The Bev Bevan Diaries: How a brickie saved the day

By Bev Bevan on Aug 6, 11 05:46 PM

WE'D enjoyed hits with Night Of Fear and I Can Hear The Grass Grow, but back in April 1967 it was still hard work coming up with singles.

More worrying for all of us was the album that The Move was supposed to be making. It was due out in May, and we were nowhere near finishing it.

That's when a brickie called Fred Lynch popped up to save the day.

Rather than admit that we just hadn't been able to get our act together, our manager Tony Secunda invented a story that, in tabloid talk, came down basically to 'Beat Group's Tapes Stolen.'

He told the press that the album had been nicked and it made banner headlines in the Daily Mirror - a real national scandal!

"The tapes were the only copies of ten songs that The Move had recorded over a seven-month period," read the report.

"Manager Tony Secunda appealed to the thieves, for the sake of the fans, to bring the tapes back."

The story was that they'd been taken from a white Mercedes saloon owned by our agent and parked in North London.

But, let's be honest, it was total hype.

To give the story that little bit of extra excitement, Secunda offered a £200 reward for anyone who could give information leading to the recovery of the tapes. That meant, of course, that they would have to be "found" by someone when we were ready to get the LP out.

And that, miraculously and by coincidence too good to be true, was just what happened. Fred Lynch arrived on the scene...

A little later, the newspapers carried the story "Move Tapes Found On Building Site."

A 20-year-old bricklayer named Fred Lynch had stumbled across them during his lunch break and so qualified for the reward.

Did he get it? Well, there was one small difficulty. He didn't exist.

It's a scam that's been pulled by other bands several times since.

About this time The Move appeared in the 14-hour 'Technicolour Dream' at the Alexandra Palace in London. It was the official stamp of authenticity to play on a bill that included Pink Floyd, Tomorrow and a band called John's Children which featured a newcomer by the name of Marc Bolan.