Bev: Let's take a look back at February over the years!

1968
Gigs with The Move in Manchester, at Kent University and at a pop festival in Rome - where our on stage antics of chopping up televisions and setting off explosions caused a riot and the Italian police stopped the show.

1969
Busy week for The Move, with shows in Cambridge. The Golden Torch Club in Tunstall, St George's Ballroom in Hinckley and a charity event at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Also an appearance on the David "Put the kettle on mother" Symond's show on BBC Radio One.

1973
On the road with ELO and shows at the Mayfair Ballroom in Newcastle then an early morning flight to Brussells to appear on a Belgian TV show and also played at Louvan University.

1974
A trio of English gigs with ELO, at Manchester Free Trade Hall, the Theatre Royal in London and a show at our hometown Birmingham Hippodrome.

1975
Heavy workload on a British tour with ELO and concerts at York University, Drury Lane Theatre in London, Colston Hall in Bristol, Sussex University, Sheffield City Hall and Manchester University.

1976
On a long tour of North America with ELO. Two nights at Anaheim Convention Centre, California ( using lasers for the first time in our show ). Both nights sold out to 9,000 people. From there we moved on to San Diego,California, Phoenix, Arizona and El Paso, Texas

1977
Another American tour with ELO. Gig in snowy Erie, Pennsylvania then flew to equally cold and wintry Pittsburg with our old friends Journey also on the bill. Next stop Cincinnati ,Ohio, where Gentle Giant opened the show for us. Flight the next day to Cleveland, Ohio and a terrific night there to sell out crowd of 10,000. Even bigger crowd the next day at Cobo Hall in Detroit, Michigan.

1978
Coming towards the end of an Australian tour with ELO. Two consecutive nights in Perth, both sold out to crowds of around 9,000. Flew to Sydney next and a poolside party at promoter John Harrigan's house and an honour to meet there movie legend Bob Hope. American singer/songwriter Boz Scaggs at the party too.
Following evening we boarded a ten hour Quantas airlines flight to Tokyo, checking into the enormous New Otani hotel - the biggest hotel I have ever seen anywhere. Night off and went to se Bob Dylan and his band perform at the Budokahn, the show being recorded for a live album.

1982
On a European tour with ELO. Concert in Orly, France, then drove to Charles de Gaulle airport to board flight to Lyon for gig there in big, echoing sports hall. Next day took a small, private, turbo prop plane to fly to Zurich, Switzerland and great show there to 12,000 people. Next day it was on to Germany for two consecutive night's shows in Dusseldorf.

1984
Close to the end of an American tour with Black Sabbath. A gig at Lakeland Arena near Orlando to around 4,000 people and similar sized crowd the following night in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Next port of call was Atlanta, Georgia at the old Fox Theatre.

1985
In Nuremberg, Germany working on the ELO "Balance of Power" album.

4th week of February

Another pretty busy week for the peroxide blondes from Birmingham, Denny Laine and the Diplomats. Gigs at Bentley Heath Community Centre, Solihull Civic Hall, The Atlas Ballroom in Stechford, Birmingham and screaming girls in abundance at Bilston Town Hall.

1968
A show in Paris for The Move, plus a gig at the legendary Marquee Club in Wardour Street, London ( which was recorded for what would become the "Somethin' Else From The Move" EP. Also a big one nighter at Granby Halls in Leicester, sharing the stage with The Kinks, Traffic, The Bonzo Dog Doodah Band and Plastic Penny.

1969
Busy week for The Move with shows in Nantwich, Chester and at The Fiesta Club in Stockton, London University and The Stevenage Locarno.

1973
ELO recording at Air Studios in London plus gigs in Westcliff on Sea and t Sheffield University.

1974
More British dates for ELO with shows at Newcastle Polytechnic, Southport Floral Hall, Bristol Colston Hall and The Glasgow Apollo.

1975
The last part of a British tour for ELO and concerts at Leeds University, Exeter University,our hometown Birmingham Town Hall and home of my football team, The Wolves, at Wolverhampton Civic Hall.

1976
Coming up to the halfway mark of a ten week tour of North America with ELO. Played in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Denver, Colorado ( with Roxy Music opening the show ), and with ELO opening for Bachman Turner Overdrive in Kansas City and Oklahoma City.

1977
On tour of USA with ELO and a second night at the Cobo Hall in Detroit. Sue Barker came to the show and invited us to see her play the next day in the Virginia Slims Ladies Tennis Tournament ( a brand of cigarettes sponsoring a tennis tournament ! ). Following day drove the 60 miles to Flint, Michigan for a concert there , then on to a 6,000 sell out show in Milwaukee. Next stop Chicago for three consecutive nights there and managed to fit in two visits to my favourite Indian restaurant in America, "The Khyber".

1978
ELO's only tour of Japan. Just about sold out the famous "Bhudokahn" in Tokyo and Bob Dylan and his band came to the show. Flight next day to Osaka and two nights there at nice 3,000 seater theatre. One and a half hour coach ride the next day to play a small theatre in Kyoto. Flight to Fukuoma and great night there to a wild crowd, before moving on to Nagoya.

1980
At "Musicland Studios" in Munich, Germany, laying down basic tracks for the "Xanadu" film soundtrack album

1983
In London, laying down drum tracks for the Kelly Groucutt solo album and also took part in video shoot for his first single, "Am I a dreamer".

1984
Nearing the end of an American tour with Black Sabbath. Flew from Orlando, Florida to St Louis, Missouri, for a concert there , then on to Toledo, Ohio and a good show to around 5,000 people. Next day took one of the shortest flights I can ever remember - a whole 18 minutes to fly from Toledo to Dayton. Show on the evening with Nightranger opening the show. Couple of heavy days travelling then - a 70 mile drive to Cincinnati, a flight from there to Chicago to get a connecting flight, on a bit of an old banger, to Kalamazoo. A show there then a 3 hour drive through heavy snow to get to Detroit airport. Long wait for delayed flight to New York, which resulted in us missing our connecting flight to Utica, so forced to stay at a grotty little hotel in Times Square. Got a flight the next day in time for the show in snowy Utica.

1991
In Los Angeles shooting a video for first ELO Part 2 single, "Calling all honest men".

1999
The most absurdly long and time consuming trip that I can ever remember, when setting off on a tour to South America with ELO Part 2. ( making me realise that I'd had enough of this long distance touring lark ! ). From home took the three hour drive to Gatwick airport for flight to Atlanta, Georgia, then a connecting flight to Miami. Long wait there before a further flight to Santiago, Chile, before boarding our fourth aeroplane of the day to get to Montevideo, Uruguay. Long drive by coach from the airport to finally get to our final destination, Este de Puntes. From leaving my house to checking into our hotel was a staggering thirty nine hours !
Played three nights at a nice little cabaret style theatre in Este de Puntes before getting on a 16 seater plane for rather hairy flight to Buenos Aires, to appear live on an Argentenian TV show.