'Dandy in the Underworld' was the last officially released UK album of new material by T.Rex. The album contained 11 new songs along with the inclusion of the 1976 hit single 'I Love to Boogie'. The album received favourable reviews from most of the major music papers and was generally seen as a 'return to form'. 'Dandy in the Underworld' was released in 6 countries outside of the UK and the track listing was identical for all versions.

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Most tracks on the album feature the last T Rex line-up of Marc Bolan (vocals and guitar); Herbie Flowers (bass); Dino Dines (keyboards) and Tony Newman (drums) with only 'Jason B Sad' featuring Miller Anderson on second guitar. Three of the Dandy tracks feature the previous version of T Rex which included Steve Currie (bass); Dino Dines (keyboards) and Davey Lutton (drums). Perhaps surprisingly drummer Paul Fenton gets a credit, along with Davey Lutton, for playing drums on 'Visions of Domino'. The song 'Visions of Domino' can be traced back to late 1975 when it was first recorded as 'Funky London Childhood' and was intended to form part of a concept album provisionally titled 'The London Opera'. 'Funky London Childhood' was performed on the Futuristic Dragon tour of February/March 1976 and on the Supersonic 'Rollin' Bolan' TV special recorded in July 1976 and later broadcast on the 28th August 1976. The song was then later re-written as 'Visions of Domino'.

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Side 1

(1) Dandy In The Underworld, (2) Crimson Moon, (3) Universe,
(4) I'm A Fool For You Girl, (5) I Love To Boogie, (6) Visions Of Domino.

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Side 2

(1) Jason B. Sad, (2) Groove A Little, (3) The Soul Of My Suit,
(4) Hang-Ups, (5) Pain And Love, (6) Teen Riot Structure.

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Dandy in the Underworld - UK album
Released: 11th March 1977, EMI BLN 5005

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The UK version of Dandy in the Underworld was available as a vinyl album and a cassette tape. As with all previous T Rex albums from The Slider (1972) onwards, this album featured the familiar blue and red T Rex labels with Marc Bolan portrait, however the cassette version was branded with only the round EMI logo and the 'Bolan' production diamond logo.

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The black and white picture used on the album cover was taken by the successful London photographer Allan Ballard (1943-) and is a simple but stark portrait of Marc. The same image was then used as a graphic image to promote the Dandy album, single and tour. The image was also used on all items of tour merchandise including the t-shirt's that Marc wore throughout the Dandy tour.

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UK copies of the album were housed in a die-cut sleeve with a five and a half inch circular cut out. The inner sleeve featured the portrait photo of Marc and on the reverse were the lyrics. As can be seen below, the back cover featured the same photo as used on the front cover.

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Although the album was heavily promoted in the music press and on the UK tour, it only managed a run of three weeks in the album charts* and peaked at number 26.

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* The chart places referred to in this section relate to the positions that singles reached in the commonly used BBC commissioned chart. 'The BMRB (British Market Research Bureau) were commissioned by the BBC and 'Record Retailer' to produce a record chart using figures from 150 sales outlets chosen at random each week from between 300 and 500 participating record selling establishments' (source: Sixties City, website).