POPULARITY
14 episodes with Denny Laine
8 episodes with Denny Laine
9 episodes with Denny Laine
5 episodes with Denny Laine
6 episodes with Denny Laine
4 episodes with Denny Laine
6 episodes with Denny Laine
3 episodes with Denny Laine
2 episodes with Denny Laine
Send us Fan MailMusic journalist and author Eoghan Lyng is back to talk about Mull of Kintyre, the Wings single Paul McCartney wrote with Denny Laine. Drawing from his own 2018 interview with Laine, Eoghan talks about the Campbeltown Pipe Band recording outdoors in one take, the elegant simplicity of the song, and why it remains the biggest-selling non-charity single in the UK ever.Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eoghanlymg/Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/mightylyng.bsky.socialLetterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/eoghanlyng/Queen: Song by Song, by Eoghan Lyng (Waterstones UK): https://www.waterstones.com/book/queen-song-by-song/eoghan-lyng/9781048185621Queen: Song by Song, by Eoghan Lyng (Amazon UK): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Queen-Song-Eoghan-Lyng/dp/1048185621Follow My Favourite Beatles SongBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/myfavebeatles.bsky.socialX (Twitter): https://twitter.com/myfavebeatlesFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/MyFavouriteBeatlesSongInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/myfavouritebeatlessongOriginal music by Joe KaneLogo design by Mark Cunningham
Paul McCartney and Wings entered one of their most adventurous periods with 'London Town', the atmospheric 1978 album featuring “With a Little Luck,” “London Town,” “I'm Carrying,” “Girlfriend,” and “Morse Moose and the Grey Goose.”Author Luca Perasi joins Booked On Rock to reveal how Wings recorded aboard a boat in the Virgin Islands, why Paul McCartney began incorporating synthesizers and electronic textures, and how his creative partnership with Denny Laine shaped the album. Luca also discusses the departures of Jimmy McCulloch and Joe English, the making and phenomenal success of “Mull of Kintyre,” and the unreleased fan favorite “Waterspout.” Was Wings still a genuine band—or had it become a vehicle for McCartney's musical vision? Did contemporary critics underestimate the album? And does London Town deserve a more prominent place in the Wings catalogue?Luca's book, Wings: London Town—The Story of an Adventurous Album, takes readers inside the songs, sessions and unusual circumstances behind one of McCartney's most atmospheric and overlooked records. Purchase a copy of Wings: London Town. The Story of an Adventurous Album Visit L.I.L.Y. Publishing's website ----------
In episode #461 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn, Darren DeVivo and Kit O'Toole interview Laurence Juber about a wide range of topics, including his time as the lead guitarist in the final iteration of Wings and his work since then (and before then, actually) as a session musician, a solo guitarist, an arranger and composer (for, among other things, the new Peter Asher documentary, “Everywhere Man”) and his impressions of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's expansive new Wings exhibition. The discussion begins after Ken's news segment, at 12'41”. During the show Ken mentioned the upcoming Global Beatles Day, on June 25. You can find further information here: https://link.fans/globalbeatlesday?utm_source=PressRelease&utm_campaign=20260501&utm_medium=referral&utm_referrer=direct&utm_board=the-beatles-9378&utm_country=GB&utm_linkurl=thebeatles.lnk.to%2Fgbdqrsignup&lf=542c3b443506f136d2b264c84c418d99 Ken also mentioned his tribute to Denny Laine show, with Denny Seiwell, Laurence Juber and Steve Holley. You can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uIqfs7cw5E&t=4s As always, we welcome your thoughts about this episode of the show or any other episode. We invite you to send your comments about this or any of our other shows to our email address thingswesaidtodayradioshow@gmail.com, join our "Things We Said Today Video Podcast" Facebook page and comment there, on X at @thingswesaidfab or Bluesky at @thingswesaidtoday, or visit us on Facebook and give us your thoughts. You can watch the show on our YouTube page [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-zgHaPfL6BGmOX5NoyFE-A], or hear the audio version on Podbean [https://beatlesexaminer.podbean.com/], iHeart Radio, Apple podcasts and other sources of fine podcasts. Our shows appear every two weeks. Please be sure SUBSCRIBE, click LIKE and write a (positive, ideally!) review of our show here or on our iTunes page! Our download numbers have been continually rising, as more people discover us and it's all because of you. So we thank you very much for your support! MANY MANY WAYS TO CONTACT US: Our email address: thingswesaidtodayradioshow@gmail.com BlueSky: @thingswesaidtoday Twitter @thingswesaidfab Facebook: Things We Said Today video podcast ALLAN on Facebook: Allan Kozinn or Allan Kozinn Remixed. Allan's Twitter/X feed: @kozinn Bluesky: @allankozinn.bsky.social Threads: allan_kozinn The McCartney Legacy's website: mccartneylegacy.co.uk/ The McCartney Legacy on Facebook: McCartney Legacy, on Twitter/X: @McCARTNEYLEGACY and on Bluesky: @mccartneylegacy.bsky.social The McCartney Legacy YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8zaPoY45IxDZKRMf2Z6VyA KEN's YouTube Channel, Ken Michaels Radio: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq_Dkp6fkIsYwGq_vCwltyg Ken's Website Beatles Trivia Page: https://www.kenmichaelsradio.com/beatles-trivia--games.html Ken's other podcast, Talk More Talk: A Solo-Beatles Videocast You Tube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@talkmoretalksolobeatles Ken's Weekly Beatles radio show "Every Little Thing" On Demand: http://wfdu.fm/Listen/hd1%20recent%20archives/ Ken's e-mail: everylittlething@att.net Ken's Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ken.michaels.31/ DARREN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/darrendevivo Darren's radio show, “Noises From the Valley,” can be heard Friday nights from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m, on WKZE, 98.1 or 105.9, or at wkze.com. KIT's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/kitotoole and kitotoolekeynotes@gmail.com Kit's websites: https://www.kitotoole.com/ and https://www.toppermostofthepoppermost.net/ Kit on X: @kitotoole Kit on Bluesky: @kitotoole.bluesky.social
This episode is about the debut of the Paul McCartney & WINGS exhibit at The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio! Liz Hines, widow of DENNY LAINE from WINGS talks about the opening debut since she was responsible for lending her late husband Denny Laine's guitar and Wings memorabilia! Wings former members Laurence Juber and Steve Holley were there to celebrate the opening along with Liz and others! We hear all about the debut of the exhibit as her late husband Denny Laine was not able to be there since his passing. Liz describes her trip to Cleveland as emotional and discusses the experience of sharing her husband's guitar and memorabilia from Wings! The Wings exhibit will be on display and run for a full year! For more info on seeing it go to the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame website! https://rockhall.com/exhibitions/paul-mccartney-and-wings
Stuck inside those four walls? We're making our escape with Band On The Run, the 1973 record by Wings! After a tough Beatles breakup, a burnt out Paul McCartney was struggling to stay relevant in the music world. He started Wings alongside his wife Linda and guitarist Denny Laine, and after a few tough outings, Band On The Run proved to be their major breakthrough! Despite a tumultuous recording process in Lagos, Nigeria, hits like JET (!), Let Me Roll It, and Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five have become catalog staples. We're catching up on our personal Beatles history and learning about the foundation of Wings! We trace the band's Lagos trip through cholera outbreaks, broken equipment, and knifepoint robberies, but learn why Paul needed this record so badly. The Mixtaper relies on James' fear of "jelly babying" himself with another round of McCartney facts! We'll break down jailbreak ambience, investigate a holiday hostage, and drink a drink with Lily The Pink in Fact Or Spin. We might have No Words... but what's the use in worrying?How's your Scooby Doo impression? What would your last words be? Do you forget when Picasso was alive? Which of the sections of Band On The Run stands above the rest? Let us know your Wings takes in the comments and on socials!Keep Spinning at www.SpinItPod.com!Thanks for listening!0:00 Intro3:27 About Wings12:48 About Band On The Run25:58 Awards & Accolades26:50 Fact Or Spin28:09 Paul Insisted On A Jailbreak Ambience Check31:07 Paul Kidnapped The Easter Bunny35:22 Paul Guest Starred In A Comedy Production40:13 Paul Is Related To The Inventor Of The Woman's Tonic49:23 Album Art52:42 Band On The Run57:03 Jet1:00:31 Bluebird1:02:15 Mrs. Vandebilt1:06:38 Let Me Roll It1:08:29 Mamunia1:09:52 No Words1:11:04 Picasso's Last Words1:14:24 Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five1:17:29 Final Spin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Richie English is a nationally recognized composer, pianist, arranger, and producer. He has worked on several Billboard-charting albums by artists including the Goo Goo Dolls, Michael Franti, and Moody Blues founder Denny Laine as orchestral composer and co-writer. English was the youngest registered piano teacher in NYS at 11 years old, studying under Juilliard-trained pianists Frieda & Stephen Manes. He graduated from SUNY Buffalo with a piano performance degree and a master's in music theory. In 2006 English performed two recital programs for the Dalai Lama during his visit to UB. With co-host Stratton Rawson, English can be heard on Fridays at 10.a.m and 10.p.m on BTPM Classical's Stratton and Richie: Entering Music. Listeners can also catch English solo on Wednesday nights at 10.p.m on From the Piano Bench. Download the BTPM app or tune in to 94.5 FM radio. Richie joined Rockabilly Greg in the Flamingo Lounge on March 9, 2026, for an engaging deep dive into his musical journey. The episode concludes with a special performance of his original composition, 'Singularity.
Twitter: @podgaverock Insta: @podgaverock Special Guest Host: Jordan Ender Paul McCartney and Wings “Let Me Roll It" from the 1974 album "Band on the Run" released on Apple. Written by Paul and Linda McCartney and produced by Paul McCartney. Personel: Paul McCartney – lead vocals, guitar, bass guitar, drums Linda McCartney – backing vocals, organ Denny Laine – backing vocals, guitar Cover: Performed by Josh Bond Intro Music: "Shithouse" 2010 release from "A Collection of Songs for the Kings". Written by Josh Bond. Produced by Frank Charlton. Other Artists Mentioned: Lebron James Anthony Davis Kate Bush Sheryl Crow Missy Elliot Iron Maiden Joy Division New Order Cyndi Lauper George Michael Rage Against the Machine Willie Nelson Soundgarden The Spinners A Tribe Called Quest The White Stripes Warren Zevon Dolly Parton Bill Simmons Guns n Roses “Appetite for Destruction” Tiffany Debbie Gibson Fresh Prince and Jazzy Jeff NKO TV Ween Devo The Violent Femmes Dr Dre Snoop Dogg Tupac Arcade Fire LCD Soundsystem Nick Hakim Khruangbin Paul McCartney and Wings “Band on the Run” Paul McCartney and Wings “Jet” Led Zeppelin John Lennon Robert Plant Elton John Jimi Hendrix “Foxy Lady” Wayne's World George Harrison “I'd Have You Anytime” Bonnaroo Jerry Garcia Band Stevie Wonder The Beatles “A Day in the Life” Shirley and Lee “Let the Good Times Roll” Phish “Rift” John Lennon “Beef Jerky” The Kinks The Beatles “Yer Blues” The Beatles “I've Got a Feeling” The Beatles “Back in the USSR” The Be atles “Helter Skelter” The Beatles “Come Together” Low Cut Connie Richie Sambora Les Paul Fiona Apple The Roots Jimmy Fallon Steve Vai Brandon Benson The Melvins
The Strange Brew - artist stories behind the greatest music ever recorded
Tom Doyle digs into the remarkable, and surprisingly chaotic, story of Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles decade. Tom’s book Man on the Run, reissued to coincide with the official documentary of the same name, charts McCartney’s journey from 1969 to 1981: from morning drinking on a Scottish farm to headlining Madison Square Garden. Tom covers Linda’s role in keeping Paul from the brink, the brotherly war-and-reconciliation with John Lennon, the near-collaboration that almost happened in New Orleans in 1975, Denny Laine’s loyal lieutenancy, the extraordinary circumstances behind Band on the Run, the rise and fall of Wings, and the moment John Lennon’s murder brought the freewheeling seventies era to a sudden stop. Further information Man on the Run and Ringo: A Fab Life by Tom Doyle are available now. (Ringo: A Fab Life, US release May 2026). Podcasts also available: Denny Seiwell, Howie Casey – Paul McCartney and Wings, Mike McCartney's Early Liverpool, Eric Stewart – 10cc/Paul McCartney, solo, Dave Mattacks This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms If you like what I do please support me on Ko-fi The post Man on the Run: Paul McCartney in the 1970s appeared first on The Strange Brew .
Février 1971, Paul McCartney enfile le veston qu'il portait deux ans plus tôt sur la pochette de l'album déjà mythique, Abbey Road. Seule différence, il ne se rendra pas pieds nus mais avec de belles chaussures, à son audience devant la Haute Cour de Londres où il va demander la dissolution des Beatles et de son contrat avec leur manager. En effet, le redoutable requin américain leur avait fait accepter de mettre même les revenus de leurs carrières solos dans leur label Apple. Il gardait donc la main sur tout et McCartney pouvait vendre autant de disques qu'il voulait, il allait continuer à gagner peu d'argent.Oh ça ne le dérange pas, vous savez. La preuve : il s'apprête à faire un truc impensable, une fois son procès gagné, un procès qui l'a affecté car il a été obligé de l'intenter contre ses copains d'adolescence. C'est la guerre ! Ainsi, il fait venir de New York les musiciens avec qui il vient d'enregistrer son nouvel album solo, RAM, une merveille entre nous, hein, même si la presse le descend joyeusement. Et quand les gars arrivent dans son repère de la presqu'île de Kintyre, ils découvrent qu'ils ne sont pas là pour des vacances écossaises mais pour créer un vrai groupe qui va enregistrer, là, dans cette ferme spartiate, au milieu des moutons.Le guitariste repart aussitôt pour New York mais les autres restent, alors Paul file au village téléphoner à Londres à son pote Denny Laine, ex-guitariste et chanteur des Moody Blues … ah non, c'est pas lui qui chante ce tube immortel des Moody blues, c'est Justin Hayward, le gars qui l'a remplacé quand il s'est barré en 1966. Qu'est-ce qu'il est devenu depuis, Denny Laine ? Et ben, pas grand chose, la preuve, après le coup de fil, il rapplique aussitôt après avoir accepté un salaire à la semaine.Paul a trouvé un nom pour ce groupe, Wings, les ailes, comme s'il allait s'envoler à nouveau. Et repartir vraiment à zéro, avec un premier album quasiment improvisé à la pochette bucolique, un peu trop d'ailleurs, on le reconnaît à peine. Tout comme la tournée. C'est vrai ! Après quelques coups de fil donnés depuis le village, les voilà partis avec un petit camion de location et un mini van dans lequel ils s'entassent. Oui, alors qu'il aurait été si simple de jouer sur le nom de Paul McCartney, ex-Beatle, toutes les portes se seraient ouvertes, Paul veut rejouer ses débuts. Ainsi en février 1972, une étudiante responsable d'un cercle de l'université de Nottingham se retrouve devant deux jeunes chevelus qui lui demandent s'ils ont une salle. Ben oui ? Vous pourriez venir, on est avec un artiste qui voudrait jouer ici ce soir ? Imaginez sa tête quand arrivée sur le trottoir, elle reconnaît dans le van, Paul McCartney qui lui tend la main, en disant qu'il est d'accord de jouer aux entrées.Le concert aura lieu le lendemain finalement, devant plus de 750 jeunes, imaginez l'ambiance. Et même s'il n'y aura pas une seule chanson des Beatles, le premier concert de Paul depuis ce stade de San Francisco en 1966 est une réussite. Ils ont même gagné 30 livres sterling chacun.
Special Guest Elizabeth Hines the widow of the late Denny Laine from Paul McCartney and WINGS and earlier The Moody Blues talks about her take on the film and her late husband's career with WINGS. Man on the Run is a 2025 documentary film directed by Morgan Neville about the life of Paul McCartney from his formation of Wings through the 1970s. McCartney is credited as an executive producer.The film coincides with the 2025 box set Wings, and the book Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run.Listen to previous interviews with Denny here:https://thecitysbackyard.buzzsprout.com/939277/episodes/12103946-the-city-s-backyard-s3-e9-denny-laine-from-the-moody-blues-and-paul-mccartney-and-wings-chats-about-his-songs-stories-tour-plus-his-days-with-the-moody-blues-and-wingsThis next one was recorded live on the radio!https://thecitysbackyard.buzzsprout.com/939277/episodes/12228137-the-city-s-backyard-s3-e12-rocknroll-hall-of-famer-denny-laine-from-the-moody-blues-and-paul-mccartney-wings-drops-by-the-city-s-backyard-live-streaming-rock-show-on-factory-underground-radio-to-chat-about-his-
Laurence Juber is an acclaimed guitarist, composer, and former lead guitarist with Paul McCartney's band Wings.His journey began in London during the explosion of Beatlemania. Inspired by The Beatles' revolutionary sound, he picked up the guitar as a child and quickly developed into a versatile and highly skilled musician. His early ambition was to become a studio guitarist, and by his early twenties he was already working in some of London's most prestigious recording studios alongside legendary producers and artists.Everything changed in 1978 when Laurence received a call from Paul McCartney's office inviting him to audition for Wings. After impressing both McCartney and Denny Laine, he joined the band and contributed to the Back to the Egg album, touring and recording with one of the most influential musicians of all time.Laurence reflects on what it was really like working with Paul and Linda McCartney, the creative environment within Wings, and the profound personal and professional impact of that experience.Following Wings, Laurence moved to Los Angeles, where he built a remarkable career as a studio musician, contributing to iconic film soundtracks including Dirty Dancing, Good Will Hunting, and Pocahontas, and recording with artists such as Belinda Carlisle, Eric Carmen, and Al Stewart.Over time, Laurence discovered his true artistic voice as a solo acoustic fingerstyle guitarist. He has since released more than 30 solo albums, earned a Grammy Award, and become internationally recognised for his expressive, innovative guitar work — including his acclaimed acoustic interpretations of Beatles songs.This conversation offers rare insight into life inside Wings, the creative genius of Paul McCartney, and Laurence's lifelong dedication to music as both craft and calling.
MUSICFans of Bad Bunny are "big mad" after a height requirement for the Super Bowl halftime show field team began circulating on social media. Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea will release his debut solo album titled "Honora" on March 27th. https://consequence.net/2026/01/flea-honora-traffic-lights-2026-tour-dates/ The Offspring and Limp Bizkit will be the headliners at Rock Fest in Cadott, Wisconsin July 16th through the 18th. Other acts on the bill include I Prevail, Des Rocs, Autumn Kings, Halestorm, The Pretty Reckless, Hollywood Undead and Badflower.A report in the U.K. Sun says that Metallica are "90% there" in signing a deal for their long-rumored residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas later this year. https://loudwire.com/metallica-almost-done-las-vegas-sphere-residency-deal/Jelly Roll's voice is going to be heard in the role of Grizz for the upcoming animated movie GOAT. In addition, Jelly's song "I'm Good" will be featured in the movie's soundtrack and in trailers. TVNetflix is set to launch its first original video podcasts, featuring comedian Pete Davidson and former NFL star Michael Irvin. https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/pete-davidson-netflix-podcast-the-pete-davidson-show-1236631253/ SPEAKING OF PODCASTS: Travis and Jason Kelce are set to release their debut book titled "No Dumb Questions: And All of Our Dumbest Answers", inspired by a segment of their podcast "New Heights". https://people.com/travis-kelce-jason-kelce-new-book-no-dumb-questions-see-the-cover-exclusive-11884320 MOVING ON INTO MOVIE NEWS:Matthew McConaughey trademarked his catchphrase, "Alright, Alright, Alright". It's an effort to protect his voice and likeness from unauthorized A.I. misuse. https://variety.com/2026/biz/news/matthew-mcconaughey-trademarks-alright-alright-alright-ai-misuse-1236631214/ Amazon MGM Studios has announced the release of a documentary about Paul McCartney's post-Beatles years with his band Wings. "Man on the Run" examines McCartney's journey after the Beatles' split, highlighting emotional challenges, artistic struggles, and the formation of Wings with his wife Linda and musician Denny Laine. There's a new documentary about the tragic death of "Poltergeist" star Heather O'Rourke. Check out the trailer. https://youtu.be/TGUjYNG6XLc· Disneyland's "Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge" will undergo significant changes starting April 29th, bringing back characters from the original trilogy. https://www.latimes.com/travel/story/2026-01-14/disneyland-star-wars-galaxys-edge-whats-new Nick Reiner has a new attorney. https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/nick-reiner-alan-jackson-lawyer-talks-stepping-down-case-1235499520/· AND FINALLYIs there such thing as a perfect comedy? Well, Collider.com believes there are 10 NEARLY perfect ones. And they ranked them for you. Here's their list . . .1. "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" (1964)2. "Airplane!" (1980)3. "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (1975)4. "Some Like It Hot" (1959)5. "Ghostbusters" (1984)6. "The Big Lebowski" (1998)7. "Groundhog Day" (1993)8. "Step Brothers" (2008)9. "Superbad" (2007)10. "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy" (2004) AND THAT IS YOUR CRAP ON CELEBRITIES!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
IM (29/10/1944 – 5/12/2023) – Denny Laine is Dood maar niet vergeten. De Britse muzikant was zanger en gitarist van The Moody Blues en later mede-oprichter van Wings. Hij overleed vandaag in 2023 op 79-jarige leeftijd.…Continue Reading "Denny Laine ging zelf in 2023"
In Episode 444 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren DeVivo speak with Denny Seiwell – Wings first drummer and a veteran session musician – about “Denny Seiwell: The Best and Worst of Times,” the new autobiography he has written with Robyn Flans. The interview begins after Ken's news segment (at 18'20”). Denny previously joined us on Episode 219 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qV2qLsGzhJk) and for a chat about “Red Rose Speedway” on Episode 389 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lylgo5ujC0k) And if you've missed Ken's tribute to Denny's bandmate in Wings, Denny Laine, here's a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uIqfs7cw5E&t=2s As always, we welcome your thoughts about this episode of the show or any other episode. We invite you to send your comments about this or any of our other shows to our email address thingswesaidtodayradioshow@gmail.com, join our "Things We Said Today Video Podcast" Facebook page and comment there, on X at @thingswesaidfab or Bluesky at @thingswesaidtoday, or visit us on Facebook and give us your thoughts. You can watch the show on our YouTube page [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-zgHaPfL6BGmOX5NoyFE-A], or hear the audio version on Podbean [https://beatlesexaminer.podbean.com/], iHeart Radio, Apple podcasts and other sources of fine podcasts. Our shows appear every two weeks. Please be sure SUBSCRIBE, click LIKE and write a (positive, ideally!) review of our show here or on our iTunes page! Our download numbers have been continually rising, as more people discover us and it's all because of you. So we thank you very much for your support! MANY MANY WAYS TO CONTACT US: Our email address: thingswesaidtodayradioshow@gmail.com BlueSky: @thingswesaidtoday Twitter @thingswesaidfab Facebook: Things We Said Today video podcast ALLAN on Facebook: Allan Kozinn or Allan Kozinn Remixed. Allan's Twitter/X feed: @kozinn Bluesky: @allankozinn.bsky.social Threads: allan_kozinn The McCartney Legacy's website: mccartneylegacy.co.uk/ The McCartney Legacy on Facebook: McCartney Legacy, on Twitter/X: @McCARTNEYLEGACY and on Bluesky: @mccartneylegacy.bsky.social The McCartney Legacy YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8zaPoY45IxDZKRMf2Z6VyA KEN's YouTube Channel, Ken Michaels Radio: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq_Dkp6fkIsYwGq_vCwltyg Ken's Website Beatles Trivia Page: https://www.kenmichaelsradio.com/beatles-trivia--games.html Ken's other podcast, Talk More Talk: A Solo-Beatles Videocast You Tube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@talkmoretalksolobeatles Ken's Weekly Beatles radio show "Every Little Thing" On Demand: http://wfdu.fm/Listen/hd1%20recent%20archives/ Ken's e-mail: everylittlething@att.net Ken's Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ken.michaels.31/ DARREN on Facebook: Darren DeVivo
The Zombies formed before the Stones and had huge hits with She's Not There and Time Of The Season. Their baroque masterpiece Odessey and Oracle now gets ranked beside Revolver and Pet Sounds. Colin Blunstone has a solo tour in 2026 and looks back here in his wood-panelled den at the first shows he played, the people he met and being No 1 in America aged 19. This too … … when your career starts at 16 “and you think it's over at 21” … seeing the Beatles at Luton Odeon and the Stones at Studio 51 Leicester Square “sitting on stools playing acoustic R&B” … winning the talent contest that got them a record deal and a worldwide hit with “the third song Rod ever wrote” … playing Murray the K's Christmas Show when No 1 in America with “all our heroes” - the Shirelles, Patti LaBelle and Ben E King … his father's warning when he wanted to go to Art School … the misspelling of Odessey And Oracle and its rushed recording at Abbey Road – “in mono when everyone wanted stereo!” … “only Kenny Everett and Penny Valentine liked it”: the album's afterlife, “now ranked alongside Revolver and Pet Sounds” … how he still hits “my suicidal top notes” and the old trick of pointing the mic at the audience if you don't want to sing them … life in an insurance office when the Zombies split and “the three writers had made all the money” … and Al Kooper, Denny Laine, Russ Ballard, Rod Argent and the time Mike Hurst inexplicably relaunched him as ‘Neil MacArthur'. Order tickets for the Believe In Miracles Tour here: https://www.colinblunstone.net/Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The Zombies formed before the Stones and had huge hits with She's Not There and Time Of The Season. Their baroque masterpiece Odessey and Oracle now gets ranked beside Revolver and Pet Sounds. Colin Blunstone has a solo tour in 2026 and looks back here in his wood-panelled den at the first shows he played, the people he met and being No 1 in America aged 19. This too … … when your career starts at 16 “and you think it's over at 21” … seeing the Beatles at Luton Odeon and the Stones at Studio 51 Leicester Square “sitting on stools playing acoustic R&B” … winning the talent contest that got them a record deal and a worldwide hit with “the third song Rod ever wrote” … playing Murray the K's Christmas Show when No 1 in America with “all our heroes” - the Shirelles, Patti LaBelle and Ben E King … his father's warning when he wanted to go to Art School … the misspelling of Odessey And Oracle and its rushed recording at Abbey Road – “in mono when everyone wanted stereo!” … “only Kenny Everett and Penny Valentine liked it”: the album's afterlife, “now ranked alongside Revolver and Pet Sounds” … how he still hits “my suicidal top notes” and the old trick of pointing the mic at the audience if you don't want to sing them … life in an insurance office when the Zombies split and “the three writers had made all the money” … and Al Kooper, Denny Laine, Russ Ballard, Rod Argent and the time Mike Hurst inexplicably relaunched him as ‘Neil MacArthur'. Order tickets for the Believe In Miracles Tour here: https://www.colinblunstone.net/Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The Zombies formed before the Stones and had huge hits with She's Not There and Time Of The Season. Their baroque masterpiece Odessey and Oracle now gets ranked beside Revolver and Pet Sounds. Colin Blunstone has a solo tour in 2026 and looks back here in his wood-panelled den at the first shows he played, the people he met and being No 1 in America aged 19. This too … … when your career starts at 16 “and you think it's over at 21” … seeing the Beatles at Luton Odeon and the Stones at Studio 51 Leicester Square “sitting on stools playing acoustic R&B” … winning the talent contest that got them a record deal and a worldwide hit with “the third song Rod ever wrote” … playing Murray the K's Christmas Show when No 1 in America with “all our heroes” - the Shirelles, Patti LaBelle and Ben E King … his father's warning when he wanted to go to Art School … the misspelling of Odessey And Oracle and its rushed recording at Abbey Road – “in mono when everyone wanted stereo!” … “only Kenny Everett and Penny Valentine liked it”: the album's afterlife, “now ranked alongside Revolver and Pet Sounds” … how he still hits “my suicidal top notes” and the old trick of pointing the mic at the audience if you don't want to sing them … life in an insurance office when the Zombies split and “the three writers had made all the money” … and Al Kooper, Denny Laine, Russ Ballard, Rod Argent and the time Mike Hurst inexplicably relaunched him as ‘Neil MacArthur'. Order tickets for the Believe In Miracles Tour here: https://www.colinblunstone.net/Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This month, our feature is the Beatles final in-studio appearance on "Thank Your Lucky Stars". Meanwhile, the Stones insist this (will/will not) be the last time, the Moodies continue with Denny Laine, and the potato man himself (Heinz) is digging some potatoes! Support this podcast at the $6/month level on patreon to get extra content! Create your podcast today! #madeonzencastr . If you are looking for Beatles summer fun, join our friends at the Magical Mystery Camp!
Dave Pegg joined Fairport Convention 56 years ago and fully deserves some sort of medal. They're playing their 49th Cropredy in August and touring the UK later in the year. He talks to us here about the first gigs he ever saw and played which, delightfully, involves … … the night Hank Marvin took him to see Bjork. … an all-nighter in Birmingham with John Mayall, Eric Clapton, Chris Farlowe and Spencer Davis. … memories of his “school hero” Denny Laine. … the fine art of getting it together in the country: life at the Angel pub in Little Hadham – “flea-bitten, enough hot water for one person and a lorry crashed through the wall into Dave Swarbrick's bedroom”. … the link between ticket sales and high blood pressure. … what not to do when you meet McCartney. … a night on the whisky with Rick Danko that ended in hospital. … how a band lasts 58 years without falling out. … the Island albums that made their reputation but never earned them any money. … unsung Birmingham acts: Denny Laine & the Diplomats (Bev Bevan on drums), Steve Gibbons in the Uglys, Jeff Lynne in the Idle Race. … narrowboats, pewter ale jugs, outdoor settees, Matty Groves, Meet On The Ledge and other cornerstones of the Cropredy experience.… Dave Swarbrick's “small holding” and further assorted knob gags. Fairport Convention tickets here: https://www.davepegg.co.uk/gigs/fairportgigs/ Cropredy tickets here: https://www.fairportconvention.com/Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dave Pegg joined Fairport Convention 56 years ago and fully deserves some sort of medal. They're playing their 49th Cropredy in August and touring the UK later in the year. He talks to us here about the first gigs he ever saw and played which, delightfully, involves … … the night Hank Marvin took him to see Bjork. … an all-nighter in Birmingham with John Mayall, Eric Clapton, Chris Farlowe and Spencer Davis. … memories of his “school hero” Denny Laine. … the fine art of getting it together in the country: life at the Angel pub in Little Hadham – “flea-bitten, enough hot water for one person and a lorry crashed through the wall into Dave Swarbrick's bedroom”. … the link between ticket sales and high blood pressure. … what not to do when you meet McCartney. … a night on the whisky with Rick Danko that ended in hospital. … how a band lasts 58 years without falling out. … the Island albums that made their reputation but never earned them any money. … unsung Birmingham acts: Denny Laine & the Diplomats (Bev Bevan on drums), Steve Gibbons in the Uglys, Jeff Lynne in the Idle Race. … narrowboats, pewter ale jugs, outdoor settees, Matty Groves, Meet On The Ledge and other cornerstones of the Cropredy experience.… Dave Swarbrick's “small holding” and further assorted knob gags. Fairport Convention tickets here: https://www.davepegg.co.uk/gigs/fairportgigs/ Cropredy tickets here: https://www.fairportconvention.com/Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dave Pegg joined Fairport Convention 56 years ago and fully deserves some sort of medal. They're playing their 49th Cropredy in August and touring the UK later in the year. He talks to us here about the first gigs he ever saw and played which, delightfully, involves … … the night Hank Marvin took him to see Bjork. … an all-nighter in Birmingham with John Mayall, Eric Clapton, Chris Farlowe and Spencer Davis. … memories of his “school hero” Denny Laine. … the fine art of getting it together in the country: life at the Angel pub in Little Hadham – “flea-bitten, enough hot water for one person and a lorry crashed through the wall into Dave Swarbrick's bedroom”. … the link between ticket sales and high blood pressure. … what not to do when you meet McCartney. … a night on the whisky with Rick Danko that ended in hospital. … how a band lasts 58 years without falling out. … the Island albums that made their reputation but never earned them any money. … unsung Birmingham acts: Denny Laine & the Diplomats (Bev Bevan on drums), Steve Gibbons in the Uglys, Jeff Lynne in the Idle Race. … narrowboats, pewter ale jugs, outdoor settees, Matty Groves, Meet On The Ledge and other cornerstones of the Cropredy experience.… Dave Swarbrick's “small holding” and further assorted knob gags. Fairport Convention tickets here: https://www.davepegg.co.uk/gigs/fairportgigs/ Cropredy tickets here: https://www.fairportconvention.com/Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Paul McCartney certainly knows how to stay busy! 2 weeks ago Paul "Rocked The Bowery Ballroom" and closed out the 50th Anniversary of SNL! Today, 26th February 2025 he announced the forthcoming release of his OWN book titled: "Wings: The Story of a Band On The Run." The press release: As the Sixties came to a close, Paul was faced with the daunting prospect of being a solo artist for the first time. Wings' ascension to the top of the charts with classic albums including Band on the Run, Venus and Mars and At the Speed of Sound, along with the band's stadium-filling live shows would prove to critics and fans that not all great acts are impossible to follow. Wings:The Story of a Band on the Run is a rousing, stereophonic celebration of the songs, collaborations and performances that would shape the soundtrack of the late 20th century. Drawn from over 500,000 words, based on dozens of hours of interviews with Paul and numerous key players in the band's orbit, Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run weaves together the improbable trajectory of Paul McCartney and his newly formed band (featuring co-founding members Linda McCartney and Denny Laine) across the technicolor 1970s until their dissolution in 1981. Edited by the prize-winning historian Ted Widmer and organized around nine Wings albums, the oral history sheds new light on the immediate aftermath of the seismic global impact of The Beatles' break-up, as the musical landscape and tastes began to splinter and diverge along with societal views. The narrative follows the various incarnations of the band as they survive a mugging in Nigeria, appear unannounced at UK university halls, tour in a sheared-off school bus with their children, while producing some of the most indelible and acclaimed music of the decade, including: “Mull of Kintyre,” “Live and Let Die,” “Band on the Run,” “My Love,” “Jet,” “With a Little Luck,” “Silly Love Songs,” “Let ‘Em In,” “Junior's Farm” and more. With more than 100 black-and-white and color photographs, many never seen before, Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run is part of a larger reexamination and appreciation of the group and their catalog, including the 2024 theatrical release of the rare Wings live-in-studio performance film One Hand Clapping and its accompanying album; 50th anniversary editions of the Wings albums Band on the Run (released February 2024) and Venus and Mars (releasing March 2025); and a forthcoming documentary on Paul McCartney's solo and Wings-related musical work of the 1970s from Academy Award-winning filmmaker, Morgan Neville. 2025 is shaping up to be a FANTASTIC year for all of us Macca-diehards!
Laurence Juber Live on Game Changers With Vicki Abelson How life-affirming to be back Live with 2x Grammy Winner Laurence Juber. Laurence got us started with his Cobalt Blue. Loved it! What an extraordinary finger-playing guitarist. Gorgeous. We talked the LA fires, the Juber evacuation plan, fortunately not taken to fruition. Animals before guitars, his one-of-a-kind custom shop signature Martin, and a Les Paul were the two that made the cut. Laurence is doing what he can to help, performing at a series of gigs that will donate their proceeds, including Tuesday's big fundraiser at The Canyon Club. Laurence talked with great pride about his two daughters, both achieving big things in the biz. He also spoke with great love and reverence of his wife, Hope, to whom he's been married and a true partner in life and oft in art, for 42 years. It's clear that it's family first and creating for the Jubers. There's no sitting around eating bonbons and watching the tube for this high-functioning family. We talked about Laurence's early days and influences, clarinet his first instrument, finding guitar, and learning to read music in a day. He claims. everyone was doing it. His dream was to be a session player, and he quickly realized it in Abby Road Studios with the likes of George Martin. He gigged around with innumerable bands, quite happy to be doing so, until Denny Laine made that fateful connection. Auditioning with drummer Steve Holley, their lives both changed that day when Paul McCartney asked what they'd be doing for the next few years. A childhood fantasy realized, until a pot bust in Japan. Laurence spoke of his solo work, lots more session work, segueing to TV, which led him to some work with a guy named Snuffy, and ultimately to scoring and composing… writing two musicals with Hope, one, the ever popular, Gilligan's Island: The Musical. There was a Grammy with Sir Paul for Rockestra, the first instrumental Grammy, and his solo arrangement of The Pink Panther Theme earned him a second Grammy. Laurence has played on innumerable hits, some he's found out about years later reading about them. He's an amazing man with incredible talents. This was a much-needed soul-filling reminder of all that's good and right with the world during troubled and turbulent times. He took us out with guitar perfection. Click here for all that's Laurence Juber laurencejuber.com including info on where to purchase his own coffee blend, and download his latest, A Day in My Life. Or grab the vinyl! Laurence Juber Live on Game Changers With Vicki Abelson Wednesday, 1/22/25, 5 PM PT, 8 PM ET Streamed Live on my Facebook Replay here: https://bit.ly/42oDeZq
Steve Holley from Paul McCartney & Wings is a great friend and band mate of the late rock legend Denny Laine! On this episode we chat about his time in WINGS, and his relationship with Denny, after all Denny was the guy that helped open the door for him to play in WINGS! Steve tells the story....also we play the new tribute re release track of Time To Hide, the song that Denny wrote, sang and played Harmonica on for Paul McCartney & Wings! Steve plays drums on the new re release of Time To Hide with the band McDonald's Farm! They are Denny's house band from the late 80s and early 90's! A little more on Steve....Stephen Jeffrey Holley was born into a musical family in London, England. His father, Jeffrey, led a Swing band and his mother, Irene was the singer. By age five, Steve was fascinated by drums and his good natured neighbor, who was the drummer in Jeffrey's (his father) band, gave him guidance. At age eleven, Steve formed his first group, The Formula, and entered a talent competition at a local Methodist church. Upon winning the competition, Steve was hooked. Music became his first priority. For more about his story listen to the podcast episode with this amazing English drummer and click below on this link about STEVE HOLLEY! https://pearldrum.com/artist/steve-holley/15651
Former bandmates of the late Rock & Roll Hall of Fame musician, Denny Laine, just released a new tribute version of one of Laine's signature songs, Time To Hide, to coincide with what would have been Laine's 80th birthday, October 29. The song, released under the artist name McDonald's Farm, will feature Steve McDonald, Grant Roberts and Laine's former Wings bandmate Steve Holley, with keyboards and production by Graeme Watt at the Seagate Studio Dundee. Through the magic of digital recording technology, it will also feature Laine on harmonica taken from the last time he performed on stage with them.When producing the accompanying music video, the assistance and generosity of Paul McCartney's company, MPL Communications, was invaluable in allowing Graeme Watt who produced the video the use of both photos and video footage of Denny with Paul and Linda McCartney from his time in Wings. This was combined with footage from Denny's later years playing with Steve and Grant at London's Marquee Club and The Old Trout in Windsor (sadly no longer there). To complete Time To Hide, the cover artwork was created by world famous artist Shannon MacDonald. It captures the man, the musician, and the vision of Denny in a spectacular new painting.https://mcdonaldsfarmband.com/homehttps://www.facebook.com/mcdonaldsfarmbandDenny performing Time To Hide on Rock Show! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nLYtVrUf6Y
Rock Legend DENNY LAINE is featured in ONE HAND CLAPPING, a Paul McCartney film that was just released for limited showings in theaters. In a PART 2 conversation we chat with Denny's lovely wife Liz Hines and now widow. We recap the film and get her thoughts on it....plus we also play clips of Denny from his previous interviews on "The City's Backyard Podcast". In this episode Liz comments on the audio clips from her late husbands interviews and chats about the rock n roll legend's legacy plus his role in Wings as Paul's right hand guy... in a Part 2 interview!Denny Laine was an English musician, singer, and songwriter, known as a founder of two major rock bands: the Moody Blues, with whom he played from 1964 to 1966, and co founder of Wings with Paul McCartney, with whom he played from 1971 to 1981. Laine has worked with a variety of artists and groups over a six-decade career, and as a solo artist. In 2018, Laine was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Moody Blues!The City's Backyard would like to thank Liz for her honesty in these conversations and making sure Denny's music and legacy lives on!
Denny's wife Liz Hines and now widow joins us on "The City's Backyard Podcast" to talk about the rock n roll legend's legacy and his role in Wings as Paul's right hand guy... in a Part 1 interview ...we also chat about the Paul McCartney film with Wings called One Hand Clapping showing this week!Denny Laine was an English musician, singer, and songwriter, known as a founder of two major rock bands: the Moody Blues, with whom he played from 1964 to 1966, and co founder of Wings with Paul McCartney, with whom he played from 1971 to 1981. Laine has worked with a variety of artists and groups over a six-decade career, and as a solo artist. In 2018, Laine was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Moody Blues!https://www.onehandclapping.film
The return of friend of the show Darin Murphy (a man who portrayed John Lennon on Broadway, and played with Denny Laine, Todd Rundgren, Joey Molland, Micky Dolenz and more!) He pojoins us to discuss Disc Five of the Mind Games Box, the raw studio mixes. Sean gives us plenty of material to consider, and we discuss how this album would influence artists as diverse as Meat Loaf, Tom Petty and possibly the Beats headphones!
Band On The Run from Paul McCartney and Wings has just turned 50! A new anniversary edition of the album has been released featuring an uderdubbed version of the album. RadioBypass is honored to join in the celebration of this great album! Find out from Paul McCartney, the late Denny Laine, Dustin Hoffman, James Coburn, engineer Geoff Emerick, and arranger Tony Viscontii about the many stories that surrounded the recording and release of an all-time rock classic. Join us for the 50th anniversary celebration of Paul McCarney and Wings - Band On The Run: All Access!
In this episode we look at the life and career of songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist Denny Laine, who died in December 2023. Along with Paul and Linda, Denny was the only constant member of Wings during the 1970s, but he was also involved to varying degrees with many other groups throughout his life. We end the episode talking about the upcoming Band on the Run reissue, which Denny certainly played and sang on. Feel free to email us a message (or record it) at ivegotabeatlespodcast@hotmail.com and we'll try to include you in our new "mailbag" segment. Complete episodes can be found at https://ivegotabeatlespodcast.podbean.com. Email: ivegotabeatlespodcast@hotmail.com Twitter: @ivegotabeatles Facebook: I've Got A Beatles Podcast Our video venture: "Song Album Career!" https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClqNdoDpQxpj6QMNDmXYYog
This one took a long time to come out...but only cus I had to make sure I was truly doing the best I could to detail the life and works of a fellow Brummy. There is A LOT of music in this one folks. Hopefully some you haven't heard of before....but be warned... Please enjoy. Peace and love, Sam If you want to support the show, check out our Patreon page at www.patreon.com/mccartneypodcastTo get in contact with the show, drop us an email at paulmccartneypod@gmail.com Follow us on Twitter for all Macca updates by searching @mccartneypod. Check out our YouTube page at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXcuhC1jm1wqhUTWhVS-r6A If you haven't seen the blog, check it out at www.paulmccartneypod.wordpress.com where you can see loads of episodes start out life as a random blog post, before being resculpted into the quality content you are here for today! Hosted by Sam Whiles.
Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Denny Laine is in our ears and in our eyes. And since December 2023, also, sadly, in the skies. As Macca's most consistent post-Beatles collaborator, Denny Laine's imprint on Wings and Sir Paul's overall legacy is unquestionably secure. This week, Tony & T.J. look at some of Denny Laine's greatest moments with Wings and beyond, and also ask:
In this episode, Robbie and Art pay tribute to Norman Lear, the legendary producer who created All in the Family, Good Times, the Jeffersons, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, and many other shows that changed television forever. Geeks of the week include Kurt Russell possibly and fearlessly filling Brando's shoes as Jor-El in the upcoming Superman: Legacy movie. We also remember Denny Laine, the Moody Blues guitarist/singer and founding member of Paul McCartney's other band, who recently earned another set of Wings.
Episode 404 is our last Things We Said Today for 2023, and it's a long one – and something different. Catching up with the news of the last few weeks, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo pay tribute to the late Denny Laine [04:00-33:00], followed by plenty more news [33:00-50:00], But for the main part of the show [at 50:00] we welcome the faculty of the RPM School – Walter Everett, author of the extraordinary “The Beatles As Musicians” two-volume set, Jack Petruzzelli, the multi-instrumentalist, producer and songwriter who many listeners will know as a member of the Fab Faux, and Cameron Greider, also a multi-instrumentalist and producer, who has worked with Sean Lennon and many others – who will give us a preview of their online course on the “White Album,” which starts on January 8. Information about the RPM School can be found at https://www.rpm-school.com/home-1. More information about the White Album course is here: https://www.rpm-school.com/ Also check out our previous conversation with Walter Everett on show 264: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiJpPfL_WN8. And in one of the news items, Ken mentioned Gary Burr, who we spoke with on Episode 383: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqVL2iJnY5w&t=3254s As always, we welcome your thoughts about this episode of the show or any other episode. We invite you to send your comments about this or any of our other shows to our email address thingswesaidtodayradioshow@gmail.com, join our "Things We Said Today Beatles Fans" Facebook page and comment there, tweet us at @thingswesaidfab or catch us each on Facebook and give us your thoughts. And we thank you very much for listening. You can hear and download our show on Podbean, the Podbean app and iTunes and stream us through the Tune In Radio app and from our very own YouTube page. Our shows appear every two weeks. Please be sure and write a (good, ideally!) review of our show on our iTunes page. If you subscribe to any of our program providers, you'll get the first word as soon as a new show is available. We don't want you to miss us. Our download numbers have been continually rising, as more people discover us and it's all because of you. So we thank you very much for your support! Be sure to check out the video version of Things We Said Today on our YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-zgHaPfL6BGmOX5NoyFE-A. The audio version can be found at Podbean: https://beatlesexaminer.podbean.com/ as well as at iHeart Radio, Apple podcasts and other distributors of fine podcasts. MANY MANY WAYS TO CONTACT US: Our email address: thingswesaidtodayradioshow@gmail.com Twitter @thingswesaidfab Facebook: Thins We Said Today or Things We Said Today Radio Fans ALLAN on Facebook: Allan Kozinn or Allan Kozinn Remixed. Allan's Twitter feed: @kozinn The McCartney Legacy's website: https://www.mccartneylegacy.com/ The McCartney Legacy on Facebook: McCartney Legacy, and on Twitter: @McCARTNEYLEGACY The McCartney Legacy YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8zaPoY45IxDZKRMf2Z6VyA KEN's YouTube Channel, Ken Michaels Radio: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq_Dkp6fkIsYwGq_vCwltyg Ken's Website Beatles Trivia Page: https://www.kenmichaelsradio.com/beatles-trivia--games.html Ken's other podcast, Talk More Talk: A Solo-Beatles Videocast You Tube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@talkmoretalksolobeatles Ken's Weekly Beatles radio show "Every Little Thing" On Demand: http://wfdu.fm/Listen/hd1%20recent%20archives/ Ken's e-mail: everylittlething@att.net Ken's Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ken.michaels.31/ DARREN's radio show can be heard 10pm to 2am Monday through Thursday and 1pm to 4pm Saturday on WFUV 90.7 FM (or 90.7 FM HD2), or at wfuv.org, or on the WFUV app. Darren on Facebook: Darren DeVivo, and Darren DeVivo: WFUV DJ and Beatles Podcaster Darren's email: darrendevivo@wfmu.org
This week's wheat/chaff separation process sifts the following from the rock and roll cornfield … … Tony Secunda, his gangsterish suits and the publicity stunt that backfired spectacularly. … our old Word magazine pal Rob Fitzpatrick talking about the Japanese composer Michiru Aoyama who's released an album a day since December 2021, each 20 minutes 20 seconds long. And the role of streaming in the ambient music boom. … the life of Denny Laine and the great “chamber pop” hit he wrote. ... why the Move's Flowers In The Rain has never earned the band a cent. … how the death of John Lennon was the dawn of the ‘black border' magazine tribute. … Willie Nelson's way with a middle eight. … the last men standing in the Band On The Run album shoot. … is there anyone still on the road older than “the French Bob Dylan” Hugues Aufray (94) and Marshall Allen 0f the Sun Ra Arkestra (99)? … and mentioned in dispatches - Harold Wilson, Frank Ifield, Ginger Baker's Air Force, ‘Ronnie & Clyde' and birthday guest Rob Collis and the best rock and roll movies.Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On this episode of The It's Only Rock And Roll Podcast, we revisit my 2007 interview with singer/guitarist DENNY LAINE, who tragically passed away this week at the age of 79. Our conversation covered his entire career including his early influences, forming his first band Denny & The Diplomats (with future Move/ELO drummer Bev Bevan), and co-founding two of the most celebrated musical acts of the rock era, The Moody Blues and Wings. Denny also set the record straight on several points – a record that has often been misrepresented by critics and fans alike. ----------------------------- Visit the 'It's Only Rock And Roll PODCAST' online at: ● Homepage – http://www.ItsOnlyRockAndRollPodcast.com ● Facebook – https://facebook.com/ItsOnlyRockAndRollPodcast/ ● YouTube - https://youtu.be/w4TLNEtjgwc ● Instagram - @itsonlyrockandrollpodcast © 2023 Howlaround Productions. All rights reserved.
2:33:10 – Frank in New Jersey, plus the Other Side. Topics include: Vegas the Cat’s hiding spots, weird stuff going on yesterday, holiday party, RJ synchronicity, Widow Jane, money damage, eye roll, Cityanna, a truck from another dimension, AI artwork, celebrity deaths (Sandra Day O'Connor (93), Shane MacGowan (65), Norman Lear (101), Denny Laine (79), Ralph Cirella […]
A classic interview with a guy who takes people to Ireland to find women, Stan and Haney share about the loss of Denny Laine (friend of the show and founding member of the Moody Blues and Wings), Grab Bag, Local Beat, Roger's Entertainment Corner, Junior's segment, Absolute Law owner and attorney Anthony Melchiorre makes his weekly visit to help listeners with free legal advice, News Headlines, Fluffer, a game of Stan's Name That Movie (the Bomb Edition), News, Rock Roots Week continues, classic standup comedy, and more...
Denny Laine of the Wings and Moody Blues dies at 79 and Hugh Grant explains why he hated being an Oompa Loompa.Plus, we speak with Mall of America Trend Specialist Sara Rogers! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Denny Laine of the Wings and Moody Blues dies at 79 and Hugh Grant explains why he hated being an Oompa Loompa. Plus, we speak with Mall of America Trend Specialist Sara Rogers! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
It's yet another enjoyable, eclectic, and lively edition. Significant passings, chart oddities, revisiting classics, documantaries, and more. The Pogues and Shane McGowan, the Kelce's and Taylor, Denny Laine, Springsteen, local shows, and many others in focus!
In Other News with Ethan: The passing of Denny Laine, 23andMe gets hacked, Older people are getting high, Michigan is getting electric roads, and a woman steals from Wal-Mart at a charity event put on by the police
In the 2nd hour of the Marc Cox Morning Show: Gabe Gore has already outpaced Kim Gardner doing 45% more cases Congressman Eric Burlison joins the Marc Cox Morning Show to discuss the mounting evidence to move forward with an impeachment of Joe Biden stimming from dealings with Hunter Biden. Jennifer Kushinka gives a market update In Other News with Ethan: The passing of Denny Laine, 23andMe gets hacked, Older people are getting high, Detroit is getting electric roads, and a woman steals from Wal-Mart at a charity event put on by the police Coming Up: Genevieve Wood
In Tribute To - Denny Laine of Wings and The Moody Blues
In episode 403 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren Devivo speak with the author Kenneth Womack about his excellent new book, “Living the Beatles Legend – The Untold Story of Mal Evans,” and to Mal's son, Gary Evans. During the news segment, Ken noted the streaming version of the concert presented at the Troubadour to raise money for Denny Laine's medical treatment. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPigWiKgyf8 As always, we welcome your thoughts about this episode of the show or any other episode. We invite you to send your comments about this or any of our other shows to our email address thingswesaidtodayradioshow@gmail.com, join our "Things We Said Today Beatles Fans" Facebook page and comment there, tweet us at @thingswesaidfab or catch us each on Facebook and give us your thoughts. And we thank you very much for listening. You can hear and download our show on Podbean, the Podbean app and iTunes and stream us through the Tune In Radio app and from our very own YouTube page. Our shows appear every two weeks. Please be sure and write a (good, ideally!) review of our show on our iTunes page. If you subscribe to any of our program providers, you'll get the first word as soon as a new show is available. We don't want you to miss us. Our download numbers have been continually rising, as more people discover us and it's all because of you. So we thank you very much for your support! Be sure to check out the video version of Things We Said Today on our YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-zgHaPfL6BGmOX5NoyFE-A. The audio version can be found at Podbean: https://beatlesexaminer.podbean.com/ as well as at iHeart Radio, Apple podcasts and other distributors of fine podcasts. MANY MANY WAYS TO CONTACT US: Our email address: thingswesaidtodayradioshow@gmail.com Twitter @thingswesaidfab Facebook: Thins We Said Today or Things We Said Today Radio Fans ALLAN on Facebook: Allan Kozinn or Allan Kozinn Remixed. Allan's Twitter feed: @kozinn The McCartney Legacy's website: https://www.mccartneylegacy.com/ The McCartney Legacy on Facebook: McCartney Legacy, and on Twitter: @McCARTNEYLEGACY The McCartney Legacy YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8zaPoY45IxDZKRMf2Z6VyA KEN's YouTube Channel, Ken Michaels Radio: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq_Dkp6fkIsYwGq_vCwltyg Ken's Website Beatles Trivia Page: https://www.kenmichaelsradio.com/beatles-trivia--games.html Ken's other podcast, Talk More Talk: A Solo-Beatles Videocast You Tube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@talkmoretalksolobeatles Ken's Weekly Beatles radio show "Every Little Thing" On Demand: http://wfdu.fm/Listen/hd1%20recent%20archives/ Ken's e-mail: everylittlething@att.net Ken's Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ken.michaels.31/ DARREN's radio show can be heard 10pm to 2am Monday through Thursday and 1pm to 4pm Saturday on WFUV 90.7 FM (or 90.7 FM HD2), or at wfuv.org, or on the WFUV app. Darren on Facebook: Darren DeVivo, and Darren DeVivo: WFUV DJ and Beatles Podcaster Darren's email: darrendevivo@wfmu.org
Growing up in the 1970s and 80s, one assumed that Paul McCartney was always universally loved because of his work in The Beatles, his 70s solo work and that with Wings, and his positive peace & love attitude. However, in 1973 Paul found himself in a bit of turmoil. Though he'd enjoyed some success as a solo artist, particularly in the US, Paul was being criticized for the adult contemporary nature of his music vs. the output of the other Beatles and the harder rocking music of the day. He was skewered in the British press after he released Leave Ireland to the Irish on the heels of Bloody Sunday in 1972 and had lost several members of Wings over being treated as hired hands and the presence of Linda in the band despite her lack of musical ability. However, Paul forged ahead with Linda and Denny Laine to create Band on the Run, released on December 5, 1973 in the US (November 30, 1973 in the UK). The title track is one of redemption and freedom inspired by George Harrison during their ongoing Apple Corps meetings and negotiations. Jet is an upbeat song that climbed the charts around the world despite it being about his dog and getting to know Linda's father. Songs like Bluebird, Mrs. Vanderbilt, Let Me Roll It and Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five became AM and classic rock radio staples in the US where the album not only went to #1 but sold more than 3 million copies. As the album that gave Paul back his credibility with the critics and allowed Paul and Wings to continue through the end of the 70s turns 50, we give it our classic track by track treatment. Ugly American Werewolf in London Website Ugly American Werewolf in London Store - Get your Wolf merch and use code 10OFF2023 to save 10% during the holidays! Visit our sponsor RareVinyl.com and use the code UGLY to save 10%! Twitter Threads Instagram YouTube LInkTree www.pantheonpodcasts.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Join us for a special bonus episode of Take It Away devoted to former Wings member and friend of the show Denny Laine. At the moment, Denny is struggling with serious health problems, and we've gotten together to promote his GoFundMe, inform our listeners about his situation, and take a moment to reflect on how important Denny is to us musically. We talked to Denny's wife Elizabeth Hines for an update on Denny's health and spent a little time discussing a few of our favorite Denny songs.There is a benefit concert for Denny in LA on Nov. 27:https://www.seetickets.us/event/denny-laine/571923You can donate to Denny's GoFundMe here:https://www.gofundme.com/f/denny-laine-medical-expenses Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/takeitaway. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Earlier this year, we had Denny Laine (Moody Blues, Wings) on the podcast, as our guest, before he embarked on his Songs & Stories Tour. In recent days we have seen messages like this on his page: "He had a setback this morning and was sent to the emergency room for tests for an infection, pneumonia. Denny is strong and is fighting every day and working hard to return home after his rehabilitation, where he will continue to rebuild his strength and health with home health care. I ask for your continued prayers and positive well wishes for Denny. -Love to all Elizabeth Hines" Please donate through the GoFundMe link below: https://gofund.me/0f8aa638 Please do what you can to help this man who has given us soooo much great music. And listen to our incredible conversation with Denny, while you help him recover from his long-term illness... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Earlier this year, we had Denny Laine (Moody Blues, Wings) on the podcast, as our guest, before he embarked on his Songs & Stories Tour. In recent days we have seen messages like this on his page: "He had a setback this morning and was sent to the emergency room for tests for an infection, pneumonia. Denny is strong and is fighting every day and working hard to return home after his rehabilitation, where he will continue to rebuild his strength and health with home health care. I ask for your continued prayers and positive well wishes for Denny. -Love to all Elizabeth Hines" Please donate through the GoFundMe link below: https://gofund.me/0f8aa638 Please do what you can to help this man who has given us soooo much great music. And listen to our incredible conversation with Denny, while you help him recover from his long-term illness... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Episode 160 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Flowers in the Rain" by the Move, their transition into ELO, and the career of Roy Wood. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a twenty-minute bonus episode available, on "The Chipmunk Song" by Canned Heat. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Note I say "And on its first broadcast, as George Martin's theme tune for the new station faded, Tony Blackburn reached for a record." -- I should point out that after Martin's theme fades, Blackburn talks over a brief snatch of a piece by Johnny Dankworth. Resources As so many of the episodes recently have had no Mixcloud due to the number of songs by one artist, I've decided to start splitting the mixes of the recordings excerpted in the podcasts into two parts. Here's part one . I had problems uploading part two, but will attempt to get that up shortly. There are not many books about Roy Wood, and I referred to both of the two that seem to exist -- this biography by John van der Kiste, and this album guide by James R Turner. I also referred to this biography of Jeff Lynne by van der Kiste, The Electric Light Orchestra Story by Bev Bevan, and Mr Big by Don Arden with Mick Wall. Most of the more comprehensive compilations of the Move's material are out of print, but this single-CD-plus-DVD anthology is the best compilation that's in print. This is the one collection of Wood's solo and Wizzard hits that seems currently in print, and for those who want to investigate further, this cheap box set has the last Move album, the first ELO album, the first Wizzard album, Wood's solo Boulders, and a later Wood solo album, for the price of a single CD. Transcript Before I start, a brief note. This episode deals with organised crime, and so contains some mild descriptions of violence, and also has some mention of mental illness and drug use, though not much of any of those things. And it's probably also important to warn people that towards the end there's some Christmas music, including excerpts of a song that is inescapable at this time of year in the UK, so those who work in retail environments and the like may want to listen to this later, at a point when they're not totally sick of hearing Christmas records. Most of the time, the identity of the party in government doesn't make that much of a difference to people's everyday lives. At least in Britain, there tends to be a consensus ideology within the limits of which governments of both main parties tend to work. They will make a difference at the margins, and be more or less competent, and more or less conservative or left-wing, more or less liberal or authoritarian, but life will, broadly speaking, continue along much as before for most people. Some will be a little better or worse off, but in general steering the ship of state is a matter of a lot of tiny incremental changes, not of sudden u-turns. But there have been a handful of governments that have made big, noticeable, changes to the structure of society, reforms that for better or worse affect the lives of every person in the country. Since the end of the Second World War there have been two UK governments that made economic changes of this nature. The Labour government under Clement Atlee which came into power in 1945, and which dramatically expanded the welfare state, introduced the National Health Service, and nationalised huge swathes of major industries, created the post-war social democratic consensus which would be kept to with only minor changes by successive governments of both major parties for decades. The next government to make changes to the economy of such a radical nature was the Conservative government which came to power under Margaret Thatcher in 1979, which started the process of unravelling that social democratic consensus and replacing it with a far more hypercapitalist economic paradigm, which would last for the next several decades. It's entirely possible that the current Conservative government, in leaving the EU, has made a similarly huge change, but we won't know that until we have enough distance from the event to know what long-term changes it's caused. Those are economic changes. Arguably at least as impactful was the Labour government led by Harold Wilson that came to power in 1964, which did not do much to alter the economic consensus, but revolutionised the social order at least as much. Largely because of the influence of Roy Jenkins, the Home Secretary for much of that time, between 1964 and the end of the sixties, Britain abolished the death penalty for murder, decriminalised some sex acts between men in private, abolished corporal punishment in prisons, legalised abortion in certain circumstances, and got rid of censorship in the theatre. They also vastly increased spending on education, and made many other changes. By the end of their term, Britain had gone from being a country with laws reflecting a largely conservative, authoritarian, worldview to one whose laws were some of the most liberal in Europe, and society had started changing to match. There were exceptions, though, and that government did make some changes that were illiberal. They brought in increased restrictions on immigration, starting a worrying trend that continues to this day of governments getting ever crueler to immigrants, and they added LSD to the list of illegal drugs. And they brought in the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act, banning the pirate stations. We've mentioned pirate radio stations very briefly, but never properly explained them. In Britain, at this point, there was a legal monopoly on broadcasting. Only the BBC could run a radio station in the UK, and thanks to agreements with the Musicians' Union, the BBC could only play a very small amount of recorded music, with everything else having to be live performances or spoken word. And because it had a legal obligation to provide something for everyone, that meant the tiny amount of recorded music that was played on the radio had to cover all genres, meaning that even while Britain was going through the most important changes in its musical history, pop records were limited to an hour or two a week on British radio. Obviously, that wasn't going to last while there was money to be made, and the record companies in particular wanted to have somewhere to showcase their latest releases. At the start of the sixties, Radio Luxembourg had become popular, broadcasting from continental Europe but largely playing shows that had been pre-recorded in London. But of course, that was far enough away that it made listening to the transmissions difficult. But a solution presented itself: [Excerpt: The Fortunes, "Caroline"] Radio Caroline still continues to this day, largely as an Internet-based radio station, but in the mid-sixties it was something rather different. It was one of a handful of radio stations -- the pirate stations -- that broadcast from ships in international waters. The ships would stay three miles off the coast of Britain, close enough for their broadcasts to be clearly heard in much of the country, but outside Britain's territorial waters. They soon became hugely popular, with Radio Caroline and Radio London the two most popular, and introduced DJs like Tony Blackburn, Dave Lee Travis, Kenny Everett, and John Peel to the airwaves of Britain. The stations ran on bribery and advertising, and if you wanted a record to get into the charts one of the things you had to do was bribe one of the big pirate stations to playlist it, and with this corruption came violence, which came to a head when as we heard in the episode on “Here Comes the Night”, in 1966 Major Oliver Smedley, a failed right-wing politician and one of the directors of Radio Caroline, got a gang of people to board an abandoned sea fort from which a rival station was broadcasting and retrieve some equipment he claimed belonged to him. The next day, Reginald Calvert, the owner of the rival station, went to Smedley's home to confront him, and Smedley shot him dead, claiming self-defence. The jury in Smedley's subsequent trial took only a minute to find him not guilty and award him two hundred and fifty guineas to cover his costs. This was the last straw for the government, which was already concerned that the pirates' transmitters were interfering with emergency services transmissions, and that proper royalties weren't being paid for the music broadcast (though since much of the music was only on there because of payola, this seems a little bit of a moot point). They introduced legislation which banned anyone in the UK from supplying the pirate ships with records or other supplies, or advertising on the stations. They couldn't do anything about the ships themselves, because they were outside British jurisdiction, but they could make sure that nobody could associate with them while remaining in the UK. The BBC was to regain its monopoly (though in later years some commercial radio stations were allowed to operate). But as well as the stick, they needed the carrot. The pirate stations *had* been filling a real need, and the biggest of them were getting millions of listeners every day. So the arrangements with the Musicians' Union and the record labels were changed, and certain BBC stations were now allowed to play a lot more recorded music per day. I haven't been able to find accurate figures anywhere -- a lot of these things were confidential agreements -- but it seems to have been that the so-called "needle time" rules were substantially relaxed, allowing the BBC to separate what had previously been the Light Programme -- a single radio station that played all kinds of popular music, much of it live performances -- into two radio stations that were each allowed to play as much as twelve hours of recorded music per day, which along with live performances and between-track commentary from DJs was enough to allow a full broadcast schedule. One of these stations, Radio 2, was aimed at older listeners, and to start with mostly had programmes of what we would now refer to as Muzak, mixed in with the pop music of an older generation -- crooners and performers like Englebert Humperdinck. But another, Radio 1, was aimed at a younger audience and explicitly modelled on the pirate stations, and featured many of the DJs who had made their names on those stations. And on its first broadcast, as George Martin's theme tune for the new station faded, Tony Blackburn reached for a record. At different times Blackburn has said either that he was just desperately reaching for whatever record came to hand or that he made a deliberate choice because the record he chose had such a striking opening that it would be the perfect way to start a new station: [Excerpt: Tony Blackburn first radio show into "Flowers in the Rain" by the Move] You may remember me talking in the episode on "Here Comes the Night" about how in 1964 Dick Rowe of Decca, the manager Larry Page, and the publicist and co-owner of Radio Caroline Phil Solomon were all trying to promote something called Brumbeat as the answer to Merseybeat – Brummies, for those who don't know, are people from Birmingham. Brumbeat never took off the way Merseybeat did, but several bands did get a chance to make records, among them Gerry Levene and the Avengers: [Excerpt: Gerry Levene and the Avengers, "Dr. Feelgood"] That was the only single the Avengers made, and the B-side wasn't even them playing, but a bunch of session musicians under the direction of Bert Berns, and the group split up soon afterwards, but several of the members would go on to have rather important careers. According to some sources, one of their early drummers was John Bohnam, who you can be pretty sure will be turning up later in the story, while the drummer on that track was Graeme Edge, who would later go on to co-found the Moody Blues. But today it's the guitarist we'll be looking at. Roy Wood had started playing music when he was very young -- he'd had drum lessons when he was five years old, the only formal musical tuition he ever had, and he'd played harmonica around working men's clubs as a kid. And as a small child he'd loved classical music, particularly Tchaikovsky and Elgar. But it wasn't until he was twelve that he decided that he wanted to be a guitarist. He went to see the Shadows play live, and was inspired by the sound of Hank Marvin's guitar, which he later described as sounding "like it had been dipped in Dettol or something": [Excerpt: The Shadows, "Apache"] He started begging his parents for a guitar, and got one for his thirteenth birthday -- and by the time he was fourteen he was already in a band, the Falcons, whose members were otherwise eighteen to twenty years old, but who needed a lead guitarist who could play like Marvin. Wood had picked up the guitar almost preternaturally quickly, as he would later pick up every instrument he turned his hand to, and he'd also got the equipment. His friend Jeff Lynne later said "I first saw Roy playing in a church hall in Birmingham and I think his group was called the Falcons. And I could tell he was dead posh because he had a Fender Stratocaster and a Vox AC30 amplifier. The business at the time. I mean, if you've got those, that's it, you're made." It was in the Falcons that Wood had first started trying to write songs, at first instrumentals in the style of the Shadows, but then after the Beatles hit the charts he realised it was possible for band members to write their own material, and started hesitantly trying to write a few actual songs. Wood had moved on from the Falcons to Gerry Levene's band, one of the biggest local bands in Birmingham, when he was sixteen, which is also when he left formal education, dropping out from art school -- he's later said that he wasn't expelled as such, but that he and the school came to a mutual agreement that he wouldn't go back there. And when Gerry Levene and the Avengers fell apart after their one chance at success hadn't worked out, he moved on again to an even bigger band. Mike Sheridan and the Night Riders had had two singles out already, both produced by Cliff Richard's producer Norrie Paramor, and while they hadn't charted they were clearly going places. They needed a new guitarist, and Wood was by far the best of the dozen or so people who auditioned, even though Sheridan was very hesitant at first -- the Night Riders were playing cabaret, and all dressed smartly at all times, and this sixteen-year-old guitarist had turned up wearing clothes made by his sister and ludicrous pointy shoes. He was the odd man out, but he was so good that none of the other players could hold a candle to him, and he was in the Night Riders by the time of their third single, "What a Sweet Thing That Was": [Excerpt: Mike Sheridan and the Night Riders, "What a Sweet Thing That Was"] Sheridan later said "Roy was and still is, in my opinion, an unbelievable talent. As stubborn as a mule and a complete extrovert. Roy changed the group by getting us into harmonies and made us realize there was better material around with more than three chords to play. This was our turning point and we became a group's group and a bigger name." -- though there are few other people who would describe Wood as extroverted, most people describing him as painfully shy off-stage. "What a Sweet Thing That Was" didn't have any success, and nor did its follow-up, "Here I Stand", which came out in January 1965. But by that point, Wood had got enough of a reputation that he was already starting to guest on records by other bands on the Birmingham scene, like "Pretty Things" by Danny King and the Mayfair Set: [Excerpt: Danny King and the Mayfair Set, "Pretty Things"] After their fourth single was a flop, Mike Sheridan and the Night Riders changed their name to Mike Sheridan's Lot, and the B-side of their first single under the new name was a Roy Wood song, the first time one of his songs was recorded. Unfortunately the song, modelled on "It's Not Unusual" by Tom Jones, didn't come off very well, and Sheridan blamed himself for what everyone was agreed was a lousy sounding record: [Excerpt: Mike Sheridan's Lot, "Make Them Understand"] Mike Sheridan's Lot put out one final single, but the writing was on the wall for the group. Wood left, and soon after so did Sheridan himself. The remaining members regrouped under the name The Idle Race, with Wood's friend Jeff Lynne as their new singer and guitarist. But Wood wouldn't remain without a band for long. He'd recently started hanging out with another band, Carl Wayne and the Vikings, who had also released a couple of singles, on Pye: [Excerpt: Carl Wayne and the Vikings, "What's the Matter Baby"] But like almost every band from Birmingham up to this point, the Vikings' records had done very little, and their drummer had quit, and been replaced by Bev Bevan, who had been in yet another band that had gone nowhere, Denny Laine and the Diplomats, who had released one single under the name of their lead singer Nicky James, featuring the Breakaways, the girl group who would later sing on "Hey Joe", on backing vocals: [Excerpt: Nicky James, "My Colour is Blue"] Bevan had joined Carl Wayne's group, and they'd recorded one track together, a cover version of "My Girl", which was only released in the US, and which sank without a trace: [Excerpt: Carl Wayne and the Vikings, "My Girl"] It was around this time that Wood started hanging around with the Vikings, and they would all complain about how if you were playing the Birmingham circuit you were stuck just playing cover versions, and couldn't do anything more interesting. They were also becoming more acutely aware of how successful they *could* have been, because one of the Brumbeat bands had become really big. The Moody Blues, a supergroup of players from the best bands in Birmingham who featured Bev Bevan's old bandmate Denny Laine and Wood's old colleague Graeme Edge, had just hit number one with their version of "Go Now": [Excerpt: The Moody Blues, "Go Now"] So they knew the potential for success was there, but they were all feeling trapped. But then Ace Kefford, the bass player for the Vikings, went to see Davy Jones and the Lower Third playing a gig: [Excerpt: Davy Jones and the Lower Third, "You've Got a Habit of Leaving"] Also at the gig was Trevor Burton, the guitarist for Danny King and the Mayfair Set. The two of them got chatting to Davy Jones after the gig, and eventually the future David Bowie told them that the two of them should form their own band if they were feeling constricted in their current groups. They decided to do just that, and they persuaded Carl Wayne from Kefford's band to join them, and got in Wood. Now they just needed a drummer. Their first choice was John Bonham, the former drummer for Gerry Levene and the Avengers who was now drumming in a band with Kefford's uncle and Nicky James from the Diplomats. But Bonham and Wayne didn't get on, and so Bonham decided to remain in the group he was in, and instead they turned to Bev Bevan, the Vikings' new drummer. (Of the other two members of the Vikings, one went on to join Mike Sheridan's Lot in place of Wood, before leaving at the same time as Sheridan and being replaced by Lynne, while the other went on to join Mike Sheridan's New Lot, the group Sheridan formed after leaving his old group. The Birmingham beat group scene seems to have only had about as many people as there were bands, with everyone ending up a member of twenty different groups). The new group called themselves the Move, because they were all moving on from other groups, and it was a big move for all of them. Many people advised them not to get together, saying they were better off where they were, or taking on offers they'd got from more successful groups -- Carl Wayne had had an offer from a group called the Spectres, who would later become famous as Status Quo, while Wood had been tempted by Tony Rivers and the Castaways, a group who at the time were signed to Immediate Records, and who did Beach Boys soundalikes and covers: [Excerpt: Tony Rivers and the Castaways, "Girl Don't Tell Me"] Wood was a huge fan of the Beach Boys and would have fit in with Rivers, but decided he'd rather try something truly new. After their first gig, most of the people who had warned against the group changed their minds. Bevan's best friend, Bobby Davis, told Bevan that while he'd disliked all the other groups Bevan had played in, he liked this one. (Davis would later become a famous comedian, and have a top five single himself in the seventies, produced by Jeff Lynne and with Bevan on the drums, under his stage name Jasper Carrott): [Excerpt: Jasper Carrott, "Funky Moped"] Most of their early sets were cover versions, usually of soul and Motown songs, but reworked in the group's unique style. All five of the band could sing, four of them well enough to be lead vocalists in their own right (Bevan would add occasional harmonies or sing novelty numbers) and so they became known for their harmonies -- Wood talked at the time about how he wanted the band to have Beach Boys harmonies but over instruments that sounded like the Who. And while they were mostly doing cover versions live, Wood was busily writing songs. Their first recording session was for local radio, and at that session they did cover versions of songs by Brenda Lee, the Isley Brothers, the Orlons, the Marvelettes, and Betty Everett, but they also performed four songs written by Wood, with each member of the front line taking a lead vocal, like this one with Kefford singing: [Excerpt: The Move, "You're the One I Need"] The group were soon signed by Tony Secunda, the manager of the Moody Blues, who set about trying to get the group as much publicity as possible. While Carl Wayne, as the only member who didn't play an instrument, ended up the lead singer on most of the group's early records, Secunda started promoting Kefford, who was younger and more conventionally attractive than Wayne, and who had originally put the group together, as the face of the group, while Wood was doing most of the heavy lifting with the music. Wood quickly came to dislike performing live, and to wish he could take the same option as Brian Wilson and stay home and write songs and make records while the other four went out and performed, so Kefford and Wayne taking the spotlight from him didn't bother him at the time, but it set the group up for constant conflicts about who was actually the leader of the group. Wood was also uncomfortable with the image that Secunda set up for the group. Secunda decided that the group needed to be promoted as "bad boys", and so he got them to dress up as 1930s gangsters, and got them to do things like smash busts of Hitler, or the Rhodesian dictator Ian Smith, on stage. He got them to smash TVs on stage too, and in one publicity stunt he got them to smash up a car, while strippers took their clothes off nearby -- claiming that this was to show that people were more interested in violence than in sex. Wood, who was a very quiet, unassuming, introvert, didn't like this sort of thing, but went along with it. Secunda got the group a regular slot at the Marquee club, which lasted several months until, in one of Secunda's ideas for publicity, Carl Wayne let off smoke bombs on stage which set fire to the stage. The manager came up to try to stop the fire, and Wayne tossed the manager's wig into the flames, and the group were banned from the club (though the ban was later lifted). In another publicity stunt, at the time of the 1966 General Election, the group were photographed with "Vote Tory" posters, and issued an invitation to Edward Heath, the leader of the Conservative Party and a keen amateur musician, to join them on stage on keyboards. Sir Edward didn't respond to the invitation. All this publicity led to record company interest. Joe Boyd tried to sign the group to Elektra Records, but much as with The Pink Floyd around the same time, Jac Holzman wasn't interested. Instead they signed with a new production company set up by Denny Cordell, the producer of the Moody Blues' hits. The contract they signed was written on the back of a nude model, as yet another of Secunda's publicity schemes. The group's first single, "Night of Fear" was written by Wood and an early sign of his interest in incorporating classical music into rock: [Excerpt: The Move, "Night of Fear"] Secunda claimed in the publicity that that song was inspired by taking bad acid and having a bad trip, but in truth Wood was more inspired by brown ale than by brown acid -- he and Bev Bevan would never do any drugs other than alcohol. Wayne did take acid once, but didn't like it, though Burton and Kefford would become regular users of most drugs that were going. In truth, the song was not about anything more than being woken up in the middle of the night by an unexpected sound and then being unable to get back to sleep because you're scared of what might be out there. The track reached number two on the charts in the UK, being kept off the top by "I'm a Believer" by the Monkees, and was soon followed up by another song which again led to assumptions of drug use. "I Can Hear the Grass Grow" wasn't about grass the substance, but was inspired by a letter to Health and Efficiency, a magazine which claimed to be about the nudist lifestyle as an excuse for printing photos of naked people at a time before pornography laws were liberalised. The letter was from a reader saying that he listened to pop music on the radio because "where I live it's so quiet I can hear the grass grow!" Wood took that line and turned it into the group's next single, which reached number five: [Excerpt: The Move, "I Can Hear the Grass Grow"] Shortly after that, the group played two big gigs at Alexandra Palace. The first was the Fourteen-Hour Technicolor Dream, which we talked about in the Pink Floyd episode. There Wood had one of the biggest thrills of his life when he walked past John Lennon, who saluted him and then turned to a friend and said "He's brilliant!" -- in the seventies Lennon would talk about how Wood was one of his two favourite British songwriters, and would call the Move "the Hollies with balls". The other gig they played at Alexandra Palace was a "Free the Pirates" benefit show, sponsored by Radio Caroline, to protest the imposition of the Marine Broadcasting (Offences) Act. Despite that, it was, of course, the group's next single that was the first one to be played on Radio One. And that single was also the one which kickstarted Roy Wood's musical ambitions. The catalyst for this was Tony Visconti. Visconti was a twenty-three-year-old American who had been in the music business since he was sixteen, working the typical kind of jobs that working musicians do, like being for a time a member of a latter-day incarnation of the Crew-Cuts, the white vocal group who had had hits in the fifties with covers of "Sh'Boom" and “Earth Angel”. He'd also recorded two singles as a duo with his wife Siegrid, which had gone nowhere: [Excerpt: Tony and Siegrid, "Up Here"] Visconti had been working for the Richmond Organisation as a staff songwriter when he'd met the Move's producer Denny Cordell. Cordell was in the US to promote a new single he had released with a group called Procol Harum, "A Whiter Shade of Pale", and Visconti became the first American to hear the record, which of course soon became a massive hit: [Excerpt: Procol Harum, "A Whiter Shade of Pale"] While he was in New York, Cordell also wanted to record a backing track for one of his other hit acts, Georgie Fame. He told Visconti that he'd booked several of the best session players around, like the jazz trumpet legend Clark Terry, and thought it would be a fun session. Visconti asked to look at the charts for the song, out of professional interest, and Cordell was confused -- what charts? The musicians would just make up an arrangement, wouldn't they? Visconti asked what he was talking about, and Cordell talked about how you made records -- you just got the musicians to come into the studio, hung around while they smoked a few joints and worked out what they were going to play, and then got on with it. It wouldn't take more than about twelve hours to get a single recorded that way. Visconti was horrified, and explained that that might be how they did things in London, but if Cordell tried to make a record that way in New York, with an eight-piece group of session musicians who charged union scale, and would charge double scale for arranging work on top, then he'd bankrupt himself. Cordell went pale and said that the session was in an hour, what was he going to do? Luckily, Cordell had a copy of the demo with him, and Visconti, who unlike Cordell was a trained musician, quickly sat down and wrote an arrangement for him, sketching out parts for guitar, bass, drums, piano, sax, and trumpets. The resulting arrangement wasn't perfect -- Visconti had to write the whole thing in less than an hour with no piano to hand -- but it was good enough that Cordell's production assistant on the track, Harvey Brooks of the group Electric Flag, who also played bass on the track, could tweak it in the studio, and the track was recorded quickly, saving Cordell a fortune: [Excerpt: Georgie Fame, "Because I Love You"] One of the other reasons Cordell had been in the US was that he was looking for a production assistant to work with him in the UK to help translate his ideas into language the musicians could understand. According to Visconti he said that he was going to try asking Phil Spector to be his assistant, and Artie Butler if Spector said no. Astonishingly, assuming he did ask them, neither Phil Spector nor Artie Butler (who was the arranger for records like "Leader of the Pack" and "I'm a Believer" among many, many, others, and who around this time was the one who suggested to Louis Armstrong that he should record "What a Wonderful World") wanted to fly over to the UK to work as Denny Cordell's assistant, and so Cordell turned back to Visconti and invited him to come over to the UK. The main reason Cordell needed an assistant was that he had too much work on his hands -- he was currently in the middle of recording albums for three major hit groups -- Procol Harum, The Move, and Manfred Mann -- and he physically couldn't be in multiple studios at once. Visconti's first work for him was on a Manfred Mann session, where they were recording the Randy Newman song "So Long Dad" for their next single. Cordell produced the rhythm track then left for a Procol Harum session, leaving Visconti to guide the group through the overdubs, including all the vocal parts and the lead instruments: [Excerpt: Manfred Mann, "So Long Dad"] The next Move single, "Flowers in the Rain", was the first one to benefit from Visconti's arrangement ideas. The band had recorded the track, and Cordell had been unhappy with both the song and performance, thinking it was very weak compared to their earlier singles -- not the first time that Cordell would have a difference of opinion with the band, who he thought of as a mediocre pop group, while they thought of themselves as a heavy rock band who were being neutered in the studio by their producer. In particular, Cordell didn't like that the band fell slightly out of time in the middle eight of the track. He decided to scrap it, and get the band to record something else. Visconti, though, thought the track could be saved. He told Cordell that what they needed to do was to beat the Beatles, by using a combination of instruments they hadn't thought of. He scored for a quartet of wind instruments -- oboe, flute, clarinet, and French horn, in imitation of Mendelssohn: [Excerpt: The Move, "Flowers in the Rain"] And then, to cover up the slight sloppiness on the middle eight, Visconti had the wind instruments on that section recorded at half speed, so when played back at normal speed they'd sound like pixies and distract from the rhythm section: [Excerpt: The Move, "Flowers in the Rain"] Visconti's instincts were right. The single went to number two, kept off the top spot by Englebert Humperdinck, who spent 1967 keeping pretty much every major British band off number one, and thanks in part to it being the first track played on Radio 1, but also because it was one of the biggest hits of 1967, it's been the single of the Move's that's had the most airplay over the years. Unfortunately, none of the band ever saw a penny in royalties from it. It was because of another of Tony Secunda's bright ideas. Harold Wilson, the Prime Minister at the time, was very close to his advisor Marcia Williams, who started out as his secretary, rose to be his main political advisor, and ended up being elevated to the peerage as Baroness Falkender. There were many, many rumours that Williams was corrupt -- rumours that were squashed by both Wilson and Williams frequently issuing libel writs against newspapers that mentioned them -- though it later turned out that at least some of these were the work of Britain's security services, who believed Wilson to be working for the KGB (and indeed Williams had first met Wilson at a dinner with Khrushchev, though Wilson was very much not a Communist) and were trying to destabilise his government as a result. Their personal closeness also led to persistent rumours that Wilson and Williams were having an affair. And Tony Secunda decided that the best way to promote "Flowers in the Rain" was to print a postcard with a cartoon of Wilson and Williams on it, and send it out. Including sticking a copy through the door of ten Downing St, the Prime Minister's official residence. This backfired *spectacularly*. Wilson sued the Move for libel, even though none of them had known of their manager's plans, and as a result of the settlement it became illegal for any publication to print the offending image (though it can easily be found on the Internet now of course), everyone involved with the record was placed under a permanent legal injunction to never discuss the details of the case, and every penny in performance or songwriting royalties the track earned would go to charities of Harold Wilson's choice. In the 1990s newspaper reports said that the group had up to that point lost out on two hundred thousand pounds in royalties as a result of Secunda's stunt, and given the track's status as a perennial favourite, it's likely they've missed out on a similar amount in the decades since. Incidentally, while every member of the band was banned from ever describing the postcard, I'm not, and since Wilson and Williams are now both dead it's unlikely they'll ever sue me. The postcard is a cartoon in the style of Aubrey Beardsley, and shows Wilson as a grotesque naked homunculus sat on a bed, with Williams naked save for a diaphonous nightgown through which can clearly be seen her breasts and genitals, wearing a Marie Antoinette style wig and eyemask and holding a fan coquettishly, while Wilson's wife peers at them through a gap in the curtains. The text reads "Disgusting Depraved Despicable, though Harold maybe is the only way to describe "Flowers in the Rain" The Move, released Aug 23" The stunt caused huge animosity between the group and Secunda, not only because of the money they lost but also because despite Secunda's attempts to associate them with the Conservative party the previous year, Ace Kefford was upset at an attack on the Labour leader -- his grandfather was a lifelong member of the Labour party and Kefford didn't like the idea of upsetting him. The record also had a knock-on effect on another band. Wood had given the song "Here We Go Round the Lemon Tree" to his friends in The Idle Race, the band that had previously been Mike Sheridan and the Night Riders, and they'd planned to use their version as their first single: [Excerpt: The Idle Race, "Here We Go Round the Lemon Tree"] But the Move had also used the song as the B-side for their own single, and "Flowers in the Rain" was so popular that the B-side also got a lot of airplay. The Idle Race didn't want to be thought of as a covers act, and so "Lemon Tree" was pulled at the last minute and replaced by "Impostors of Life's Magazine", by the group's guitarist Jeff Lynne: [Excerpt: The Idle Race, "Impostors of Life's Magazine"] Before the problems arose, the Move had been working on another single. The A-side, "Cherry Blossom Clinic", was a song about being in a psychiatric hospital, and again had an arrangement by Visconti, who this time conducted a twelve-piece string section: [Excerpt: The Move, "Cherry Blossom Clinic"] The B-side, meanwhile, was a rocker about politics: [Excerpt: The Move, "Vote For Me"] Given the amount of controversy they'd caused, the idea of a song about mental illness backed with one about politics seemed a bad idea, and so "Cherry Blossom Clinic" was kept back as an album track while "Vote For Me" was left unreleased until future compilations. The first Wood knew about "Cherry Blossom Clinic" not being released was when after a gig in London someone -- different sources have it as Carl Wayne or Tony Secunda -- told him that they had a recording session the next morning for their next single and asked what song he planned on recording. When he said he didn't have one, he was sent up to his hotel room with a bottle of Scotch and told not to come down until he had a new song. He had one by 8:30 the next morning, and was so drunk and tired that he had to be held upright by his bandmates in the studio while singing his lead vocal on the track. The song was inspired by "Somethin' Else", a track by Eddie Cochran, one of Wood's idols: [Excerpt: Eddie Cochran, "Somethin' Else"] Wood took the bass riff from that and used it as the basis for what was the Move's most straight-ahead rock track to date. As 1967 was turning into 1968, almost universally every band was going back to basics, recording stripped down rock and roll tracks, and the Move were no exception. Early takes of "Fire Brigade" featured Matthew Fisher of Procol Harum on piano, but the final version featured just guitar, bass, drums and vocals, plus a few sound effects: [Excerpt: The Move, "Fire Brigade"] While Carl Wayne had sung lead or co-lead on all the Move's previous singles, he was slowly being relegated into the background, and for this one Wood takes the lead vocal on everything except the brief bridge, which Wayne sings: [Excerpt: The Move, "Fire Brigade"] The track went to number three, and while it's not as well-remembered as a couple of other Move singles, it was one of the most influential. Glen Matlock of the Sex Pistols has often said that the riff for "God Save the Queen" is inspired by "Fire Brigade": [Excerpt: The Sex Pistols, "God Save the Queen"] The reversion to a heavier style of rock on "Fire Brigade" was largely inspired by the group's new friend Jimi Hendrix. The group had gone on a package tour with The Pink Floyd (who were at the bottom of the bill), Amen Corner, The Nice, and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and had become good friends with Hendrix, often jamming with him backstage. Burton and Kefford had become so enamoured of Hendrix that they'd both permed their hair in imitation of his Afro, though Burton regretted it -- his hair started falling out in huge chunks as a result of the perm, and it took him a full two years to grow it out and back into a more natural style. Burton had started sharing a flat with Noel Redding of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Burton and Wood had also sung backing vocals with Graham Nash of the Hollies on Hendrix's "You Got Me Floatin'", from his Axis: Bold as Love album: [Excerpt: The Jimi Hendrix Experience, "You Got Me Floatin'"] In early 1968, the group's first album came out. In retrospect it's arguably their best, but at the time it felt a little dated -- it was a compilation of tracks recorded between late 1966 and late 1967, and by early 1968 that might as well have been the nineteenth century. The album included their two most recent singles, a few more songs arranged by Visconti, and three cover versions -- versions of Eddie Cochran's "Weekend", Moby Grape's "Hey Grandma", and the old standard "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart", done copying the Coasters' arrangement with Bev Bevan taking a rare lead vocal. By this time there was a lot of dissatisfaction among the group. Most vocal -- or least vocal, because by this point he was no longer speaking to any of the other members, had been Ace Kefford. Kefford felt he was being sidelined in a band he'd formed and where he was the designated face of the group. He'd tried writing songs, but the only one he'd brought to the group, "William Chalker's Time Machine", had been rejected, and was eventually recorded by a group called The Lemon Tree, whose recording of it was co-produced by Burton and Andy Fairweather-Low of Amen Corner: [Excerpt: The Lemon Tree, "William Chalker's Time Machine"] He was also, though the rest of the group didn't realise it at the time, in the middle of a mental breakdown, which he later attributed to his overuse of acid. By the time the album, titled Move, came out, he'd quit the group. He formed a new group, The Ace Kefford Stand, with Cozy Powell on drums, and they released one single, a cover version of the Yardbirds' "For Your Love", which didn't chart: [Excerpt: The Ace Kefford Stand, "For Your Love"] Kefford recorded a solo album in 1968, but it wasn't released until an archival release in 2003, and he spent most of the next few decades dealing with mental health problems. The group continued on as a four-piece, with Burton moving over to bass. While they thought about what to do -- they were unhappy with Secunda's management, and with the sound that Cordell was getting from their recordings, which they considered far wimpier than their live sound -- they released a live EP of cover versions, recorded at the Marquee. The choice of songs for the EP showed their range of musical influences at the time, going from fifties rockabilly to the burgeoning progressive rock scene, with versions of Cochran's "Somethin' Else", Jerry Lee Lewis' "It'll Be Me", "So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star" by the Byrds, "Sunshine Help Me" by Spooky Tooth, and "Stephanie Knows Who" by Love: [Excerpt: The Move, "Stephanie Knows Who"] Incidentally, later that year they headlined a gig at the Royal Albert Hall with the Byrds as the support act, and Gram Parsons, who by that time was playing guitar for the Byrds, said that the Move did "So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star" better than the Byrds did. The EP, titled "Something Else From the Move", didn't do well commercially, but it did do something that the band thought important -- Trevor Burton in particular had been complaining that Denny Cordell's productions "took the toughness out" of the band's sound, and was worried that the group were being perceived as a pop band, not as a rock group like his friends in the Jimi Hendrix Experience or Cream. There was an increasing tension between Burton, who wanted to be a heavy rocker, and the older Wayne, who thought there was nothing at all wrong with being a pop band. The next single, "Wild Tiger Woman", was much more in the direction that Burton wanted their music to go. It was ostensibly produced by Cordell, but for the most part he left it to the band, and as a result it ended up as a much heavier track than normal. Roy Wood had only intended the song as an album track, and Bevan and Wayne were hesitant about it being a single, but Burton was insistent -- "Wild Tiger Woman" was going to be the group's first number one record: [Excerpt: The Move, "Wild Tiger Woman"] In fact, it turned out to be the group's first single not to chart at all, after four top ten singles in a row. The group were now in crisis. They'd lost Ace Kefford, Burton and Wayne were at odds, and they were no longer guaranteed hitmakers. They decided to stop working with Cordell and Secunda, and made a commitment that if the next single was a flop, they would split up. In any case, Roy Wood was already thinking about another project. Even though the group's recent records had gone in a guitar-rock direction, he thought maybe you could do something more interesting. Ever since seeing Tony Visconti conduct orchestral instruments playing his music, he'd been thinking about it. As he later put it "I thought 'Well, wouldn't it be great to get a band together, and rather than advertising for a guitarist how about advertising for a cellist or a French horn player or something? There must be lots of young musicians around who play the... instruments that would like to play in a rock kind of band.' That was the start of it, it really was, and I think after those tracks had been recorded with Tony doing the orchestral arrangement, that's when I started to get bored with the Move, with the band, because I thought 'there's something more to it'". He'd started sketching out plans for an expanded lineup of the group, drawing pictures of what it would look like on stage if Carl Wayne was playing timpani while there were cello and French horn players on stage with them. He'd even come up with a name for the new group -- a multi-layered pun. The group would be a light orchestra, like the BBC Light Orchestra, but they would be playing electrical instruments, and also they would have a light show when they performed live, and so he thought "the Electric Light Orchestra" would be a good name for such a group. The other band members thought this was a daft idea, but Wood kept on plotting. But in the meantime, the group needed some new management. The person they chose was Don Arden. We talked about Arden quite a bit in the last episode, but he's someone who is going to turn up a lot in future episodes, and so it's best if I give a little bit more background about him. Arden was a manager of the old school, and like several of the older people in the music business at the time, like Dick James or Larry Page, he had started out as a performer, doing an Al Jolson tribute act, and he was absolutely steeped in showbusiness -- his wife had been a circus contortionist before they got married, and when he moved from Manchester to London their first home had been owned by Winifred Atwell, a boogie piano player who became the first Black person to have a UK number one -- and who is *still* the only female solo instrumentalist to have a UK number one -- with her 1954 hit "Let's Have Another Party": [Excerpt: WInifred Atwell, "Let's Have Another Party"] That was only Atwell's biggest in a long line of hits, and she'd put all her royalties into buying properties in London, one of which became the Ardens' home. Arden had been considered quite a promising singer, and had made a few records in the early 1950s. His first recordings, of material in Yiddish aimed at the Jewish market, are sadly not findable online, but he also apparently recorded as a session singer for Embassy Records. I can't find a reliable source for what records he sang on for that label, which put out budget rerecordings of hits for sale exclusively through Woolworths, but according to Wikipedia one of them was Embassy's version of "Blue Suede Shoes", put out under the group name "The Canadians", and the lead vocal on that track certainly sounds like it could be him: [Excerpt: The Canadians, "Blue Suede Shoes"] As you can tell, rock and roll didn't really suit Arden's style, and he wisely decided to get out of performance and into behind-the-scenes work, though he would still try on occasion to make records of his own -- an acetate exists from 1967 of him singing "Sunrise, Sunset": [Excerpt: Don Arden, "Sunrise, Sunset"] But he'd moved first into promotion -- he'd been the promoter who had put together tours of the UK for Gene Vincent, Little Richard, Brenda Lee and others which we mentioned in the second year of the podcast -- and then into management. He'd first come into management with the Animals -- apparently acting at that point as the money man for Mike Jeffries, who was the manager the group themselves dealt with. According to Arden -- though his story differs from the version of the story told by others involved -- the group at some point ditched Arden for Allen Klein, and when they did, Arden's assistant Peter Grant, another person we'll be hearing a lot more of, went with them. Arden, by his own account, flew over to see Klein and threatened to throw him out of the window of his office, which was several stories up. This was a threat he regularly made to people he believed had crossed him -- he made a similar threat to one of the Nashville Teens, the first group he managed after the Animals, after the musician asked what was happening to the group's money. And as we heard last episode, he threatened Robert Stigwood that way when Stigwood tried to get the Small Faces off him. One of the reasons he'd signed the Small Faces was that Steve Marriott had gone to the Italia Conti school, where Arden had sent his own children, Sharon and David, and David had said that Marriott was talented. And David was also a big reason the Move came over to Arden. After the Small Faces had left him, Arden had bought Galaxy Entertaimnent, the booking agency that handled bookings for Amen Corner and the Move, among many other acts. Arden had taken over management of Amen Corner himself, and had put his son David in charge of liaising with Tony Secunda about the Move. But David Arden was sure that the Move could be an albums act, not just a singles act, and was convinced the group had more potential than they were showing, and when they left Secunda, Don Arden took them on as his clients, at least for the moment. Secunda, according to Arden (who is not the most reliable of witnesses, but is unfortunately the only one we have for a lot of this stuff) tried to hire someone to assassinate Arden, but Arden quickly let Secunda know that if anything happened to Arden, Secunda himself would be dead within the hour. As "Wild Tiger Woman" hadn't been a hit, the group decided to go back to their earlier "Flowers in the Rain" style, with "Blackberry Way": [Excerpt: The Move, "Blackberry Way"] That track was produced by Jimmy Miller, who was producing the Rolling Stones and Traffic around this time, and featured the group's friend Richard Tandy on harpsichord. It's also an example of the maxim "Good artists copy, great artists steal". There are very few more blatant examples of plagiarism in pop music than the middle eight of "Blackberry Way". Compare Harry Nilsson's "Good Old Desk": [Excerpt: Nilsson, "Good Old Desk"] to the middle eight of "Blackberry Way": [Excerpt: The Move, "Blackberry Way"] "Blackberry Way" went to number one, but that was the last straw for Trevor Burton -- it was precisely the kind of thing he *didn't* want to be doing,. He was so sick of playing what he thought of as cheesy pop music that at one show he attacked Bev Bevan on stage with his bass, while Bevan retaliated with his cymbals. He stormed off stage, saying he was "tired of playing this crap". After leaving the group, he almost joined Blind Faith, a new supergroup that members of Cream and Traffic were forming, but instead formed his own supergroup, Balls. Balls had a revolving lineup which at various times included Denny Laine, formerly of the Moody Blues, Jackie Lomax, a singer-songwriter who was an associate of the Beatles, Richard Tandy who had played on "Blackberry Way", and Alan White, who would go on to drum with the band Yes. Balls only released one single, "Fight for My Country", which was later reissued as a Trevor Burton solo single: [Excerpt: Balls, "Fight For My Country"] Balls went through many lineup changes, and eventually seemed to merge with a later lineup of the Idle Race to become the Steve Gibbons Band, who were moderately successful in the seventies and eighties. Richard Tandy covered on bass for a short while, until Rick Price came in as a permanent replacement. Before Price, though, the group tried to get Hank Marvin to join, as the Shadows had then split up, and Wood was willing to move over to bass and let Marvin play lead guitar. Marvin turned down the offer though. But even though "Blackberry Way" had been the group's biggest hit to date, it marked a sharp decline in the group's fortunes. Its success led Peter Walsh, the manager of Marmalade and the Tremeloes, to poach the group from Arden, and even though Arden took his usual heavy-handed approach -- he describes going and torturing Walsh's associate, Clifford Davis, the manager of Fleetwood Mac, in his autobiography -- he couldn't stop Walsh from taking over. Unfortunately, Walsh put the group on the chicken-in-a-basket cabaret circuit, and in the next year they only released one record, the single "Curly", which nobody was happy with. It was ostensibly produced by Mike Hurst, but Hurst didn't turn up to the final sessions and Wood did most of the production work himself, while in the next studio over Jimmy Miller, who'd produced "Blackberry Way", was producing "Honky Tonk Women" by the Rolling Stones. The group were getting pigeonholed as a singles group, at a time when album artists were the in thing. In a three-year career they'd only released one album, though they were working on their second. Wood was by this point convinced that the Move was unsalvageable as a band, and told the others that the group was now just going to be a launchpad for his Electric Light Orchestra project. The band would continue working the chicken-in-a-basket circuit and releasing hit singles, but that would be just to fund the new project -- which they could all be involved in if they wanted, of course. Carl Wayne, on the other hand, was very, very, happy playing cabaret, and didn't see the need to be doing anything else. He made a counter-suggestion to Wood -- keep The Move together indefinitely, but let Wood do the Brian Wilson thing and stay home and write songs. Wayne would even try to get Burton and Kefford back into the band. But Wood wasn't interested. Increasingly his songs weren't even going to the Move at all. He was writing songs for people like Cliff Bennett and the Casuals. He wrote "Dance Round the Maypole" for Acid Gallery: [Excerpt: Acid Gallery, "Dance Round the Maypole"] On that, Wood and Jeff Lynne sang backing vocals. Wood and Lynne had been getting closer since Lynne had bought a home tape recorder which could do multi-tracking -- Wood had wanted to buy one of his own after "Flowers in the Rain", but even though he'd written three hit singles at that point his publishing company wouldn't give him an advance to buy one, and so he'd started using Lynne's. The two have often talked about how they'd recorded the demo for "Blackberry Way" at Lynne's parents' house, recording Wood's vocal on the demo with pillows and cushions around his head so that his singing wouldn't wake Lynne's parents. Lynne had been another person that Wood had asked to join the group when Burton left, but Lynne was happy with The Idle Race, where he was the main singer and songwriter, though their records weren't having any success: [Excerpt: The Idle Race, "I Like My Toys"] While Wood was writing material for other people, the only one of those songs to become a hit was "Hello Suzie", written for Amen Corner, which became a top five single on Immediate Records: [Excerpt: Amen Corner, "Hello Suzie"] While the Move were playing venues like Batley Variety Club in Britain, when they went on their first US tour they were able to play for a very different audience. They were unknown in the US, and so were able to do shows for hippie audiences that had no preconceptions about them, and did things like stretch "Cherry Blossom Clinic" into an eight-minute-long extended progressive rock jam that incorporated bits of "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring", the Nutcracker Suite, and the Sorcerer's Apprentice: [Excerpt: The Move, "Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited (live at the Fillmore West)"] All the group were agreed that those shows were the highlight of the group's career. Even Carl Wayne, the band member most comfortable with them playing the cabaret circuit, was so proud of the show at the Fillmore West which that performance is taken from that when the tapes proved unusable he kept hold of them, hoping all his life that technology would progress to the point where they could be released and show what a good live band they'd been, though as things turned out they didn't get released until after his death. But when they got back to the UK it was back to the chicken-in-a-basket circuit, and back to work on their much-delayed second album. That album, Shazam!, was the group's attempt at compromise between their different visions. With the exception of one song, it's all heavy rock music, but Wayne, Wood, and Price all co-produced, and Wayne had the most creative involvement he'd ever had. Side two of the album was all cover versions, chosen by Wayne, and Wayne also went out onto the street and did several vox pops, asking members of the public what they thought of pop music: [Excerpt: Vox Pops from "Don't Make My Baby Blue"] There were only six songs on the album, because they were mostly extended jams. Other than the three cover versions chosen by Wayne, there was a sludge-metal remake of "Hello Suzie", the new arrangement of "Cherry Blossom Clinic" they'd been performing live, retitled "Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited", and only one new original, "Beautiful Daughter", which featured a string arrangement by Visconti, who also played bass: [Excerpt: The Move, "Beautiful Daughter"] And Carl Wayne sang lead on five of the six tracks, which given that one of the reasons Wayne was getting unhappy with the band was that Wood was increasingly becoming the lead singer, must have been some comfort. But it wasn't enough. By the time Shazam! came out, with a cover drawn by Mike Sheridan showing the four band members as superheroes, the band was down to three -- Carl Wayne had quit the group, for a solo career. He continued playing the cabaret circuit, and made records, but never had another hit, but he managed to have a very successful career as an all-round entertainer, acting on TV and in the theatre, including a six-year run as the narrator in the musical Blood Brothers, and replacing Alan Clarke as the lead singer of the Hollies. He died in 2004. As soon as Wayne left the group, the three remaining band members quit their management and went back to Arden. And to replace Wayne, Wood once again asked Jeff Lynne to join the group. But this time the proposition was different -- Lynne wouldn't just be joining the Move, but he would be joining the Electric Light Orchestra. They would continue putting out Move records and touring for the moment, and Lynne would be welcome to write songs for the Move so that Wood wouldn't have to be the only writer, but they'd be doing it while they were planning their new group. Lynne was in, and the first single from the new lineup was a return to the heavy riff rock style of "Wild Tiger Woman", "Brontosaurus": [Excerpt: The Move, "Brontosaurus"] But Wayne leaving the group had put Wood in a difficult position. He was now the frontman, and he hated that responsibility -- he said later "if you look at me in photos of the early days, I'm always the one hanging back with my head down, more the musician than the frontman." So he started wearing makeup, painting his face with triangles and stars, so he would be able to hide his shyness. And it worked -- and "Brontosaurus" returned the group to the top ten. But the next single, "When Alice Comes Back to the Farm", didn't chart at all. The first album for the new Move lineup, Looking On, was to finish their contract with their current record label. Many regard it as the group's "Heavy metal album", and it's often considered the worst of their four albums, with Bev Bevan calling it "plodding", but that's as much to do with Bevan's feeling about the sessions as anything else -- increasingly, after the basic rhythm tracks had been recorded, Wood and Lynne would get to work without the other two members of the band, doing immense amounts of overdubbing. And that continued after Looking On was finished. The group signed a new contract with EMI's new progressive rock label, Harvest, and the contract stated that they were signing as "the Move performing as The Electric Light Orchestra". They started work on two albums' worth of material, with the idea that anything with orchestral instruments would be put aside for the first Electric Light Orchestra album, while anything with just guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, and horns would be for the Move. The first Electric Light Orchestra track, indeed, was intended as a Move B-side. Lynne came in with a song based around a guitar riff, and with lyrics vaguely inspired by the TV show The Prisoner, about someone with a number instead of a name running, trying to escape, and then eventually dying. But then Wood decided that what the track really needed was cello. But not cello played in the standard orchestral manner, but something closer to what the Beatles had done on "I am the Walrus". He'd bought a cheap cello himself, and started playing Jimi Hendrix riffs on it, and Lynne loved the sound of it, so onto the Move's basic rhythm track they overdubbed fifteen cello tracks by Wood, and also two French horns, also by Wood: [Excerpt: The Electric Light Orchestra, "10538 Overture"] The track was named "10538 Overture", after they saw the serial number 1053 on the console they were using to mix the track, and added the number 8 at the end, making 10538 the number of the character in the song. Wood and Lynne were so enamoured with the sound of their new track that they eventually got told by the other two members of the group that they had to sit in the back when the Move were driving to gigs, so they couldn't reach the tape player, because they'd just keep playing the track over and over again. So they got a portable tape player and took that into the back seat with them to play it there. After finishing some pre-existing touring commitments, the Move and Electric Light Orchestra became a purely studio group, and Rick Price quit the bands -- he needed steady touring work to feed his family, and went off to form another band, Mongrel. Around this time, Wood also took part in another strange project. After Immediate Records collapsed, Andrew Oldham needed some fast money, so he and Don Arden put together a fake group they could sign to EMI for ten thousand pounds. The photo of the band Grunt Futtock was of some random students, and that was who Arden and Oldham told EMI was on the track, but the actual performers on the single included Roy Wood, Steve Marriott, Peter Frampton, and Andy Bown, the former keyboard player of the Herd: [Excerpt: Grunt Futtock, "Rock 'n' Roll Christian"] Nobody knows who wrote the song, although it's credited to Bernard Webb, which is a pseudonym Paul McCartney had previously used -- but everyone knew he'd used the pseudonym, so it could very easily be a nod to that. The last Move album, Message From The Country, didn't chart -- just like the previous two hadn't. But Wood's song "Tonight" made number eleven, the follow-up, "Chinatown", made number twenty-three, and then the final Move single, "California Man", a fifties rock and roll pastiche, made the top ten: [Excerpt: The Move, "California Man"] In the US, that single was flipped, and the B-side, Lynne's song "Do Ya", became the only Move song ever to make the Hot One Hundred, reaching number ninety-nine: [Excerpt: The Move, "Do Ya"] By the time "California Man" was released, the Electric Light Orchestra were well underway. They'd recorded their first album, whose biggest highlights were Lynne's "10538 Overture" and Wood's "Whisper in the Night": [Excerpt: The Electric Light Orchestra, "Whisper in the Night"] And they'd formed a touring lineup, including Richard Tandy on keyboards and several orchestral instrumentalists. Unfortunately, there were problems developing between Wood and Lynne. When the Electric Light Orchestra toured, interviewers only wanted to speak to Wood, thinking of him as the band leader, even though Wood insisted that he and Lynne were the joint leaders. And both men had started arguing a lot, to the extent that at some shows they would refuse to go on stage because of arguments as to which of them should go on first. Wood has since said that he thinks most of the problems between Lynne and himself were actually caused by Don Arden, who realised that if he split the two of them into separate acts he could have two hit groups, not one. If that was the plan, it worked, because by the time "10538 Overture" was released as the Electric Light Orchestra's first single, and made the top ten -- while "California Man" was also still in the charts -- it was announced that Roy Wood was now leaving the Electric Light Orchestra, as were keyboard playe
© 2020-2026 Ivy Podcast Discovery LLC
