About The Marc Bolan School of Music & Film
The Marc Bolan School Of Music and Film in Sierra Leone is a project inspired by the life and music of the incredible Rock Star Marc Bolan – a pioneer of blissfully energising Electric Boogie and Glam Rock in the early 70’s – whose songs are still played and loved all over the world today. Songs like ‘Get It On’ (‘Bang A Gong’), ‘Children of The Revolution’ and ‘I Love To Boogie’ are some of his many, many top chart hits. His talent and energy continue to inspire musicians today, over forty years since his tragic death. Hundreds if not thousands of bands cite him as a major influence. Only last year was Marc Bolan and his band T.REX inducted into the world-famous and most prestigious Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
As part of his legacy and an ever-lasting tribute to his memory, his partner, the wonderful and beyond-inspirational Motown Singer-Songwriter Gloria Jones, has established The Marc Bolan School of Music and Film in Makeni, Sierra Leone. This school has already given many students, ages 5-19yrs, a chance to develop skills in song-writing, recording, performance and film directing, scripting and acting, as well as filming and editing. Gloria Jones has now made her home in Sierra Leone, dedicating her life to helping children fulfil their dreams in one of the very poorest countries in the world.
After ten years of establishing its facilities and curriculum, The Marc Bolan School of Music and film provides its students, completely free of charge, with everything they might need to build their lives around their creative talents. This has given them belief in their own vision and abilities, to make individual artistic works and to co-operate with others successfully in an environment almost totally bereft of such opportunities. Indeed, our school is the very first of its kind in West Africa!
The Marc Bolan School of Music and Film has grown – an incredible story of the inspiration and determination which Gloria Jones (and her partner Marc Bolan’s son, Rolan Bolan), have kept giving. They have received recognition at local and national government level – the students have made their own, nationally televised videos advising on health and safety. Students have now completed documentaries on the social and individual position of women in Sierra Leone, on the multiple negative effects of Covid 19 and on the very difficult water sanitation issues faced by so many in the country. These are important and significant videos- and in a few years our students will be working as documentary makers for state TV networks and beyond.. You can see that we treat our students’ lives and situations very seriously, and aim to give them each a voice which can reach out to the world.
The Marc Bolan School of Music and Film needs your help. As you can see on this site, we have designed a brand new, state of the art school building which will meet all the needs and more of our students – from providing a safe and secure place of study and inspiration to inspiring them to reach beyond and engage with local and international communities. Now we need to build it! Please help us to fund the costing of each part of the building and the equipment we need. A great deal of professional work had gone into the planning, drawing and costing of this work, and for our wonderful project to be completed we need you to help make Marc Bolan’s legacy to life in the most incredible and giving way!
Aims, Methods, Successes and Benefits
Aims: To provide a world-class, stable and long-term state-of-the-art school which will enable students to be educated in music and film production. It will also provide a cultural hub for the presentation and celebration of the students’ achievements locally in the Bombali District and on the international stage.
Methods: The students are being taught by professionally qualified teachers in a school already built on land purchased for this purpose. Using high-quality instruments and over 35 computers sent from the UK and also sourced in Sierra Leone. Ringo Starr’s (The Beatles) son, Zak Starkey, himself donated three beautiful top-of the range drum kits. We have also been supported by the charity ‘Purple Field Productions’ and produced a series of short documentaries focusing on urgent social issues.
A fundraising charity, The Light Of Love Foundation UK, has been created and active over the last 6 years in raising funds exclusively for the school (CRN: 1164256) in the UK and Europe. Funds have also been raised in the USA (Utah and New York as well as California).
Successes: We have bought land, built and interim school and have been giving lessons in music theory, instrumental skills and performance as well as script-writing, shooting and editing of films. Our Director, Principal and inspiration is the famous Motown singer and songwriter Ms Gloria Jones, whose passion to educate and inspire is the incredible driving force which has seen this project come to fruition.
Needs: Our aim is to establish a stable, long-term catalyst for the development of community education focusing on Music and Film. Building a reputation of excellence through vibrant international links and proper and meaningful contribution to people’s daily lives, our school will serve as a beacon of inspiration. The self-realization of young people through the development of their skills and talents, both individually and on a community level will add value not only to our community in Makeni, but to the whole country.
We have raised over £60,000 over the past years, all of which has been spent on building materials, teachers’ pay, equipment, transportation and shipping. In order to build the especially designed school with its purpose-built classes, amphi-theatre, locally sourced building materials and long-term community value, we will need another £84,000. (Plus ongoing teachers’ salaries and costs.)
Benefits: Through its construction this innovative and pioneering project will generate not only huge measurable value in the lives of the students attending, but also international kudos, publicity value and a level of personal and artistic development. This will feed directly into the heart of the ethical purpose of education. This in turn will facilitate the raising of the Government’s humanitarian profile, an overt example of best practice – meeting the development criteria of international organizations.
Please Donate Today!
All funds are used to pay for materials and teaching, and every item of expenditure accounted for. Our exclusive Charity, ‘The Light Of Love Foundation UK ’ (CRN 1164256 ), transfers all monies raised to our account in Makeni, Sierra Leone.
Gloria R. Jones
President and Director
Gloria R. Jones is a truly remarkable human being. Born in the USA she took her first steps towards stardom at the age of eight with formal classical training on the piano – which her father preacher inspired her to begin. She became the church pianist and musical adirector at the age of ten!
She first came to public prominence with her televised performance of her recording of ‘Tainted Love’ for the incredible Champion label. She then moved on to Motown where she became a very successful songwriter, vocalist and producer. Many ‘A List’ stars performed her songs – including Ry Cooder, Little Feat, Harry Nilsson, Gordon Lightfoot, Buffy Sainte-Marie and many more…
Gloria received a Grammy Nomination for the song ‘If I Were Your Woman’ performed by Gladys Knight and The Pips. The Jackson 5 recorded ‘Christmas Won’t Be The Same Without You’. Other notable songs include ‘My Mistake’ performed by Marvin Gaye and Diana Ross, ‘Haven’t Stopped Dancing Yet’ – Gonzales, ‘Piece of Clay’ – Marvin Gaye, and Junior Walker And The Allstars, and many others including ‘I Ain’t Going Nowhere’.
In the early 70’s Gloria joined T.Rex and helped create the Rock-Soul sound with Marc Bolan which inspired a new generation of artists such as Culture Club, Oasis, Beck and many more.
In 2014 the documentary film ‘20’ From Stardom’ about Gloria and her backing vocalist contemporaries won an Oscar for ‘Best Documentary Feature’. She was awarded ‘Blues and Soul Hall of Fame Songwriter of The Year’ and holds the title ‘Queen of Northern Soul’.
She brings all of these incredible achievements and experiences to build The Marc Bolan School of Music and Film – to inspire and educate the youth of Makeni and Sierra Leone.
Jed Dmochowski
Director and Treasurer
In 1997, in the thick of the Punk Rock explosion in the UK, Jed joined the VIP’s at Warwick University as lead singer and lead guitarist and dropped out of his studies the following summer – for Rock and Roll. By 1979, after much airplay on the John Peel Show – BBC Radio 1, they were recording with Chas Chandler (The Animals, Jimi Hendrix, Slade), Mike Leander (The Beatles, amongst many others) and other notable producers.
A record deal with GEM Records/RCA saw them release a string of singles the following year, which included their Hit Single ‘The Quarter Moon’ – written by Jed. The Guardian described his subsequent solo album (‘Stallions Of My Heart’) as the ‘best debut in the last decade’.
Jed returned to finish his university studies in 1989 at Goldsmith’s College, London, and went on to teach English Language and Literature at Secondary level at Haberdashers’ Aske’s in London.
Meeting Gloria Jones at a Commemorative Ceremony for Marc Bolan at Golders’ Green Cemetery in September 2008 was the beginning of their work together to realize Gloria’s dream of building The Marc Bolan School of Music and Film in Sierra Leone.
Since that time Jed has visited Sierra Leone twice, each time witnessing the serious level of poverty which affects so many there – being more determined than ever to help build a sanctuary of opportunity and self-belief for the young people of Makeni and beyond.
His own love of music and understanding of the importance of education through which young people can build a sense of their own identity and community has enabled him to fill the role of Director and Treasurer for the school.
He is also the central link between fund raising for the Marc Bolan School in the UK, USA and Europe and sustaining growth and development of the school itself; many instruments and educational materials such as desks, computers, editing screens etc. have been sent over the years plus over £30,000 in donations has been raised so far.
In 2015 Jed set up the charity ‘The Light Of Love Foundation UK’ (CRN 1164256) through which monies are collected and sent to the Marc Bolan School’s own dedicated bank account in Sierra Leone.