[This digest is the copyright of the Move "Useless Information" Mailing List. Re-publication or re-distribution of "Useless Information" content, in any form whatsoever, is expressly prohibited without prior written consent.] USELESS INFORMATION The Move Mailing List Digest Issue #378 August 12, 2002 In this issue: * Roy in Manchester 4th August * Roy's a Bluenose * My Favorite Songs * Song Of The Week (week of 8/5): "Disturbance" * Question on Roy Wood's back catalogue * Cagney and Lacy and Woody * Pink Fairies * I 'ear you've been a naughty boy, Clement ============================================================== To POST TO THE LIST: Send an e-mail to: move-list@eskimo.com Move List Info & Archives: http://www.eskimo.com/~noanswer/movelist.html Join the ELO List: http://www.eskimo.com/~noanswer/showdown.html Other official websites: The Move: http://www.themoveonline.com Roy Wood: http://www.roywood.co.uk Face The Music (for all ELO & related news): http://www.ftmusic.com TO UNSUBSCRIBE: Send an e-mail to move-digest-request@eskimo.com with the word "unsubscribe" (no quotes) in the subject line ============================================================== Subject: Roy in Manchester 4th August Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2002 09:41:03 -0700 From: Mike Holden For anybody interested, I have uploaded the piccies I took of the Roy Wood's Army Commonwealth Games gig at Burnage Rugby Club, Manchester on 4th August 2002 to: http://mikeholden.org/cgi-bin/photoalbumshow.cgi?/photoalbum/Music/ 20020805-Roy_Woods_Army-Burnage_Rugby_Club ********** Subject: Re: Roy in Manchester 4th August Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2002 09:48:47 -0700 From: Lynn Hoskins Mike, It obviously took you a tremendous amount of time and trouble to put your photos on the Web for all of us to see. Thank you! And thanks for giving one of your great photos to The Move Online (www.themoveonline.com) - it's up on the News page. Roy's all wrapped up in the American flag... is he trying to tell us something? ;) ********** Subject: Roy in Manchester 4th August Date: Sun, 11 Aug 2002 00:17:51 -0700 From: "Richard Kenworthy" Great photos! what was the set like? Did no one else on the list get there? I've been waiting a week for a review... ********** Subject: Roy in Manchester 4th August Date: Sun, 11 Aug 2002 11:01:03 -0700 From: Mike Holden Some random jottings on the gig... It was part of the entertainments for the close of the Commonwealth Games in Manchester. There were various other bands on the bill for the day, but I didn't see much of it. I was only there to see Roy! There was a big screen, which had been in use all day, but with only a single camera positioned to one side of the mixing desk. This was also used during the day to show Games coverage. Roy hit the stage at about 18:45 (only 15 minutes later than the timetable in the program), and was onstage until about 20:00. He was wearing the usual huge overcoat with army stripes on it, red and yellow hair colouring, and the hugest pair of purple boots I have ever seen! It looks like the beard has got a little longer from last time I saw him as well. Anybody who has seen The Army in action over the last two or three years will probably be unsurprised by the setlist. It was the usual list of hits from the entire Roy history (apart from ELO). The only change I noticed was "Big Girl's Blues" (a play on words of the British phrase of "big girl's blouse") replaced "Lionheart". In my view Lionheart was a weak song, but I like the replacement a lot. It starts like a fairly standard blues song, but has been "Woodie-ised" with a more complex chord structure than a standard blues, and great horn sounds (of course - great backing band there). More along the lines of Ray Charles "Hard Times" or whatever than the more familiar 2 or 3 chord progression you associate with blues tunes. It had been raining for most of the day, and the grass was decidedly soggy and muddy in places, but there was some plastic temporary flooring put down at the front. The rain stopped before Roy came on, and stayed clear all the way through (apart from a few drops, ironically during Flowers In The Rain!) Sound was pretty good, although one saxophone seemed to be missing entirely from the mix for the whole gig. Don't recall the players name, but she plays the tenor and soprano sax, second from left. Seems a shame, but maybe there were technical reasons beyond the sound crew's control? Roy also had trouble at the outset with his guitar, but this was resolved "on the fly" during the first song by a sound tech changing the lead by unplugging the wireless unit he was using for a direct connection. This left the strange sight of Roy with a long thin ponytail with a jack plug on the end of it! When he changed guitar for the 5-stringer for I Can Hear The Grass Grow (still the same introduction for this, mentioning that Status Quo have covered it), the wireless unit was removed from the main guitar altogether, so it was sorted properly ready for the next song when he changed guitars back again. There was a pretty good rapport between Roy and the audience, with lots of people dancing and singing along right from the start. A good bit of banter with a couple of "hecklers" (not malicious ones!), and he even asked one of them for requests, and played it (although it would have been in the set anyway - See My Baby Jive). A very enjoyable time was had by all, I think it's fair to say. The group of people I was standing with were a family. The adults obviously knew of Woody's history, but the younger members didn't know him from Adam. One of them had only come along because the mother had phoned her to tell her that one of the "Pop Idols" stars was playing, but by the time she got there that performer had already finished. However by the time Woody had been going for a bit, she seemed to have cheered up immensely. People who presumably didn't know who he was all seemed to be enjoying themselves, which is what it's all about really isn't it? And of course everybody knows the final song, even if they think they've never heard of him! I certainly had a great time. ********** Subject: Roy's a Bluenose Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2002 03:40:01 -0700 From: Lynn Hoskins Saturday's London Times featured a story titled "A Kick Up The Brum" (by Guy Haydon) about the city of Birmingham being back in the football spotlight again with three out of the four Midlands clubs in the Premiership. In the article Roy Wood reflected on what it was like being a Blues fan when he was growing up... WOOD Bluenose who fronted Wizzard "My dad was a Villa fan, but I was determined to be different so I supported the Blues. I suppose it was the same process that meant my daughter is now a Villa fan. The great thing about all three clubs being in the same division is that we will get the big derby matches again. I remember going to so many of those with my dad when I was a kid and the atmosphere was fantastic. In the Sixties, when The Move took off, I used to go down to St Andrew's with Jeff Lynne. Jeff lives in the States now, otherwise I'm sure we'd still be going together. My favourite era was the early Seventies, when we had players Trevor Francis, Bob Latchford, Kenny Burns and Garry Pendry. The thing is that even though I'm a Bluenose, I like to see all the Midland clubs doing well and I'm delighted that Albion are in the Premiership as well. It would have been even better if Wolves could have made it, too. In the past few years I've probably been to the Villa more often than Blues - Nigel Kennedy is a mate of mine and he's a big Villa fan." (c)2002 The Times ********** Subject: My Favorite Songs Date: Thu, 8 Aug 2002 00:32:05 -0700 From: "Drew Jacobs" Richard Messum wrote: >Anyway, i thought i'd stir things up a bit, and suggest three Move / solo >Roy Wood songs that i think are really rather unlistenable. > >Zing went the strings of my heart >Ben Crawley Steel Company >Miss Clarke and the computer Let the record show that these are three of my all time favorites. Probably for the same reasons that you hate them. There, I said it and I'm proud. Also sweating bullets in Upstate NY Drew Jacobs Latham ********** Subject: Re: Song Of The Week: "Disturbance" Date: Fri, 9 Aug 2002 11:30:34 -0700 From: kakman1 Supposedly the screaming Freakouts and the "oh no! oh no! oh no!" in the coda was the idea of producer Denny Cordell, and he happily supplied the grunts and screams while Roy's multi tracked reverbed vocals wailed along to the drums and guitar bits. There are no horns or strings on "Disturbance", but the song was recorded and mixed pretty damn well so the claustrophobia of all the different instruments and voices at "11" colliding together created this wonderfully paranoid sound that made people think they heard more on it than there actually was. Kevin Kunreuther Dallas TX ********** Subject: Re: Song Of The Week: "Disturbance" Date: Fri, 9 Aug 2002 12:59:40 -0700 From: John DeSilva Kevin wrote: > There are no horns or strings on "Disturbance", but the song was > recorded and mixed pretty damn well so the claustrophobia of all > the different instruments and voices at "11" colliding together > created this wonderfully paranoid sound that made people think they > heard more on it than there actually was. This is a great observation - I'm listening to "Disturbance" on the headphones right now, and I think what we all thought were horns are simply backing vocals in a very high register singing "Bah Bah Bah Bah" or "Bop Bop Bop Bop" or something like that. What I can hear is: Drums, electric bass, electric rhythm guitar, electric 'fuzz' guitar, backing vocals. The thing in the coda that sounds like a creepy violin is, I think, feedback from the electric fuzz guitar (Woody was right there with Beck and Townshend in guitar pyrotechnics - Hendrix being the master). The production is excellent - very compressed and loud so that it sounds like it's going to jump out of the speakers at you, all framed in an eerie echo. The first of several exceptional 'B' sides from the boys - with 'Wave Your Flag', 'Lemon Tree', 'Walk Upon The Water', and 'Omnibus' to follow ... Just great! JD San Jose, CA ********** Subject: Re: Song Of The Week: "Disturbance" Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2002 00:31:53 -0700 From: Richard Messum Bev Bevan stated quite clearly, in the liner notes to "The Best of the Move," that the song "has horns...." What was the name of that cable television series that analysed classic rock LPs track by track? They did "Graceland," "Electic Ladyland" and "Rumours," among others, deconstructing each song and reducing it to its component parts? Perhaps we should petition them to do "The Move," solve this mystery.... Confusedly, Richard ********** Subject: Re: Song Of The Week: "Disturbance" Date: Sun, 11 Aug 2002 23:50:33 -0700 From: "Joseph Davolt" >What was the name of that cable television series that analysed classic >rock LPs track by track? They did "Graceland," "Electic Ladyland" and >"Rumours," among others, deconstructing each song and reducing it to >its component parts? Perhaps we should petition them to do "The Move," >solve this mystery.... Hey Richard.. I believe this was "Classic Albums: The Making Of...". They usually put their episodes out on video. I got "Rumours", and it's a great documentary.. actually, Mick Fleetwood mentions the Move at one point in it. I never heard horns in it...I always thought that was just backup vocals from the first listen... ********** Subject: Re: Song Of The Week: "Disturbance" Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2002 09:37:52 -0700 From: "Tyler C.Sherman" Richard wrote: >Bev Bevan stated quite clearly, in the liner notes to "The Best of the >Move," that the song "has horns...." It would appear that some of us are horny, some are not horny and some are just disturbed. I'm with the horny crowd. Wizzards, Tyler ********** Subject: Re: Song Of The Week: "Disturbance" Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2002 09:39:08 -0700 From: Richard Messum Pencil me in as "undecided." :0) ********** Subject: Re: Song Of The Week: "Disturbance" Date: Sun, 11 Aug 2002 00:20:08 -0700 From: kakman1 OK OK OK, This is one THE PREMIER tracks, and I grieve I never had heard them perform this one live (wait a sec, is it on my BBC disc; nah, don't count). Denny Cordell captured the band at its loudest, rudest, raucous and added a little drama at the end to the mix, with Roy double tracked wailing with Denny Cordell's own yelling and screaming demonically. And yes, I know Bev said on the liner notes of the U.S. A&M release, "Best Of Move" there were horns on the track, but believe me, there aren't. He was working from dim memories and was a doing a quick overview for US best of project; I mean on same liner notes he reported the Move did cabaret for a couple weeks only and blamed it on Carl and not the band's management. As entertaining and informative as Best Of Move's liner notes are, it's thumbnail sketches, pithy statements, and hazy recollections. He did better years later recollecting stuff with the ELO Story in 1980. So, no horns, OK? Carl and Roy trading off lyrics sound great, real snarls and demented. I wonder if when played live, if Trevor got to sing this, too? His vocal would be suited to this number I think. Bev's drumming, tremendous, Ace's bass right up there with Entwhistle (who thought Ace would outlive John Entwhistle? There's gotta be one charity Move reunion gig with original line-up ). Kevin Kunreuther Dallas TX ********** Subject: Question on Roy Wood's back catalogue Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2002 18:00:57 -0700 From: "Rob Caiger" A question sent via private e-mail: > Hi Rob, after buying a copy of Edsel's 'Something Else By The Move' > CD, i wondering whether to part with some more hard earned cash on > another two CD reissues by Edsel, namely Wizzards 'Eddy And The > Falcons' and Roy Woods 'Mustard'. A good question and one I'll share with the rest of the list so everyone is updated. The Move is a separate issue as that involves all the group members - an announcement will be made shortly concerning their catalogue. With regard to Roy Wood, the CD's Edsel put out, apart from Main Street, were done without the involvement of either Roy, his fan club or myself. Which was annoying considering some of the inaccuracies contained in the sleeve notes and lack of rarities as bonus tracks. That said, the company had good intentions on making Roy's ex-EMI catalogue available, it's good they are out, the remastering's is ok and for now, I'd recommend them. There's no revamp that can be done on Eddy, Mustard and Main Street - in the UK - until the licensing deals expire in 2004 and 2005. I'd also recommended Repertoire's releases as follows: Wizzard - Singles A's & B's REP 4762-WY Roy Wood - Exotic Mixture Best Of Singles A's & B's REP 4744-WR The Move - Hits & Rarities Singles A's & B's REP 4665-WR As you all know, we are not happy with putting out releases that are just "good", especially where it concerns important and unique artists such as Roy. First Light is only the beginning. Considering how his catalogue has been neglected over the years and the ground-breaking work it contains, our intention over the last 5 years, has always been to make everything Roy released as a solo artist and as Wizzard available worldwide. To quote a song, it's not easy. The amount of individuals and companies that feel they own or are owed a slice of Roy's work, released or unreleased, is an interesting list - and one that has finally been carved through over the last year. The biz side of things is being "sorted" as we speak. Gathering the tapes, be they the original stereo masters, or session multitracks, reel to reel demos, etc, has been the most difficult. Apart from 3 mid-eighties songs, I've located and protected every piece of tape that was laid down in a recording studio that Roy used. It has been interesting to note, that for all previous CD releases, including the recent Edsel remasters, the original master tapes were not used. Mind you, considering the state the archives were in of the individual that owned them at the time, I'm surprised any tapes got out. So where are we now? The first priority has been to protect Roy's work so we avoid anymore of these ridiculous and thoughtless compilations that sporadically appear in the UK and Europe at ever decreasing prices, eroding Roy's royalty rates. The second has been to identify, retrieve and protect the tapes. The third stage will be to get all the record companies that own Roy's work to sit down together to work out what everyone's got, how it fits into their 2003 schedules based on what I feel the options are worldwide and finally, before anything is released, mixed, remastered, etc, etc, going to Roy and saying: "this is what there is, all the record companies are interested in working with you, so what would you like to see happen?" The long-term Roy fans amongst us will have noted there's many things in the above that have never been attempted before, so while 2003 is the target date, let's call it "tentative" at this stage. They'll be regular updates throughout the following months. Finally - and you may not have realised this - what has been a great help has been the support of fans worldwide, especially those that brought First Light and those that attended Roy's shows in NYC. The sales figures for First Light have been excellent, especially in the short time it took to achieve them, which has paved the way for adding more ELO / Move / Roy- related releases to the forthcoming schedules. Lynn Hoskins' many phone calls to the various media to convince them to come out and review the shows (though good to see some didn't need convincing) plus your enthusiastic audience response to Roy's performance all added up to each show being reviewed positively. The amount of reviews, especially the interview and review in Billboard and 20th Century Guitar, plus Time Out NYC and Mojo, really made the record companies sit up and take notice that Roy is still respected, relevant and from their point of view, has a market and profile worldwide. For the first time, Roy's work has a great chance of being available at the highest quality, so a big thank you to everyone who has got involved - your long-term support is making a difference. Rob ********** Subject: Cagney and Lacy and Woody Date: Thu, 8 Aug 2002 15:05:13 -0700 From: "chris roberts" Hello everyone, Well today was a slow day and daytime TV was failing to hold my attention (no surprises there), so the fingers were hopping through the channels and I just caught the closing credits of an umpteenth re-run of Cagny and Lacy, the old US women cop show. Do you remember the theme tune - a jazzy brass arrangement with alto sax 'spiralling' away (musos forgive the terminology please) as the tune reaches its climax and solo sax few bars at the very end. Well the thought stuck me that its not unlike the finale of 'live' Wizzo Band number 'I should have known'!! Like I said - today was a slow day.... :O) Wizzards Chris ********** Subject: Pink Fairies Date: Sun, 11 Aug 2002 23:49:53 -0700 From: GaryM Just got the reissues of the 3 early 70s LPs by these Brit Anarchists. On their 2nd, What A Bunch of Sweeties, there's an uncredited 2nd guitar on a couple tracks, a certain Trevor Burton, who also was with them on their BBC appearances. ********** Subject: I 'ear you've been a naughty boy, Clement Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2002 09:38:41 -0700 From: "Duncan Kimball" I look forward to Don's book with intense interest. I have no doubt it will be one of the most vibrant works of fantasy since "Lord Of The Rings". But then -- who knows? -- maybe in this new mood of reconciliation he'll finally spill the beans on where all the money went, cos from what I hear, most of the bands he managed never saw more than the crumbs of it. I hadn't hear that Sharon tried to run Don over -- though you would think she'd have had trouble getting to the head of the queue of the legion of former clients who would dearly wish to do so. I *have* heard that when Sharon broke with her father, she returned from a holiday in Hawaii to find one of her dogs, who had been terminated with extreme prejudice by dear old Dad, lying dead on the front doorstep, with a note from Don saying: "Don't f*** with me" Don is of course also famous for the (possibly apocryphal) tale in which he is reputed to have dangled a rival (Robert Stigwood is the name usually mentioned) out of a window by his legs in order to get him to relinquish an act that our hero wanted. Not apocrpyhal was the fact that Don paid the Small Faces £20 per week each for their entire time with him, except for Mac who got £30/week for the few weeks before he officially joined, at which point he was cut back to the band rate. By the end of their term with Arden, Mac reckons they were earning £1000 PER NIGHT, but of course they saw none of it. They were, it's true given charge accounts at all the swish boutiques, and were renting a large house in Pimlico, but of course they were never told that they paying for all that too. Also not apocryphal was the story told of Don's charming tactics during a meeting of with the parents of the Small Faces in 1966; the families were keen to know where all the dosh had gone but they were dismissed by Dapper Don and told that the boys had simply spent it all. He finally managed to get the upper hand by lobbing in a red herring about the boys all being on drugs (which was sort of true, though they were hardly in the Beatles league, mostly a lot of hash) and implying that this was probably where all the money had gone. In a Mojo story some time ago, McLagan reckoned that he would probably not be responsible for his actions if he happened to run into Don in the street, and there's little doubt in my mind that he must have made many thousands of pounds out of them, and probably much more besides. What I'm ACTUALLY waiting for is a book like Goodman's "Mansion on the Hill", which might finally lift the lid on the secret history of British managers -- Arden, Tony Secunda, and especially that dirty villain Mike Jeffries, who undoubtedly stole millions from Hendrix and The Animals. Dunks ********** Subject: Re: I 'ear you've been a naughty boy, Clement Date: Sun, 11 Aug 2002 00:18:13 -0700 From: Richard Messum This is entirely irrelevant to this list, i know, but my favourite Sharon Osbourne line comes from the very brief period in which she managed the Smashing Pumpkins. She quit for health reasons, she said, because "Billy Corgan makes me sick." I know the feeling... ********** Subject: Re: I 'ear you've been a naughty boy, Clement Date: Sun, 11 Aug 2002 23:51:06 -0700 From: "Joseph Davolt" Dunks wrote: >What I'm ACTUALLY waiting for is a book like Goodman's "Mansion on the >Hill", which might finally lift the lid on the secret history of British >managers -- Arden, Tony Secunda, and especially that dirty villain Mike >Jeffries, who undoubtedly stole millions from Hendrix and The Animals. And don't forget Stan Polley, who's stealing of Badfinger advances helped drive Pete Ham to suicide...heck, 'helped'?...the man's suicide note read "Stan Polley is a soulless b*****d" for cryan out loud... End of Useless Information #378 ******************************* [This digest is the copyright of the Move "Useless Information" Mailing List. Re-publication or re-distribution of "Useless Information" content, in any form whatsoever, is expressly prohibited without prior written consent.]