The Move were a British rock band formed in Birmingham in 1965. They scored nine top 20 UK singles in five years, but were among the most popular British bands not to find any real success in the United States. For most of their career The Move were led by guitarist, singer and songwriter Roy Wood. He wrote all the group’s UK singles and, from 1968, also sang lead vocals on many songs. Initially, the band had four main vocalists (Wood, Carl Wayne, Trevor Burton, and Chris “Ace” Kefford) who divided the lead-vocal duties among themselves.
The Move evolved from several mid-1960s Birmingham-based groups, including Carl Wayne & the Vikings, the Nightriders, and the Mayfair Set. Their name referred to the move various members of these bands made to form the group. Besides Wood, The Move’s original five-piece line-up in 1965 was drummer Bev Bevan, bassist Ace Kefford, vocalist Carl Wayne, and guitarist Trevor Burton. By 1972, The Move had been reduced to a trio consisting of Wood, Bevan and Jeff Lynne, formerly of the Idle Race. The band’s later years saw this lineup develop a side project called Electric Light Orchestra, which would go on to achieve major international success after The Move disbanded. Wood would later leave that group and form the decently successful band Wizzard.
In April 1967, NME reported that The Move had offered a £200 reward (equivalent to £4,600 in 2023) for the recovery of the master tapes of ten songs intended for their debut album. The tapes were stolen from their agent’s car when it was parked in Denmark Street, London. The tapes were found in a skip (dumpster) shortly afterward, but the damage caused to them meant that new mixes and masters would have to be made, resulting in the delayed album only being released in March 1968 instead of the original plan of autumn 1967. Their third single “Flowers in the Rain” was the first chart single played on BBC Radio 1 when it began broadcasting at 7 am on 30 September 1967, introduced by Tony Blackburn. The single, which reached No. 2 in the UK, was less guitar-orientated than their previous two singles, and featured a woodwind and string arrangement by Cordell’s assistant Tony Visconti. The track was released on the re-launched Regal Zonophone label.
During their time together, the band released four studio albums, two compilation albums, one live extended play, and 18 singles. After their first two singles, “Night of Fear” and “I Can Hear the Grass Grow” hit number 2 and number 5 on the UK singles chart, the band released their self-titled debut in 1968, which hit number 15 on the UK Official Albums Chart and garnered two more top-10 singles, “Flowers in the Rain” and “Fire Brigade”. After 1968, the band would have three more singles in the top 10, including “Blackberry Way”, which went all the way to number 1. The band also released three more studio albums (Shazam, Looking On, and Message from the Country) before their breakup.
In 1981, the band briefly reunited for a one-off charity concert, consisting of Bevan, Wood, and Kefford. 23 years later, in 2004, Bevan would form the “Bev Bevan Band” with Phil Bates and Neil Lockwood. The name later changed to “Bev Bevan’s Move” and Bevan would invite Burton to the group in 2006 as an occasional guest in shows, before he became a permanent member of the group. Between 2007 and 2014, Burton and Bevan, alongside Lockwood and new members Phil Tree, Gordon Healer, Tony Kelsey, and Abby Brant, performed intermittently as “The Move featuring Bev Bevan and Trevor Burton”. The band’s most recent reunion would happen in 2016, as “Bev Bevan’s Zing Band”, with Bevan and former members Tree, Brant, and Kelsey, alongside new member Geoff Turton.
