Island Life Magazine Ltd November/December 2005 | Page 10

INTERVIEW

15 years on the
road with Marc
“Touring with Marc Bolan was very stressful
the Isle of Wight was my saving grace”
When his hectic life as a pop star’s roadie was at its peak, Mick
O’Halloran needed a peaceful refuge where he could come and relax
– and he found it on the Isle of Wight.
Mick, who was senior road manager for Marc Bolan, the larger-thanlife front man for chart-topping 70s band T-Rex, used to come to the
Island to re-charge his batteries.
“My favourite place was Godshill – to me, it represented sheer
relaxation” he says. “It presented me with the solitude and peace
that I needed from time to time”.
In the end, there was nothing else for it for Mick, and he moved
permanently to the Island in 1971 – the same year that T-Rex played
the Isle of Wight Festival alongside the legendary Jimmy Hendrix
and The Who.
Recalling his years with the troubled singer - who died in a horrific
car crash in 1977, just before his 30th birthday - Mick says: “At one
stage, Marc was the biggest thing on the planet, and we couldn’t go
anywhere without being mobbed by hun