“We don’t just do a musical performance. It’s a 45-minute happening.”—Marc Bolan on John’s Children in 1967

John’s Children were a mod-era proto-psychedelic, proto-glam, proto-punk rock British beat group who are today mostly regarded as a footnote in the career of Marc Bolan. The future T.Rex leader was briefly brought into the group to replace a departing guitarist by manager Simon Napier-Bell (who also managed the Yardbirds, and later Wham!). They were never Bolan’s band, although he did write a few songs for them.

Their flamboyant stage antics were reminiscent of the Who during their “auto-destruct” phase and featured pillow fights, feathers, fake blood and lots of beating up on their instruments. The group wore all white and apparently played quite loud. Their lyrics “went for it” in ways not typically done at the time, with a song like “Not the Sort of Girl (You’d Like to Take to Bed)” and an album that they titled Orgasm which their American label refused to release for four years. As one rock scribe remarked about John’s Children, they were “generally disrespectful and crazed” and once posed for a magazine advertisement wearing nothing more than some strategically placed flowers.
 

 
Probably the most notable John’s Children number is a powerfully strange ditty for the era titled “Smashed! Blocked!”:

Please! I’m losing my mind
Help me now before it’s too late
Try to bring me back
Everythings spinning
My eyes are tired
I’m losing my way
Where are you, where am I?

 

 
A few years ago a “Smashed! Blocked!” clip of somewhat mysterious origin turned up on YouTube. The group’s lead singer, Andy Ellison had this to say:

This is strange film clip, that Chris, John and myself (Andy Ellison) filmed for our first single, at the then famous, basement, ‘Establishment Club’ (Peter Cooks, satirical venue in Greek St Soho), 1967. The clip is made up from bits of film left on the cutting room floor. A technician must have kept them. And Somehow they have made it to YouTube! No Idea what happened to the proper film.

He went on to add:

SMASHED was a mod term for drunk and BLOCKED was a mod term for being pilled up (high on amphetamines).

Now ya know. Original copies of this single can sell for big bucks on Discogs.

 
Before Marc Bolan blew minds as T. Rex, even before he gently blew beards as Tyrannosaurus Rex, he was demolishing stages with John’s Children, a pop-art mod band hell bent on one upping The Who in the auto-destructive art department. 

Featuring Andy Ellison on vocals, Geoff McLelland on guitar, John Hewlett on bass, and wild man Chris Townson on drums, Bolan joined the band briefly in 1967 and wrote one of their most beloved songs, the very twisted and far out Desdemona, which can be heard in the above video that features photos of Bolan with the band.  Although he doesn’t sing lead, his patented guitar playing is front and center and his one of a kind vibrato voice provides backup. The suggestive lyric ‘Lift up your skirt and fly’ was enough for the BBC to ban the song, and after a brief four month stint, Bolan moved on to develop himself as a solo artist.

Sans Bolan, John’s Children would continue to plug away, wrecking stages in their midst and creating a reputation based on their antics rather than their musicianship. They even released an album that would find American distribution on White Whale Records called Orgasm, which was ruined by a record exec’s brilliant idea of inserting crowd noise between songs to make it seem “live.” 

Below is a little-known promotional video the band made for the album, which is apparently part of a film called Smashed Blocked that never saw the light of day. Band member Andy Ellison, whose Corn Flake Zoo must be heard to be believed, even commented on an older post of the video that “Smashed was a mod term for drunk, and blocked was a mod term for being pilled up (high on amphetamines).”  This newer version of the video has significantly better sound that others.  Dig it!