ARTICLE ABOUT The Move FROM New Musical Express, June 5, 1971

The Move released their final and fourth studio album in 1971, and it turned out that ELO became much bigger than The Move ever did.
Read on!

Move are down to three but two still disagree

By Richard Green

And then there were three. Of the Move, that is. The five-strong bunch of rockers, who belted our ears with such rock classics as “Fire Brigade,” have almost settled for the quieter life of the Electric Light Orchestra. Down to three members now, it seems that the Move – once the problem children of promoters of Britain (and, in some cases, the Continent) – have pulled up their dirty roots and replanted them in more fertile ground.
Or have they? On the face of it, the Move as a touring band, is no more. Roy Wood, always the accepted leader despite Carl Wayne’s demonstrative leadership of yore, is totally involved in the development of his own child, the Electric Light Orchestra. And where Roy treads the others have to follow.
Or do they? Certainly Bev Bevan hasn’t given the Move up as a thing of the past, a well-loved toy now to be cast aside simply because something new has come along. Involved as he is with the ELO, he clings to memories of the four years on the road and wouldn’t be in the least upset if the Move continued going on the road.
Carl Wayne went his own way. Rick Price isn’t, according to Bev, “really involved anymore.” Ace Kefford’s Stand collapsed rather unspectacularly and Trevor Burton’s Balls didn’t get off the ground.
So we are left with Roy, Jeff Lynne and Bev.
“Roy doesn’t want to know about the Move being on the road; he thinks that in four years we’ve done as much as we can,” Bev explained when I asked him about the lack of Move appearances these last few months. “He might be right, he might be wrong.
“If we get a hit with ‘Tonight,’ we may prove him wrong. I play loud in the Move and I like that; there’s more scope for me in the Move. I just want to get back on the road really.”
The Move hasn’t played a gig since last October. Since signing a recording contract with Harvest, the trio has been in the studios for three days a week and there has been no time for anything else. Whether record-buyers realise it or not, recording is a strength-draining business.
But while Roy would prefer to get the ELO going, Bev hasn’t discounted the possibility of another series of Move dates, though he views the likelihood with scepticism.
“The whole point of making singles is to make them commercial,” he stated. “The last one, ‘Back On Maggie’s Farm,’ didn’t sell, so we were proved wrong. ‘Tonight ‘ is blatantly commercial. Hit singles are just good for our egos really. We like having them and showing our faces on the box if nothing else… we’re not averse to doing a few radio things.”
Bev admitted that the Move needed a rest from the endless round of concerts, clubs and what have you.
“The break might have done us some good, we were getting a bit stale, it was like a never-ending circle, playing the same places over and over again.”

Whether “Tonight” makes it or not, there’s a new Move album to be unleashed. It’s called “Message From The Country” and sounds to me like being a good ‘un sales-wise. Unlike other Move albums.
“We know it’s the best LP we’ve ever done,” said Bev who was at the time wrestling with a Dalmatian and another hound of undeterminate origin in a pub in Knightsbridge. “We’ve not had a lot of luck before because we’ve had so many hit singles, it’s the same with almost every group that’s had a lot of hit singles.
“We think the LP will do better in America where we haven’t got the pop label. We’re regarded as an underground band… we were pretty amazed when we went over there. It’s probably because they’re not familiar with ‘Flowers In The Rain’ and ‘Fire Brigade.’
“Whether or not the Move ever takes to the road again, the ELO is definitely going to do so.
“We’re looking round for extra musicians to go on the road,” Bev gulped. He gulped because a cat had decided to do a vertical take-off from a chair near ours and launch itself at a point in between the two dogs. Sufficiently recovered, he continued: “It’s very hard finding young classically-trained musicians to go out on the road, they’re used to a different life.
“We want to make them part of the band. We’ve got a cellist, a violinist and a French horn player. Now we need a good singer-bass player who is pretty outstanding, and a few more strings.
“There’s a lot of interest in the ELO, probably because it’s different and anything that’s different in the business has got to be given a chance.”
So what are Roy, Bev and Jeff up to in the interim? There must be some spare time when they could be out earning money.
“Yeah, I suppose we are losing money by not going on the road,” Bev agreed. “I’ve got a drum kit set up at home, so I play that a lot, and Roy has picked up so many instruments lately. He’s got a cello, bassoon, an oboe, a classical guitar as opposed to the electric guitar, a flute and recorders. Jeff is getting more into piano than guitar as well.
“I’ve got my record shop called Heavy Head in Spark Hill, Birmingham, which I hope will be the first of a chain. I’m hoping to open another one with Johnny Bonham at the end of the year. It’s beginning to get a bit of an in place, whenever people are in Birmingham they drop in… we get Black Sabbath, Idle Race, Raymond Frogatt, and Johnny and Rob from Zep. There’s always a crate of Newcastle Brown under the counter!”
So how long is it going to take for the ELO to get assembled and be ready for the open road?
“Roy’s not very good at getting it together, so I do it,” Bev pointed out. “I don’t feel I’m doing enough on the ELO LP, the drum sound is rather limited, so I’m happy to organise things like looking for musicians, and do interviews and radio spots and things.
“Roy spends most of the night sitting up writing, then he collapses in the morning, and Jeff is writing all the time. Once we find the other musicians we need it’s simply a matter of time before we start again. But it shouldn’t be that long.”
And the Move? “I don’t think the Move will be back on the road much,” he said with the air of one who has just got twenty-four points on the pools only to discover that he’s forgotten to post the coupon.
Now, if “Tonight” was to be a hit…

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