BEV BEVAN BIOGRAPHY

Bev Bevan was born on November 25th, 1945 in Birmingham as Beverly Bevan. His father Charles (nicknamed Bev) was a drummer in various dance halls, so nobody was surprised that his son emulated him. As early as the beginning of the sixties Bev Bevan played with some school mates as Rocking Ronnie And The Renegades or Troy Satan And The Hellcats to name but a few titles for the band that changed their group name almost weekly. In September 1962 Bev formed The Senators with some friends, but they only managed to play four gigs - so in 1963 Bev gave it another try and formed his first professional band, Denny Laine And The Diplomats, which soon became a top act around Birmingham and even managed to be the support act for The Beatles at a concert in "The Plaza, Old Hill". They secured a recording contract with EMI and recorded some material in 1964, but none of it was ever released. When Denny Laine left to found The Moody Blues, the group changed its name to The Diplomats. Their new line-up wasn't very successfull either, so it was no wonder that the group finally split up when two of its members left to get married. Bev retired from the music business and worked as a salesman in a furniture store. Fortunately, he was saved by Colin David "Carl Wayne" Tooley, frontman of the well reputed Carl Wayne And The Vikings, who asked Bev to join his group to play a few gigs in Germany. Bev, who had never been abroad before, took the change, but he soon had to realise that he was going nowhere once again, as this live job wasn't easy - the band had to do seven 45-minute shows starting at 7 pm - with only a 15-minute break between each show!

Back in Birmingham, Bev Bevan, Roy Wood, Carl Wayne, Christopher "Ace The Face" Kefford and Trevor Burton talked for the first time about founding a kind of Birmingham super-group with the best musicians in town. The group was officially founded on January, 17th 1966 and they already knew which way they wanted to head: They wanted to be a Mod band with an image similar to The Who.Roy Wood proposed that they should call themselves The Move, because they were all moving in from other groups. The Move played their first gig in 1966 in a club in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham. Within a month the group got a terrific and elaborate stage act that was absolutely new and inimitable for the audience. Soon their manager Tony Secunda secured them a recording contract with Deram (Decca). Their first single "Night Of Fear" became a successful number two in the British charts in December 1966 - the first in a series of top ten hits that was to follow. In 1968 Bev was asked to join The Everly Brothers, but he preferred to stay with The Move. In April 1970 Bev married Valerie Taylor, a butcher's daughter from Great Barr, Birmingham who worked as a hairdresser. Best man was his longtime friend Robert "Jasper Carrott" Davis.

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THE MOVE AT GONZO

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