Steve Peregrin Took

Steve Peregrin Took (born Stephen Ross Porter; 28 July 1949 – 27 October 1980) was an English musician and songwriter, best known for his membership of the duo Tyrannosaurus Rex with Marc Bolan.

After breaking with Bolan, he concentrated on his own singer-songwriting activities, either as a solo artist or as a frontman for several bands.

Took was born Stephen Ross Porter in Eltham, London, on 28 July 1949, and attended Shooters Hill School.

He took his name from the character Peregrin Took, a hobbit in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

At the age of 17, having played drums for some months with a mod band named the Waterproof Sparrows (bass player John Rains, guitarists Pete Keen and Wally Woodcock), he answered an advert in International Times for Tyrannosaurus Rex, the electric band that Marc Bolan was forming following his departure from John's Children.

After one disastrous concert at the Electric Garden in London, Bolan and Took reduced the band to a duo, busking in subways on acoustic guitar and bongos, Took having been obliged to sell his full drum kit to pay the rent until paying gigs started to come in.

The flower-power unit, championed by John Peel onto the club and stage circuit and thence into the record shops, released three albums and achieved two top 40 hits.

Took contributed harmony backing vocals, which are more noticeable in live recordings than on studio recordings, and provided bongos, African drums, kazoo, pixiphone, and Chinese gong.

Took's arrangements contributed to transforming Bolan's music from the straightforward rock 'n roll it had previously been into an exotic brew of musical styles designed to appeal to Bolan's new audience of hippies.

Towards the end of his time in the band, as Bolan began returning to the electric guitar, Took returned to a full drum set and also contributed some bass guitar parts.

The band's producer Tony Visconti credited Took with much of the sound and success of Tyrannosaurus Rex.

In an interview for the documentary Marc Bolan: The Final Word, Visconti opined that "Marc and Steve were a true 50:50 partnership. Steve was a remarkable musician, he could play many instruments. He played percussion, he could pick up a bass or a guitar. He would also sometimes play some cello parts. And then his backing vocals were great too."

Mick Farren, in his memoir Give The Anarchist A Cigarette, recalled that Took would "drag a bemused Syd Barrett along" to events in Ladbroke Grove in the late 1960s; Took remained friends with Barrett well into the 1970s.

Took worked with Syd Barrett on unreleased "Ramadan" tracks.

While in Tyrannosaurus Rex, Took also appeared as a backing vocalist on a session for David Bowie, the results of which can be heard on the BBC sessions album Bowie at the Beeb.

Took developed his own songwriting and in early 1969, with recording just complete on Tyrannosaurus Rex's third LP, Unicorn, Took suggested to Bolan that the duo could perform some of his own material; Bolan refused.

By this time, their lifestyles were in direct conflict.

Bolan was living quietly with wife-to-be June Child, while Took was rapidly forging links with "revolutionary" underground acts, such as the Deviants and the Pretty Things.

The relationship was deteriorating badly—Bolan barely tolerated Took's drug use, and Steve Mann recalled that it was clear they "cordially detested each other".

In addition, Took's friendship with Bolan's idol Syd Barrett had also developed through their shared interests in both LSD and "strange musical noises".

Eventually, Took donated two of his songs—"Three Little Piggies" and "The Sparrow Is A Sign"—to former Tomorrow and Pretty Things drummer Twink's 1969 solo album, Think Pink.

Consequently, before the first Tyrannosaurus Rex tour of America, Bolan and his management gave Took notice that they would be sacking him once the tour was complete.

Another contributing factor was an incident at the launch party for the UK edition of Rolling Stone, where jugs of punch prepared for the event were spiked with the Hallucinogen STP.

Took had already earned himself the nickname "The Phantom Spiker" (in which he rejoiced) through previous similar pranks.

Bolan was severely affected by the spiked drink and considered Took to be the prime suspect.

Took was contractually obliged to go on the US tour, but his heart was not in it and he attempted to cope through taking drugs.

Additionally, the acoustic duo were overshadowed by the loud electric acts they were billed with.

Together with Twink's girlfriend Silva Darling, they performed what Farren would later describe as "less of a gig than a protracted harangue" at the University of Manchester in October 1969, which rapidly dissolved into chaos.

Took appeared prominently on Farren's first solo album Mona – The Carnivorous Circus (recorded December 1969, released 1970).

Twink and the other ex-Deviants then formed a new band called the Pink Fairies (mark 2), without Took or Farren.

In February 1970, Farren and Took headhunted guitarist Larry (or "Lazza") Wallis and bassist Tim Taylor from their underground band, the Entire Sioux Nation.

A month later, Farren dropped out, leaving Took in the role of bandleader for the first time in his career.

With the addition of drummer Phil Lenoir, Shagrat was formed (named after an orc in The Lord of the Rings).

They recorded three tracks, "Peppermint Flickstick", "Boo! I Said Freeze" and "Steel Abortion", at Strawberry Studios and played live at the Phun City festival, before Lenoir and Taylor left.

Took and Wallis continued with drummer Dave Bidwell, rehearsing with various bass players and eventually forming an acoustic trio of Took on vocals and guitar, Wallis on acoustic bass and Bidwell on tambourine.

To counter this, he drew from the shock rock style of Iggy Pop; as Took explained to the NME in 1972 "I took my shirt off in the Sunset Strip where we were playing and whipped myself till everybody shut up. With a belt, y'know, a bit of blood and the whole of Los Angeles shuts up. 'What's going on, man, there's some nutter attacking himself on stage.' I mean, Iggy Stooge had the same basic approach."

This allowed the management to claim subsequently that it was Took's behaviour on stage which had caused the sacking.

Bolan replaced Took with Mickey Finn, and after one further album renamed the duo T. Rex, later expanding to a full band again.

After being sacked by Bolan, Took formed a prototype version of the Pink Fairies with Twink and Mick Farren, recently ousted from his own band, the Deviants.

This band was named in honour of a drinking club of the same name the three had formed earlier that year, along with other leading lights of the underground scene.