Danielz front man and founder of T Rextasy has been a fan of Marc Bolan since he was 13-years-old and he has been performing the songs of his hero for longer than the man himself.

Over the last 25 years Danielz has drawn around him what he calls the Bolanic family which is a mix of Marc Bolan's actual family, the members of T Rex family, the iconic singer's famous friends and fans.

Marc Bolan's wife, June, went to see T Rextasy when they were supporting Gary Glitter at Wembley Arena.

"She came back stage and had a lovely chat with me and my wife for about an hour. She was still wearing Marc's wedding ring despite being married to someone else by then. She said: If someone has to step into Marc's shoes I want it to be you,'' said Danielz.

T Rextasy will be heading for Swindon in October with a show that plays Marc's music faithfully, but is not a tribute. Danielz says they are a gigging rock band, a band for today.

"I look the same on and off stage. I have always been a bit glam in the streets and worn eyeliner since 1992,'' said the singer. "I never studied DVDs or anything, you can do a replica by joining a musical. Marc was spontaneous on stage and we try to be too, it is in my soul and heart.''

When Danielz organises his special Marc Bolan celebration concerts he finds an army of musicians who want to attend including Rolan Bolan, Marc's son and Rolan's mum Gloria Jones who sang the original version of Tainted Love made famous by Soft Cell.

"I managed to get Gloria and Marc Almond on stage together singing Tainted Love at the last one,'' said Danielz. "Also we had Boy George, Holly Johnson, Glen Matlock, Steve Harley and members of T Rex. All these people have a love for Marc.''

Dino Dines the keyboard player with T Rex actually joined T Rextasy until he died and Mickey Finn, conga player with T Rex went on stage with them at one concert. Tony Visconti former producer for Marc Bolan, drummer Bill Legend and Marc Bolan's brother, Harry Feld all saw T Rextasy perform and gave their blessing.

"Harry came to see us in Portsmouth, he came back stage and said that Marc was looking down on me and smiling,'' said Danielz.

T Rextasy was started in 1992 and they were signed to Columbia Records who arranged for them to play in Japan.

"We were playing all the heavyweight venues and NHKTV filmed one of our concerts over there,'' said Danielz. "I met David Bowie who said he had read about us. Marc Bolan has a healthy fan base out there.''

T Rextasy were asked to perform at the premiere party of the movie Billy Elliott.

"The producer saw us and asked us to play. Hugh Grant was there, but I am not sure why, I guess he was a friend of the producer because he wasn't in the film.''

In 2001 the band won the BBC TV programme Battle of the Fantasy Bands.

"We only did it for the promo film to go with our performance of Jeepster,'' said Danielz. "We came off stage and were so sure the Beatles or Stones tributes had won we started to change to go home when we had to hastily get back - we had won!''

All Danielz anecdotes are recorded in his autobiography which turned out to be his life with T Rextasy.

"I never thought it would become a professional career. I saw T Rex three times live and that fandom inspired me to learn guitar and write my own original material, but I failed so I decided to go out and play Marc's music and it snowballed.''

T Rextasy will be at Swindon's Wyvern Theatre on Wednesday, October 24 at 8pm. Tickets are £29 from 01793 524481 or visit www.swindontheatres.co.uk - Flicky Harrison