Almanac Music: ‘Blackberry Way’ – The Move
After the response from my ELO piece I thought I’d follow-up with The Move.
The Move are important not only as a band in their right but as band providing the key foundation members of the Electric Light Orchestra, Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne, and Bev Bevan, although Wood’s time was short lived, leaving to form Wizzard.
Roy Wood led The Move for most of their career with Jeff Lynne a later addition to the group. Lynne, keen on Wood’s parallel interest in forming and developing ELO as an alternative to The Move, was added as Wood felt he needed a second songwriter to help develop his concept of ELO.
The Move scored five top ten singles in the UK over a relatively short time. They first came to prominence with their hit ‘Flowers In The Rain’ in 1967, and their last major hit was ‘Blackberry Way’, the response and success surprising the band so much their imminent break-up was put on hold while they took advantage of the Top 10 hit.
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About Colin Ritchie
Retired teacher who enjoys following the Bombers, listening to music especially Bob Dylan, reading, and swimming.
I’ve got both of those singles, Col. Released on the Festival label.
Whereas I’ve been a huge ELO fan since I was about three years of age, I wasn’t at all familiar with The Move until my late teens. It was only at this stage that I did a lot of research on ELO, which led me to finding out about The Move. Naturally, I was keen to listen to The Move considering this band had numerous members who went on to form ELO.
The Move didn’t grab my attention too much with the first few listens, although I took an instant liking to their song Tonight. Nonetheless, The Move grew on me, and eventually I bought a copy of each of their four studio albums. My favourite is Shazam, while the other three albums have some fine songs without ranking anywhere near as high as Shazam or most of ELO’s albums. Interestingly, the bonus tracks on Shazam, Message from the Country, and Looking On really bear no resemblance to the album tracks. Some of the hit songs, most notably Blackberry Way and Night of Fear, appeared as bonus tracks rather than album tracks.
Flowers In The Rain, meanwhile, was notorious for the infamous Harold Wilson promotional postcard drama. The Move’s manager, Tony Secunda, was responsible for the postcard depicting the then British prime minister in bed with his secretary. Consequently, The Move never made a cent from Flowers In The Rain after being sued by Wilson, with all royalties donated to charities of Wilson’s choice.