The Glittermen were a

glam rock Glam rock is a style of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s and was performed by musicians who wore outrageous costumes, makeup, and hairstyles, particularly platform shoes and glitter. Glam artists drew on diver ...

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary *Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania *Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...

from

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, who backed

Gary Glitter Paul Francis Gadd (born 8 May 1944), best known by his stage name Gary Glitter, is an English former singer, songwriter, and record producer. He achieved success during the glam rock era of the 1970s and 1980s, and his career ended after he w ...

, un-credited, on his first four hit singles, from June 1972 until the summer of 1973, when they then officially became known as

The Glitter Band The Glitter Band are a glam rock band from England, who initially worked as Gary Glitter's backing band under that name from 1973, when they then began releasing records of their own. They were unofficially known as the Glittermen on the first f ...

. Continuing to back

on some of his further hit singles, but now as 'The Glitter Band', they began releasing

records A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

of their own under their new name. As The Glitter Band, they had seven UK

Top 20 A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide charts, often in combination. These include rec ...

hit single A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single or simply a hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record' ...

s between March 1974 through to April 1976, and three hit

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

History

Mike Leander Michael George Farr (30 June 1941 – 18 April 1996), known professionally as Mike Leander, was a British arranger, songwriter and record producer. He worked variously with The Beatles, David McWilliams ("Days of Pearly Spencer"), Gary Gli ...

the producer and co-writer of Gary Glitter's early tracks, realised that they would need a band for live performances after " Rock and Roll Part 2", a mainly instrumental B-side, became an unexpected hit. The 'Glittermen', as they were originally called, were drafted in from the Boston Show Band, a mainly covers band, formed in 1966 by John Rossall, on the agreement that Leander would help them to release their own records. Gary Glitter had in fact performed with the Boston Show Band when he was known as Paul Raven during some of their club residencies over in Germany and John Rossall had in the early 1960s been a member of the Mike Leander Showband that toured the UK. They continued to perform as The Boston in Germany in between their work with Glitter into early 1973 before finally becoming known as 'The Glitter Band'. The original line-up of the 'Glittermen' / Glitterband consisted of: John Rossall, Ray Moxley, Harvey Ellison, Gerry Shephard and John White although there would be various changes and additions to this line-up during their success period. Only John Rossall and Harvey Ellison actually played on the first two Gary Glitter albums. Leander played most of the instruments along with Glitter singing.

Singles

References

{{Gary Glitter English glam rock groups Protopunk groups Gary Glitter