T. Rex (October 17, 1972) – “T-Rex, Doobies Score at Aud” Concert Review – Press-Telegram. Published two days after the performance, this Press-Telegram review covers T. Rex at the Long Beach Auditorium alongside The Doobie Brothers. Pop-music critic Preston Reese challenges comparisons between Marc Bolan and The Beatles, but reports that T. Rex generated their own excitement before a full house.
This is the Walking Oak on Cannock Chase in Staffordshire, known locally as the Groot Tree, the Ent Tree, or just the Old Man of the Woods.
It stands in Brocton Coppice, which holds one of the largest concentrations of ancient and veteran oaks in the county, survivors of the forest that once covered the whole of the Chase. Age estimates vary wildly, from around 500 years to well over a thousand.
Local tradition says it inspired Treebeard. Tolkien was stationed at Rugeley and Brocton camps during the First World War, and walked down through Brocton Coppice to visit Edith at Great Haywood after their marriage in 1916. He began writing the Book of Lost Tales there while convalescing from trench fever. Whether any particular tree gave him the Ents is another matter, but he certainly passed these ones.
The exact location is kept quiet to protect the roots from the footfall. If you go looking, stay on the marked paths.