LINK: Review: Made In Brum - Jasper Carrott, Bev Bevan and more on stage

The Made In Brum performers

Helen McWilliams of The Good Review website was at the New Alexandra Theatre to see a star-studded line-up perform for Made In Brum.

Here is her review:

Birmingham was rocking on Friday night with side-splitting comedy from the ever hilarious Jasper Carrott, who introduced artists from the Birmingham area – all of whom have enjoyed successful careers (and continue to do so).

They entertained the full house on their home turf to the point of well and truly ‘raising the roof’.

With resident Bev Bevan band (Bevan on drums) which included Tony Kelsey, Phil Tree and Abby Brant, we were treated to music that far out-classed anything that can be heard in the charts today (in my opinion) and memorable songs that everyone could sing along to, irrelevant of age group.

There was a large screen at the back of the stage where photographs were projected of the guest stars (from years ago to current day).

I noted many gasps of recognition from the audience members around me as they gestured wistfully towards the black and white pictures that appeared and were clearly ‘taken back’ to ‘the day’.

There were also scenes from Birmingham in years gone by which evoked memories for me, personally.

The artists who performed with the Bev Bevan band were superb all-round entertainers, Trevor Burton who plays with ‘The Move’ and was one of the founder members of the band in 1966 astounded me with his guitar skills and has an extremely versatile singing voice.

Read on...

CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM GONZO

The Lost Broadcasts DVD - £9.99

GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Fire Brigade The Move

CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM GONZO

The Lost Broadcasts DVD - £9.99

LINK: FORMER BLACK SABBATH DRUMMER BEV BEVAN VOICES AUDIOBOOK FOR TONY IOMMI AUTOBIOGRAPHY

What do you mean, this is off topic? It is NOT. Bev Bevan was the drummer with The Move, and Gonzo MM have released a jolly swish DVD of The Move live on German TV as part of the highly acclaimed 'Lost Broadcasts' series. Anyway its a jolly interesting story, because drummers don't often become voice actors. 

Then again Bevan has already proved himself to be multi-talented because his autobiography was pretty swish as well..

Check it out (complete with rather nifty liner notes by yours truly) HERE.

Simon & Schuster

It’s time for the holidays and you need stuff to add to your various wish lists. We’re assuming that you’ve already asked for the paperback version ofBlack Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi‘s book, ‘Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven & Hell,’ as we suggested in our official Holiday Gift Guide, but another option is now available. The autobiography has been turned into an audiobook, read by former Black Sabbath / Electric Light Orchestra drummer Bev Bevan.

The Iommi autobiography has received mostly positive reviews from Sabbath fans, who have called it “inspirational” and “fascinating” withinAmazon.com‘s feedback section. The book has also been praised for capturing the warmth, humor and intelligence of the legendary riff master.

Iommi just announced the availability of the audiobook and expressed his excitement regarding Bevan’s involvement. “Good news, the audio version of my book is now available,” begins Iommi, “taken a bit of time but we’ve all been busy! I had a go myself but wasn’t comfortable when I listened back. Normally you just get an actor to voice it but I didn’t want someone who didn’t know me or the music business so I asked my old mate Bev Bevan (former Black Sabbath / MOVE / ELO drummer) as he already has a radio show and lived some of the chapters with me! I’m really pleased how it’s turned out.”

The audiobook is no short listen, clocking in at 11 hours and 31 minutes, and is now available for Kindle, iPhone, iPod, Android and other MP3 players that can store over 500 songs.

To purchase the new audiobook, or any other form of ‘Iron Man,’ click here.

Read on...

LINK: Good review of the Move DVD

Huge in England for a time, but utterly ignored in America, the Move are typically thought of in the states — if they are thought of at all — as nothing more than an antecedent to Jeff Lynne’s Electric Light Orchestra.

It’s a shame because, as these rare, turn-of-the-1970s German broadcasts show, the Move had more than enough personality, verve and sheer musical gamesmanship to stand on their own. Part beat group, part blues band, part ornate pop group, part psychedelic rockers, they may have been, if anything, too interesting for their own good.

The Lost Broadcasts begins with a seminal moment for the Move, and not just because 1969′s “Blackberry Way” — a stamping piece of dark psychedelic pop co-produced by Jimmy Miller of Rolling Stones fame — topped the UK charts. The Roy Wood track, clearly inspired by the Beatles’ “Penny Lane,” signaled a seismic change in the band, as co-founding guitarist/bassist Trevor Burton departed while future ELO keyboardist Richard Tandy contributed a whirling harpsichord.

The Move were, in fact, already a huge success in England, having appeared at the inaugural edition of the Isle of Wight Festival in 1968. But, once again, they failed to chart in America. “Blackberry Way” was, really, the beginning of the end for the Move, which would in a few short years morph into the Electric Light Orchestra.

[SOMETHING ELSE! REWIND: Watch as Jeff Lynne reunited recently with his former Electric Light Orchestra bandmate Richard Tandy to perform their hit "Evil Woman."]

The Lost Broadcasts, newly issued via RadioBremen/Gonza MultiMedia, only later traces back to some of the Move’s earlier successes. There’s the whooping “Fire Brigade, a propulsive piece of jangle pop — save for that way-cool Duane Eddy-inspired riff — that shot to No. 3 in the UK in March 1968 behind Wood’s first lead vocal. But their innate sense of experimental verve was just as often met by stony silence from the record-buying public that craved boring consistency. Witness this set’s fiery, Jimi Hendrix-ish “Wild Tiger Woman,” which sunk like a rock in the summer of 1968 — failing to make even the Top 50 in England.

By the time of the German broadcast of Wood’s thunderously blues-soaked “Brontosaurus,” a No. 7 UK hit from the Move’s 1970 album Looking On, you’ll find one Jeff Lynne playing guitar. Carl Wayne, who had served basically as a co-frontman with Wood from the start, had also departed. (“Curly,” a recorder-driven pop confection sequenced later on Lost Broadcasts, was the last tune to feature Wayne and the first with Rick Price on bass.)

Co-founding Move drummer Bev Bevan and, in particular, Lynne quickly began to exert more influence on the band. The pair composed three of the songs collected in Looking On, then wrote or co-wrote six on Message from the Country, released in October of 1971.

At this point, you can hear what’s coming next: “The Words of Aaron” finds Lynne at the piano, already combining classical concepts with pop — and already sporting his signature sunglasses. Later, back on guitar, Lynne leads a pair of renditions of this raucous, rockabilly-inspired rave up called “Down on the Bay” for the television audience.

But the Move’s second single from Looking On, “When Alice Comes Back to the Farm,” also failed to chart — despite some sizzling slide work courtesy of Wood, as heard here. Elsewhere, there are two takes on the fuzz-grooved “Ella James,” from what would ultimately become the Move’s swan song, an April 1972 EP that also featured their early version of “Do Ya.” The latter, of course, would eventually become a Top 20 hit in America — but for ELO in 1977.

Read on...

LINK: DVD Review - The Move – The Lost Broadcasts

The Move are one of those sixties groups that got lost in the transatlantic shuffle. They arguably had it all: great songwriting, strong vocalists, an a ready-made visual image. A near-perfect mix of super-catchy pop melodicism, heavier-than-heavy riffage, ambitious art-pop leanings and a penchant for controversy, The Move should have been huge in the USA.

And they were pretty big in their native England. But when the group is mentioned these days, it’s often only in the context of having spawned (or mutated into, depending on how one reads history) Electric Light Orchestra.

Once again we have those wily Germans to thank for capturing a criminally-overlooked band in their audiovisual glory. A new DVD in the ongoing series, The Move: The Lost Broadcasts collects eleven television performances of The Move. The first clip is a black-and-white Beat Club broadcast...

Read on...

GREEK REVIEW OF THE MOVE DVD

Continuing the course of offering “old” video sessions of the 60s that were considered somewhat ‘lost”, this time Gonzo MultiMedia presents the eminent psychedelic/progressive rock & roll band The Move. Formed in 1965, the band did cause fuzz around its name with its music and the live performances.

Having released 14 singles, 9 of which were hits… for instance “Blackberry Way” reached the desired #1 position, and 4 full-length albums, they finally called it a day in 1972. The absolute lack of commercial success the band had in the US forced its members to follow different directions. The band had great musicians on its ranks, such as the “odd” multitalented Roy Wood and the well-known Jeff Lynne later, who along with Wood & Bevan formed the famous Electric Light Orchestra after The Move was officially over.

This DVD contains various performances the band gave on the German TV between 1968 & 1971. Surely, it will evoke memories to the old fans of the band and especially to those who lived during that “beautiful and weird” music era. On the other hand, it will give the youngsters a taste of how things were back in the day. The DVD is tasteful, the songs are performed wonderfully, the sound is very good and even the video is quite good, even though it’s not HD as we are used to nowadays.

Read on...

http://rocktimes.de/gesamt/m/move/the_lost_broadcasts.html

LINK: The Move review..

The Move are forever damned to be remembered as ‘the first band played on radio 1’ with their pop-hippy hit Flowers in the Rain. Either that, or as the group that would later fragment into ELO and spawn pop eccentric Roy Wood. But there was always more to the band than that, as this collection of German TV recordings show.

The Move started out as a pop-art Mod band and ended up as a proto-metal blues act, like so many other acts in the latter half of the 1960s, and both sides are on display here. There’s the black and white, lip-synced footage of Blackberry Way (their only UK no. 1), Curly and Fire Brigade, where it was all still jangly guitars, Beatles-inspired whimsy and carefully sculptured hair (except for Wood, who was already getting bushy – though his trademark beard is yet to make an appearance) –a collection of catchy though inconsequential pop songs by a pop band, eager to look bright-eyed and family friendly on these promo appearances.

Then, there are the later Beat Club live recordings where everyone is a lot hairier, Jeff Lynn has joined the band and they are going for funky blues workouts. Still short and sharp – the longest track here is under five and a half minutes – but certainly a lot more rocking and unconcerned with the tween audience. On the basis of these tracks, the band could’ve had a level of 1970s success – though it’s doubtful they would’ve matched the global reach of ELO.

Read on...

Currently Available from Gonzo

The Lost Broadcasts DVD - £9.99

THE MOVE DVD REVIEW WITH A COMMENT BY JON

‘The Lost Broadcasts’ DVD is a short but enjoyable compilation of previously unavailable footage of The Move. The randomly interspersed footage captures the 60′s pop band before they transformed themselves into a heavier rock outfit and ultimately the ELO.

The Move was the natural musical successor to the Beatles and under the stewardship of Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne, the band struck a delicate balance between a heavier sound and commercial possibilities. To that end ‘Brontosaurus’ was a proto-metal, classic single that fulfilled its chart potential.
And while Roy Wood continued to write very strong songs such as the gloriously dirgy ‘Ella James’, Lynne’s material had a broader sweep, with the yearning feel of  ‘The Words of Aaron’ predating his finely honed style in the ELO. The partnership ultimately proved too combustible to last, but provided some of the band’s best music. The only shame is that there doesn’t appear to be any existing footage of other songs from the early 70′s period, such as ‘What?’

The DVD opens with a lip-sync of The Move’s only UK number one, ‘Blackberry Way’, but starts off with the camera aimed squarely at Carl Wayne, while it is clearly  Roy’s lead vocal that dominates the track. ‘Brontosaurus’ marks Roy Wood’s succession to Carl Wayne as the band’s front man.

It’s a role he also successfully tackles on the wah-wah inflected, lap slide guitar of ‘When Alice Comes Back To The Farm’. The songs is misspelled on the cd booklet and filmed in its full psychedelic glory, before the DVD confusingly reverts to the Carl Wayne led line-up of ‘Curly’, with Roy filling in on recorders.

The catchy single was recorded in 1969 when the band stupidly headed for the cabaret circuit at the behest of their then manager. This mistake probably had far more to do with their lack of success in the States than their West Midlands origins, which never inhibited Black Sabbath, The Moody Blues, Zeppelin or Steve Gibbons.

Jeff Lynne gives us notice of his growing influence, songwriting prowess and intuitive phrasing on the yearning, twin piano led ‘The Words of Aaron’. It’s one of those songs on which the eclectic lyrics perfectly fit the flow of the music, as the flamboyantly attired Wood joins Lynn for a great duet before belatedly adding some recorder.

Jeff Lynn reverts to guitar on Roy’s heavier ‘Ella James’, as the second take finally leads to a successful conclusion. Two stabs at Lynne’s rock & roll ‘Down On The Bay’, also prove to be hard work with the second take being played out over a projected background of the ‘Message From The Country’ album. The track subsequently had to settle for bonus material status.

The magnificent ‘Fire Brigade’  takes us back to 1968 in the blink of an eye, with Roy and Carl swapping verses as the camera man stares at Ace Kefford’s bass, while we listen to a Duane Eddy style lead guitar line! The closing ‘Wild Tiger Woman’ finds Carl Wayne hamming it up in the context of The Move as a rebellious pop band in their pomp. Despite being a bit short of material, ‘The Lost Broadcasts’ features some great music, but surely a few talking heads wouldn’t have crippled the budget. (Again, the point of these DVDs is to release the Beat Club sessions, and this is all there was JD).

http://getreadytorock.me.uk/blog/2012/10/the-move-the-lost-broadcasts/

LINK: Review of the Lost Broadcasts DVD by The Move

ELO, ELO, what's all this then? Perfectly timed to coincide with a sudden flurry of Jeff Lynne activity - a new solo album of covers, and a new album of him covering himself as ELO - this DVD pulls together some rare visual performances from The Move, taken from the legendary German television show, Beat Club.

The Move were always one of the more interesting sixties bands, in all their incarnations, with material here from both the Carl Wayne years and the Jeff Lynne years, although most folk will always think of them as being Roy Woods band. Probably having so many vocalists told against them in the end, as at various points Wayne, Wood, Trevor Burton and Chris "Ace" Kefford and Jeff Lynne all found themselves singing assorted songs, only leaving drummer Bev Bevan cast adrift from a microphone.

As with most Beat Club broadcasts there are an array of mind boggling visual effects, which would have been cutting edge at the time, but which now only provoke amusement / nostalgia (delete according to age). So what music is on offer, then? Naturally, you get 'Blackberry Way' in black and white from 1969, as well as 'Curly'. There is a live in colour version of 'Brontosaurus' from 1970 as well as 'The Words of Aaron'. By the time Jeff Lynne is in place, you get two versions of the B-side 'Down On The Bay'. You get two versions of 'Ella James' from 1971. The first take falls apart, thanks to Roy Wood, plus a second full version. There's a black and white version of 'Fire Brigade' from 1968, as well as 'Wild Tiger Woman' from the same year. And there is a 1970 colour take of 'When Alice Comes Back To The Farm'.

For fans of The Move, Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne, this well be a more than welcome addition to their collections, and even for those of who are more casual in our appreciation, it made for enjoyable viewing.

Buy CD From Amazon

http://www.the-rocker.co.uk/

THE MOVE IN THE BOLTON NEWS

TAKEN from archive tapes of German Television show, Beat Club predominantly, this series gives us nostalgia freaks an unusual look at some of our favourite bands.

The Move burst onto the scene in 1965 with Night of Fear and went on to have a massive run of hits.
Amazingly, their only chart-topper was Blackberry Way, and this collection begins with a black and white
performance of the song. Psychedelia was coming on the scene and the forward-looking directors in Germany must have loved experimenting with effects, but on this track they only serve to distract.

It was funny though seeing Carl Wayne manfully miming the words that were actually sung by Roy Wood.
The effects were in colour for Brontosaurus in 1970. I suppose they were ground-breaking at the time, but these days they look – well – amateurish; but I suppose I’m being a little unkind. For the third song – Curly, Roy Wood puts aside his guitar and plays two recorders… at the same time! The performances are far from the glamourous images we have of Top of the pops and this is music TV at it’s most basic.

Jeff Lynne had joined the band in its later stages and a selection of songs from the Message From The
Country era make up the middle part of this DVD, which sadly only lasts 45 minutes. There are two versions of Ella James, (the second one being necessary as Roy Wood cocked up on the first. There are also two versions of Down on the Bay – a Jeff Lynne composition which was released as the b-side to Chinatown.
From there we go back to the earlier Fire Brigade (with Carl Wayne on piano?!) and finishing with Wild Tiger Woman.

If nothing else, this archive footage of The Move is a a change from those we see on old Top of the Pops
compilations and as such is of great historical importance.

Original post

LINK: Dangerous Minds - Roy Wood

I rather like sunday mornings. Whilst everyone else is asleep I pootle about on the Internet looking for what interesting things I can find. The Gonzo 'Lost Broadcasts' series is a particularly interesting one for me because I am a fan of so many of the bands which have been covered. So it gives me an excuse to repost articles like this one about The Move

Happy Birthday to Roy Wood - musical genius and founder member of The Move, the Electric Light Orchestra and Wizzard.

From the moment the needle hit the vinyl and the sirens screamed, I was hooked on Roy Wood’s music. His single “Fire Brigade” was 2 minutes of perfect pop with the best opening lyric I’d then heard

Cast your mind back ten years
To the girl who’s next to me in school
If I put me hand upon her leg
She hit me with a rule.

I’d have to cast my mind back farther than 10 years to recall the girl who sat next or near to me in school. I don’t know what would have happened if I’d put my hand upon her knee, but do know she grew up to be a cop, who made headlines for her sexual shenanigans, and is up before the beak for perverting the course of justice. But, so much is life.

Read on...

Check it out on Gonzo:
http://www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/product_details/15503

LINK: Bev Bevan Diaries: The Move were way ahead of MTV!

I have been pootling about the internet looking for stories about the folk on our latest batch of 'Lost Broadcasts' DVDs, and I found this...

THERE came a time in 1967 that The Move decided to make it in the movies. This was long before the advent of MTV, of course. That was still 14 years or so in the future. Music videos hadn't even been invented yet - and VHS tape recorders wouldn't be launched until the 1970s.

But we decided that we wanted to make a film to promote what would be our next single, I Can Hear The Grass Grow.

Read on...

Check it out on Gonzo:
http://www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/product_details/15503

THE MOVE 'THE WORDS OF AARON' from The Lost Broadcasts

In 1967, as a knee-jerk reaction to the ever growing power of the pirate radio stations, and – one suspects – concerned by the milieu of lawlessness surrounding some of them, the British Broadcasting Service launched Radio 1 – the first legal pop music station. The first DJ on air was Tony Blackburn, and the first song that he played was by The Move.

The Move were undoubtedly one of the most influential and interesting groups of the 1960s, and it could well be argued that the reason that they didn’t get as famous as some other bands was that they came from Birmingham not London, and were based in the Midlands throughout their career.

They were formed in 1965 by bassist-vocalist Chris "Ace" Kefford who was the original leader. However he was soon usurped by the multitalented guitarist, singer and songwriter Roy Wood who undoubtedly one of Rock music’s true polymaths. He composed all the group's UK singles and, from 1968, also sang lead vocals on many songs, although Carl Wayne was the main lead singer up to 1970. Beside Wood and Kefford, the original five-piece line-up of The Move in 1965 was drummer Bev Bevan, bassist Kefford, vocalist Carl Wayne and guitarist Trevor Burton. Initially the band had 4 main vocalists (Wayne, Wood, Trevor Burton and Kefford).

They were originally planned as a noisy pop art rock band in a similar style to The Who, but it wasn’t long before they developed a new and provocative style of their own. At the time, many bands were questioning the role of the rock musician. They were unwilling to continue being merely entertainers and felt that, to use a 21st Century expression, they had to ‘think outside the box’ in order to find new and exciting ways to present their art to the public.

In the beginning, the band was as known for their outrageous stage persona as for the music. They went on stage dressed as gangsters and lead singer Wayne took an axe to TV sets and busts of Adolf Hitler. They even produced a libellous postcard featuring then Prime Minister Harold Wilson in bed with his private secretary Marcia Falkender – a prank which landed them in court.

It could well be argued that this most post-modern of beat groups were encouraged in their outrageousness by their manager the notorious Don Arden often considered to be either a management genius or an uncontrollable psychopath (often by the same people), and probably best-known now as the father of media mogul and star of stage and screen, Sharon Osbourne.

But, nearly five decades on, the outrage and excesses are largely forgotten, and the band are now only really remembered for the music – fourteen singles (nine of which were hits, Blackberry Way reaching the coveted #1 position, and four albums. But unlike their next projects, they had no commercial success in the United States, and remain shockingly undervalued.

The music got better and better as Roy Wood progressed as a songwriter, but when Carl Wayne left in 1970 he was replaced by Jeff Lynne, late of massively under-rated band The Idle Race, and the dynamic of the band changed forever. The final line-up of 1972 was the trio of Wood, Bevan and Jeff Lynne, who were also launching another band - the Electric Light Orchestra.

The tracks on this DVD come from a number of different sessions:

Blackberry Way, 3mins 37 secs. (B+W playback) January 69
Brontosaurus 4mins 30secs (colour, live studio,) 13th April 1970
Curly 2mins 49 secs (BW playback, ) August 69
The Words of Aaron 5mins 21sec (Colour, Live, Rare,) 25/11/70
Ella James 1mins 18secs - Aborted 25/11/71 (Colour, Live Aborted take)
Ella James 4mins 4 secs 25/11/71 (Colour).
Down On The Bay 4mins 52secs(Colour, Live) 25/11/71
Down on The Bay 4mins 49secs (Colour Live, same clip with Blue key used) 25/11/71
Fire Brigade 2mins 23Secs (BW playback) March 68
When Alice comes back to the Farm 4mins 08secs (Colour Live) 27/12/70
Wild Tiger Woman 2mins 31secs (BW playback) September 68

Check it out on Gonzo:
http://www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/product_details/15503

What's coming up from Gonzo ?

The Gonzo pre-production department is busy reading the new releases for September / October.

Currently on the time line at the DVD production is The Move, Roy Wood's and Jeff Lynne's legendary pre Electric Light Orchestra band. Equally as impressive and innovative as their successor, The Move had much chart success. Gonzo is very excited to have struck a deal with the German TV archives to bring you the latest in The Lost Broadcast series - The Move.

The tracks featured on the ultra rare footage are;-

Blackberry Way
Brontosaurus
Curly
The Words of Aaron
Ella James (Aborted
Live Aborted take)
Ella James
Down On The Bay (version 1)
Down on The Bay (version 2)
Fire Brigade
When Alice comes back to the Farm
Wild Tiger Woman

Total running time 40mins 47secs.

This dvd is a real treat and we at Gonzo are very excited about it coming out.

Stay tuned !!!