Recently in Diary: The week that was 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.

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!

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).

Here are some diary notes from the last 2 weeks of April in days gone by - and now!

1963
Denny Laine and the Diplomats weekly residences continued at the Springfield Ballroom and also at the Adelphi in West Bromwich, plus gigs at the Lakeside Twist Club in Earlswood, Solihull Civic Hall, the Bournbrook Hotel in Selly Oak, Walsall Technical College, Shirley Annexe Youth Club and Brierley Hill Civic Hall .

1968
On a small tour of Scotland with The Move, taking in Stranraer Kinema, Inverness Caledonian Ballroom, Bobbys Hall in Falkirk, Dunfermline Kinema and Dunoon Queen's Hall. Also shows in St Albans, Manchester and Boreham Wood, plus an open air charity event in London's Hyde Park. Appearances too on BBC's "Top of the Pops, "Pop North" and the "David Symonds Show".

1974
Short tour of Germany for ELO. In Frankfurt first, playing with Black Oak Arkansas and Heavy Metal Kids. Concerts after that in Dusseldorf and Berlin along with Humble Pie.

1977
I took part in a charity ten pin bowling tournament in Los Angeles called, rather cleverly, "Rock'n'Bowl". Quite a turnout of celeb bowlers there , including Alice Cooper, David Cassidy, The Runaways, Suzi Quatro, Chaka Kahn, The Doobie Brothers and stars of big hit American TV series "Kojak" and "Happy Days".

1978
ELO on the "Spaceship" tour of USA. September 1st in Fort Worth, Texas and a crowd of around 14,000. Following night in Shreveport (12,000), then Houston (15,000). On then to Baton Rouge, Billoxi, Knoxville, Dayton, Nashville, Buffalo, New Haven and two nights at New York City's legendary Madison Square Gardens. From there it was two nights in Philadelphia, then Virginia Beach, followed by a show in Washington DC ( and a conducted tour of The White House from the President's son, Chip Carter). On then to Boston and Providence before the tour came to an end in Portland, Maine on September 29th.

1981
The ELO "Time" tour of America began on September 15th in Austin, Texas. On to "The Summit" in Houston, Fort Worth, Las Vegas, San Diego, "The Forum" in Los Angeles, Oakland Coliseum and Denver, before flying back to Los Angeles for a few day's break.

1983
The second half of Black Sabbath's "Born Again" European tour began in Barcelona. The evening before the gig all of the band ( Iommi, Butler, Gillan, Bevan and Nicholls), plus our two tour managers, had a night out, culminating in a huge punch up at a night club with us against the waiters and bouncers. Ended up with our tour managers spending the night in police cells and Geezer Butler in hospital with a cut hand that needed seven stitches !
Show the following night at the open air Bullring, to a crowd of around 7,000 people, with Diamond Head and Girlschool the opening acts. On then to Madrid and San Sebastian. Next stop Germany and a show in Frankfurt. Tour bus drives then to Dusseldorf, Mannheim and Munich, where we played the impressive "Circus Krone". Flight to Switzerland to perform in Zurich and Geneva. Back then to Germany and shows in Nuremberg and Stuttgart. Next stop Paris, then Brussels and wound the tour up in Amsterdam.

1992
Performed "Flowers in the rain" on the "Richard and Judy Show" on TV, televised at the New Cavern Club in Liverpool. The one off line up of The Move that day was Roy Wood, Rick Price, Phil Tree and myself.

1993
Gigs with ELO Part 2 in the USA, Latvia and Estonia.

1994
An ELO Part 2 gig at the Billund Pop Festival in Denmark and a TV show in Cologne, Germany. Start then of a British tour on September 21st, which included shows in Guernsey and Jersey.

1995
A short tour of the USA with ELO Part 2 and a one nighter in Ecuador too.

1996
ELO Part 2 gigs in North America including shows in Richmond, Virginia and Atlantic City. Also a tour of South America, taking in Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and Peru.

2005
Little British tour for the "Bev Bevan Band" with appearances at the Roses Theatre in Tewksbury, a small theatre in Stevenage and the, Pavilion Theatre in Rhyll,. On then to Weymouth, "The Maltings in Berwick on Tweed, the Pavilion Theatre in Whitley Bay and finally The Lakeside Club (where every year the World Darts Championships are held ! ).

2010
Rehearsals began for a new music stage show called "It's only rock'n'roll", which features the Bev Bevan Band backing Raymond Froggatt, Trevor Burton, Geoff Turton and Danny King. Debut show was at the Garrick Theatre in Lichfield on September 23rd.
Also, live every Tuesday evening, between 10pm and midnight --- the "Bev Bevan and Jimmy Franks Show" on BBC WM 95.6. ( repeated daily on BBC I player).

Some diary notes from August, over the years.

1969
On the road with The Move. Finished a week's cabaret of double headers at "Tito's" in Stockton on Tees and "La Dolce Vita" in Newcastle, then appeared on BBC TV's "Top of the Pops" to promote our new single "Curly".

Followed that with gigs at Weston Super Mare Winter Gardens, Alton Towers, Bournemouth Pier Pavilion and played Exeter Pop and Blues Festival ( Edgar Broughton Band also on the bill). From there it was back in the car to drive to Scarborough, Kenilworth, Penzance, Newquay, Torquay, Plymouth, Swindon, Hastings, Sunderland and Bridlington - plus a flight to Hamburg to appear on Germany's top Rock TV show, "Beat Club".

1970
Some recording in London for The Move's "Looking on" album and an appearance on BBC 2's "Sound of the Seventies". Also gigs at the Pier Pavilion in Felixstowe, Bournemouth Pier Pavilion, the Yorkshire Jazz and Blues Festival, The Music Box Club on the Isle of Wight, the Bryn Y Castell Festival in Wales and the Flamingo Ballroom in Hereford.

1963
July 5th, 1963 was definitely the career highlight of my life thus far.
Denny Laine and the Diplomats were chosen to be the band to be on stage directly before The Beatles at the Old Hill Plaza in Staffordshire.

Dave Lacy and the Corvettes went on stage first, followed by us at around 8pm. The Beatles had already scored big hit singles with "Love me do", "Please please me" and "From me to you" and topped the album charts with their debut LP, so Beatlemania had well and truly arrived. The Plaza was packed to the rafters of course, mainly with screaming girls.

We were only due to play for about half an hour, but the mop tops were late arriving from the first of their shows that evening, at the Handsworth Plaza in Birmingham, and we ended up being on stage for over an hour. There were a few chants of "We want the Beatles !", but generally the crowd were very good to us, as we were probably the most popular local group in that area.

Eventually we became aware that the Beatles had arrived and were watching us from the wings. One of the numbers we performed that night was a rather brave version of a hit instrumental of that time, Dave Brubeck's "Take Five", which featured me doing a drum solo in 5/4 time.

When we had finished our set and the curtains closed , a most amazing thing happened - Paul McCartney -PAUL McCARTNEY OF THE BEATLES ! - walked over to me and said, in his broad Liverpool accent "Ay dat was great, dat drum solo you played in 5/4 time. Tell you what mate - our drummer could never do dat !".
That was my claim to fame for the next three years !

1968
Standout gig for The Move this month was on July 7th when we topped the bill at the legendary Royal Albert Hall in London. Also on that night were The Byrds, Joe Cocker, The Easybeats, The Bonzo Dog Doodah Band, Grapefruit, Bobby Goldsboro and The Alan Bown Set.

Some of my diary entries from the month of June between 1963 and 2008.

1963
During the 30 days of June, 1963, my band Denny Laine and the Diplomats managed to fit in an astonishing 29 live shows, plus a recording session at EMI studios in London and an appearance on ATV's "For teenagers only."

Gig venues were Edgbaston Water Carnival (twice), Hen and Chickens pub in Langley, Green Lane youth club in Shirley, Crown Hotel in Birmingham, Stewart and Lloyds social club in Langley, Crown and Cushion pub in Perry Barr, Birmingham Town Hall, Bulls Head pub in Hay Mills, Moathouse nightclub in Birmingham (twice), Paul Freemans Dance Studio in Kidderminster (twice), Woolpack restaurant in Wolverhampton, Springfield ballroom (twice), Bilston Town Hall, Coronation Youth Club in Shirley (twice), The Avon Cinema in Aldridge (between B movie and main feature) Masons Arms pub in Solihull, Wednesbury Youth Centre (twice), Shirley Annexe, Golden Cross pub in Erdington, Wheatsheaf pub in Yardley and three appearances at the Adelphi Ballroom in West Bromwich. Phew!