[This digest is the copyright of the Move "Useless Information" Mailing List. Re-publication or re-distribution of "Useless Information" content, in any form whatsoever, is expressly prohibited without prior written consent.] USELESS INFORMATION The Move Mailing List Digest Issue #339 April 9, 2002 In this issue: * Song Of The Week (week of 4/1): "I Can Hear The Grass Grow" * Roy NYC support bands * Welcome to the House of Love with the Roy Wood Army!!! ============================================================== To POST TO THE LIST: Send an e-mail to: move-list@eskimo.com Useful Web addresses: TheMoveOnline: http://www.themoveonline.com Official Roy Wood site: http://www.roywood.co.uk Face The Music Online: http://www.ftmusic.com Join the ELO List: http://www.eskimo.com/~noanswer/showdown.html Move List Info & Archives: http://www.eskimo.com/~noanswer/movelist.html TO UNSUBSCRIBE: Send an e-mail to move-digest-request@eskimo.com with the word "unsubscribe" (no quotes) in the subject line ============================================================== Subject: Song Of The Week: "I Can Hear The Grass Grow" Date: Tue, 2 Apr 2002 00:19:38 -0800 From: Lynn Hoskins Song Of The Week: April 1, 2002 "I Can Hear The Grass Grow" Ideas for discussion: Songwriting/lyrics Vocals Live performance Arrangement & instrumentation Overall production What were your thoughts the first time you heard it? How does the original compare with the Army version? Strengths/weaknesses *********************** "I Can Hear The Grass Grow" (R. Wood) See the people all in line What's makin' them look at me Can't imagine that their minds Are thinking the same as me I can hear the grass grow I can hear the grass grow I see rainbows in the evening My head's attracted to A magnetic wave of sound With the streams of coloured circles Makin' their way around I can hear the grass grow I can hear the grass grow I see rainbows in the evening Can't seem to puzzle out the signs My senses form a microline Get a hold of yourself now baby See I need you to help now baby Get a hold of yourself now baby Put your head down to the ground And listen to your mind If you can't spell what you found I know that you're not my kind I can hear the grass grow I can hear the grass grow I see rainbows in the evening Can't seem to puzzle out the signs My senses form a microline Get a hold of yourself now baby See I need you to help now baby Get a hold of yourself now baby See the people all in line What's makin' them look at me Can't imagine that their minds Are thinking the same as me I can hear the grass grow I can hear the grass grow I see rainbows in the evening ********** Subject: Re: Song Of The Week: "I Can Hear The Grass Grow" Date: Tue, 2 Apr 2002 11:24:14 -0800 From: John DeSilva Apropos choice for SOTW Lynn! One of the highlights of the VU shows - with the horn arrangement ICHTGG became a big bold brassy rocker!! And as Joe quoted Roy, "I like odd" ... The original is in my top 5 all-time favorite Move songs - their second single was a great showcase for the band as I believe all except Bev take their turns singing lead (anybody know if Ace has a part? I can hear [besides the grass growing] Carl, Roy, and Trevor). Great opening riff (which Roy and Alyson harmonized on at the VU - brilliant!), trippy lyrics, strong singing, and one of the most cohesive band performances ever make this one a British Rock Classic. My one frustration with this song comes from the premature fading of the track on most of the early CD compilations - Roy does this really cool chordal riff at the very end of the song that gets cut off on most of the CDs that I got early on. Thankfully the Repertoire reissue of the first Move album includes the entire song, fading at the correct time. Now if we could just get somebody to correct the intro to "Don't Make My Baby Blue" on the Shazam CD, where Roy starts, stops, says "It's a bit ragged" and then starts again, I'd be most pleased (Rob?? ;-D ). JD San Jose, CA ********** Subject: Re: Song Of The Week: "I Can Hear The Grass Grow" Date: Tue, 2 Apr 2002 14:54:28 -0800 From: "Doyle, Joe" One of my favourite's live of Roy's, he's always done this song so well and the addition of the horns just adds to its overall appeal for me. Somebody at VU in NYC thought that the guitar that he uses for this song was broke, that gave Roy a bit of a laugh. On record, this really is a Move showpiece, as JD said. Great vocal harmonies, as well as individual performances and wonderful heavy guitar. Roy has always said that he has never taken drugs, in case it impairs his writing. I believe him, but looking at the words to this song, it must be because he doesn't need them!!! :) Which reminds me - a little note that I meant to include in my NYC 'review' email. We've often talked about people either "getting" Roy or not. We all know (I think) that he's a bit of a loony/eccentric/slightly (?) off the wall type of bloke. Well after meeting up with so many of us lot in NYC, I believe that I now know why we are amongst the chosen few who do "get" Roy - we're all bigger nutters than he is - like minds attract!!! Must go, I have to go and water my CD collection :) ********** Subject: Roy NYC support bands Date: Mon, 1 Apr 2002 12:00:32 -0800 From: "Leigh Woolford" I wanted to say that I thought Johnny Society, the first night' support band at the VU were excellent. Their performance prompted us to buy their CD and it too is great. They had a great singer/songwriter (Kenny Siegal) and some very competent musicians and presented an interesting slant on 'the blues'. The female bass player (Gwen Snyder) is a big 'Woody' fan too. She told Daizy that she had a quite serious wrist problem and shouldn't be playing but she wanted 'to do it for Roy!' Awwww bless! Anyway, for what its worth I though they were great and I am enjoying their CD! (Hey, how come the support band had a CD on sale and.....oh never mind). Interesting quote from the Johnny Society website....."With such notable fans (and heroes) as Ray Davies of The Kinks, Robin Zander of Cheap Trick and touring partner Chris Whitley (who contributes his guitar wizardry to Clairvoyance), the band emphasizes innovation and tradition at all costs". See more at http://www.johnnysociety.com/johnny_society.php The fourth night's band, The Flow' were also quite interesting IMO with their human sound effects machine (wackywoo), their excellent guitarist and their 'different' songs. I thought they were quirky and inventive and perhaps therefore an apt support for RW. I'm afraid the other two bands didn't do a lot for me and in my memory they sort of blend into one! I think the phrase 'angry young men' applied to both of them. They both gave it their all (with knobs on) but I think maybe we were the wrong audience for them. In fact the drummer for one of them (Blue Green I think?) commented 'you should've brought your daughters' which made me laugh as it was so true! Overall, they were both a bit (what I would call) 'punk' although one of them had strong overtones of 'the Who'. Is there some other new fangled name for punk? - like 'garage' or 'conservatory' these days? (Please help me, I am getting on you know). Anyway, does anyone else have any thoughts on these bands? Reminder of the VU support bands: Thu Mar 21: Johnny Society Fri Mar 22: Blue Green Sat Mar 23: The Star Spangles Sun Mar 24: The Flow ********** Subject: Re: Roy NYC support bands Date: Mon, 1 Apr 2002 17:16:17 -0800 From: cathy uselton Leigh Woolford wrote: > I'm afraid the other two bands didn't do a lot for me and in my memory > they sort of blend into one! I think the phrase 'angry young men' > applied to both of them. They both gave it their all (with knobs on) > but I think maybe we were the wrong audience for them. In fact the > drummer for one of them (Blue Green I think?) commented 'you should've > brought your daughters' which made me laugh as it was so true! Actually, it was the drummer for the Saturday night opening act, the Star Spangles, that said that. And I totally agree with you - I laughed too! I wish I could have seen the opening acts for Thursday and Sunday, but I was there for only Friday night and Saturday night, so according to your review, I saw the two more mediocre opening acts. thanks! cu tornado alley, ok ********** Subject: Re: Roy NYC support bands Date: Mon, 1 Apr 2002 17:16:55 -0800 From: John DeSilva Leigh Woolford wrote: > I wanted to say that I thought Johnny Society, the first night' > support band at the VU were excellent. Leigh: I thought Johnny Society was definitely the best of the three support bands I saw - although I must say that the keyboard intros in the beginning few songs were very reminiscent of the sound of early Three Dog Night (Mike Cross, Chris, and I kept singing "Jeremiah was a bull frog" to ourselves at the beginning of a few songs). But for that matter the keyboard sound was reminiscent of "Toy Soldier" by the Small Faces (which I love), and come to think about it they compare favorably to Marriott and co. so that's good (when the singer came down and played bass, well, listen to the Smithereens' "Behind The Wall Of Sleep" to get an idea of that visual). The other two bands were attacking punk/grunge from different perspectives, and to my ears were rather forgettable: Blue Green - Nirvana/Foo Fighters, without the melodic sense (scary!) The Star Spangles - The Ramones with Keith Moon on drums (the drummer was brilliant - he even played the ride cymbal in the "Moonie" style - too good for those blokes!) JD San Jose, CA ********** Subject: Welcome to the House of Love with the Roy Wood Army!!! Date: Tue, 2 Apr 2002 11:24:06 -0800 From: "Doyle, Joe" Put yer feet up and have a jolly cup of tea. This is a long one..... Cathy Uselton wrote: >I wish I could have seen the opening acts for Thursday and Sunday, >but I was there for only Friday night and Saturday night, so >according to your review, I saw the two more mediocre opening acts. Johnny Society (Thursday) were quite good actually. I bought one of their CD's, Clairvoyance, after the show and it's a really decent album. Blue Green, from Pittsburgh (and as Brian Carter - aka Plastic Ono - said, "They should go back there". Master of understatement), were bloody awful. A monotonous drone of less than average twin rhythm guitar and immediately forgettable songs. Funnily enough, The Reverend Ono and I had a little search for Cathy at the Friday show, but couldn't find her. We had heard rumour of her arrival and wanted to see if she looked like Annie from Annie Get Your Gun!! Well - she is from Oklahoma :). She may have seen us when going to get her coat. Brian had just bought a Woody tour tee-shirt and we stood at the top of the stairs for 20 minutes, whilst he tried to sell a few - "Every day is Christmas with Roy Wood's Army. Get your Roy Wood Tee-shirts!!" I think that I'm just coming down off my natural buzz from the whole NYC experience. As my wife, Lyn, said when we got back "It felt like we were all on a natural high, for the whole time". I think Lyn hit the nail on the head. I've seen a few emails debating the why's and wherefores of the venue, the sequence of concerts and such - both sides making perfectly valid points. Having said that, when all is said and done, this whole thing was a great experience and much fun. I would hazard to guess that both Roy and the band are really chuffed about the way that the whole thing went and had a great time themselves. From all that I hear, Roy really wanted to do this. As he has no record label, I am guessing that he coughed up most, if not all of the money required to get the 13 piece band, plus crew, over there. The reaction of the US fans was great, I was so happy for them and Roy (you could feel the air tingling on Friday, when a lone voice started chanting "ROY", as he did one of his in-between song patters, then slowly it spread around the whole room and we had a couple of minutes of "Roy, Roy, Roy, Roy!" You could have crossed the Hudson River with the beam on Roy's face. This was Roy in an intimate setting (OK small), that added another dimension to the whole thing. When was the last time you heard Roy warn the crowd about the curry on his breath? - now that's getting close to your hero!! We got there Thursday a.m., after a 55 minute trip from Toronto. Myself, Lyn and our two girls, Sam and Emma. We booked into the hotel, said a quick "Hello" to Lynn H., then went off on the first shopping trip of the journey. A couple of pairs of jeans and a few hours later, we had dinner with the girls, locked them up for the night and walked to the first concert with Lynn, Rob C. Tim Emerich and his wife, rapper extraordinaire, Kelly. We met up with Reverend Ono outside the venue and wandered up and down the line, identifying listees and saying hello. Inside, we naturally headed straight to the bar, sat down briefly with Dr Bob & Co., then back to the bar for the remainder of the show. About 18 seconds before the start of Roy's set, Joe Ramsey and Marilyn turned up, hot footed from their plane. A quick hug and we were ready to rock! The Thunderbirds theme tune blared away as the band, minus Roy, trooped up on to the stage, then into the Brontosaurus opening to California Man - a minute or so goes by then here he is and a huge cheer rings the house. I thought that Roy was a little bit nervous the first night, and the whole band had to take their time to adjust to the small stage, but it was still a good show, and the US fans that I spoke to who hadn't seen Roy before, didn't even notice - they all loved it and so they should!! Apparently Iggy Pop, a remaining Ramone and one of the Allman's were there on the first night - I hope that they enjoyed the show! The first night had two highlights for me. The first was the new song Big Girls Blues - very listenable and a great duet between Roy and one of the Naylor twins (sorry, but I can never remember which one is which). The second one? Well after my wife Lyn noticed somebody slip through a curtain, with the contents of Virgin Records under their arm, the three of us (Lyn, I and The Rev. Ono) slipped through after them. Aha! We were backstage, which was actually a "quiet part" of the Pussycat club next door. The band were sat around a table, horns on knees, drinks in hand. We congratulated them on the show and set-off in search of Roy. He was at the top of a set of stairs in a room, mere feet away, yet a huge, but extremely friendly, guy called Wig (seriously) was protecting the bottom of the stairs. Brian and I retired to a table for a drink, whilst we watched my wife try everything in her repertoire to get past Wig. I offered to have her scrubbed and sent to his tent, but he was too much of a professional to be bought that easily, but did see the humour! Lyn eventually managed to get the bass player to promise to take her up to meet Roy, if he didn't come down, after she gave him the sob story of us having to leave our young girls in the hotel, as it was an over 21 show. A perfectly true story (they were so disappointed), but put to good use, by 'er indoors!! Anyway, eventually Roy did come down. By that time, Brian and I were chatting to the trumpet player, Henzie. A great girl, very down to earth and displaying a great sense of humour. Good taste too - we got onto the subject of the set and when I mentioned French Perfume, her face lit up too. She said that she thought that it was a great song, one of his best, and would also like it to be included in the set. Roy apparently doesn't I'm afraid, so that's that, but it was very nice to talk about Roy's music with somebody out of his band. People lined up around Roy for autographs and a natter and, as always, he was accommodating and a perfect gentleman. He looked a bit tired, but happy to have the first show under his belt. I looked around a couple of times whilst Brian and I were gabbing to Henzie, to make sure that Lyn was OK. She was playing with Roy's hair extensions and telling him what a lovely man he was. He didn't seem to be too perturbed, and was smiling, so I didn't intervene to save him!! He even signed a picture of himself for Sam and Emma, as a consolation for not being at the show, and Henzie wrote them a lovely little message on the back. They were chuffed to bits - thanks! A couple of minutes later I turn around, on Brian's prompt, and here is Lyn and Roy walking towards me arm-in-arm!!! I said hello, had a brief chat, asked why they hadn't played Spektakular (too many new band members, not enough time to practice), thanked him for the last 30 years, hoped that NYC went well and that he had a good time and that, as I thought, was that. Whilst we were saying goodnight to Henzie, Lyn disappeared again and came back with a huge grin on her face. She had somehow managed to get me onto the guest list for the next show's night!! I was in 7th heaven....... Brian, or to give him his full stage title, The Reverend Plastic Ono, of The Church of The Blue Oyster Cult, booked a rehearsal studio on 36th St. for the Friday, so that he, Joe R., Tim and John De Sylva could jam. Lyn and I turned up with the kids and Marilyn, Lynn and Rob were there too. Tim amazed us with his vast repertoire of Move songs on guitar and bass, Brian constantly complained and asked for "a slow one", but kept the beat with will and skill, as well as occasional singing ("In the key of off", as he said), Joe Ramsey showed us that he is a true Roy Wood fan, by playing all of the instruments at one time or another and John played the full Rick Price part, by playing bass and taking the photograph's! I took a video camera, but the battery died after about 30 seconds, just enough time to catch a chorus of Blackberry Way. They played a whole host of Move, Idle Race, ELO and other tunes - and a great time was had by all. We popped up to the roof at the end, to look over at the Empire State building, gabbed for a while then split off to go and get some dinner. Brian and I went to dinner with my clan, pointed them in the direction of the hotel and took off for show number 2! I had no problem getting in at all. As promised, Vince (Roy's guitar manager) had put my name on the guest list, so after a brief wait whilst the girl at the door went off to find the list, I was in!!! Boy am I glad that I went to the second show. We nattered to a few more new and old friends. Daizy popped over and took a few photo's (they're up on her site now - www.woodyworld.com - Tim and I are on "USAfan7" pic.). We yawned through Blue Green and then waited as the clock ticked towards ten. We were sat in the corner by the entrance, so as the band kicked into the Brontosaurus/California Man intro., Roy was stood next to us, nervously clearing his throat and greasing it with a last swig of something out of what looked like a Guinness can. Even then, he took the time to pat the head of a very young lad (how did he get in!?) who was coming in with his dad, and said hello - he really is a gentleman. Then onto stage and on with the show. Wow! Wow? Bugger me, with something large and blunt!! What a great night. Regardless of the sound issues (which were not apparent at all that night) or the small stage, the whole band was as tight as a duck's arse in water, were having the time of their lives and it showed. What a great, great show. All the better for the intimacy of the small setting. The front-line sax and trombone players especially spent the whole night grinning and laughing. It felt like the whole Village Underground was bouncing and swaying and just wallowing in the sheer joy of it all. This was a real 'happening' and a huge buzz. Too soon, oh much too soon, it was all over again. The band trooped off, as we lined up to form a guard of honour, clapping and cheering them out of the auditorium. We all hung around for a while, to exhausted and happy to leave - just wanting to soak up some more of the atmosphere. A few group pictures were taken of the Listees, two of the Thunderbirds were sat at the bar, surrounded by admirers and we all just hung around and waited..... We gathered on the stairwell, actually Rev. Ono, Tim, Kelly and I caused a pile up as we stood on the stairs and had a ciggy, took a brief look around and all slipped into back stage heaven once more. Strangely enough I did not speak to Roy, although I was stood close by. I felt that I had had enough of his time the night before, and there were so many people who wanted to greet him or get his autograph, so I just watched and listened as fans shook his hand and congratulated him on a great show. You could tell that he had put his all into the show. He had his hair tied back, had probably sweated away a good few pounds and looked to be a bit tired. Still, ever the gentleman, he took the time to speak to everybody who wanted to say hello, signed another few dozen LP's and never once broke a conversation short. He simply talked until everybody was sated. It was like having a drink with a good mate down the pub. What a delight. Everybody was so personable. I tapped Vince on the shoulder (I wanted to thank him and Roy for getting me into tonight's show) and started "Hello Vince, you probably don't know me, but I wanted to thank....", "Of course I do." he said "You're Joe Doyle". So we gabbed for a short while, then Brian and I went outside for a proposed group listee photo. Only a couple of people were out there, so we went back in to see what had happened to Joe, Tim and Co. - they had not managed to get past the bar on the way out and why was I not surprised!! We all kissed, hugged, agreed that this was a night that we would all remember, then Brian and I fought our way out through hoards of teenagers (and a few of the girls from the band getting chatted up by various young New Yorkers..) and drifted on a cloud along 3rd Street back towards the hotel. I was absolutely buzzing. I awoke Lyn and the kids and they had to sit there for the next 2 hours (it was already 0100), whilst I recounted the whole experience again - 9 times over!!!! I missed the last two shows. I was sad not to go, but my two young daughters had never been to NYC before, so we had to spend some time with them, and I truly had had an absolutely marvelous time. From what I hear, Friday was the best show, but I do believe that the whole set of shows went down very well with the crowd. I do hope that Roy goes back to the States, or maybe even Toronto, but even if he doesn't, he's left me and my wife with another experience of a lifetime. Maybe that's why, as I said my goodbye to him on Thursday, I was actually stuck for words. "well Roy, I just wanted to thank you for (thinks - what the hell DO I want to thank him for??), well to thank you for, well the last 30 years really - thanks a lot!" What more can I say, but thanks Roy, thanks Henzie, thanks Vince & everybody - y'all come back y'hear? Joe Doyle ********** Subject: Re: Welcome to the House of Love with the Roy Wood Army!!! Date: Tue, 2 Apr 2002 14:20:25 -0800 From: "Dave Woodier" Joe, Brilliant - felt like I was there with you! Dave End of Useless Information #339 ******************************* [This digest is the copyright of the Move "Useless Information" Mailing List. Re-publication or re-distribution of "Useless Information" content, in any form whatsoever, is expressly prohibited without prior written consent.]