The self-confessed originator of punk rock has looked around, quietly gazed the charts and decided to strike hard. 

This time he▓s run for home with what looks like being his biggest success since the hey-day. And if you want to know why, it▓s because Bolan▓s gone back to being raw. 

▒I Love To Boogie▓ sees another change for Marc Bolan even if some tired cynics do think it▓s a reversal to the third incarnation (or was it forth). 

One thing▓s for sure, the guy who walks into Studio B of a London photographer wears pin-stripe trousers and has had his hair cut. 

Even with the make-up out of the window, a doze of food-poisoning and a hangover, he▓s still on top form immediately ordering two bottles of cold wine. 

Just when you think you may have cracked the mystery of what really happened to the teenage dream the fabulous Gloria Jones walks down the stairs wearing a silver paper jump-suit... 

Wow! The scene is set: The film▓s in the camera and the shutter▓s clicking furiously. 

⌠They▓ve made me a socialite and I▓ve only been to two parties in the last five years■, he confides. 

Anyway when you get down to it the glam and glit have gone because Marc now reckons it▓s all in the eyes, all in the psyche. 

⌠I don▓t need props anymore. I▓ve changed from a leopard to a tiger, a leopard can▓t change it▓s spots so I▓ve gone to a tiger which musically means I▓ve got back to my basic Rock▓n▓Roll. 

Sipping the Chablis and getting more factual he continues: ⌠I spent so much time working on Gloria▓s stuff I▓d forgotten about T. Rex so when we got back to play together again it was very basic. Musically we did two days of jams just to get the fingers working. 

"Then I went out and bought nine rockabilly albums ▒cos that▓s what I started out as. ▒Ride A White Swan' was nicked from Ricky Nelson", he says in all honesty. ⌠It▓s a James Burton guitar lick■. 

But Marc won▓t admit to being on the wrong track with ▒London Boys▓ and blames the radio for not playing it. "It should have been Top Five■. I think it was great but maybe it was wrong for the time." 

Nor does he admit that ▒Boogie▓ is a return to his old style as a way of  making a sure-fire hit and getting a bit of money . 

"In reality I'm not as commercially conscious as everyone thinks. I'm not a business man. 'I Love To Boogie' was written in 10 minutes in the studio after putting together those nine rockabilly albums in my head. 'Hot Love' I did the same. The middle eight's from 'Heartbreak Hotel.■ 

"If I was as shrewd as everyone says I am I would have made 'I Love To Boogie' years ago. 

"I do what I think is right and the only record I regret putting out is 'Zip Gun Boogie' which was a contractual commitment. I hated it." 

And as for mixing well Marc doesn't bother with that anymore. 

"This album will be so raw even I don't believe it", he laughs. "I'm reconsidering it because it's so raw. It sounds like 'Electric Warrior' but it has so much more energy and lyrically it's very suggestive in every way - politically and mentally.■ 

Now the most colourful and certainly the only real superstar still based in Britain (sorry Paul) is getting into his stride. 

His musical contempo-raries and good friends are David Bowie and Cat Stevens. At one time they approached Decca to make a record together but were turned down. Imagine if they hadn't been. 

He's in the unique position of having been both a rock innovator ('Deborah') and a teenybop idol ('Hot Love'). France has just released a double album of his greatest hits. 

"I'm last generation Rock 'n' Roll", is how Marc Bolan describes himself. "And I'm in the position now where the Stones were in 1970." 

He has a point when he says it's a sad state of affairs that no great British star has emerged since himself and Bowie. 

As more wine gurgles into the glass Marc explains that within six weeks he is planning to play a series of concerts in London and negotiations are underway at the moment. 

He also wants to supplement T Rex with two other guitarists and is auditioning like crazy. 

"I'm going to do the raunchiest stuff you've heard in your whole life. I don't know what I'll be playing. I'll just get up there." 

The fact that this controversial figure can still "get up there" and is still having hit records is testimony to a well planned move he made a couple of years ago by living first in America and then France and generally keeping out of the limelight. 

"If I hadn't gone away for two years I'd have got caught in the death throes of glam rock. To be a creative productive artist and last as long as I have and David (Bowie) you have to be on the ball all the time. 

"Guitarists I can get you a million. There are ones outside that can wipe out Jimi Hendrix just like that■, he says clicking his fingers. "They're all dynamite, fantastic, but you get me one that can write a song like 'Changes' or 'New York City'. It's easy to play but to create is much harder.■ 

The last major piece of creativity came with ⌠Futuristic Dragon■ which Marc says cost him L70.000 to make and although it only got to No 30 in the charts sold as many as his first album 'My People Were Fair▓ which hit the No 2 spot. 

"There are quite a few things on that album that I like very much. I'm especially proud of 'All Alone' but I wasn't fashionable at the time. 

"I've been fashionable and unfashionable seven times but it doesn't bother me because I'm still here. I'm fashionable now because I'm making an effort to communicate which I haven't made over the last two years.■ 

The lack of communication stems from his breakaway from produc-er Tony Visconti and his subsequent full production jobs with lots of overdubs. He acknowledges that towards the end with Visconti he was going down but it was Marc's own fault because he had run out of energy. 

Things got better and he had a bigger hit with the level production of 'New York City'. Now the production has gone really sparse. 

But before Marc can comment Gloria (who has been parking the Mini) rushes into the room and announces: "Someone's stolen our gas cap.■ 

"Not my hub cap diamond star halo", says Marc in mock alarm. "No your gas cap. ⌠Everybody cracks up and the conversation moves on. 

Although he sees his British fans as the most important, Marc was booked to play on the West coast of America late last year where his following is still fairly underground. He's affectionately remembered there for the days with Tyrannosaurus Rex. 

Unfortunately he had to blow it out. Bolan explains : 

"We filled the long Beach Arena which holds 17.000 people and had Blue Oyster Cult supporting and it's the only time in my life I couldn't sing a note. 

"Randy Newman's old man's doctor, and has just been treating Rod's throat. He told me if I sang, I'd never be able to sing again. My throat was bleeding. But the point is we drew 17.000 people so the American scene is OK. 

"I've been considering going back over there but my British audience is the most important because they stuck by me from 'Deborah' onwards and that's important to me. 

"I'd go back to playing folk clubs if I had to because success to me is not that important. Don't make the mistake of thinking I've gone over the edge because I've 'come up through the abyss in the middle and I'm on the other side. 

"I've just got into Lou Reed for the first time.■ 

But back to America. The fashionable music in the New World at the moment with the Ramones and the Runaways is classic punk rock. It sounds like the time is right for Marc to really break there. 

"Listen I was the originator of punk rock", he says. "We had a big sign on the Strip that read: 'The Cosmic Punk Comes' and no one got It. "But if I release 'I Love  To Boogie' in the States it'll be Top Five. I haven't been able to release records there for the last two years because of what's known as 'contractual problems.' 

I've only had two singles out in the States and they were both hits. 

"If we go over there we'll clean up", he says confidently.■ 

And it's confidence that marks the new Bolan who's back in no uncertain way. He loves to boogie all right, as he munches through Peking Duck in a King's Road restaurant before dashing off for another interview. 

⌠Hey would you like my tie", he says taking the Italian silk from round his neck. Good isn't it? It's got a lyre on the front. You can have it. 

"By the way, guess who's my favourite group in the world■, he continues. 

"T. Rex?" 

"No. The Flamin' Groovies.■