The Move

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The Move is a 1960s rock music band from Birmingham, England, led by guitarist, singer and songwriter Roy Wood, who wrote all the group's singles, and from 1968 also sang lead vocal on many of them. The group evolved from several mid-'60s Birmingham 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, bassist Chris "Ace" Kefford, vocalist Carl Wayne and guitarist Trevor Burton.

1 History
2 Selected discography
3 Cover versions of songs by The Move
4 External links

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History

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, 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 No. 2 hit in the UK 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 No. 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 Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Harold Wilson for libel after Secunda, to promote their third single "Flowers in the Rain" produced a postcard of Wilson in bed with a woman with whom he was allegedly having an affair. "Flowers", which reached No. 2, was less guitar-oriented than their previous two singles, and featured an inventive woodwind arrangement by producer Tony Visconti. The group lost the 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 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. But 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 performers' 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".

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, one side 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 lineup 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, (a second complete flop).

Price then 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", where 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 No. 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 US, 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), though 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 group's debut album, and been joint leader with Lynne. 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. Certainly, Wood's aspirations to combine rock and jazz elements, incorporating saxophone players, seemed at odds with the group's initial classical style ideas.

Randy Newman wrote a song about "English boys from Birmingham", that appeared on his Born Again LP.

Although never nearly 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, and then went to work in musical management.

Message From The Country, the band's highly acclaimed 1971 album, was remastered and released on EMI/Harvest in the UK in late 2005 and in the US in early 2006.

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Selected discography

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Singles

"Night Of Fear" - (Jan, 1967) - UK #2
"I Can Hear The Grass Grow" (April, 1967) - UK #5
"Flowers In The Rain" (Sept, 1967) - UK #2 -- first record ever to appear on BBC Radio 1
"Fire Brigade" (Feb, 1968) - UK #3
"Wild Tiger Woman" (1968)
"Blackberry Way" (Dec, 1968) - UK #1
"Curly" (July, 1969) - UK #12
"Brontosaurus" (April, 1970) - UK #7
"When Alice Comes Back To The Farm" (1970)
"Tonight" (July, 1971) - UK #11
"Chinatown" (October, 1971) - UK #24
"California Man" / "Do Ya" (May, 1972) - UK #7

Note: "Do Ya" (B-side of "California Man" single - US; 1974 UK; 1976 - rerecorded by ELO)

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EPs

Something Else From The Move (1968)

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Albums

Move (April, 1968) - UK #15
Shazam (1970)
Looking On (1970)
Message From The Country (1971)

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Compilations

Split Ends (1973)
The Best Of The Move (1974)
Great Move!: The Best Of The Move (1994)
The BBC Sessions (1995)
Movements: 30th Anniversary Anthology (1997)

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Reissues/Remasters

Message From The Country (2005)

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Cover versions of songs by The Move

A cover of California Man was released by Cheap Trick on their 1978 album Heaven Tonight.
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.