John's Children

'John's Children', formerly "The Silence", were a Leatherhead, England 1960s pop-art/mod band featuring future T.Rex frontman Marc Bolan, whose 1967 single "Desdemona" was banned by the BBC for the controversial lyric, "Lift up your skirt and fly". Bolan was with the band for about four months. His main roles were to be the band's composer and play electric guitar (until then, he only played acoustic guitar). His singing voice is sometimes lead in "unofficial" recordings only (demos, BBC radio sessions). (His voice is clearly heard on "Desdemona", "Midsummer's Night Scene", "Sarah Crazy Child" and on Andy Elison's 'solo' single "Cornflake Zoo".) Throughout their short career, they were not known for musical precision.

Their manager was Simon Napier-Bell (who also devised their white stage outfits) and they were also famous for an outrageous stage act which included fighting each other and Bolan whipping the stage with a chain. An account of Napier-Bell's time with John's Children and Bolan is given in his book You Don't Have To Say You Love Me.

From Wikipedia