At a time when British pop was getting either too cute (Penny Lane, anyone?) or too cosmic (Interstellar Overdrive, take a bow), The Move planted themselves firmly in the middle: massive hooks, and just enough chaos to keep the squares nervous.
The Move’s ‘I Can Hear the Grass Grow’ is a psychedelic classic, but Roy Wood himself has stated the song isn’t about hallucinogens at all. However, this extract from Jim McCarthy’s Flowers in the Rain: The Untold Story of The Move digs into that side of the group. Trevor Burton and Ace Kefford weren’t just playing heavy, they were living heavy, neck-deep in the amphetamine-fueled scene.
Trevor Burton was definite and truthful, about the path into drug taking, “It was only Ace and me that took drugs in The Move. We were like kids in the sweet shop. Our other thing was amphetamines. When you’re gigging six nights a week – you don’t mind a little help.” These two reckless Move ‘bambinos’ were absolutely not above, throwing each other the bottle of liquid Amyl Nitrate either. Especially when they were doing their groovy live version of The Byrds’ ‘Eight Miles High.’ Perhaps the nitrate, speed, weed and acid high, as they hurtled upwards, into the multi drug-o-sphere. Entirely matched the swirling version of this Byrds tune, they were playing? Which the band covered with their usual musical elan. Trevor Burton remembers Ron King, the nefarious agent at Galaxy Entertainment in Denmark Street.
King was the one who had introduced him and Ace to Amyl Nitrate at first. He gave them a box to try out. “Well we tried it and we fell about laughing, it was such good fun. We did it for a couple of months, till they were all gone. We used to have them under the strings, at the end of our guitars. We were working six nights a week and with all the travelling. We were young. You can do it at that age. You just don’t give a fuck!”
Another ‘moving’ story with another hilarious twist. Tony Secunda had The Move booked into a ten week residency. Every Sunday at the Great Yarmouth Aquarium, at Great Yarmouth in Norfolk. The first appearance (and others) was with Billy Fury and supports The Nashville Teens on the 25th June 1967. The residency was to run until the 27th August. It only lasted for two weeks, before The Move were ceremoniously ousted by Parnes. Larry Parnes was Billy Fury’s manager and had set up these shows.
The first show comprised The Move headlining the opening part of the show. That portion of the show featured Tomorrow (before this, they were Unit 4+2 and The In Crowd), Amen Corner, two slots by Peter Kaye and The Move. Billy Fury topped the second bill; supports were The Nashville Teens and The Plainsmen. The Move were known for their intensely loud (in terms of volume and performance) stage act. They hadn’t gotten any quieter recently either. The Move appeared the first week at the end of the bill.
As usual, they were playing very loudly. Rattling countless dentures and causing a right old commotion, in amongst the old dears in the audience. Carl Wayne and his trusty axe, were also said to have rent a rather large slice, through the main stage curtain. Complaints were inevitably made. The Move were told, at the following week’s show. The levels had to be kept down, to a ‘reasonable’ volume. The second week, of course they played as raucously and loudly as ever! Needless to say they were canned.
John Rooney of The Plainsmen was tickled.”The Move played twice as loud as they did the week before. You could’ve heard them in Lowestoft.” That was the end of their ten week residency in Great Yarmouth. I doubt (apart from the loss of money) The Move or Secunda, could have given a flying, backwards toss?
According to Keith West, Tomorrow’s vocalist. He laughed as he remembers the ridiculous billing. “God knows who booked that.’ It was a real end-of-the-pier-type scene with Billy Fury, attracting a considerably older age group than the other acts. West’s outfit Tomorrow decided they would get themselves out of the square situation, the best possible way. They played so loud during the first set that Fury’s manager, Larry Parnes, warned them that if they did not turn the volume down in the second set!! They would be thrown off. “So we played even louder and got thrown off!
The Move went along with it as well and they got thrown off? At the Royal Aquarium, Great Yarmouth, right on the beginning Sunday. The police had already warned The Move about the ‘drug songs?’ Directly asking them to take ‘Eight Miles High’ The Byrds cover, out of the set? I bet they took full heed of that — Not!
The Move had a very balanced, equal opportunities, attitude to upsetting everybody. Managers, promoters and even some of the more straight – laced fans. Smoke bombs, facsimile H-Bombs, attempted fires, flares, riots and more. All of this had made them the most talked about band in ages. Numbered among the guests in the audience, were the Metropolitan Police and the London Fire Brigade. The Fire Brigade attending, were said to have made copious notes. Watching as mayhem and smoke billowed around them. The Move purely saw this as a gimmick and were egged on insistently by Tony Secunda. They didn’t give the stunts much deep meaning. Certainly, not any intended Eastern mystical nonsense. This was sheer unadulterated and aggressive show business. (The business of show). Which all the bands indulged in, but in 1967 some shrouded this in a kind of airy-fairy, melange of mystical bullshit.
The prevalent and ever – growing, type of wet – brained hippy stuff? Usually brought on by the large amounts of Moroccan hashish, Red Lebanese or the lethal Tibetan Temple Balls (sometimes laced with Opium, which could give the smoker, a truly mind boggling buzz).
I know – I smoked some of this unbelievably, paralysing shit once! It took me about two minutes, to get up from the sitting position, to a standing up one? Bloody hell —never again! These exotic ‘delights’ were being ingested, at any time, or even most of the time? Either smoked in joints or crumbled into and then cooked as hash cookies (an even more intense high). Or smoked through a bong, a bottle with an attached pipe affair. The cooling water would take away any smoke harshness and heat from the back of the smoker’s throat. Therefore keeping the ‘buzz’ mellow and in good shape.
Unfortunately, for one of these two young, charismatic musicians and singers – it was to be a taste too far. Which led to an incisive and shattering personal calamity. This was a further predilection for (and an overindulgence in) Lysergic Acid (aka Lysergic Acid Diethylamide – aka LSD). A drug which is (or should) be taken, in minute, pin drop doses. But one that has had powerful and potentially significant effects. On some of the most creative, movers and shakers in the music industry. As it did for one of the five charismatic members of the original Move.
Further information
Flowers In The Rain: The Untold Story of The Move
Also available is The Move: Message From The Country, Remastered and Expanded CD Edition
