Roy Wood

Roy Wood (born 8 November 1946) is an English musician, singer and songwriter. He was particularly successful in the 1960s and 1970s as member and co-founder of the Move, Electric Light Orchestra and Wizzard.

Wood formed the Move in 1965, and had hits including "Flowers in the Rain". While the Move were still together, Wood, along with his band colleagues Jeff Lynne and Bev Bevan, founded Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), which was later to gain major commercial success. After increasing tensions, Wood left ELO in 1972 and formed a new group, Wizzard, who had seven hits, including Wood's most regularly broadcast song, "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day".

As a songwriter, Wood contributed a number of hits to the repertoire of the Move, ELO and Wizzard. Altogether, he had more than 20 singles in the UK singles chart under various guises, including three UK No. 1 hits. Wood was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 as a member of Electric Light Orchestra. in Kitts Green, a suburb of Birmingham, England. For some years the legend persisted that his real name was Ulysses Adrian Wood, until it was revealed that this was probably the result of somebody close to the Move in their early days filling in such names on a 'lifelines' feature for the press as a joke.

Career Early years His first group in Birmingham in the early 1960s was the Falcons, which he left in 1963 to join Gerry Levene and the Avengers. Their 1964 single "Doctor Feelgood" was the recording debut for both Wood and future Moody Blues drummer Graeme Edge. He then moved to Mike Sheridan and the Nightriders (the band later became the Idle Race). He attended the Moseley College of Art, but was expelled in 1964.

The Move

The freakbeat group the Move was formed from other Birmingham-based groups, and quickly entered the UK singles chart. Their single "Night of Fear" climbed to No. 2 in early 1967. Their third hit, "Flowers in the Rain", was the first song played by Tony Blackburn at the launch of BBC Radio 1 on September 30, 1967, and the band evolved over a three-year period.

Wood was keen on musical experimentation, and was an early proponent of combining rock and roll and pop music with other styles, such as classical music, or the big band sound, and introduced classically styled string and brass sections into the pop record. In early 1972, Wood's composition "Songs of Praise" was shortlisted by the BBC as one of six possible choices for the UK entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1972. When performed by the New Seekers on the Cliff Richard vehicle It's Cliff Richard!, the song finished in last place with 3,842 votes. The group included the track on their album We'd Like to Teach the World to Sing. Wood recorded his own version of "Songs of Praise", releasing it on the B-side of his 1973 single, "Dear Elaine".

Electric Light Orchestra

While the Move were still together, Wood, along with his band colleagues Jeff Lynne and Bev Bevan, founded Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), which was later to gain major commercial success.

In 2017, the ELO line-up of Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne, Bev Bevan, and Richard Tandy were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

ELO's early live performances were chaotic, due to both poor sound quality of the string instruments competing against the guitars and drums, as well as Wood's constant moving from instrument to instrument during the shows (playing bass, guitar, cello and saxophone). After increasing tensions, Wood left in July 1972 at the start of the second album sessions, following a trip to Italy.

Wizzard leftAfter departing from ELO, he formed a new group, Wizzard, which assembled cellists, brass players and a bigger rhythm section, with several drummers and percussionists. Meanwhile, he released several solo albums, exploring further musical directions. His 1973 album Boulders was an almost entirely solo effort, right down to the sleeve artwork, with Wood playing a wide variety of musical instruments.

The Wizzo Band and subsequent work In 1977, he formed Wizzo Band, a jazz-rock ensemble, whose only live performance was a BBC simultaneous television and radio broadcast in stereo. The Wizzo Band split early the following year after cancelling a nationwide tour.

Between 1980 and 1982, Wood released a few singles under his own name and also as Roy Wood's Helicopters, and played some live dates under this name, with a band comprising Robin George (guitar), Terry Rowley (keyboards), Jon Camp (bass) and Tom Farnell (drums). The release of what would have been the last of these singles, "Aerial Pictures", backed with "Airborne", was cancelled owing to the lack of chart success for its predecessors, but both sides appeared for the first time in 2006 on a compilation CD, Roy Wood – The Wizzard!. "Aerial Pictures", using the original backing track, subsequently became a solo single for Carl Wayne, the Move's former vocalist.

Wood also made a one-off rock and roll medley single with Phil Lynott, Chas Hodges and John Coghlan, credited to The Rockers, "We Are the Boys" (1983), and played a leading role in the Birmingham Heart Beat Charity Concert 1986, on 15 March 1986, which was later partly televised by the BBC. As well as designing the logo, Wood performed in a line-up which also included the Electric Light Orchestra and the Moody Blues.

After a hiatus following the release of the album Starting Up (1987), a cover version of the Len Barry hit "1–2–3", and a guest vocal appearance on one track on Rick Wakeman's The Time Machine, he went on the road with a band billed as Roy Wood's Army. He also wrote and recorded two tracks with Lynne in 1989 ("If You Don't Get What You Want, You Gotta Want What You Get" and "Me and You"), which were never released. They were the support act for Status Quo at several UK dates in the weeks leading up to Christmas 2009 and 2011.

Personal life Wood currently lives in South Derbyshire. He voted to leave the European Union in the 23 June 2016 referendum, and in May 2019 joined the Brexit Party. Beforehand, he was a longtime member of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), and expressed interest in standing as a candidate for the party in 2004. Wood has one daughter, named Holly.

Wood was engaged to Annie Haslam, lead vocalist for the progressive rock band Renaissance, for four years, which she would later describe as "four of the funniest years of my life" prior to her own marriage in 1991.

Legacy The BBC described Wood in 2008 as being "responsible for some of the most memorable sounds of the Seventies" and "credited as playing a major role in the glam rock, psychedelic and prog rock movements". In 2008, Wood was awarded an honorary doctorate for his contribution to rock and pop by the University of Derby.

Wood was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 as a member of Electric Light Orchestra. Wizzard Brew (1973) – Wizzard Boulders (1973) – Solo Introducing Eddy and the Falcons (1974) – Wizzard Mustard (1975) – Solo Super Active Wizzo (1977) – Wizzo Band On The Road Again (1979) – Solo Starting Up (1987) – Solo Main Street (2000) – Roy Wood & Wizzard (Recorded 1976)

Solo albums Year Title UK US Billboard 200 1973 Boulders 15 176 1975 Mustard — — 1979 On the Road Again — — 1987 Starting Up — — Sources:

Charting compilation albums Year Title UK 1972 "When Gran'ma Plays the Banjo" — — Boulders 1973 "Dear Elaine" 18 — "Forever" 8 43 Non-album single 1974 "Goin' Down the Road" 13 — 1975 "Oh What a Shame" 13 — "Look Thru' the Eyes of a Fool" — — Mustard 1976 "Any Old Time Will Do" — — 1977 "I Never Believed in Love"(with Annie Haslam) — — Annie in Wonderland(Annie Haslam) 1978"Keep Your Hands on the Wheel (Said Marie to the Driver)" — — On the Road Again 1979 "(We're) On the Road Again" — — 1980 "Rock City"(Roy Wood's Helicopters) — — "Sing Out the Old... Bring in the New" — — 1981 "Down to Zero" — — "Green Glass Windows"(Roy Wood's Helicopters) — — 1982 "It's Not Easy" — — "O.T.T." — — 1983 "We are the Boys (Who Make All the Noise)"(The Rockers) — — 1985 "Under Fire" Starting Up "Sing Out the Old... Bring in the New"(New recording) — — 1986 "Raining in the City" — Starting Up 1987 "1–2–3" — — 1995 "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday"(The Roy Wood Big Band) 59 —

As featured artist Year Title UK 1969 "Dance Round The Maypole" Acid Gallery writer 1972 We'd Like to Teach the World to Sing The New Seekers writer of "Tonight" and "Songs of Praise" 1973 "Farewell" Ayshea Brough writer 1973 The London Bo Diddley Sessions Bo Diddley bass 1974 "Hazel Eyes" Neil Reid 1977 Annie in Wonderland Annie Haslam producer, session musician, writer of "I Never Believed in Love", "Hunioco" and "Rockalise" 1984 "Hong Kong Swing" Cruella de Ville co-producer 2009 My Christmas Card To You The Shooting Stars co-writer of "My Christmas Card To You"