Visconti Q&A & Multi-Format Return of ‘Born To Boogie’

A rare London screening of the Marc Bolan and T. Rex movie Born To Boogie next month will feature a Q&A with their esteemed and widely-travelled producer Tony Visconti, ahead of a new commercial release of the film.

The film, directed by Ringo Starr, will be part of the BFI’s (British Film Institute) Sonic Cinema series on 20 May. It was released on DVD in 2005, but this will be its first showing on the big screen for more than 40 years. It will then be released by Edsel on DVD, Blu-ray, 2CD and digital formats on 13 June, and screened nationwide in the UK by Picturehouse Cinemas the following day. Watch the trailer here:

Born To Boogie combined live footage of T. Rex captured at the height of “Bolanmania” at their Empire Pool, Wembley concert of 1972, with appearances in recording sessions by Starr and Elton John, and a surreal “mad hatter’s tea party” featuring Visconti and British actor Geoffrey Bayldon. The film was originally released by The Beatles’ Apple Films.

Visconti will take part in a Q&A after the screening, at the BFI Southbank, with writer and Bolan biographer Mark Paytress, widely acknowledged as the leading journalistic authority on the glam-rock figurehead. Tickets for the screening go on general sale tomorrow (12) here.

The DVD release of Born To Boogie will feature the original theatrical trailer as well as chapters on Starr and Bolan backstage and a tour montage; the Blu-ray has the “Premier” version, the additional matinee show at the Empire Pool, a newly-made promo video for the T. Rex hit ‘Telegram Sam’, a newspaper cuttings gallery and other extras.

A double LP gatefold vinyl Born To Boogie album, on green and yellow discs, is being released for Record Store Day this coming Saturday (16). Several of the songs from the second show, to which Bolan and Visconti added overdubs, have never been released before on either CD or vinyl. There will also be a limited edition 7” single of ‘Children Of The Revolution’/’Tutti Frutti’ on 13 May.

Before Visconti comes to London, he is continuing his current North American tour with Holy Holy, his band with Woody Woodmansey, the original drummer in David Bowie’s Spiders From Mars, and Heaven 17‘s Glenn Gregory. They play Bowie material from the 1969-73 period, including the whole of the Visconti-produced 1970 album The Man Who Sold The World. Dates continue at the Pabst Theatre in Milwaukee tomorrow (12), running until 8 May in Toronto. More details here.

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