BEV BEVAN DIARIES : The new blog starts here!
Hi everyone! Happy New Year!
So here we are in Two Thousand and Ten - 2010. Start of a new year and the beginning of a new decade, too.
Starting now is my new-look Dear Diary blog, where I check out some of my diary entries from various years gone by.
Hope you will enjoy this trawl through the world of rock and pop music, as seen through my eyes over the past 45 years or so.
So here we go, looking at what was occurring in the first week of January.
1963
Playing drums with my first professional beat group, Denny Laine and the Diplomats. Always a quiet time of year this and just two gigs this week - Harborne Youth Club in Birmingham and The Lakeside Twist Club in Earlswood, Warwickshire.
1964
More gigs this week than this time last year - Coventry Flying Club, Solihull Civic Hall, The Tyburn House Pub in Erdington , plus a double-header - Smethwick Baths followed by a show at Birmingham's first proper night club, The Moathouse.
1967
My first-ever hit record! The Move make their chart debut at No 45 in the Hit Parade with Night Of Fear. At Advision" recording Studios in London most of the week, laying down more Roy Wood compositions, I Can Hear The Grass Grow, Walk Upon The Water and Wave Your Flag And Stop The Train. Also did a version of The Coasters' Zing Went The Strings Of My Heart, with me on lead vocal.
1969
Blackberry Way entered the UK charts at No 42. Gig at the Key Cub in Bridgend and also performed Blackberry Way on the TV show Colour Me Pop.
1970
Recording with The Move at Olympia Studios, just outside London.
1973
With ELO, rehearsing at the Old Moselians Rugby Club in Solihull and recording at Advision studios in London.
1976
On BBC TV Top Of The Pops with new ELO single Evil Woman.
1977
Flew to Los Angeles to begin rehearsals for ELO North American tour. Sitting in the next row to me on the British Airways Jumbo was Ernie Wise from Morecambe and Wise.
1978
Just like this time last year, flew to LA to begin more rehearsals for another tour. This time it was Engelbert Humperdinck in the row opposite mine.
1981
Checked out a new recording studio in Paris, the Grand Armee, situated below La Fayette shopping centre. On then to Sweden to look at Polar studios in Stockholm. Aptly named - it was minus twelve degrees!
1986
I took part in a video shoot for Central TV charity Action single in aid of Birmingham Hospice. A weird mix of celebs - Jasper Carrott, Isla St Clair, The Birmingham Bullets basketball team, Warwickshire and England cricket captain Denis Amiss, Orville the Duck, Danny La Rue and me!
1994
In the USA with ELO Part 2. After the worst New Year's Eve I can ever remember, did gigs in Robinsville, Tennessee and Fraser, Pennsylvannia. Wished I was at home!
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Bev Bevan - Musician and radio presenter
Hi Bev, Happy New Year!!!
You have an amazing career, we like to read more about your musical life.
Kind regards and warm salutes from Argentina.
Hi Bev, I wish you a Happy New Year.
Sorry my poor English, I am from Spain.
I just discover your blog... searching what are you doing now in google, I was in the wikipedia, and there is a link here... yes, sounds rare...but for foreigners is hard to know about you...(I added to my favortes..haha)
Anyway, thisÃÅœs the perfect place to know more about you, sure you have millions or stories to tell us..
And maybe you could speak us about how the instruments have changed along all those years, your drums set-up then and now....and how the way of making music has been changing...please, donÃÅœt hide us any detaill, all we love to know ALL about the artist life of the best drummer in the know world.
Regards
I'd like to see more details. For example, why were you looking at various studios in 1981?
Dear Bev
Happy New Year from your half cousin in Jersey. Love you and Michael Buble..any chance of some decent tickets!
Much Love
Started listening seriously to Shazam again this December. Picked up the 40th anniversary anthology, too.
I have some thoughts:
Was every band that started in 1966 destined to follow part of the path of "Spinal Tap?", passing though all of the 60's styles from R&B to Flower Power to Heavy Metal? Was it a requirement to have a manager who carried a big stick? ;-)
Carl didn't get the proper recognition from the Rock world. His performances on Shazam showcased a pleasant, powerful voice that could express emotion without drifting into bathos (his best - Last Thing on My Mind), yet still be able to blast one out ( a la Free - Don't Make My Baby Blue) I prefer the Pop of the Carl/Roy Move to the heavy metal of Looking On. That release is too tied to the its time.
And speaking of things that don't age well, I have edited "Last Thing On My Mind" and "Fields of People", removing the extended (and very dated) backwards guitar solo on the first, and excising the incongruous vocal bridge on the second. I am very pleased to say that they now have more of a timeless sound, I guess what's called "Classic" If you're at all interested in hearing the edits, I'll post them for you to download and listen to.
Larry Ozone (Retired WFMU DJ)