Twisted Tales: Off-His-Rocker Singer Vince Taylor Was Britain's Great Rockabilly Hope

Posted on Oct 9th 2009 5:00PM by James Sullivan
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By the time David Bowie met Vince Taylor, who was England's answer to American rockabilly rebels like Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, Taylor was off his rocker. Bowie recalls the original Leather Man spreading a map of the world on the ground in front of a busy Tube station, excitedly showing the younger singer where the spaceships would land.

Taylor, whose brief, frantic career imploded when he cracked up onstage in the mid-1960s, was a major source of inspiration for Bowie's Ziggy Stardust, the "Leper Messiah." Known as the Black Leather Rebel, Taylor may have been the first rocker to dress in head-to-toe cowhide. To the late Joe Strummer, he was the immaculate conception of British rock 'n' roll. "Before him there was nothing," Strummer said. "He was a miracle."

Strummer's band the Clash famously covered 'Brand New Cadillac,' one of the few songs Taylor wrote. Most of Taylor's recording career consisted of classic rock 'n' roll covers such as 'Twenty Flight Rock' and 'Long Tall Sally.' They're collected on a new compilation from the UK's Ace Records.

Born Brian Holden in Middlesex, England in 1939, as a boy the future Vince Taylor moved with his family to New Jersey. In California, he began performing in rock 'n' roll bands while attending Hollywood High School.

Traveling to London in the late 1950s, Holden fell into the rockabilly scene at the 2 i's Coffee Bar, where he met teen idol Tommy Steele. Soon Holden had his own group, naming it the Playboys. He cobbled together his own stage name from the inscription on a pack of cigarettes – In hoc vinces – and from the actor Robert Taylor, "The Man with the Perfect Profile."

Though a few British singles for Parlophone (including one with 'Brand New Cadillac' as the B-side) weren't especially successful, Taylor and his rotating cast of Playboys were soon making a name for themselves in Paris. The French fell hard for the wild performer, nicknaming him "The Black Demon." For a few years he rivalled Johnny Hallyday -- the French Elvis -- as the country's biggest rock star.

But Taylor's reckless lifestyle quickly took its toll. After a devastating LSD trip, he reportedly went onstage ranting that he was the new Son of God, then trashing his bandmates' instruments. Another rumor claimed that he had a premonition before a gig at the venerable Paris Olympia music hall, claiming that if he started to sing, "everything will blow up." According to some accounts, the power did go off when he took the stage.

While various members of the Playboys went on to play and record with Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, Love, Three Dog Night and other acts, Taylor faded into obscurity. There were rumors of beatings at the hands of fans who were incensed with his inability to perform. In 1972, the year Bowie released 'The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars,' few noticed the release of a French album entitled 'Vince Is Alive, Well, and Rocking in Paris.' Taylor spent the last years of his life working as an airline mechanic in Switzerland. He died there of cancer in 1991.