GIMME DANGER

Andy Ellison's commitment to extreme performance has been lifelong, as has his enthusiasm for music of various stripes, from mod R&B and proto-freakbeat with The Silence and John's Children, to glam with Jet and onto punk with Radio Stars. He could have been a contender, though he was perhaps stymied by a penchant for perilous stunts. "I could've been killed any night," he tells some-time Radio Star, Rich Davenport.

- Rich Davenpor

Ludwigshaven, I was fighting onstage with John, [with] blood capsules in our mouths, ripping our clothes. I leapt into the audience and ran around throwing feathers. Marc started smashing things with a chain.

The [audience] thought, "Fantastic, we'll smash everything up as well." It turned into a riot. I got back onstage, Simon said, "We've got to get out. Through the back," dragging us to his Bentley. As we drove out, riot police were firing water cannons through the windows, and chairs were flying through the glass. We were thrown off the tour.

You escaped via Luxembourg, where Marc saw a serene gig by Ravi Shankar, and left the band to return to his folk roots. In 1977, you met again in London…

I was running down the King’s Road, late for a Radio Stars rehearsal. A Mini pulled up, it was Marc. I hadn’t seen him for 10 years. He said, “I’ve heard about Radio Stars. I’ve got a TV show, do you fancy coming on?” I went, “Wow, yes. Thanks.” At the studios, he looked exactly the same as he did in early T.Rex. We were going to meet a couple of weeks later. After that show, Radio Stars went to Paris. When we came back, we found out he’d died. I couldn’t believe it.

After John’s Children split in 1968, you released solo singles for Simon NapierBell’s SNB label, then took a sabbatical from the music industry. A well-timed visit to Chris Townson’s home in 1974 led to an invitation to join Jet, a band he was forming with former Sparks bassist Martin