Flashback: The Move at the Fillmore West, October 1969

The past couple years have been like heaven for those in the Move musical fandom community. Rob Caiger of Face the Music spent years searching out the original masters of the bands music. He then made arrangements for their being remastered and reissued; chock full of unissued rarities to boot. Finally 2008 brought a real treat: The Move Anthology 1966-1972, a 4 CD box set. The music, much of it previously unreleased, added a whole new dimension to the groups’ albums and hit singles.

In the wake of listening to them all continually, the overdose has me frequently time tripping back, especially to a special night of Move music…

In another lifetime I was a young Anglophiliac in California’s San Joaquin Valley farmlands enamored of the many British pop bands that were invading the US shores. A very few totally flipped me out; the Move was one of them.

There was a great record store in town named Lightning Records. Situated across the tracks its owners were two Chinese brothers who took a liking to me and fed me bi-weekly injections of hot new vinyl sounds they scored each time they took their twice monthly buying trips to the LA and SF Record One-Stops.

On one such journey they came back and floored me w/ an amazing jolt of psychedelia, an obscurity entitled “Night of Fear” b/w “Disturbance” on the Deram label by a band called The Move. A short time later they turned up another trippy 45 by them “I Can Hear the Grass Grow”. My original fave pop art band up to that point was the early Who, but these groovy Move singles of psycho-musical mumbo jumbo became “Number 1 with a bullet” at the top of my personal pop hits parade.

Concurrently, I had subscriptions to Melody Maker and the NME. So I began to read all about the Move, a group of apparent madmen making all this wild music. My teen angst equipped me with a perfect affinity for rockers smashing televisions, car demolitions and other such totally cool madness. I was hooked!

At the same time I was also mail-ordering odds and sods of Anglo musical vinyl from the UK via MM and NME adverts. So when their first LP MOVE came out – wowie zowie! I ordered it and was totally smitten by the cover and music inside. The album and USA singles, “Flowers in the Rain” and “Fire Brigade” released by A&M Records literally had my mind reeling as their music had morphed into fantastic far out pop art ear candy.

Meanwhile I was making some sort of name for myself around town as a teenage boho turning friends on to this obscure bizarro English band the Move, along with the other import music exotica I discovered.

I had a phonograph record player that played 45’s installed in my car. You hooked it up to the radio wiring and it played right through the speaker. The records played upside as the tone arm had a spring attached that generated the proper pressure and playing action. It was none too good for the records, but the sound of the Move blasting out of the windows of my ‘56 Ford was totally fantabulous.

Little did I know then that I was laying the groundwork for my first venture into the music business when after university in 1971 I launched a weekly prime time one hour radio show on the Central Valley’s # 1 FM radio station. The program was called EUROCK.

Now what does all this hoo ha have to do with the Move Live at the Fillmore West you may well ask…

I had a friend, “Big Mike” Goodman, who was on the concert notification list for coming concerts in the Bay Area. We often made road trips up to the City to catch a show at the Fillmore West. One day he called and said, “Hey man, that English band the Move is playing a gig up in SF this next weekend, you wanna go?” My reply, “do pigs fly?” So that Friday morning off we drove. Once there we cruised into our fave record shops collecting imports and vinyl rarities, ate dinner, and got in line early. The doors opened and we planted ourselves – 15 yards from stage center.

My heart was pounding so hard it almost burst when they broke into the set opener, Todd the “Pop-God” Rundgren’s “Open My Eyes”. They couldn’t have begun w/ anything cooler as their version was incredible – packing much more punch than the Nazz original. Next was “Don’t Make My Baby Blue” which was literally heavier than a led balloon.

These 2 covers were followed by the first of 3 mind blowing Roy Wood original songs/ arrangements - #1, “Cherry Blossom Clinic (Revisited)”. The live version of that Wood masterpiece from SHAZAM was unbelievable. Its classical snatches were injected into amazingly tight arrangements w/ vocal harmonies, filled with complex tempo/ chord and time changes then laced with bits of psych and prog. The musical effect was literally dizzying.

Many years later in 1996 when I produced the Rhino Records History of Progressive Rock 5-CD compilation SUPERNATURAL FAIRY TALES we tried to get that song licensed from A&M, but alas no go. They said they didn’t know who owned the rights any longer as the Move had disappeared from the labels collective memory bank.

From “CBC Redux” the first set moved along with the great Tom Paxton song, “The Last Thing on My Mind”. Some Movers think that song is a waste on the album, but let me tell you the sound of Roy’s 12-string ringing out loud and clear throughout the hall literally had the Fillmore resounding with the chimes of folk rock magic. It was beautiful! The first set ended with “I Can Hear the Grass Grow” showcasing Bev “the Basher” Bevan’s bone crunching drum solo. The ballroom walls literally shook and shuddered.

If the first set was hot, the second was molten! It kicked off with #2, the astounding “Fields of People”. The live version of that was a powerful extended musical opus in all its glory. The highlight came when at one point Roy picked up a strange golden metallic Excalibur of an instrument that sounded like some alchemical blend of a banjo and sitar. The house lights went dark, except for a spotlight on the gleaming “Banjar”. His lightning fingers then proceeded to fly, racing up and down the frets, plucking the strings as resonating drones along with flashing laser rays of light began kaleidoscoping off the walls creating the sight and sounds of a swirling Eastern Mantra. The audience was literally transfixed.

Then came #3, the live explosion of “Hello Susie”! It was without doubt one of the heaviest examples of “Power Pop” I’d ever heard. Roy’s slashing guitar chords, the tight arrangements, elaborate harmonies, and tempo changes, all tied together by Bev’s phenomenal rhythmic bursts. He banged, slapped, and splashed all over the kit, while Carl did an amazing vocal job which demonstrated that  he was one of rock’s strongest front men. Roy’s musical genius was the backbone of it all, but on this song the Move as a band became THE iconic Anglo rock group in my mind, as well as the minds of much of the audience. It was breathtaking!

They closed the set with another Nazz track, “Under the Ice”. A rumbling, grumbling finale that hinted at the heavier sound they would pick up on later with LOOKING ON. With Todd they had begun, and ended.

Most in the States sadly missed the fantastic fun as the Move did precious few US dates. We can thank our lucky stars that Carl Wayne had gotten away with soundboard tapes of the Fillmore show. For years before his death he made it his personal project to try and get them released to no avail. Now as I write Rob is trying to negotiate a 2009 release of their historical Fillmore West 1969 concerts. Hope springs eternal!

Come what may, fortunately now decades later we can once again take the ultimate time musical trip and listen to the fantastic music of the Move via state of the art reissues. They were without a doubt one of the most fab bands during the golden days of UK Britpop, creating rock music for the ages – Play it LOUD!

[If you’re keen to know when the Live Fillmore CD comes out + have access to other Move & Roy Wood News, Special Offers & Info. via the Net Subscribe at: move-list-request@eskimo.com]