Recently in Diary Category

Having a pretty good time of late as I haven't updated this blog in four months - So here's
a quick re-cap of what I've been up to, work wise these past 4 months.

September
9th. The Move (featuring Trevor Burton and Bev Bevan), played a charity gig in aid
of "Greyhound Rescue Trust" at Hall Green Stadium in Birmingham.
17th Bev Bevan Band and others played open air festival in Henley in Arden in
Warwickshire
23rd The start of this year's "It's only rock'n'roll" tour ( Bev Bevan Band plus Raymond
Froggatt, Geoff Turton, Trevor Burton and Danny King). Opening show at Leamington
Spa Centre, followed by two nights at Solihull Arts Complex on the 28th and 29th.

October
14th Bev Bevan Band, plus special guest Rick Wakeman on keyboards, recorded
a spot on BBC's "One Jasper Carrott TV Special ( to be aired on January 9th,
following "Eastenders" ).
16th I played drums at a concert at the beautiful Birmingham Symphony Hall along
with staff and pupils of Dorridge School of Music at their annual charity concert. I also
became the school's patron that day.
29th
Gig for The Move featuring TB and BB. At the Ivy Leaf Club in Sheldon, B'ham.

November
"It's only rock'n'roll" concerts at Aston Wood Golf Club in Sutton Coldfield, the "Robin
2" in Bilston, the Atrix in Bromsgrove, Ludlow Assembly Rooms and Frome Theatre in
Somerset.
Also an appearance at the Burlington Hotel in Birmingham for the Bev Bevan Band at
Blind Dave Heeley's charity fund raising dinner and gala ball.
On Sunday the 6th I was compere at "The World's Greatest Drummer" concert at
Warwick Arts Centre.
Also, on Friday 18th, prior to the Ludlow gig, The Move featuring TB and BB performed
in aid of BBC's "Children in Need" at The Mailbox in Birmingham. Recorded live on
BBC WM's Paul Franks show and televised for "Midlands Today". Great fun, but as we
were playing outside -- bloody freezing !

December
18th The final show of this year's "It's only rock'n'roll" tour at the Rover Club in
Solihull.
Also over this past four months there have been around twenty "Bev Bevan and Jimmy
Franks Shows" on BBC WM 95.6 fm. Listen every Tuesday evening between 10pm and
midnight or tune in anytime via BBC I-Player. Also check out my "Bevan's Heaven" CD
review column and "Bev Bevan's Photo Album" every week in the "Sunday Mercury".

May I wish you all a happy and healthy 2012.

OUR gigs at the Whisky a Go Go had been a huge success.

But after a wonderful 1969 week in the 'City of Angels', we loaded up our U Haul trailer once again, hitched it to our rented Dodge sedan and hit the road again.

Our route was due North. Our destination: the the hippy capital of the world, San Francisco.

This was the city, of course, "where little cable cars reach halfway to the stars" and where you had to "be sure to wear some flowers in your hair!"

If you believed the Scott McKenzie hit, that is.

In spite of a week of mellowing out in Los Angeles you wouldn't find these five working class lads from England's industrial heartland Birmingham wearing any flowers in their hair!

We were in San Francisco to rock - and rock we did!

Greatest

Being put on the same bill as Joe Cocker's Grease Band and one of the greatest rock 'n' rollers of all time, the brilliant Little Richard, was all the incentive we needed.

Plus we were playing two sets a night at the legendary Fillmore West, where almost every great Sixties group had played, and where every great Seventies group would go on to play.

Our gigs at the venue were recorded for posterity and are about to be released as a double-CD set titled (surprise, surprise!) The Move Live At The Fillmore.

These were some very special performances.

We knew that they were the last dates of the long-awaited American tour.

We hoped to return to the East Coast to play the venues in New York and Chicago that we'd missed due to our visa problems, but Britain was calling.

It would soon be time for us to go back home to Brum.

Don't miss the concluding part of my US tour diary next week to see how the gigs went, and what we played.

SO there we were, trundling along Route 66 on The Move's 1969 tour of the USA, stopping often to take photos of the old Wild West.

It was all going fine until we pulled in to Hank's Truck Stop in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

As we were filling up with petrol, some real redneck cowboy types began taking the p**s out of Roy Wood.

Woody had his hair down past his shoulders and one of these cowboys, who resembled Mongo from Blazing Saddles, began tugging it.

"Hey are ya a boy or a girl?" he demanded.

"We want no trouble," we said. "We're English!"

We assumed that would end all conversation immediately.

But no.

We had just started to get back in the car when other rednecks began shouting "Cissies!"

Our road manager 'Upsy' Downing then made an appearance, after paying for the petrol.

Trouble

"What's the trouble?" he asked. "These guys are in a band and they're with me."

Now, Upsy fancied himself as a bit of a hardcase, but the smallest of the cowboys hit Upsy just once on the jaw and down he went like a sack of spuds!

We dragged him into the car as Carl hit the accelerator, dust flying everywhere and the rednecks chasing after us, yelling and screaming: "Come back here and fight, you English faggots!"

We didn't stop again until we finally checked into a Holiday Inn in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Since leaving Detroit we had travelled around 1,700 miles over two days and a night.

To put it mildly, we were all completely shattered, but after a coffee, Coke, hamburgers and eggs we set off to complete the last 500 miles of our epic trek through Kingman, Barstow and San Bernadino, finally arriving on the Pacific Coast and our destination of Los Angeles.

Upsy somehow got all five us into one room at the Continental Hyatt House Hotel on Sunset Strip, a place where he had stayed before when working with our pal Jimi Hendrix.

We were checked in for a full week and got into a nice routine, spending half the day by the luxurious, rooftop swimming pool.

BACK in 1967 the importance of having a high profile was summed up by The Troggs.

Not only did they get lots of press because of their wild stage shows but they had a huge hit with Wild Thing.

I picked up the music paper one week to discover that Reg Presley's band had been given gold awards at the Mar Del Plata festival in Argentina.

They were somewhat strangely dubbed "the new interpreters of youthful rhythm in international dancing music" - but at least they got to America on the strength of it.

The headlines now said that my group The Move were actually leaving for New York for the legendary US tour.

But they were only headlines.

There had once been some semblance of truth in the idea.Our manager Tony Secunda had once talked on the phone to someone in the US who agreed that it might be a good idea, but that was all there was to it.

Difference

If we had actually gone to the States in 1967, it would have made a huge difference to us.

We started out with Jimi Hendrix and Cream - at the same time, doing the same sort of shows, almost like the same family - but they carried on with underground music while we got swayed by the screaming girls and Top Of The Pops, Jackie magazine and all that sort of stuff.

They really stuck to their guns and went to America to get away from the pop scene back in Britain. They became album bands while The Move became a singles band.

If we'd have gone out there, and persevered with our music in the same way that Cream did, we could well have become really big as a 'serious' band.

As it was, we never really got the chance. A lot of it was our own fault. We were reluctant to leave home, for starters.

Looking back, we were very baby-ish. If we'd come back from the States as an album band then the entire course of our careers would have changed.

By the end of The Move both Roy Wood and I wanted to get serious, but we let the ideal drift away again.

It was the story of our lives.

sMost Tuesday evenings throughout June, July and August I could be found at The Mailbox in Birmingham, broadcasting live on air, the Bev Bevan and Jimmy Franks show on BBC WM 95.6fm, 10pm 'til midnight. The programme is also repeated 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on bbc I player, available on your computer by clicking on BBC WM and going to "Programmes".

Wednesday June 15th
I played in a "Celebrity Tour" charity golf day at one of my favourite golf courses, The Forest of Arden.

Friday June 17th
Went to see Peter Kay at the LG Arena in Birmingham. He was very, very funny when he, eventually, got on stage around 8.15, following the expected 7.30 pm. There was a long interval too, during which we had to endure some dreadful, overloud disco style music, The evening not helped either by me being sat behind a guy the size of an American basketball player who never sat still. Took an eternity to get out of the car park too. Enough hassle in fact to put me off going to any more Arena style concerts.

Saturday July 2nd
Gig for "The Move, featuring Bev Bevan and Trevor Burton" at Kings Heath Cricket Club. Two 45 minute sets to an enthusiastic crowd.

Thursday July 7th
My annual charity golf day at Aston Wood Golf Club in Sutton Coldfield and a lovely, sunny day for the 24 teams of four who had paid to play. My team consisted of my oldest pal Jasper Carrott, Rocking Berrie's Geoff Turton and Tony "Show me the way to Amarillo" Christie. Great guys to play with, but we did not score well. My group, The Bev Bevan Band played on the evening, following the fund raising dinner, and joined on stage by my good friends Trevor Burton, Geoff Turton and Danny King.

Sunday July 17th
Went to the Botanical Gardens in Edgbaston, Birmingham for a celebratory dinner to mark the 70th birthday of my BBC WM colleague, the legendary Ed Doolan. From September onwards Ed's show moves to Sunday mornings, 9am to midday on BBC WM 95.6fm.

Sunday July 24th
Gig at Wakes Festival in Burntwood, Staffordshire for The Bev Bevan Band. An all day event bathed in glorious sunshine, The New Amen Corner and Dave Berry on before we took to the stage around 8pm, and , as with my golf day, joined by Trevor Burton, Geoff Turton and Danny King.

Thursday August 4th
Went to see "We will rock you", the Queen / Ben Elton musical at the Birmingham Hippodrome. The third time I have seen the show and still really enjoy it - great songs , fine singing and acting, and the hidden, live band just excellent.

August 8th/9th/10th
"The Move featuring Bev Bevan and Trevor Burton" played Ypres Festival in Belgium. We flew from Liverpool's John Lennon airport, which must be the friendliest airport in Britain. Flew to Brussels and met by minibus for the two hour drive to Ypres. Following day got the opportunity to visit the museum and the cemeteries in the area, where thousands upon thousands of young soldiers are buried, all victims of the dreadful and ultimately pointless 1914 to 1918 First World War .

A very moving experience.
The concert on the evening went splendidly, playing outside to a huge crowd, in the beautiful town square, Ypres ( Ieper ), a serene and peaceful place, with not a single piece of litter to be seen anywhere. Meanwhile, in my hometown of Birmingham, the riots raged, As a foreigner abroad it was not a time to feel proud of being British.

Friday August 26th
I went to Birmingham Children's Hospital to be given a conducted tour and handed over the £16,200 cheque, the money raised from my "Bev Bevan charity golf day" at Aston Wood Golf Club on June 15th. The money we all raised that day and evening is going to a most worthwhile cause,

That's all folks!

Please do tune into my radio show and read my columns in the "Sunday Mercury every week. Here's a list of upcoming gigs for the "It's Only Rock'nRoll" tour dates, plus a few for the Bev Bevan Band..

September

15th The Place, Oakengates
16th Tivoli Theatre, Wimbourne
17th Henley in Arden Tennis Club
23rd Spa Centre, Leamington Spa
24th Babbacombe Theatre, Torquay
28th Arts Centre, Solihull
29th Arts Centre, Solihull.
October
9th Ashcroft Theatre, Croydon.
28th Aston Wood Golf Club, Sutton Coldfield
29th Ivy Leaf, Sheldon, Birmingham.
November
10th Robin 2, Bilston
12th Artrix, Bromsgrove
16th Garrick Theatre, , Lichfield
18th Assembly Rooms, Ludlow.
19th The Barn, Aston, Birmingham

24th Macmillan Gala Ball, Birmingham Hotel.
27th Memorial Theatre, Frome.

December
17th Rover Club, Sheldon, Birmingham.

Cheers!
Bev.

AFTER our run-in with Harold Wilson in 1967, Flowers In The Rain had reached No 2 in the charts and we'd got a new deal with Regal Zonophone, a label that used to be exclusively for the Salvation Army!

The Daily Mail reported that I was proud of my red waistcoat edged with bobbles. Mind you, I was only 22 at the time. It was serious business, I tell you!

Ace Kefford told the world that he was ready to vote for a new Prime Minister - as long as it was Jimi Hendrix. He wanted Jimi to stand with a view to replacing Wilson.

Our brush with authority was seen to have given us credibility and maybe we should, at that stage, have lived up to it.

But if anything we were more a pop band. We went out of our way afterwards to play the Wilson thing down, to say that no, we were really nice guys despite all the publicity.

When the next record, Fire Brigade, was released in 1968, it was definitely more poppy. It was as if to say, well it's only pop music after all.

Christian

Cliff Richard wasn't sticking to his guns either. He'd announced that he was ready to quit to be a full-time Christian. In the end he decided to carry on regardless.

Tom Jones was about to become a millionaire thanks to a 13-week booking in Las Vegas. What were we doing wrong? We still had whip-rounds before buying a round at the local pub.

There was a new Sunbeam Rapier out that did a ton, and we wanted one. Badly.

There was something else we wanted badly, to be able to tell the truth. After the Wilson controversy we'd drifted apart from our manager Tony Secunda, who was responsible for all the hype.

Trevor told the press that he didn't think girls had much sense of humour (he was probably stoned at the time) and that resulted in a flood of angry letters from female fans.

In fact, we all had girlfriends but we weren't allowed to admit it. The image of the pop star was far too important to let your personal life intrude on it. We had to keep it secret.

Buses permitting, I was going out with Val, and Ace had been living with a girl for years but it all had to be kept 'hush hush.'

DESPITE all the attention The Move were getting early in 1967, we were still penniless.

We'd play gigs in London and then motor back to Birmingham in the early hours of the morning because we couldn't afford to stay over.

Our van was owned between us and wherever the van went, we went.

It used to be embarrassing at times. I was banned from driving for quite a while after an accident.

My girlfriend Val, now my wife, used to work at the Cedar Club in Birmingham and whenever we had the odd night off, I'd have to get the night bus into Birmingham to meet her.

I was very conscious of the fact that here I was, a pop star, having to use the bus!

I used to pull my collar up and pray that no-one would recognise me as the guy in the gangster suit with the Rolls Royce they'd seen in the press.

It was like living another life. The fans saw you on 'Top Of The Pops' and assumed you were millionaires.

If you did it these days, you'd probably be canonised as a man of the people, making a virtue out of the situation. I bet that Bono still uses the buses from time to time. It's okay to do that sort of thing when you can afford NOT to do it.

So when Woody wrote I Can Hear The Grass Grow it really had to be a hit. We were petrified that we might become one-hit wonders after Night Of Fear, which we'd released in December 1966, had got to No 2.

I used to save as much as I could because I was terrified that even if we had two hits, then we might become two-hit wonders and so on.

The whole band was very conscious of the need to save some cash. Money was the last thing that hip bands were supposed to be interested in, but we had a reputation for being careful.

Photographer Bobby Davison gave Roy the title for I Can Hear The Grass Grow. It was a line out of the Tennessee Williams play Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. Everybody assumed it was all about drugs and smoking grass. It wasn't. Woody wouldn't even smoke a Woodbine, let alone anything like that!

THERE came a time in 1967 that The Move decided to make it in the movies.

This was long before the advent of MTV, of course. That was still 14 years or so in the future.

Music videos hadn't even been invented yet - and VHS tape recorders wouldn't be launched until the 1970s.

But we decided that we wanted to make a film to promote what would be our next single, I Can Hear The Grass Grow.

We always liked to be the band who were willing to try something new, and making a movie seemed like a great idea.

To be honest, there wasn't much of a script. We were all sitting in the middle of a wood and we had a butler serving us tea and biscuits!

I seem to recall that it was filmed on Wimbledon Common.

Suddenly all these girls appeared from the trees, saw us and started tearing us to bits. Or, at least, that's what the script called for.

There was a tramp rambling round in there as well. We'd actually found him in the woods, slipped him a ten bob note, and asked him to appear in the film.

That was his bit of history in the making. He's probably a stockbroker now - or maybe he's sitting in the House of Lords.

When it came to movies, everyone wanted to get in on the act. The Beatles and The Monkees had already announced plans to make new films and suddenly it was the bandwagon to jump on to.

Cliff Richard, it was reported, was toying with the idea of making a serious drama about the Vietnam War and the Dave Clark Five were being lined up for roles in a thriller, neither of which materialised.

Brian Jones of the Stones wrote the soundtrack for a movie too, inspired no doubt, by the fact that his girlfriend Anita Pallenberg was to have the starring role.

The movies were still big business in '67. There was The Graduate with its Simon & Garfunkel soundtrack; the shockingly violent Bonnie & Clyde; Paul Newman eating boiled eggs in Cool Hand Luke.

And, of course, there was Sidney Poitier breaking the race barrier in the utterly brilliant In The Heat Of The Night.

READING back through my old scrapbooks now, I look at the ambitions The Move had back in the 1960s.

It was all very narrow-minded really. It was all very material.

Roy Wood's ambition, believe it or not, was to "own a skyscraper block of flats."

I wanted to own my own Boeing 707.

Ace Kefford's ambition was definitely from the heart - he just wanted to be a millionaire.

It wasn't enough to be the world's best bass player, he had to make a million, too.

Trevor Burton said that his big ambition in life was to retire at birth and live in Rio.

He's still playing with my band, bless him.

Carl Wayne said he just wanted to he happy. That was very unlike him - not outrageous enough.

We'd all taken on different personalities within the group, in much the same way that The Beatles had done.

Carl was the outspoken and outrageous one; Woody was the bizarre but strangely shy one.

Trevor and Ace were the youngest and they were most in tune with the drug culture.

I was the steady one at the back, the one who held the band together and played practical jokes on everyone.

There were obvious parallels with The Beatles, who we, like most other groups, held in awe.

Meanwhile, the clergy branded us "immoral and disgusting" and the psychiatrists said we were portraying a very unhealthy and degenerate culture.

A Bishop had a go at us for devil worship - God knows where he got that one from - and there were big headlines about how we'd been banned from playing at the cathedral in our hometown.

It was utter tosh. Why on earth would we want to be at Birmingham Cathedral with The Three Monarchs and Ernie Wise, anyway?

But there was no such thing as bad publicity. We'd do anything for publicity.

One article that wasn't a hype was a piece by Paul McCartney. He reviewed us and told the world: "The Move are cool."

Can you imagine how we felt about that?

We were still in awe of The Beatles, and here was one of them giving us the official stamp of approval. We were well chuffed.

Sunday May 1st
Gig for The Bev Bevan Band at the Metropole Hotel in Birmingham. A bonus for the audience when I introduced on to the stage towards the end of our set, surprise guest on lead vocals and rhythm guitar , my old mate Jasper Carrott, who really got them going.

Tuesdays May 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th, 31st.
At the splendid "Mailbox" in Birmingham to transmit live the "Bev Bevan and Jimmy Franks show" on BBC WM 95.6, which goes out every Tuesday evening between 10pm and midnight. You can also listen to the show at anytime via your computer by listening on BBC I player - just click on BBC WM and go to "Listen again".

Sunday May 22nd
"Survival Sunday" in the Premiership and my team, Wolverhampton Wanderers, somehow managed to avoid relegation by the skin of their teeth! With just 3 minutes left they were technically down until Stephen Hunt's brilliant goal kept them up and sent local rivals Birmingham City down instead. I texted Wolves manager Mick McCarthy saying that I had never before witnessed such drama in fifty years of watching football.

Sundays 1st, 8th, 15th,22nd , 29th.
Every Sunday, you'll find two columns - "Bev Bevan's Rock'n'Roll Diaries" and "Bevan's Heaven" (CD reviews), in the "Sunday Mercury".
My favourite albums for the month of May, that I suggest you check out , are singer/songwriter Teddy Thompson's latest album "Bella" on the Verve label, The Steve Miller Band's "Let your hair down" (Roadrunner), Paul Simon's "So beautiful or so what" (Hear Music), Within Temptation's "The Unforgiving (Roadrunner) and "The London American Label Year by Year - 1963 (Ace).