A Limey and a Yankee tell their personal early-'70s stories from across the pond, digging the former ELO founder who made incredible rock sides, many going unheard in the States!
Growing up, I had ELO on the record player non stop! Here’s why...there’s this chintzy amusement park in southern Maine. They opened a ride in 1976 called « The Astrosphere » -a ride that exceeds all amusement park expectations and is still in operation today! It’s a scrambler inside a huge dome where psychedelic imagery and zombies are projected. They still use ELO’s « Fire on High » and have every since the ride open. It was mind blowing and I do hope Jeff Lynn or members of any other iteration of ELO have the opportunity to ride it! That said, I need to now slide along the ELO continuum and mine the vaults of The Move and Roy Wood!
Great story, Britta! "Zombies are projected" is my favorite phrase of the week! That's quite a colorful description...easy to visualize that! As a fellow Yankee, you've got some catching up to do re: Wood, Wizzard, and The Move.....domestic radio was absolutely no help to you there, but kept all of us knee-deep in ELO, and deservedly so!
As I just told someone on FB, I'm glad we didn't have to choose between Wood and Lynne, but it is a shame American radio wanted nothing whatsoever to do with Wood! After you hear some things, I do hope you'll drop us a comment on your Wood/Move/Wizzard reflections, Britta! Thanks!
Nice piece, Brad and Ian. I generally prefer the Move to most of the stuff Roy did afterwards, but he’s unquestionably a genius. And Boulders remains a woefully under appreciated album - every time I see a vinyl copy in the bin for $5 I want to buy it just so I can give it away to someone who might dig it!
Thanks, Dan! Ian and I had a blast pulling this together! I love the notion of the view from separate countries, and how UK radio "got it," and U.S. radio preferred lifting up Helen Reddy and Tony Orlando & Dawn at the time!
I rail against U.S. radio constantly, and with, usually, good reason, but with the songs presented here.....seriously, how could stateside radio (not to mention labels who didn't/wouldn't sign him) get it so wrong?!? I dig your vinyl altruism! Good job, mate!😁👍
Tie a Yellow Ribbon around that diss, Mr. Kyle! It's been three long years, I really wish you Wood get Reddy to Move off your high horse and accept our country's commercial radio vaunted history!:)
I'm too busy lamenting the fact that pop culture missed out on the dream concert bill of The Carpenters, Wood, Hammer, and Nine Inch Nails. And, of course, the logical headliners, closing the evening would've had to have been not only Dark Horse Records' Splinter, the first act George Harrison signed to his own label https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splinter_(band), but I'm sure Rivers Cuomo wouldn't have needed too much prodding to, for one night, bill his band as......Tweezer.
All, of course, under the corporate banner of............say it with me: Band Aid.
Nice, Ian! I drew my creative line at just band names! Song titles is next level!! I was aware of Splinter at the time, might've heard a cut or two, but can't recall. At the time, I was curious to see just who my favorite songwriting Beatle was signing!
The Move, Mike Sheridan, ELO, and Wizzard have not left my rotation since 1973. “Eddie and the Falcons” , to me, showcased Roy Wood’s talent greater than any other release of his. When they split into ELO and Wizzard, I felt that Wizzard got the smart end of the talent pool. I listened to both groups but creativity came from RW and not Jeff Lynne. Jeff Lynne could spot a Top 40 song a continent away but it was RW who could blend Zappa into the Beach Boys and get away with it.
You mentioned Mott the Hoople and as much as I love Ian Hunter, I loved early Mott in real-time as they didn’t have the glam but gutted it out with innovative arrangements and slick guitar work. Heck, Mick Ralphs went onto form Bad Company while penning some good tunes. When Ralphs left Mott the Hoople Ariel Bender took over lead guitar. It took me some time to figure out that Bender’s real name was Luther Grosvenor who I had been listening to as he was doing great work with Spooky Tooth. As with most AKAs it was probably label issues that made him change his name.
It’s good to see others recognize Roy Wood, truly a genius in the vein like Brian Wilson and Kevin Ayers.
Great to hear from you, IP! And, thanks for subscribing! If you rummage around the FR&B Archives (and the focused tags at the top of the page), I'm sure you'll find other artists you love, and maybe some new ones you might! You're certainly right about Wood (and even his standing alongside Wilson, one of my life heroes), and his creativity and ability to make deliciously evocative songs but not have them come off like Sha Na Na!
Lynne's pop sensibilities can't be argued (nor should they be denigrated, for that matter! Not you...you sound like you appreciate his talent) He's like the frickin' 6th Beatle, for cryin' out loud (I lose track of how many honorary Beatles there are and have been)!
I knew about Bender/Grosvenor, thanks to reading all the rock rags of the day at the time! Knew about Ayers, too, but never bought (or secured a promo of!) one of his albums. Ian Sharp (the gent with whom I collabbed on both Wood articles) and I are planning another collab, soon (likely to coincide with the approach of Christmas), this time, on Mike Batt. I find him a fascinating, and yet another wonderfully talented Brit that few have heard or appreciated!
Both are Beach Boy-adjacent. Tandyn knew and wrote with Brian (as it happens, two of my favorite all-time BB songs), and Mark is smack dab in the sonic ballpark of psych/beach/sunshine pop of the era!
Thanks again....it's great to have you behind the velvet rope line, FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE!
Finally getting round to reading this. Fantastic work. I can understand why, if you were into the glam/punk/whatever (as you said) scene, and at the same time, you were so drawn (as we know, or at least, as I knew) to the "British invasion" sounds (for lack of a better expression), then of course this (all of this) made perfect sense. What puzzles me (but in the best possible way) is the beautiful "discrepancy" between what you would expect to hear (I mean, some of those costumes... and the make up!) and the sounds that actually came out. It's difficult to reconcile the sound and the image, and I love that, because it defies so many preconceptions, boundaries, genres and styles! Thanks once again for making me discover new (to me) music and learn!
You know me, Andy.....if I was SO interested and fascinated by the new new coming out in the U.S. (and used the domestic rock press as my "guide"), my natural curiosity (and urgent desire) to hear more naturally led me to the UK....and, their rock tabloids to help me find them, and keep up with them (sans internet)!
Now, the challenge became finding the Houston-area record stores who would/could carry imports....singles and albums from (mostly) the UK! What an amazing (virtually) daily "Easter egg hunt" for those (and they were few....I had little competition in the import sections!) who cared to take the trouble to follow UK artists! What an exciting challenge to be led by the UK tabs to seek out that which they made sound like a "can't miss" listen!
What's interesting about that...I knew all about bands like Mud and Showaddywaddy, and for bands who either struggled or never got a U.S. record contract, I was still able to tell (by the tabs' descriptions of their music) whether or not one band or another might be someone I'd like. Showaddywaddy sounded too much like they'd be the American Sha Na Na (and, I could live without that)!
In fact, for the early-'70s UK music, Andy, that's new to you (mainly based on your age, bless your heart!), these posts are virtually (if not literally) re-tracing the steps I took to find it in the first place....the UK tabs to the import section!
As for Wood, I was certainly aware of his brief ELO time (I had the early U.S. United Artists albums), and I was hip to his Move, and even Idle Race involvement (again, even if I didn't have these albums, the rock press, domestic and import) would keep me filled in on artists' histories.
What they were saying about Wood (hand it to the writers!) made his music sound so attractive to me....the full sound, the melodies, the Spector-inspired productions. I consistently made a "career" out of buying music solely based on what a rock writer/record review said about it! Well over 90% of the time, the music "in my head" based on a review was spot on to what I ultimately heard on the record once I bought it!
Perfect example is L.A. Times rock scribe, Robert Hilburn, and his '85 review of Scritti Politti, calling their music, "precious"! One word prompted me to shell out...what....$6? for "Cupid & Psyche 85" the next day, and I was about as instantly in love with a band's sound as I'd ever been! Thanks, Robert, and Green, you absolutely rule!
I guess my motivation, in 2023, is to somehow repay that info and love for the music to the reader, just as I was so well-guided by the rock writers of the day (many of them on Substack now....Wayne Robins, Robert Christgau, et al)....writing so pinpointedly accurate that motivated me to buy a record, and rarely was I disappointed. As for your last sentence....you're more than welcome, and you know I always appreciate your comments and friendship, Andy!😉
This is so informative for me and I thank you once again for taking the time to share and explain!
It is indeed the case that a great writer can introduce you to great artists you wouldn’t have heard of (or paid attention to) if it hadn’t been for that piece, that article, that turn of phrase or choice of word... and for that, my friend, I am eternally grateful! I also appreciate our exchanges and friendship 😊
Fun piece! It was essentially all new info for me. I sadly did not follow, Roy Wood, The Move, or Wizzard (but to make up for it, I listen to King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard all the time).
And Brad - how dare you besmirch the names of Hell and Ready and Toni Tony Tone Orlando and Don, when you knew damn well that Roy Wood was heavily influenced by Neil Sedaka! I am calling the hypocrite police!
Nice work between you and Ian! I don’t know a lot (or shall I say very little) about Roy Wood (I’m such a bad Brit lol), but here to say Top of the Pops rocks, and you guys rock too!
It's easy to forget how exciting Top of the Pops was at that time, even if most bands mimed. I enjoyed the bands who made no effort to pretend they were actually playing - mostly people like The Faces and The Who. We knew, of course, they could play when it came to an actual gig. (Watch the Keith Moon mimes drumming).
Suzi Quatro was interesting - a real-life American in the middle of glam rock. Most of those bands thought they would lead a new British invasion, but none were The Beatles or the Stones. They were good fun, though, and some of them were good musicians.
Thank you for your comment, Andres. Brad was the driver behind this post, and I was happy to contribute.
Yeah, the playing to track was a fun opportunity for the cheekiest among them (I gotta think Moon invented....perfected?....cheekiness!!) to have some real fun, and completely dispense with the illusion of playing live! And, I get that logistical necessity.
Having said that, how much more valuable, then, do shows like "The Midnight Special" (available, of course, via YT, although I'm pretty sure no formal airing of the show happened in the UK) ultimately reveal themselves to be, with artists, finally playing live, and eager to do so! Shows like "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert," and "In Concert" were, by their very nature, were "just" shows highlighting their artists as they were in the concert setting, so of course, those WERE live perfs. But, for live playing in a self-contained studio setting, "The Midnight Special" was (and is, now, thanks to their still-rolling-out newly mastered tapes) a rare gem!
How about Suzi? Not a sound in the states at the same time she's ruling UK charts, '73/'74! And, Sparks......L.A. bros arguably more popular in the UK (at least in that same time frame) who many people thought WERE British, and they didn't fight back at that! One of my prized possessions (like you, Ian, I used to have a mega-vinyl collection) used to be the original, white-label Bearsville/WB promo LP of the Halfnelson album (with, of course, the re-packaged, re-released same album as Sparks)!
Your contribution was huge, Ian.....such a unique perspective, from across the pond, on the same musician, 5 decades ago, with two personal POVs. Find something...ANYTHING...like that on the 'Stack!
Oh, Andy.....that's a scream! "Bad Brit, bad Brit!!"🤣Well, thanks, but you have your age to lean on for being, real-time, not tuned in to Wood. Had you been a teen in early '70s UK, there'd be no escaping him....like there was ubiquitous airplay for Showaddywaddy, Mud, early Suzi Quatro, and boatloads of others who shoulda/coulda been U.S.-signed, but weren't!
In the states, teens got turned on to pre-Wizzard Move because of a mid-'70s 2-LP "excuse me" set from United Artists....even I got that one, but, as usual, in that cool, bitchin' musical universe, U.S. labels, and certainly radio, were too little, and FAR too late!
I mean, I had to go out of my way (spend extra money for the shipping it took to get NME, Sounds, etc at my local newsstand), scour the record store import bins (if they even HAD them) to see and purchase that which I read about in those tabs! But, of course, I wanted to.....your "normal" teen was more than happy to just sit back and let domestic AM radio force-feed them the dreck-o'-the-day!
I fancied more than just "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" poured into my ear as a teen! Color me, you "bad li'l Brit," a happy, tune-hunting Anglophile!!
Growing up, I had ELO on the record player non stop! Here’s why...there’s this chintzy amusement park in southern Maine. They opened a ride in 1976 called « The Astrosphere » -a ride that exceeds all amusement park expectations and is still in operation today! It’s a scrambler inside a huge dome where psychedelic imagery and zombies are projected. They still use ELO’s « Fire on High » and have every since the ride open. It was mind blowing and I do hope Jeff Lynn or members of any other iteration of ELO have the opportunity to ride it! That said, I need to now slide along the ELO continuum and mine the vaults of The Move and Roy Wood!
Mine those vaults! You’re in for a treat 😊
😁
Great story, Britta! "Zombies are projected" is my favorite phrase of the week! That's quite a colorful description...easy to visualize that! As a fellow Yankee, you've got some catching up to do re: Wood, Wizzard, and The Move.....domestic radio was absolutely no help to you there, but kept all of us knee-deep in ELO, and deservedly so!
As I just told someone on FB, I'm glad we didn't have to choose between Wood and Lynne, but it is a shame American radio wanted nothing whatsoever to do with Wood! After you hear some things, I do hope you'll drop us a comment on your Wood/Move/Wizzard reflections, Britta! Thanks!
Nice piece, Brad and Ian. I generally prefer the Move to most of the stuff Roy did afterwards, but he’s unquestionably a genius. And Boulders remains a woefully under appreciated album - every time I see a vinyl copy in the bin for $5 I want to buy it just so I can give it away to someone who might dig it!
Thanks, Dan! Ian and I had a blast pulling this together! I love the notion of the view from separate countries, and how UK radio "got it," and U.S. radio preferred lifting up Helen Reddy and Tony Orlando & Dawn at the time!
I rail against U.S. radio constantly, and with, usually, good reason, but with the songs presented here.....seriously, how could stateside radio (not to mention labels who didn't/wouldn't sign him) get it so wrong?!? I dig your vinyl altruism! Good job, mate!😁👍
Tie a Yellow Ribbon around that diss, Mr. Kyle! It's been three long years, I really wish you Wood get Reddy to Move off your high horse and accept our country's commercial radio vaunted history!:)
I'm too busy lamenting the fact that pop culture missed out on the dream concert bill of The Carpenters, Wood, Hammer, and Nine Inch Nails. And, of course, the logical headliners, closing the evening would've had to have been not only Dark Horse Records' Splinter, the first act George Harrison signed to his own label https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splinter_(band), but I'm sure Rivers Cuomo wouldn't have needed too much prodding to, for one night, bill his band as......Tweezer.
All, of course, under the corporate banner of............say it with me: Band Aid.
With the set list being exclusively songs from ‘Crosscut Saw’ by the Groundhogs.
By the way, ‘Costafine Town’ by Splinter is a mighty fine record.
Nice, Ian! I drew my creative line at just band names! Song titles is next level!! I was aware of Splinter at the time, might've heard a cut or two, but can't recall. At the time, I was curious to see just who my favorite songwriting Beatle was signing!
The Move, Mike Sheridan, ELO, and Wizzard have not left my rotation since 1973. “Eddie and the Falcons” , to me, showcased Roy Wood’s talent greater than any other release of his. When they split into ELO and Wizzard, I felt that Wizzard got the smart end of the talent pool. I listened to both groups but creativity came from RW and not Jeff Lynne. Jeff Lynne could spot a Top 40 song a continent away but it was RW who could blend Zappa into the Beach Boys and get away with it.
You mentioned Mott the Hoople and as much as I love Ian Hunter, I loved early Mott in real-time as they didn’t have the glam but gutted it out with innovative arrangements and slick guitar work. Heck, Mick Ralphs went onto form Bad Company while penning some good tunes. When Ralphs left Mott the Hoople Ariel Bender took over lead guitar. It took me some time to figure out that Bender’s real name was Luther Grosvenor who I had been listening to as he was doing great work with Spooky Tooth. As with most AKAs it was probably label issues that made him change his name.
It’s good to see others recognize Roy Wood, truly a genius in the vein like Brian Wilson and Kevin Ayers.
Great to hear from you, IP! And, thanks for subscribing! If you rummage around the FR&B Archives (and the focused tags at the top of the page), I'm sure you'll find other artists you love, and maybe some new ones you might! You're certainly right about Wood (and even his standing alongside Wilson, one of my life heroes), and his creativity and ability to make deliciously evocative songs but not have them come off like Sha Na Na!
Lynne's pop sensibilities can't be argued (nor should they be denigrated, for that matter! Not you...you sound like you appreciate his talent) He's like the frickin' 6th Beatle, for cryin' out loud (I lose track of how many honorary Beatles there are and have been)!
I knew about Bender/Grosvenor, thanks to reading all the rock rags of the day at the time! Knew about Ayers, too, but never bought (or secured a promo of!) one of his albums. Ian Sharp (the gent with whom I collabbed on both Wood articles) and I are planning another collab, soon (likely to coincide with the approach of Christmas), this time, on Mike Batt. I find him a fascinating, and yet another wonderfully talented Brit that few have heard or appreciated!
As for those whom no one knows, may I recommend these two articles. I'm terribly proud of them, and thoroughly enjoyed gathering the precious little 'Net info about each to, hopefully, be the future home of all things collected about Tandyn Almer https://bradkyle.substack.com/p/toytown-psychedelia-songwriter-tandyn, and Mark Eric: https://bradkyle.substack.com/p/audio-autopsy-1969-mark-eric-and
Both are Beach Boy-adjacent. Tandyn knew and wrote with Brian (as it happens, two of my favorite all-time BB songs), and Mark is smack dab in the sonic ballpark of psych/beach/sunshine pop of the era!
Thanks again....it's great to have you behind the velvet rope line, FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE!
Finally getting round to reading this. Fantastic work. I can understand why, if you were into the glam/punk/whatever (as you said) scene, and at the same time, you were so drawn (as we know, or at least, as I knew) to the "British invasion" sounds (for lack of a better expression), then of course this (all of this) made perfect sense. What puzzles me (but in the best possible way) is the beautiful "discrepancy" between what you would expect to hear (I mean, some of those costumes... and the make up!) and the sounds that actually came out. It's difficult to reconcile the sound and the image, and I love that, because it defies so many preconceptions, boundaries, genres and styles! Thanks once again for making me discover new (to me) music and learn!
You know me, Andy.....if I was SO interested and fascinated by the new new coming out in the U.S. (and used the domestic rock press as my "guide"), my natural curiosity (and urgent desire) to hear more naturally led me to the UK....and, their rock tabloids to help me find them, and keep up with them (sans internet)!
Now, the challenge became finding the Houston-area record stores who would/could carry imports....singles and albums from (mostly) the UK! What an amazing (virtually) daily "Easter egg hunt" for those (and they were few....I had little competition in the import sections!) who cared to take the trouble to follow UK artists! What an exciting challenge to be led by the UK tabs to seek out that which they made sound like a "can't miss" listen!
What's interesting about that...I knew all about bands like Mud and Showaddywaddy, and for bands who either struggled or never got a U.S. record contract, I was still able to tell (by the tabs' descriptions of their music) whether or not one band or another might be someone I'd like. Showaddywaddy sounded too much like they'd be the American Sha Na Na (and, I could live without that)!
In fact, for the early-'70s UK music, Andy, that's new to you (mainly based on your age, bless your heart!), these posts are virtually (if not literally) re-tracing the steps I took to find it in the first place....the UK tabs to the import section!
As for Wood, I was certainly aware of his brief ELO time (I had the early U.S. United Artists albums), and I was hip to his Move, and even Idle Race involvement (again, even if I didn't have these albums, the rock press, domestic and import) would keep me filled in on artists' histories.
What they were saying about Wood (hand it to the writers!) made his music sound so attractive to me....the full sound, the melodies, the Spector-inspired productions. I consistently made a "career" out of buying music solely based on what a rock writer/record review said about it! Well over 90% of the time, the music "in my head" based on a review was spot on to what I ultimately heard on the record once I bought it!
Perfect example is L.A. Times rock scribe, Robert Hilburn, and his '85 review of Scritti Politti, calling their music, "precious"! One word prompted me to shell out...what....$6? for "Cupid & Psyche 85" the next day, and I was about as instantly in love with a band's sound as I'd ever been! Thanks, Robert, and Green, you absolutely rule!
I guess my motivation, in 2023, is to somehow repay that info and love for the music to the reader, just as I was so well-guided by the rock writers of the day (many of them on Substack now....Wayne Robins, Robert Christgau, et al)....writing so pinpointedly accurate that motivated me to buy a record, and rarely was I disappointed. As for your last sentence....you're more than welcome, and you know I always appreciate your comments and friendship, Andy!😉
This is so informative for me and I thank you once again for taking the time to share and explain!
It is indeed the case that a great writer can introduce you to great artists you wouldn’t have heard of (or paid attention to) if it hadn’t been for that piece, that article, that turn of phrase or choice of word... and for that, my friend, I am eternally grateful! I also appreciate our exchanges and friendship 😊
Fun piece! It was essentially all new info for me. I sadly did not follow, Roy Wood, The Move, or Wizzard (but to make up for it, I listen to King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard all the time).
And Brad - how dare you besmirch the names of Hell and Ready and Toni Tony Tone Orlando and Don, when you knew damn well that Roy Wood was heavily influenced by Neil Sedaka! I am calling the hypocrite police!
So, tell me what you think! Any Wood/Wizzard song(s) you liked? Listened to more than once? Curious.
Nice work between you and Ian! I don’t know a lot (or shall I say very little) about Roy Wood (I’m such a bad Brit lol), but here to say Top of the Pops rocks, and you guys rock too!
It's easy to forget how exciting Top of the Pops was at that time, even if most bands mimed. I enjoyed the bands who made no effort to pretend they were actually playing - mostly people like The Faces and The Who. We knew, of course, they could play when it came to an actual gig. (Watch the Keith Moon mimes drumming).
Suzi Quatro was interesting - a real-life American in the middle of glam rock. Most of those bands thought they would lead a new British invasion, but none were The Beatles or the Stones. They were good fun, though, and some of them were good musicians.
Thank you for your comment, Andres. Brad was the driver behind this post, and I was happy to contribute.
Yeah, the playing to track was a fun opportunity for the cheekiest among them (I gotta think Moon invented....perfected?....cheekiness!!) to have some real fun, and completely dispense with the illusion of playing live! And, I get that logistical necessity.
Having said that, how much more valuable, then, do shows like "The Midnight Special" (available, of course, via YT, although I'm pretty sure no formal airing of the show happened in the UK) ultimately reveal themselves to be, with artists, finally playing live, and eager to do so! Shows like "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert," and "In Concert" were, by their very nature, were "just" shows highlighting their artists as they were in the concert setting, so of course, those WERE live perfs. But, for live playing in a self-contained studio setting, "The Midnight Special" was (and is, now, thanks to their still-rolling-out newly mastered tapes) a rare gem!
How about Suzi? Not a sound in the states at the same time she's ruling UK charts, '73/'74! And, Sparks......L.A. bros arguably more popular in the UK (at least in that same time frame) who many people thought WERE British, and they didn't fight back at that! One of my prized possessions (like you, Ian, I used to have a mega-vinyl collection) used to be the original, white-label Bearsville/WB promo LP of the Halfnelson album (with, of course, the re-packaged, re-released same album as Sparks)!
Your contribution was huge, Ian.....such a unique perspective, from across the pond, on the same musician, 5 decades ago, with two personal POVs. Find something...ANYTHING...like that on the 'Stack!
Oh, Andy.....that's a scream! "Bad Brit, bad Brit!!"🤣Well, thanks, but you have your age to lean on for being, real-time, not tuned in to Wood. Had you been a teen in early '70s UK, there'd be no escaping him....like there was ubiquitous airplay for Showaddywaddy, Mud, early Suzi Quatro, and boatloads of others who shoulda/coulda been U.S.-signed, but weren't!
In the states, teens got turned on to pre-Wizzard Move because of a mid-'70s 2-LP "excuse me" set from United Artists....even I got that one, but, as usual, in that cool, bitchin' musical universe, U.S. labels, and certainly radio, were too little, and FAR too late!
I mean, I had to go out of my way (spend extra money for the shipping it took to get NME, Sounds, etc at my local newsstand), scour the record store import bins (if they even HAD them) to see and purchase that which I read about in those tabs! But, of course, I wanted to.....your "normal" teen was more than happy to just sit back and let domestic AM radio force-feed them the dreck-o'-the-day!
I fancied more than just "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" poured into my ear as a teen! Color me, you "bad li'l Brit," a happy, tune-hunting Anglophile!!