Wizzard: how they affirmed my parents' unconditional love | Simon Hattenstone

Continuing our series on the musicians that shaped them, Simon Hattenstone recalls the sweat and glitter his parents went through just so he could get closer to his glam-rock hero Roy Wood

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I was only nine years old and I'd already been through T Rex, the Sweet and Slade. Now I was in love with Roy Wood. This wasn't a crush - this was the real thing. Roy wasn't everybody's cup of tea. He was no Marc Bolan; he wasn't even much of a Noddy Holder to be fair. But he was mine.

I was ill with encephalitis, bed-bound and living pretty much in the dark because my head was killing me. The only thing that kept me going was music - though my head was too sore to listen to much of it. But there were some things you made an exception for. And my exception was Roy and his glam-rock band Wizzard.