Marc plays a medley of songs on vocal and acoustic guitar along with the strings, which sounds brilliant but apparently was not done live due to poor organisation. However, when all are at their tables there is a table of nuns (included one suspiciously bearded nun) and a table based on Alice in Wonderland. There is Ringo (referred to as the dormouse), Marc is the man in the hat – or the mad hatter, of course – and Mickey…
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| is that compote not gore? |
Mickey is wearing a cloak and has a villain's moustache drawn on. He is referred to in film as “
a man of blood” and in the IMDb credits as a vampire. His mouth is reddened – though that seems to be jam or compote . There is nothing particularly vampiric done and the costume is only used in this sequence. So a fleeting visitation at that.
Nevertheless, it’s nice to be able to feature this on TMtV as Bolan was an underrated musician and his untimely death robbed the world of a unique talent. The imdb page is
here.
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