About Me
It was hard to imagine for anyone who saw him in his latter years, but in the heady days of glam rock Mickey Finn was the beautiful one. With his flowing hair and bared chest, T Rex's bongo player was the perfect foil for elfin Marc Bolan, and as Bolan himself put it, "He can't sing ... but he looks superb."
Contrast that with the sad figure he cut 20 years later when drink and heroin addiction had taken their toll. His mother Joy said: "He was a lovely boy - an ideal son. But this is what can happen when they get into that business. They can get into drink and into other things and it can all go wrong, but he lived into his fifties and I'm grateful for that."
He died last weekend, penniless but not quite forgotten, in Croydon's Mayday Hospital aged 56. He is thought to have suffered from kidney and liver problems.
For a while rock'n'roll was good to Mickey Finn. Paul Fenton, who joined the band when the original drummer Bill Legend left, said: "Mickey was a real London dude. He was a fancy dresser, he had fancy cars and went out with some of the most fabulous women I've ever seen."
An art school dropout, Finn was working as a house painter in 1969 when he met Bolan, then looking to replace Tyrannosaurus Rex percussionist Steve Peregrine Took.
Even though he had no allusions about his musical ability, Bolan took him on. One album and a year later Bolan shortened the band's name to T Rex and introduced a poppier sound, which paid off when Ride A White Swan reached Number 2 in 1970. Other hits followed - Metal Guru, Children Of The Revolution - and T Rex became megastars.
Bill Legend, 57, recalled: "Mickey lived life to the full. He was the live wire of the band, the comedian. He kept Marc and the rest of the lads in stitches.
"I will always have fond memories of him leaping off the giant stack of speakers and shooting off a wet stage into crowds of screaming girls."
Something of a character both on and off stage, Finn was often to be seen wearing a hat (including a green bowler), a trademark that was adopted by a significant number of fans.
Joy Finn and her son Mickey!
Ten years later Finn had lost his looks and all his fortune, and returned to live with his mother in Norwood, South London.
“I was an important part of T Rex and I don’t want it forgotten,†he said. “I hope people will remember Mickey Finn as well as Marc Bolan when they hear T Rex records . . . I would be deeply hurt if I was totally forgotten.â€
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