T-Rex

The Slider - 40th Anniversary Box Set

40 years after The Slider was originally released it has now been lovingly re-mastered for the first time by original producer Tony Visconti. It has been beautifully put together in this 40th Anniversary Box Set, with a limited worldwide release of 2000 copies. The album has been re-mastered previously but it is significant that Visconti was involved this time.

As well as his re-master of the original 13-track album, there are B-sides and numerous outtakes, including a previously unreleased demo of the title track from Visconti’s private collection. There is also a fascinating 14 minute BBC interview from 1972, where Bolan talks about the career of the band so far and criticises other artists for being fixated with breaking America. His engaging chat (over a noisy cup of tea it seems) shows an artist fully in control of his career and shows why The Slider displays the band almost at their peak.

There is an accompanying DVD, where Tony Visconti recalls the making of the album in an exclusive new 105-minute interview with Bolan biographer Mark Paytress. The DVD also features TV footage including performances of Telegram Sam and Metal Guru from Top Of The Pops, ITV performance footage of Cadillac, Spaceball Ricochet and Telegram Sam, plus Marc’s interview with Russell Harty from 1972.

Bolan was the ultimate glam rock-pop icon, his legacy made greater by his early death of course. But what is interesting is that The Slider was their seventh studio album – and was where the band started to fully move into that polished pop-rock sound with the likes of Metal Guru and Telegram Sam. The folky influences that were far more prevalent on earlier albums can be heard in some of the acoustic and demo versions here, 

Tony Visconti has also written a special essay for the hardback coffee-table book included in the box and there are rare photos and reproductions of archive material. Also included in the set is a vinyl pressing of the original album, its two spin-off singles and a reproduction of the hugely collectable promo-only Chariot Choogle 45, all in facsimile T. Rex Wax Co paper sleeves. A wonderful item for a Bolan fan.