The Move biography

 

The Move was one of the UK’s finest groups of the 60’s and early 70’s but only formed through the urging of David Bowie. The singer, performing as Davy Jones at Birmingham’s legendary Cedar Club in 1965, met Ace Kefford and Trevor Burton and over a drink, encouraged the two young musicians to get their own group together.

Soon after, the duo invited Roy Wood, Carl Wayne and Bev Bevan to join and complete the original Move line-up. A year later, their debut single ‘Night Of Fear’ was a no.2 smash hit. As the 60’s turned into the 70’s, the original line-up fragmented until only Wood and Bevan, plus later Move member Jeff Lynne, remained. The trio celebrated a final top 10 hit with ‘California Man’ in 1972 before developing the group into the Electric Light Orchestra and even greater success.

An exceptionally dynamic and controversial stage act, The Move’s live performances have been remembered for stunning musicianship and frenzied demolitions of televisions, instruments and stages with an axe, chopping a Cadillac to pieces at London’s Roundhouse and inciting a riot which alarmed headline act The Who (the stage had to be rebuilt…). Even the famous Marquee Club was not safe. During a performance of ‘Fire Brigade’, the stage was set alight, resulting in the Soho district being jammed with fire engines. So shocking and fiery were The Move live, that for a while, the group were banned from every theatre in the UK and Europe, a decade before the Sex Pistols’ similar punk rock antics. They even threatened Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s government with the furore surrounding the promotional campaign for ‘Flowers In The Rain’. The single reached no. 2 in the UK charts but Wilson sued manager Tony Secunda and The Move in the High Court and all royalties were paid to charities of Wilson’s choice, a ruling still in place today. As songwriter Roy Wood says, it’s less for murder..

 

Away from the controversy and violence, The Move scored top 10 hits in the UK and European charts with singles including ‘Blackberry Way’, ‘Night Of Fear’, ‘Fire Brigade’, ‘I Can Hear The Grass Grow’ and ‘Flowers In The Rain’, the first ever record played on BBC Radio 1.

During a Move tour with The Jimi Hendrix Experience and The Pink Floyd to promote The Move’s self-titled debut album on EMI’s Regal Zonophone label, Ace Kefford experienced the beginnings of severe depression, resulting in serious panic attacks and a suicide attempt that drove him out of the group and blighted his life for over 30 years.

A year later, as ‘Blackberry Way’ became the group’s first no.1 single, Trevor Burton, dissatisfied with what he saw as a slide into commercial pop, announced his departure from The Move during a violent on-stage brawl with drummer Bev Bevan. Cymbals were thrown like Frisbees and guitars and microphone stands were used as clubs – all in front of a bemused concert audience.

The Move's second album Shazam, featuring new bassist Rick Price, was described by Rolling Stone magazine as "a masterpiece" but the songs (one side written by Roy Wood, the other inspired covers) were also a true representation of the material they performed live. Two Move shows at San Francisco’s Fillmore West were recorded in 1969 but were never released due to lead singer Carl Wayne leaving the group to pursue a solo career.

Forced to take over the lead role, Wood adopted tribal face paint and wild back-combed hair to promote new single ‘Brontosaurus’ on BBC TV, a look he was later to use in Wizzard. ‘Looking On’ released on Fly Records in 1970, was the first album of all-Move compositions and included ‘Feel Too Good’, used recently in the movie ‘Boogie Nights’. The album and single were also the first to feature singer, songwriter and guitarist Jeff Lynne. The revamped group, now a trio, saw Lynne and Wood begin focusing their songwriting energies into creating a parallel band project, the Electric Light Orchestra, while also recording a new Move album.

‘Message From The Country’ was The Move’s final album but the general consensus, hardly challenged since its release on 8 October 1971, is that it was unquestionably the best album they ever made. Signed to EMI’s Harvest label by new manager Don Arden, the group also recorded three Roy Wood hit singles, ‘Tonight’, ‘Chinatown’, and ‘California Man’, while Jeff Lynne's ‘Do Ya’ became the group’s sole American hit. In the UK, it was relegated to the b-side of final single ‘California Man’. Relinquishing its no.7 spot for ELO's debut single ‘10538 Overture’ during 1972, it made a fitting finale for one of the most entertaining, creative and turbulent groups in British rock music.