The Move - Message From The Country (2025 Remaster And Expanded)

 

It may seem strange to kick off 2025 properly with an album from 1971. But that album has been remastered from the original Harvest Tapes and extended on Cherry Red's Esoteric label for release at the end of the month and it is time for a reassessment of what for a long time was looked upon as the least favourable of The Move's four album career. There are those more occasional fans that think everything beyond the first album was strange. Why were such a fine singles band messing about with longer songs when they could create three minute joys. But that was The Move with every album offering something different.

More regular fans point to Shazam as their favourite. It is a fantastic album, but very cover heavy, although these covers translated into some extraordinarily great live performances. Looking On is my favourite, a magnificent mixture of Prog and Psych and of course Brontosaurus. My own dalliance with The Move began when I was armed with a £10 Record Token for my birthday and under my own steam chose the first albums under my own steam. I had £2 left and all I could afford was an MFP compilation and I went for The Move. That album opened up an incredible world, one that stays with me five decades on. 

Compilation wise, nothing ever appeared from Message In The Country, due to it being on Harvest and so I had to dig out that album and it seemed very different. It was definitely a Lynne or Wood album, very experimental with Wood raiding the instrument cupboard. There was a lot going on in The Move camp. This album was being recorded at the same time as the first ELO album, the reason that Lynne had joined and Wood was also recording his solo album, Boulders. So material was switched around.

Roy Wood's slower material went on ELO 1 and Boulders, so here you are getting him in Rocker mode. Lynne was still very much in Idle Race land at times, his Psych Pop on this album is exceptional, indeed it does get overlooked that Lynne was a master of the genre. The Minister and the title track were as good as anything you heard from supposed superior artists. My Marge is pure Toytown. Words Of Aaron hints big time at what was to come in the early Lynne led ELO. Wood doesn't shrink from the challenge.

Ella James and Until Your Mama's Gone are stompers in the Brontosaurus manner. It Wasn't My Idea To Dance gets splendidly Proggy and revives that wonderful Feel Too Good vibe. Don't Mess Me Up gives indication of some of the stuff to come on Wizzard's Brew. Ben Crawley Steel Company is Bev Bevan being Johnny Cash and we can't forget No Time. Lynne at his most delicate with Wood adding instrumentation from everywhere, including flute. It would be enough if it ended there, but there was another side to the band, the singles.

The three singles were not on the album, but showed a very different Pop side. All three are here and as a series of singles, Tonight, Chinatown and California Man match any run you care to mention. The B Sides, Down On The Bay (another Move song covered by Cheap Trick) and the original version of Do Ya, made famous when orchestrated by ELO on A New World Record.There are also four alternate versions present here among the 19 tracks. Don't Mess Me Up is all vocal harmony without the instrumentation. Words Of Aaron and DO Ya sound like early versions with distinct differences. My Marge adds studio chatter at the end.

I have to admit that although having multiple versions of each album, I usually go back to my original Vinyl versions of the albums. There is something special in hearing the cracks and pops that take me back to the time that I bought them. For the embeds, I have gone to the 2005 Remaster, but the new 2025 version is far superior.

Message In The Country is released on 28 February. You can pre-order the album here.

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The Flashcubes - Sportin' Wood - A Tribute to Roy Wood

 

We go back to 2012 for me to remember my past. I am of course, a massive Roy Wood fan and a perennial Move bore. But I am also a Power Pop veteran of sorts. I generally shy away from Covers albums, but this is splendid. 

I'd forgotten that I had this, but my memory was stirred by Big Stir's current Single series of The Flashcubes covers. The band are Power Pop greats whose career stretches back to 1977. They toured Japan promoting this and it was released on the legendary Japanese Air Mail label.

I can only think of Cheap Trick who have covered Roy Wood multiple times and it would have been easy to go for the obvious songs. But there are some real surprises here and although the versions are fairly faithful to the originals, there are some different takes on Wood's magnificent back catalogue.

There is also the technological advance sound wise, so you would expect improvement there, but in many cases the songs sound as new now as they did then. The band are obvious fans and so the results are ace. It is a joy to dig this out again

There are some songs that had to be included, particularly the likes of I Can Hear The Grass Grow, Hello Susie and Blackberry Way, but there are lots that you might expect that are not here such as See My Baby Jive and Night Of Fear.

It is the surprise covers that stand out most. The first Wizzard Single, Ball Park Incident and the similar vintage Roy Wood solo single, Forever. There are also more than expected of the later Wood career. The Helicopters years provide Green Glass Windows, a great single and Givin' It All Away, a b side of Rock City, a single that I have signed somewhere.

On Top Of The World is from Wood's mid 80s album, Starting Up, another surprise addition. The bravest take though is The Rain Came Down On Everything, a splendid song from Wood's Beach Boys influenced Mustard album.

The original featured a fantastic orchestral arrangement, here Brass takes the place of part of that arrangement and there is a great Guitar solo. The harmonies here are really good, if not as elaborate as the original. 

There is a final surprise. At the end of On Top Of The World, the song breaks into ELO's Look At Me Now, thus covering the career of Roy Wood completely. Sportin' Wood is a great listen in its own right. The fact that it may turn more onto the great man whilst noting The Flashcubes is a double bonus.

The album is still available as a download at the likes of Amazon and can be bought second hand for £15 or £16, remember that it is a Japanese release. I should also have a word with Rex and Christina about talking the band into doing a cover of Feel Too Good.

You can listen to the album here. I don't know if it is on Spotify or Apple Music because welllllllllllll you know my feelings. You can find out more about the Big Stir adventures of The Flashcubes here.

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The Move - Live At The Fillmore 1969 (2CD)

 

I spend most of my time writing about the new, but whilst being under pressure to tidy up the music room, I pulled out this and it brought back so many memories that I can't stop playing it. The set is still available at a really decent price on CD and download and you can also find people selling the 3LP version for around £27.Armed with a Record Token for my Birthday, one of the first three albums that I bought under my own steam was an MFP collection of The Move. I'd bought it on the strength of the three minute singles that I'd heard, but my eyes were opened by the much longer songs. 

The band's second album, Shazam was so different to the debut, it was like two different bands. It was only recorded post these shows and there was such a lack of new Roy Wood material for it, that the album's six songs contained three covers and so it became more of a mirror of the band's live set. With such a lack of new material for the album, it is surprising that the album turned out so splendidly. It is many Move fans favourite album and I can understand why, although the following Looking On remains my favourite and is in my Top 10 albums of all time. 

1969 was a tortuous year for the band, having already lost Ace Kefford the previous year due to his drug problems, Trevor Burton left having become disenchanted with the commercial direction of the band culminating in Blackberry Way, a song he hated. Even bigger tensions existed between Roy Wood and Carl Wayne. Wood had become tired of touring the Cabaret circuit and wanted to move the band into a heavier direction. Wayne was happiest playing the songs from the debut album on the circuit. Wayne left before the album was released and moved into cabaret allowing Jeff Lynne to join after being asked for the second time.

The Fillmore album reveals how heavy the band had become musically and is an absolute revelation. The Wood-Wayne-Bevan-Price were astonishingly great. Rick Price had replaced Trevor Burton and eventually followed Roy Wood into Wizzard. On their debut American adventures, The Move supported Joe Cocker And The Grease Band and Little Richard for four shows at The Fillmore on October 16 - 19. The recordings were gathered by Carl Wayne who set out to restore the recordings in 2003, but his untimely death the following year meant that the project wasn't. The Tapes were restored and remastered for this release.

The nine song set contains three Wood originals, a mind blowing version of the magnificent Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited, Hello Susie and a 10 minute version of I Can Hear The Grass Grow. The covers are inspired though including two Todd Rundgren Nazz compositions, Open My Eyes and a 15 minute Under The Ice. Tom Paxton's Don't Make My Baby Blue is rocked up Shazam style, Fields Of People which was originally a 3 minute single for Ars Nova becomes a 14 minute Psychedelic epic. The Brill Building is raided for Goin' Back and Don't Make My Baby Blue. There is also the bonus of 11 minutes of Bev Bevan reminiscing about the 1969 US Tour.

Rounding of the set are three repeated songs from alternative nights namely Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited, Last Thing On My Mind and Don't Make My Baby Blue There are other bootlegs around from The Move including the BBC Colour Me Pop set, but no other complete show exists. Many people will think Of The Move as a singles band or of the wonderful pop of the debut album, but this reveals them to exhilaratingly Progressive and is one hell of a listen. It also shows what a sad loss Carl Wayne was to Cabaret. Grab it whilst you still can.

You can listen to the songs on You Tube here.

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The Garden Of Earthly Delights

Cupid's Carnival - Everything Is Love

Although the album's cover might lead you to expect some Psych Pop, Everything Is Love is very much Beatlesque and when it's not, it's very much in that late 60's melodic pop that we know and love.

Cupid's Carnival used to be Cherrystone who released the excellent Our Life in 2008, although London based, the sound hails from further North. Girl with it's George Harrison like slide is so Beatles, I Was The Boy and Summertime are Badfinger to a tee. Sunny Days is an ELO patische, a sort of Mr Blue Sky II, very much in L.E.O. territory. There's even a cover of Whiter Shade Of Pale with Matthew Fisher on Hammond Organ.

Edison Lighthouse, Christie and some of the better mid 70's Pop Rock bands spring readily to mind, the whole album is a blast. The Right Time is perhaps a bit too Oasis for my liking, but Everything Is Love is great Summer Pop.

This seems the type of album that would do great business on Bandcamp. Strangely it's not present put you can find details of how to pick it up here.


The Move - Magnetic Waves Of Sound

Here he goes talking about The Move again. When I look around at all this music gathered over the period of 40 years plus, it all stems back to The Move and Sparks. In fact when Tez goes into one of her grumbles about the CD Wallpaper, I blame Roy Wood. Whilst the rest of St Helens were listening to Mud and Shang-A-Langing, this was my life.

The Move have been compiled to death, compilations seem to appear annually and so the Best Of is not that extraordinary. There's been some effort adding the likes of Cherry Blossom Revisited and What, but The Move to me are Looking On, Feel Too Good and The Girl Outside.

The real joy though is the DVD. The full Colour Me Pop Broadcast plus the Beat Club performances of Brontosaurus and When Alice Comes Back To Farm. Cherry Red's Esoteric offshoot generally do a good job of these reissues. I'm particularly looking forward to the upcoming Patto stuff. My one gripe here is that the 1971 footage isn't included and that's been around in great quality on Bootleg for years. Everyone should see Down On The Bay from that.

You can buy this CD and DVD set at Cherry Red's website here and everywhere else.

Who Killed Nancy Johnson - The Cops and Robbers EP

Reading based Who Killed The Nancy Johnson have released their debut EP and it's particularly good. Although you can hear Garage Rock influences, the thoughts of late 70's New Wave spring to mind.

They hit a riff and it's a loud one. The Ruts and The Rich Kids plus the better Manc Bands of that era are nodded at. However, these four songs could easily be on Tsar's second album. The spirit of Indie is alive and well and you can imagine the band are a pretty hot live act with some interesting covers.

All four songs are ace, but Stay Out Late appeals most to me, very 70's UK Wave and all the better for it. You can listen to the EP here and buy it for the ridiculously chap price of two quid.

Deacon Blue - Live At Glasgow Barrowlands

On such a poptastic Blog as this that celebrates the new and undervalued you would be surprised to read about Deacon Blue. A lot of UK Pop from the 80's is either rubbish or sounds incredibly dated. So you cherish those who extended beyond the electronic drums. That list includes Nik Kershaw, Nick Heyward, ABC and of course Deacon Blue.

Those first three albums stand up with anything else around snd Dignity stands up as one of the finest singles. When you listen to this great live set of 27 songs, you realise just how many great songs they were responsible for and that you know. Ricky Ross has a fine set of pipes and although they've never been particularly hip, they are particularly good.


You can buy this Double CD and DVD set for just over a tenner everywhere.

The Move - Looking On (2016 Deluxe Version) (2CD)

Cherry Red's Esoteric Imprint have reissued the first three Move albums plus the extended Something Else Marquee Live EP.

I've mentioned before that The Move started this musical obsession of mine and they remain dear to my heart. I play these albums regularly, still enthralled at how good they are and they also provide a Nostalgia Trip. I still remember excitedly buying that Move Compilation as an eleven year old, indeed the cover is framed on the wall.

I now have these first three albums four times, vinyl, original CD reissue, 2008 and now this. Not only that, but the complete albums are on The Movements Box Set and the songs probably make up a sixth copy across various compilations. The Move are released to death. There's also the Anthology Box Set which brought bits of all four albums together for the only time across four unreasonably short discs.

Esoteric have also released The Move and Shazam as single disc and Deluxe Editions. The Shazam split is a bit strange as it's only an extra pound for the two disc version. I'll cover all four releases in the ensuing days / weeks, but I start with Looking On. It's my favourite Move album, it's not the best, that's Shazam, but it means most to me and is The Move album I play most often.

Message In The Country isn't reissued, it was on Harvest. I have to admit though that has always been the runt of the litter for me. Half a great album. Three albums were being recorded at the same time and ELO 1 and Roy Wood's Boulders were far finer things.

The Move at this stage were down to Roy Wood and Bev Bevan as original members. Ace Kefford had been thrown out much earlier, Carl Wayne had left for cabaret and Trevor Burton didn't like the band's direction. In came Jeff Lynne from Idle Race and Rick Price on Bass. Incidentally, I've always felt Wood's songs always sounded better with Rick Price in the band, be that The Move or Wizzard.

The main difference on this 2016 release is the remaster. The sound is superb, a splendid effort. There are some strange omissions. Alternate Takes of Looking On and Feel Too Good that were on the 2008 Edition aren't here.

But what you finally get are the 1970 BBC Sessions. They've been available on bootleg for years in really ropey sound, these sound great here and are worth the admission alone. If only the same could be done with the Idle Race BBC Sessions.

The Move had completely distanced themselves from the pop glory of that debut album. It had started with Shazam, splendid though it was and ended with Looking On. The band had moved to the Fly Label and due to it's finances, promotion was minimal and the album sunk without a trace, speeding up the end of the band.

It was the ELO album that Wood and Lynne really wanted and The Message In The Country album was only recorded, so that they could release ELO 1.So concentrating on that original 7 Track album what do you get?

Feel Too Good is magnificent, my favourite Move song, it's Flower Power in a box. A joy from start to finish. Wood's other lengthy song is the title track. a heavy first half morphs into a sort of Jazz Rock that he would take up further, years later in the Wizzo Band.

Jeff Lynne wrote two songs, What, which hinted at what was to come with ELO and a gripping song with some great Bass playing from Price. The other was the psychedelic, Open Up Said The World, an extension of what Lynne had been doing in Idle Race.

Bev Bevan wrote a song, yes honestly and Turkish Tram Conductor Blues is surprisingly good. Wood in shouty mode and him and Jeff Lynne playing every guitar they could get their hands on.

This leaves the two remaining Wood songs. Brontosaurus was the final Regal Zonophone single (it's B Side Lightning Never Strikes Twice is also added). When Alice Comes Back To The Farm is simply wonderful. Here's a live version from Beat Club :

The BBC stuff is largely Looking On material, there are two covers of The Beatles' She's A Woman and at last an appearance of Falling Forever. The package itself shows that time has been spent on it. The original artwork is restored and there are splendid Liner Notes, done with admirable humour, by Mark Paytress.

This is the version of Looking On to have, if only I hadn't had to buy all the others. The lack of some of the alternate takes that were on the 2008 Edition is disappointing, but I suppose most Move fans will already have that release.

Hopefully this edition will bring new fans to the band. I love Music, I know how people credit my knowledge of Sparks, XTC and Power Pop. But the first band to ever move (sic) me were The Move. They still do and they are still my favourite band in the whole wide world.