Wednesday, 8 October 2014

229 Goodbye The Move - California Man


Chart  entered : 13  May  1972

Chart  peak : 7

Here's  one  of  pop's  great  coincidences. When  the  band  recorded  this  affectionate  tribute  to Jerry  Lee  Lewis  they  couldn't  have  predicted  that  he'd  be  in  the  charts  with  them.  As  noted in  the  Tremeloes  post   very  few  groups  fall  out  of  the  story  in  this  period  and  this  one mutated  rather  than  disappeared.

This  story  is  complicated. After  their  fourth  hit  "Fire  Brigade "  in  Februrary  1968  Chris "Ace"  Kefford  was  fired  due  to  an  escalating  drug  problem  which  was  either  cause  or  consequence  of  his  stage  fright. The  band  continued  as  a quartet  with  Trevor  Burton  switching  to  bass   and  scored  their  only  chart topper  with "Blackberry  Way"  at  the  beginning  of  1969. The  keyboard  player  on  that, Richard  Tandy  was  invited  to  join  and  assumed  bass  duties  when  Trevor  hurt  his  shoulder. He  left  the  band  when  Trevor  recovered. However  Trevor  himself  quit  soon  afterwards after  an  on-stage  tiff  with  Bev  Bevan  in  Sweden.  He  was  replaced  by  a  well  known  Birmingham  musician  Rick  Price  and  the  band  set  off  for  a  disastrous  tour  of  the  US  which  was  cut  short  due  to  lack  of  interest .

As  a  result  Don  Arden  lost  interest  in  them  and  sold  their  management  contract  to  Peter Walsh  who  was  more  noted  for  middle  of  the  road  cabaret  acts. He  started  booking  them   into  cabaret  venues  which  was  welcomed  by  Carl  Wayne  but  not  Roy  Wood.  The  latter   started  making  plans  for  a  separate  orchestral  rock  venture. Carl  suggested  he  went  off   and did  that  but  continued  to  write  songs  for  The  Move  while  they  brought  back  Chris  and Trevor.  This  idea  fell  on  stony  ground  with  all  his  band  mates  so  he  used  a  fight  between Roy  and  an  audience  member  to  quit  the  group  himself  in  January  1970.

Roy  approached  Jeff  Lynne  from  The  Idle  Race  to  replace  him. Jeff  had  previously  turned down  the  chance  to  replace  Chris  preferring  to  work  for  his  own  band's  success   ( I'll  cover this  more  fully  in  the  ELO  post )  but  now  accepted  due  to  his  enthusiasm  for  Roy's  new project. The  band  ditched  Walsh  and  persuaded  Arden  to  take  them  on  again.

Rick  left  at  the  end  of  1970  feeling  that  he was  not  having  enough  input into  the  band's music. With  Rick  gone  the  remaining  trio  were  ready  to  rename  themselves  Electric  Light Orchestra  but  Harvest  insisted  as  part  of  their  new  deal  that  they  should  record  a  last  Move  album  to  recoup  the  advance. The  band  therefore worked  on  two  LPs  at  the  same  time.  Richard  returned , along  with  horn  player  Bill  Hunt  to  help  them  out , but  the  fourth  bloke  on  the  sleeve  is  actually  the  departed  Rick.

Although  they'd  now  fulfilled  the  condition    in  the  contract  there  were  three  Move-ish  tracks left  over  and  so  they  released  a  maxi-single  with  "California  Man"  as  the  lead  track.  The lyrics  don't  reference  Jerry - he's   not  from  California  for  a  start  and  hardly  represents  the Sunshine  State's  liberal  values -  the  tribute  is  in  the  style  and  Jeff's  remarkable  impersonation of  Jerry's  voice  in   the  chorus. The  track  is  a  prime  example  of  Roy's  talent  for  pastiche  and  is  fondly  remembered  by  fiftysomethings  as  the  great  British  rock  and  roll  single  with  its  honking  saxes , Jeff's  JLL  piano  break  and  Bev's  beefy  tubthumping. The  lyrics  are  nostalgic  fluff  as  if  Roy  was  trying  to  get  on  the  American  Graffiti  soundtrack. It's  good  fun  but  it's  not  the  sort  of  thing  I  want  to  hear  too  often. In  the  US  they  preferred  the  b-side  "Do Ya"  making  it  their  only  Stateside  hit  peaking  at  93.

We'll  be  picking  up  the  stories  of  Jeff, Roy, Bev  and  Richard  very  shortly  so  we'll  look  at  the  others  here.  Chris  started  work  on  a  solo  album  after  leaving  the  band  with  Tony  Visconti  producing  but  the  project  was  abandoned  following  another  breakdown  and  the  eight  tracks  they  put  down  were  not  released  until  2003  on  the  compilation  "Ace  The  Face". Chris  was  later  diagnosed  with  bipolar  disorder.

Instead  he  put  the  Ace  Kefford  Stand  together  with  brothers  David  and  Denny  Ball  and drummer  Cozy  Powell. They  got   a  deal  with  Atlantic  and  released  a  cover  of  The  Yardbirds' "For  Your  Love" in  March  1969. They  give  it  the  Vanilla  Fudge  treatment, slowing  it  down  and  largely  re-shaping  the  melody  with  a  fair  sprinkling  of  blues  guitar  wailing . Cozy  fills  up  any  gaps  with  his  heavy  hitting. Ace  is  the  lead  singer  and  sounds  a  bit  like  Roger  Chapman  of  Family. Ironically  it  ends  up  sounding  a  bit  like  Cream  but  fatally  they'd  made  it  too  long  for  radio  play  at  5:41  minutes  and  it  failed.

The  band  split  up  and  the  Balls  went  off  to  form  Big  Bertha  but  due  to  contractual  obligations  had  to  do  another  single  with  Ace  which  came  out  under  the  name "Big  Bertha  featuring  Ace  Kefford" . "This  World's  An  Apple"  is  a  spiky  R &  B   number  sounding  a  bit  like  The  Yardbirds i.e.  several  years  out  of  date.

Like  his  contemporary  Syd  Barrett,  Chris  then  vanished  from  the  music  scene  to  wrestle  with his demons  though  he  would  jam  with  local  musicians  when  the  mood  took  him. He  re-emerged  briefly  in  1976  forming  a  new  group  Rockstar  who  again  lasted  for  one  single "Mummy"  which  I  haven't  heard. He  disappeared  again  and   spent  time  in  mental  institutions following  suicide  attempts  which  is  very  sad.  For  the  past  decade  he  has  been  reportedly back  on  a  more  even  keel  although  Bev commented  that  he  wasn't  fit  enough  to  join  the  revived  Move  in  2007  and  links  to  his  website  currently  produce  a  blank  page.

Trevor , as  we  know  from  the  Wings  post ,  went  into  Balls  with  Denny  Laine. When  they  split  up  he  worked  with  obscure  ( outside  Birmingham )  singer -songwriter  Raymond  Froggatt  and  occasionally  a  band  called  The  Pink  Fairies.  In  1975  he  reunited  with  Steve  Gibbons  by  joining  his  eponymous  band  just  as  they  secured  a  deal  with  Polydor. This  was  just  the  time  when  any  new  R & B  music  was  re-branded  "pub  rock "  but  the  Steve  Gibbons  Band  were  no  Dr  Feelgood. I  only  knew  them  for  their  sole  Top  20  hit, 1977's  plucky  cover  of   Chuck  Berry's  "Tulane"  and  that's  all  you  really  need. They  were  probably  a  good  band  to  see  live  but  on  record  they  sound  pedestrian. Gibbons  wrote  most  of  their  A -sides  but  memorable  tunes  are  in  short  supply. Second  single  "Johnny  Cool"  was  a   minor  hit  in  the  US, third  album  "Down  In  The  Bunker"  was  a  big  hit  in  Sweden  and  1978's  "Eddie  Vortex" a  sprightly  Dave  Edmunds  style  rocker  should  have  done  better  than  number  56  after  featuring  on  Top  Of  The  Pops . Trevor  wrote  just  one  A-side  "Loving  me, Loving  You" in  1982. They  were  popular  in  Germany  and  were  one  of  the  few  Western  acts  to  play  in  East  Germany, in  1982.

Trevor  featured  on  five  albums  with  the  group  but  in  1983  decided  to  leave  and  form  The Trevor  Burton  Band. It  wasn't  a  propitious  time; even  ELO  were  a  spent  force  and  interest  in The  Move  diaspora  was  minimal.  They  did  get  to  record  an  LP "Double  Zero" in  1985  on  a  tiny  local  label  but  that  was  it  for  recordings. The  band  had  a  twice weekly  residency  at  a  pub  and  Trevor  earned  his  corn  doing  session  work  and  occasional  tours  as  a  backing  musician  with  Robert  Plant  and  Dexy's  Midnight  Runners. From  2004  he  played  occasionally  with  Bev  Bevan's  Move  and  in  2007  officially  joined  and  it  became  "The  Move  featuring  Trevor  Burton  and  Bev  Bevan"  much  to  Roy  Wood's  disgust.  Trevor  has  performed  at  my  local  in  both  guises  in  the  last  couple  of  years.

Carl  had  a  curious  career  after  leaving  the  band; he  was  never  short  of  work  but  could  never  quite  get  himself  back  in  the  limelight. As  the  recognised  lead  singer  of  a  successful  band  he  didn't  have  any  difficulty  getting  a  record  deal  with  RCA . Don  Arden  saw  him  aa  a  potential  rival  to  Tom  Jones  and  put  him  together  with  Don  Black  and  Dennis  King  who  wrote  "Maybe God's  Got  Something  Up  His  Sleeve"  for  him  which  he  later  described  as  the  most  abysmal  record  of  all  time" . Apparently  he  does  a  Brum-accented  minologue  at  the  beginning  and  can't  hold  the  long  notes. Reviewing  it  on  Radio  One in  November  1970  Anne  Nightingale  commented  "I  think  Carl's  recorded  this  for  a  joke". With  such  ringing  endorsements  it's  not  surprising  the  single  flopped.

Carl  took  his  time  in  releasing  a  follow-up  and  "Imagine"  was  released  in  February  1972. It  is  the  John  Lennon  song  and  it  starts  out  as  a  pointless  but  harmless  copy  and  then  Mike  Moran  sinks  it  with  an  horrendous  string  arrangement  that's  painful  to  the  ears. His  solo  LP  "Carl  Wayne"   ( featuring  uncredited  but  clearly  audible  backing  vocals  from  Dusty  Springfield  ) was  released  to  little  interest  and  the  single  taken  from  it  ,Buffy  Sainte-Marie's  "Take  My  Hand  For  A  While"  similarly  bombed. That  was  the  end  of  his  time  on  RCA.

In  1973  he  recorded  a  few  tracks  with  ELO   as  Jeff  Lynne,  always  a  reticent  front man, pondered  the  possibility  of  using  him  as  lead  singer  but  they  were  not  released  until  decades later . Carl  then  moved  into  TV  with  a  short  stint  on  Crossroads  where he  met  his  future wife  in  co-star   Susan  Hanson. He  recorded  his  best  known  solo  single  for  Pye, "You're  A Star"  written  by  Tony  Macaulay  for  the  theme  to  new  talent  show  New  Faces .  It's  the  most perplexing  non-hit  of  the  decade, a  great  catchy  tune  for  a  ratings-winning  show  that regularly produced  chart  acts, ( one  of  whom  had  sufficient  staying  power  to  feature   here  before  too long )  and  yet  couldn't  breach  the  Top  50. I'm  presuming  it  "bubbled  under"  for  a  long  while but  couldn't  "break  out"  because  Radio  One  didn't  want  to  advertise  an  ITV  show  and wouldn't  play  it.

Carl  moved  on  to  Polydor  and  in  April  1974  released  "San  Diego" , another  Macaulay  song. It's  a  jaunty  MOR  pop  song  that  would  probably  have  been  a  big  hit  at  the  turn  of  the  decade  alongside  Tony  Burrows's  various  guises  but  sounds  out  of  its  time  for  1974. He  got to  sing  it  the  night  before  his  wedding  on  The  Golden  Shot. It's  on  youtube   at  the  time  of  writing  and  well  worth  watching  both  for  the  sadistically  lingering  sweep  of  a  distinctly  unimpressed  audience  during  Carl's  slot  and , earlier,  a  cruel  set-up  of  a  female  contestant  for  a  cheap  gag  that  would  have  had  Charlie  Williams  run  out  of  town  today.

Wayne  Bickerton  brought  "Sugar  Baby  Love"  to  Carl  who  told  him  "I'm  not  recording  that  pile  of  crap !" then  watched  it  soar  to  number  one  for  The  Rubettes. Penitently  he  recorded  Bickerton  and  Waddington's  "Way  Back  In  The  Fifties"  which  sounds  exactly  like  The  Rubettes  with  a  stronger  singer. It  was  a  big  hit  in  Swede  in  the  summer  of  1975. Polydor  gave  him  a  last  shot  with "C'mon Round  My  Place"  which  sounds  like  Kenny  ripping  off  59th  Bridge  Street  Song  though  again  Carl's  vocal  lifts  it  up  a  notch. Without  a  hit  single  Polydor  refused  to  release  his  second  solo  album  which  remains  in  the  vaults.

In  1977  he  tried  for  Eurovision  glory with  "A Little  Give, A  Little  Take"  but  finished  next  to  bottom  in  the  British  heats. It  was  his  next  flop. Carl  was  then  part  of  the  regular  cast  of  the  musical  variety  show  Hi ! Summer  on  ITV which  must  have  passed  me  by  entirely. The  title  song  was  released  under  Carl's  name  but  was  written  and  produced  by  the  recently  deceased  Lynsey  De  Paul  and  sounds  like  it's  been  scraped  off  the  studio  floor. I  believe  the  show  which  also  featured  Leslie  Crowther  and  Lena  Zavaroni  was  equally  bad.

Carl  sat  out  punk  as  far  as  recordings  go , concentrating  on  advertising  and  voiceover  work. He  re-emerged  in  December  1982  with  a  version  of  Cliff  Richard's  "Miss  You  Nights"  done  a  capella  with  the  Choral  Union. Carl  wobbles  his  jaw  in  all  the  right  places  but  I  think  Cliff's  is  still  the  better  version. Carl  continued  to  dabble  in  acting  through  the  eighties  appearing  on  The  Benny  Hill  Show  in  an  A-Team  sketch  and  the  Simon  Callow  sitcom  Chance  In  A  Million. In  1987  he  appeared  in  all  episodes  of  the  short lived  Emu's  Wide  World  and  performed  "Flowers  In  The  Rain "  on  Wogan  to  mark  20  years  of  Radio  One.  "The  following  year  he  did  another  theme  tune  for  the  TV series  Barney  , " Love  Your  Dog ( A  Dog  Is  For  Life )". Probably  fortunately  I  haven't  heard  that  one.

In  1990  Carl  got  his  big  stage  break  with  a  six  year  run  as  "The  Narrator"  in  "Blood  Brothers"  in  the  West  End. He  shared  in  the  general  acclaim  for  the  production  and   his  performance  is  generally  regarded  as  definitive. After  that  Carl  appeared  on  quite  a  few   CDs  of  songs  from  the  musicals. He  also  became  a  regular  presenter  on  BBC  West  Midlands  Radio.

At  the  end  of  the  nineties  Allan  Clarke  decided  to  retire  as  lead  singer  of  The  Hollies  and  Carl  was  invited  to  replace  him. "Flowers  In  The  Rain "  and  "Blackberry  Way"  were  added  to  their  set  as  a  result. He  toured  the  world  with  them  but  only  got  to  record  one  song  "How  Do  I  Survive" as  the  new  song  on  a  retrospective  CD  in 2003. It's  a  resolutely  old-fashioned  AOR  song  that  sounds  as  if  it's  come  straight  from  the  seventies  but  Carl's  sixty-year  old  voice  is  in  great  nick.

Carl  was  still  performing  with  The  Hollies  up  to  a  month  before  his  death  despite  a  diagnosis  of  cancer  of  the  oesophagus. He  checked  into  hospital  at  the  end  of  August  where  his  condition  suddenly  deteriorated  and  he  died  on 31  August  2004.

On  leaving  The  Move  Rick  joined  up  with  Roy's  old  mucker  Mike  Sheridan  as  a  songwriting  partnership. They  released  an  album  "This  Is  To  Certify"  in  1970  which  is  a  fine  collection  of  light  pop  gems  if  a  little  under-produced  ( by  Rick  himself ).  They  were  on  a  small  label  Gemini  who  didn't  seem  sure  whether  Sheridan  wanted  to  be  credited  as   a  recording  artist  or  not, one  of  the  two  singles  being  credited  to  "Sheridan  and Rick  Price"  and  one  to  Rick  alone. "Sometimes  I  Wonder"  is  untypical  of  the  LP  with  its  electric  sitar  and  heavy  bass   taking  it  into  psychedelic  rock  territory  while  "Davey  Has  No  Dad"  stays  just  the  right  side  of  mawkish  with  some  more  great  bass  work. There  was  one  more  single  not  on  the  LP  , the  over-optimistic  "Top  Ten  Record"  whose  ultra-cynicism  - "a  little  bitty  riff  that 'll  bore  you  stiff  until  you're  out  of  your  mind"  went  unrewarded. The  last  minute  with  Rick  just  muttering  to  himself  over  the  riff  brought  to  mind  Kevin  Rowland  on  Don't  Stand  Me  Down.

The partnership  dissolved  and  Rick  briefly  joined  a  group  called  Light  Fantastic  who  were  backing  Carl  Wayne  on  tour.  He  then  formed  a  band  called  Mongrel  but  before  they  got  to  record  anything  he  and  two  other  members  answered  the  call  from  Roy  Wood  to  join  Wizzard   and  stayed  with  him  in  Wizzo  Band   until  that  ended  in  1978 (  all  this  to  be  covered  soon  enough ).

By  that  time  or  soon  after  he  met  and  married  Dianne  Lee  ( of  Peters  and.. fame )  and  became  a  sound  engineer  for  musicals  and  live  shows  including  a  stint  working  for  Jim  Davidson.  From  1999  onwards  he  has  gone  out  on  the  road  as  an  MOR   duo  with  Lee  and  occasionally  tours  as  a  latter  day  member  of  The  Rockin'  Berries.






 



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