Bowie told me about my T-Rex act before getting on Japan’s Bullet train

A few years ago, Danielz and David Bowie found themselves sharing a busy railway platform in the suburbs of Tokyo.

“We were touring Japan and a guy walked past in a cool hat and a trench coat, holding a guitar case, and I said to my manager, ‘He looks like David Bowie,” recalled singer Danielz, who brings doppelgangers T Rextasy to Clitheroe’s Grand Theatre on Saturday.

“I went closer and it was him, and, rather nervously, I introduced myself.

“Bowie said he knew all about us because he was a great admirer of Marc Bolan’s work. I couldn’t believe it.

“Anyway, we talked about T-Rex and Bowie said, ‘You know that Marc Bolan 
began the whole movement, through glam rock to influencing punk. He was that important to pop music – he crossed the generations.

“Then I asked Bowie, ‘Do you miss, Marc? He replied: ‘Every single day of my life’.

“I knew in his voice that Bowie meant it.

“With that, Bowie jumped on the Bullet Train and I never saw him again.”

While it is nearly four decades since Bolan lost his life in a car accident, his monster hits, Jeepster, Metal Guru and 20th Century Boy sound as vibrant today as they did in the glam-rock fuelled era of the 1970s.

For the past two decades, T Rextasy have toured the world – performing T Rex’s rock and pop anthems – a 21-year career that has lasted longer than Bolan’s very own T-Rex.

“I recorded a track with Marc Almond, Death of a Dandy, last year,” added Danielz, who fronts the band.

“It was about a guy called Sebastian, who was a huge Bolan fan, but had a strange and slightly troubled life on the streets of London before his death.

“He was a bit of an outsider, from a well to do family apparently, and the black sheep, I suppose.

“He was a free spirit, the type of person Marc Bolan would have loved. It was fantastic working with Marc Almond. He’s a huge T-Rex fan and changed his Christian name from Mark to Marc for his love of T-Rex.”

T Rextasy are even endorsed by Marc’s family.

“I look at some tribute bands and they don’t have the passion for what they do, but hopefully people see us as creating the spirit of Marc Bolan live and to give them a feeling what a T-Rex gig would have been like. I’m probably one of the few tribute artists that do not actually go on stage as Marc. I live right in the middle between Marc and Danielz. I’m not a parody.”

T Rextasy, I Love to Boogie, Clitheroe Grand, April 5.

Tickets: £16. Call: 01200 421599.

By Tony Dewhurst