The Move
The Move were a
1960s rock music band from
Birmingham,
England, led by
guitarist,
singer and
songwriter Roy Wood, who composed all the group's singles, and from 1968 also sang lead vocal on many of them.
The group evolved from several mid 1960s Birmingham based groups, including
Carl Wayne and the Vikings, the Nightriders and the Mayfair Set. The group's name seems to refer to the move various members of these bands made to form the group. Beside Wood, the original members of the Move were drummer
Bev Bevan, guitarist Chris "Ace" Kefford, vocalist Carl Wayne and bassist Trevor Burton.
They played their first shows in early
1966, and became known for their elaborate vocal arrangements, and for their taste in
soul music, and American West Coast bands
The Beach Boys, the
Byrds,
Love and
Moby Grape. Their manager, Tony Secunda (who also managed
Birmingham's other major pop group of the day,
The Moody Blues), got them a weekly residency at
London's
Marquee Club, where they appeared dressed in gangster regalia. Roy Wood wrote their first single, "
Night Of Fear", a Number 2 hit in the
UK singles chart in January 1967 which began the Move's practice of musical quotation (in this case, the
1812 Overture by
Tchaikovsky). Their second single, "
I Can Hear The Grass Grow", was another major hit, reaching Number 5 in the UK.
Known for outrageous stage antics, such as Wayne's taking an axe to television sets, Cadillacs and busts of
Adolf Hitler and Rhodesian leader
Ian Smith, they generated further controversy when they were sued by the
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom,
Harold Wilson for
libel after Secunda, to promote their third single "
Flowers in the Rain" produced a cartoon postcard of Wilson in bed with a woman with whom he was allegedly having an affair. "Flowers in the Rain", which reached Number 2, was less guitar-oriented than their previous two singles, and featured an inventive woodwind arrangement by producer
Tony Visconti. The group lost the court case and had to pay all costs, with all royalties earned by the song being given to charities of Wilson's choice, a ruling which remained in force even after Wilson's death in 1995.
For their fourth single, the group had planned to release "Cherry Blossom Clinic", a lighthearted song about the fantasies of a patient in a mental institution, backed by the satirical "Vote For Me". However, they had been thoroughly unnerved by their court experiences; they and the record company felt it unwise to pursue such a potentially controversial idea, and the single was shelved. "Vote For Me" remained unreleased until it began to appear on retrospective collections from 1997 onwards, while "Cherry Blossom Clinic" became one of the tracks on their first
LP, also called "Move".
In March 1968 they returned to the charts in style with "Fire Brigade", another UK top three hit, and the first on which Roy Wood sang lead vocal. But a few weeks later, around the time of the release of the LP, Kefford left the band due to increasing personal and musical differences. They became a four-piece, with Burton switching to bass. It was also during this line-up transition that the band first invited
Jeff Lynne to join. He declined at the time still hoping for success in his present band,
Idle Race, another Birmingham based group. In the summer of 1968 their fifth single "Wild Tiger Woman", a much heavier song acknowledging the group's love of
Jimi Hendrix, failed to chart at all - in chart terms, a disaster as it followed four top five hits. They responded with their most commercial number yet, the evergreen "Blackberry Way", which topped the UK chart in February 1969. This new, more easy-listening musical direction was the last straw for the increasingly disenchanted Burton, who wanted to work in a more
hard rock/
blues oriented style, and he left the group after an altercation on stage one evening with
Bev Bevan. He was replaced by
Rick Price, another veteran of several Birmingham rock groups.
"Wave Your Flag and Stop the Train" referenced
the Monkees, while "Fire Brigade" contained a guitar figure straight out of
Duane Eddy, and the bridge of "Blackberry Way" is taken from the intro of
Harry Nilsson's "Good Old Desk".
1970s Shazam continued their practice of musical quotation, and of elaborately re-arranged versions of other performer's songs; "Hello Susie", which was a top five hit for
Amen Corner in 1969, quotes
Booker T. Jones' and
Eddie Floyd's "Big Bird," and the album includes a cover of a
Tom Paxton song, "The Last Thing On My Mind". It also included a slightly slower remake of "Cherry Blossom Clinic" that began in with a proto-metallic grind and finished with an acoustic guitar-dominated extended quotation from
Johann Sebastian Bach's "Joy".
Carl Wayne left the group in 1969 after the recording (but prior to the release) of
Shazam.
Shazam contained six generally quite long tracks, one side containing songs by Wood, the other side being all cover versions, thus showing that they seemed to be pulling in different directions. Wayne was replaced by
Jeff Lynne, who had led the much-praised, but commercially unsuccessful, Birmingham group
Idle Race). This line-up recorded
Looking On, which featured the singles "Brontosaurus" (a Top Ten hit), and "When Alice Comes Back to the Farm," a blues song with discrete references to cannabis (and their second complete flop).
Price left to form the band Mongrel; whilst Wood, Lynne and Bevan then made two more hit singles, "Tonight" and "Chinatown", and the final Move LP,
Message from the Country (1971), which many regard as their best. The title track quoted
Jimmy Webb's "Up Up and Away," Wood's "Ben Crawley Steel Company", were Bev Bevan's bass vocal was obviously modelled on
Johnny Cash, and Bevan's "Don't Mess Me Up" was homage to
Elvis Presley, complete with fake
Jordanaires.
Down to the trio of Wood, Lynne and Bevan, the Move released a farewell disc, a "maxi-single" in
1972 consisting of "Ella James," "California Man" and "Do Ya." "California Man", a Number 7 UK hit, featuring baritone saxophones, a double bass, and a riff borrowed from
George Gershwin, was an affectionate tribute to
Jerry Lee Lewis,(The double bass had "Killer" written on it) with Lynne and Wood trading verses and lines. It was one of the first records to kick off the
1950s rock and roll revival in the early
1970s in
Britain. "Do Ya" became the Move's best-known song in the
U.S., the original version reaching the lower rungs of the American charts in
1972.
Meanwhile Wood and Lynne had embarked on a side project, The
Electric Light Orchestra, whose remake of "Do Ya" was a US hit in
1977), although it only remained an album track in the UK.
Wood released a solo album in 1973,
Boulders, and went on to front the
glam rock band
Wizzard, while Lynne and Bevan achieved massive success with the Electric Light Orchestra. Wood had appeared on the ELO's debut album and been joint leader with Lynne; it was Wood who played many of the album's classical instruments, and articles of the time discussing the new group noted Wood would play them one note at a time and overdub until he had become more familiar with each instrument.
But after several disappointing live performances, and growing disagreements about musical direction, it was apparent that one of the front men ought to leave and form his own band. Wood's aspirations to combine rock and jazz elements, incorporating saxophone players, seemed at odds with the group's initial classical style ideas and Lynne's pop sensibilities; the lone song from the Wood-Lynne ELO's only album (called
Electric Light Orchestra in England and
No Answer in the United States) that stayed in the group's repertoire was "10538 Overture," a composition that most seemed to unite the best of the Move's eclectic style with the direction in which Lynne would eventually take the new group.
Randy Newman wrote a song about "English boys from Birmingham", that appeared on his
Born Again LP.
Although never as popular in the United States as they were in their native
England, the Move were a seminal pop/rock group of the era, and are often cited as one of the main progenitors of
power pop.
Cheap Trick recorded a version of "California Man" on their
Heaven Tonight LP, while
Glen Matlock of the
Sex Pistols admitted that one of the guitar riffs on "
God Save The Queen" was inspired by that on "Fire Brigade".
"Flowers in the Rain" was the first track played on
Radio 1, when it began broadcasting on 30 September
1967, introduced by
Tony Blackburn.
Carl Wayne, who had joined the
Hollies in
2000, died on
August 31 2004 after a long battle with
cancer. Ace Kefford recorded a solo album in 1968 after his departure, but it remained unreleased until 2003 when it appeared as "Ace The Face". Trevor Burton played bass with yet another Birmingham group,
The Steve Gibbons Band, and later fronted his own blues group as lead guitarist. Rick Price joined Wood in
Wizzard, and the shortlived
Roy Wood's Wizzo Band, playing steel guitar for the latter, then went to work in musical management, and also formed the duo Price and Lee with Dianne Price.
Message From The Country, the band's highly acclaimed 1971 album, was remastered and released on
EMI/
Harvest in the UK in
2005 and in the US in
2006.
Singles
* "Night Of Fear" - (Jan,
1967) - UK #2
* "I Can Hear The Grass Grow" (April,
1967) - UK #5
* "Flowers In The Rain" (Aug,
1967) - UK #2 -- first record ever to appear on
BBC Radio 1 * "Fire Brigade" (Feb,
1968) - UK #3
* "Wild Tiger Woman" (Aug,
1968) - UK #53
* "Blackberry Way" (Dec,
1968) - UK #1
* "Curly" (July,
1969) - UK #12
* "Brontosaurus" (April,
1970) - UK #7
* "When Alice Comes Back To The Farm" (Oct,
1970)
* "Tonight" (May,
1971) - UK #11
* "Chinatown" (October,
1971) - UK #24
* "California Man" / "Do Ya" (April,
1972) - UK #7
Note: "Do Ya" (B-side of
"California Man" single -
1972 US #93
Billboard Pop Singles;
1974 UK;
1976 - rerecorded by
ELO)
EPs
Something Else From The Move (
1968)
Albums
The Move (April,
1968) - UK #15
Shazam (
1970)
Looking On (
1970)
Message From The Country (
1971)
Compilations
Split Ends (
1972)
The Best Of The Move (
1974)
Great Move!: The Best Of The Move (
1994)
The BBC Sessions (
1995)
Movements: 30th Anniversary Anthology (
1997)
Reissues/Remasters
Message From The Country (
2005)
*A cover of "California Man" was released by
Cheap Trick on their
1978 album
Heaven Tonight. It features a quick snippet from Brontosaurus in the middle section.
*A cover of "I Can Hear the Grass Grow" was released as a
single by
The Fall in 2005, and is also included on their album
Fall Heads Roll. It was also recorded by
Status Quo on the first of their cover-versions albums,
Don't Stop (1996). In addition, the song was recorded by New York psychedelic act The
Blues Magoos on their third LP,
Basic Blues Magoos, released in 1968.
*As an odd note, there is also a brief (uncredited) cover of "I Can Hear The Grass Grow" on
Spirit guitarist
Randy California's 1972 solo album ;;Kapt. Kopter And The (Fabulous) Twirly-Birds''. It appears at the end of the sixth track "Things Yet to Come", and is backwards and played at double-speed.
Noel Redding is the vocalist.
*"Fire Brigade" was released as a single by
The Fortunes in the US in 1968, in a vain attempt to compete with the original; neither made the US charts.
*In addition to the 1969 No. 4 hit version by
Amen Corner, "Hello Susie" was also recorded by British soul band
Buddy Curtess and the Grasshoppers as a single in 1986.
*"Do Ya" has been recorded by
Todd Rundgren and
Ace Frehley.
*"Flowers In The Rain" has been recorded by
Nancy Sinatra.
*"Ella James" has been recorded by
The Nashville Teens.
*"Brontosaurus" was later recorded by
Cheap Trick and released in 2002 as a 7 inch vinyl single by
Sub Pop Records.
* http://www.themoveonline.com (Official Site)
* http://www.themoveonline.com/message/ (Message From The Country)
* http://www.ftmusic.com/ (Face The Music site, Move, ELO, and related)
* http://www.roywood.co.uk/
* http://www.carlwayne.co.uk
* http://www.watkins1.freeserve.co.uk (The Move Information Station)
