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Marc Bolan At The Arbourthorne Hotel 1975


Guest Arch Stanton

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Guest Arch Stanton

I apologise if this has been posted on here before,if it hasn't, some of you may find this interesting, particularly the residents of Arbourthorne. When I first saw this, I was gobsmacked, couldn't believe he turned up here. I asked my parents about it and they had no recollection of it.

Although he was on his way down by this point, I would imagine Marc Bolan at The Arbourthorne Hotel was pretty big news at the time. Wonder if he called in the chippy for his tea on the way back :)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/events/bolan/video.shtml

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I apologise if this has been posted on here before,if it hasn't, some of you may find this interesting, particularly the residents of Arbourthorne. When I first saw this, I was gobsmacked, couldn't believe he turned up here. I asked my parents about it and they had no recollection of it.

Although he was on his way down by this point, I would imagine Marc Bolan at The Arbourthorne Hotel was pretty big news at the time. Wonder if he called in the chippy for his tea on the way back :)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/events/bolan/video.shtml

Thanks Arch Stanton, - I knew that and had forgotten all about it.

Although I lived only down the road from the Arbourthorne Hotel on Eastern Avenue at the time I was at university and was living in a hall of residence in Cottingham just outside Hull so I missed it :( , but heard all about it from everyone when I came home at the end of the term, they all knew about it and wanted to tell me as it was a pretty big thing for the Atrbourthorne.

In the video it comments that Marc left "not in a stretched limo but in a clapped out old Ford Cortina"

Shouldn't he have left on a white swan? lol

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Guest Arch Stanton

I was born at the wrong time. I would have loved to have seen that. I grew up on the estate and when I came across that I found it strange that no one ever told me about it, particularly as I am a big music fan.

My memories of the Arbour back in the day were being taken up to the off license in there for bags of Maltesers by the old lady who lived next door to us.

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I was born at the wrong time. I would have loved to have seen that. I grew up on the estate and when I came across that I found it strange that no one ever told me about it, particularly as I am a big music fan.

My memories of the Arbour back in the day were being taken up to the off license in there for bags of Maltesers by the old lady who lived next door to us.

My memories of the Arbour Off License from the early 1960's are, -

The entrance was round the back

Blokes went in to buy beer by the jug

It smelt of cigarettes and stale beer

They sold crisps which were TUDOR crisps (ask RichardB, they're his favourite make)

Like all crisps in those days they only came in one flavour, - plain, and had a small blue paper twist of salt to salt them

The main soft drink sold was bottles of "Shandy Gaff" which you could also buy in Northern Avenue chip shop

The bottles of Shandy Gaff had a deposit on them and you got a penny back (1d not 1p) when you took the bottle back.

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Guest Cyberman

WoW! absolutely fascinating!!! who'd have believed it. Marc Bolan at the Arbourthorne Hotel. If i hadn't seen it with my oen eye's i'd have said you were winding us all up. My memories of the Arbourthorne Hotel are very few but on the lines of Dave H's memories. I also remember it being a bit like the punch bowls set up for crisps and pop. A maze of doors round the back to get in. Great article chaps.

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Guest Arch Stanton

yeah, I must admit, I was absolutely gobsmacked when I came across it. He was on his way down by that point but still a MASSIVE coup for The Arbour!

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yeah, I must admit, I was absolutely gobsmacked when I came across it. He was on his way down by that point but still a massive coup for The Arbour!

That is pretty cool. Health & Safety obviously hadn't reared it's ugly head back then - a couple of the crowd look ready for a good scrap at one point.

Have you ever come across the story about Jimi Hendrix popping in the Sportsman Pub (Pitsmoor) for a pint when he appeared at the Mojo on 8th January 1967?

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Guest Arch Stanton

If that was to happen now it would be very different. Impossible though as for a start they don't make 'em like Bolan and the rest of 'em anymore. Can you imagine Chris Martin from Coldplay turning up at The Arbour?. He would be a gibbering wreck. All that would happen is that the "locals" would probably suspect him as "plain clothes drug squad".

I noticed the scrap, I have tried to see if I could identify anyone on the video but no one stands out. Weird to think Bolan was hanging out with the likes of Lennon/Bowie/Keith Moon and finding the time to call in at The Arbour!

No, I haven't heard the Hendrix story. If that is true, again, unreal! I was definitely born a few years too late.

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If i hadn't seen it with my oen eye's i'd have said you were winding us all up.

So are you saying you actually saw Marc Bolan at the Arbourthorne Hotel then Cyberman?

If so tell us about it.

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Weird to think Bolan was hanging out with the likes of Lennon/Bowie/Keith Moon and finding the time to call in at The Arbour!

If Bolan was such a big mate of Lennon, Bowie and Moon he should have brought them with him to the Arbourthorne Hotel in the back of his clapped out Ford Cortina.

What a show that would have been then.

Well, in 1975 perhaps not John Lennon. He was tied up in New York at the time looking after new baby Sean and waiting to see if he could still get his "green card" to stay in America despite having known drug convictions.

That's a pity, but still a good show if they got just Bolan, Bowie and Moon.

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Guest Arch Stanton

yeah, and if we are nitpicking Bowie was filming The Man Who Fell To Earth and Moon was too busy in LA annoying his neighbour Steve Mcqueen inbetween recording The Who By Numbers.

That's why they couldn't make a pint and chips and curry sauce with Bolan :)

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Guest Cyberman

Sorry DaveH. when I said 'seen it with my own eyes', I meant the super 8 footage not the live event. Still I wasn't a Bolan fan in 75 although became one in later years and never heard a whisper about this having ever taken place dispite frequenting the Arbourthorne quite often.:(

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Guest Arch Stanton

I don't think it will have been that big a deal to the people who lived in the area at the time. From what I can remember I don't think there will have been many big music fans in the area.

The crowd look like school kids although there is an old girl on there who looks about 75. I thought I recognised the lady with the flower but don't want to mention who I suspect it could be as I don't like dropping names on forums.

Bolan was a funny one - he had a huge teenybopper following but only in the past 20 years or so has he seriously been considered to be up there with "the greats".

My parents were only in their late 20's at the time and cannot remember it happening at all despite living very close to the pub.

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yeah, and if we are nitpicking Bowie was filming The Man Who Fell To Earth and Moon was too busy in LA annoying his neighbour Steve Mcqueen inbetween recording The Who By Numbers.

That's why they couldn't make a pint and chips and curry sauce with Bolan :)

Pity they couldn't make it.

I would have loved to have gone and seen them at the Arbour.

Would even have bought them a pint or gone down the chippie with them.

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Sorry DaveH. when I said 'seen it with my own eyes', I meant the super 8 footage not the live event. Still I wasn't a Bolan fan in 75 although became one in later years and never heard a whisper about this having ever taken place dispite frequenting the Arbourthorne quite often.:(

Bet you wish you had seen it with your own eyes, live at the Arbourthorne, in 1975.

I do!

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So did everyone know it was happening through word of mouth and did many leg it down there ?

I lived just down the road and never knew about it, or else I would have been there!! :( I thought Marc Bolan was FAB and was very sad when I heard of his death.

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I lived just down the road and never knew about it, or else I would have been there!! :( I thought Marc Bolan was FAB and was very sad when I heard of his death.

No suzy,

The Beatles were FAB.

Marc Bolan was your METAL GURU

Got to correct you on that point because you won't fool the CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION.

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No suzy,

The Beatles were FAB.

Marc Bolan was your METAL GURU

Got to correct you on that point because you won't fool the CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION.

In a conversation in the staffroom at work Glam Rock was mentioned in conversation, in response to which I made some comment about Marc Bolan

One of the "twentysomethings" (born post glam rock era) said "Who's he?"!!!! :huh:

So I said "I bet you think T-REX is a block of cooking fat" (TREX)

...but that was lost on her as well,

...except that she wondered why everyone else in the room over the age of 45 suddenly feel about laughing.

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No suzy,

The Beatles were FAB.

Marc Bolan was your METAL GURU

Got to correct you on that point because you won't fool the CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION.

No - Marc Bolan was my 20TH CENTURY BOY lol and sometimes he was known to RIDE A WHITE SWAN lol

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