[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 #424 December 18, 2002 In this issue: * New Move compilation (cont.) * XMAS T.O.T.P. 2 * Woody on GMTV Christmas Eve * Article: "Get rich quick with a festive hit" * Idle Race Sound Alike ============================================================== To POST TO THE LIST: Send an e-mail to: move-list@eskimo.com 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: The new Move greatest hits collection Date: Sat, 14 Dec 2002 10:15:17 -0800 From: Bernardo Quiroga First of all, thank you Rob and Lynn for giving us say about this compilation...I've read there have been oh so many compilations of The Move, it's great I can have some say on the definitive one! Hmm, I'd thought about this for some time some months ago, so I'll just say it: - First, the music: it should have music from all 5 periods of the band: The original 5-some lineup (with Ace), the "Trevor on bass" lineup, the Carl/Roy/Bev/Rick lineup, the "Jeff replaces Carl" lineup, and the final Roy/Jeff/Bev lineup. - Second, here's my attempted tracklist: 1. Brontosaurus 2. Flowers In The Rain 3. Fire Brigade 4. Useless Information (essential!) 5. Do Ya 6. Hello Susie 7. Yellow Rainbow 8. Message From The Country (essential!) 9. Omnibus (essential!) 10. Night Of Fear 11. Words Of Aaron 12. Wild Tiger Woman 13. California Man 14. Tonight 15. I Can Hear The Grass Grow 16. No Time 17. Looking On 18. Blackberry Way 19. California Girls (or "Weekend") 20. Beautiful Daughter 21. Disturbance 22. Chinatown 23. The Girl Outside 24. Wave The Flag And Stop The Train 25. Curly 26. Down On The Bay 27. Here We Go 'Round The Lemon Tree 28. Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited Of course, the sound should be remastered, although we cannot be too picky with this (we know the mastertapes are lost, so...). As you can see, I left off everything from the "Something Else" EP, since the sound is so poor! I expect this album to be a "sound" experience. Also, when I built the tracklist, I had ELO's "Light Years/Ultimate Collection" concept in mind...the best tracks put together in the most coherent form...I didn't like it for LY, but I like it for this tracklist! I like the way they flow together one into the other here...anyway, I have no idea about the lengths, but I think it fits OK the 110 minutes restriction, so there you go! (If there lacks space, you can always cut off "Curly" ;) About the artwork, it could have a painting or something...I'd like to see a depiction of the first album cover logo, but in different colors, somewhat distorted, psychedelic....otherwise, if it's not possible, just throw in the FITR/Harold Wilson postcard for good measure (ha!). What I WOULDN'T like on the front cover is another picture of the band, from any period. This should be, I guess, the definitive, career spanning, Move greatest hits compilation...there were 7 members of the group, so, if a picture of the band is put, from any period, at least 2, maybe 3, or even 4 of the band members would not be there. If there are any cool pics of the guys, put them inside the booklet... The booklet itself....plenty of colour!! Also, I think people at the list have figured out the most accurate lyrics possible to the Move songs. I think they should be included. PLEASE, not another Move biography. An album discography could be OK, although it was already on "Great Move!"...but please don't include a discography if space is needed to put the lyrics (which are essential, me thinks....I know, I know, there are plenty of copyright issues and stuff, but, hey! it's the definitive Move collection!). Full colour pics of each one of the 7 members with their name below would be pretty much welcome. I don't mind if each album brings the lyrics too, I want them HERE ;-) As for the artwork...Repertoire set up high standards...a standard jewelcase with a slipcase would be really great!! Oh, man!! I've been really really longwided this time... Once again, thanks for the opportunity given Cheers, Bernie Quiroga, from Santiago - Chile ********** Subject: Re: New Move compilation Date: Sat, 14 Dec 2002 15:14:16 -0800 From: Bob Coulter Hello, Move list! Joe wasn't kidding when he said I would time the songs. That in fact is one of my pet peeves with most Move CDs: the songs often fade out earlier than they should. I'm going to list the times the songs should be below, so perhaps we can nip that problem in the bud. CD1: Singles (including withdrawn and foreign singles) Night Of Fear 2:14 I Can Hear The Grass Grow 3:12 Flowers In The Rain (mono) 2:28 Fire Brigade (mono) 2:22 Cherry Blossom Clinic 2:30 Wild Tiger Woman 2:39 Something * 3:31 Blackberry Way 3:42 Curly 2:43 Hello Susie 4:56 Brontosaurus 4:26 When Alice Comes Back To The Farm 3:42 Turkish Tram Conductor Blues ** 4:38 Ella James 3:12 Tonight 3:17 Chinatown 3:06 California Man 3:36 Do Ya 4:03 Okay, so that's 60:17. I don't know how strict the 55 minute limit is. (Maybe CD2 could be 50 minutes if 110 total is the goal.) There has never been a CD with all the singles (including foreign and withdrawn) on it, so that's why I'd like to see that. I know Rob is theoretically opposed to a chronological sequence, but I like the way it would show the development of the band. Besides, anyone who dislikes chronology can hit the random play button. CD2 I would like to see filled with rare stuff. Not only previously unheard songs that will appear on future releases, but unheard songs that might get left off future releases due to space restraints. (For instance, we know that MESSAGE FROM THE COUNTRY plus the singles from its era would take up about 58:25, so there would probably be alternate takes left over after filling the time on the MFTC CD reissue. Put those unused extras on here.) That way, this CD will be of value to us beyond the time when the full set of reissues are released. This way, you get one CD for the hit lovers and the newcomers to the band, and one CD for the serious collectors. Bob Coulter, Bobcaygeon, Ont. * I have seen the withdrawn US Something/Yellow Rainbow single listed with YR as the A side. But A&M edited Something to 3:11 and there would be no reason to edit a B side. (I also think the US withdrawn single listed as Weekend/Blackberry Way is reversed.) ** I don't have a German Turkish Tram single, but the version that appeared on the German Repertoire CDs LOOKING ON (1993 version) and THE BEST OF THE MOVE (1997) was faster than the usual 4:48 album version. If this faster 4:38 version was the single version, then this should be on here. If these CDs were just a mistake, then put the slower version on. (I may be wrong, but comparing the two with Roy's voice on other songs, I think the fast version is at the proper speed and it was slowed down for the album.) PS: Rob wrote: > Normal service will be resumed in May 2003... Isn't the MFTC reissue coming out in March? ********** Subject: Re: Best Of The Move Comp Date: Sat, 14 Dec 2002 23:59:01 -0800 From: "Rob Caiger" Tyler Sherman wrote: >I am curious, though, about the 55 min. per disc restriction, since >CD's can hold up to 80 mins. of music. Why not utilize all that extra >space and give the fans everything they could possibly want in a 2-CD >collection? Because the price point doesn't support the band. If a double CD retails at £10.99 and the bands royalty share is based on a fraction of the dealer price at £5-6.99 (with two tracks not paid at all) isn't it giving too much away for too little? Ideally, there should be albums - especially Best Of's - at every price point: budget, mid-price, full-price and deluxe. Something for everyone. If a catalogue is supported and worked, everyone benefits. The Move's catalogue has never been supported on CD, except possibly in Germany, but even there, some of the bonus track selections on the original albums don't make sense. I know what CD's the dedicated and knowledgeable fans want but there is a huge "browser" market out there, interested in having only a best of for a particular band. The trick is to make that introductory CD enticing enough for them to investigate further - and at full price. We shall see. ********** Subject: Re: Move Compilation Date: Sun, 15 Dec 2002 03:14:45 -0800 From: c17456h >As a guide, think of this CD as an introduction to your dream >idea of a forthcoming Move remaster series. I want in that double cd: 1.- The more representative A,s and B´s sides of the singles 2.- The complete studio songs of the Shazam album 3.- A well balanced number of rarities and studio tracks of the rest of the Move albums (specially the first) I´m really interested in that marvellous project Carmelo (The Moving Man) ********** Subject: Best of Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2002 11:35:46 -0800 From: Gmcorie this is great what everyone would like to see in the next year to do with the best of. along with liner notes a dvd of all the video's, film & tapes of all and any of the members of the move. not only who, what when & where of each one's recollection of how things happen in there own eyes. that's what i would like to hear & see in the next year. louisiana george ********** Subject: Re: New Move compilation Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 04:19:22 -0800 From: Keith Fletcher Any really good version of Cherry Blossom Clinic revisited, may be live as a teaser for the much anticipated 'live at the Fillmore' CD. ********** Subject: XMAS T.O.T.P. 2 Date: Sun, 15 Dec 2002 14:19:18 -0800 From: "George Mackenzie" No Woody on XMAS T.O.T.P 2 this year, however they are showing George Cole & Denis Waterman how sad is that. Check out T.O.T.P 2's web page for more Wizzard wallpaper. http://www.bbc.co.uk/totp2/ ********** Subject: Woody on GMTV! Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 13:23:14 -0800 From: merrlynne Roy Wood will be on GMTV (UK), Singing His Yuletide Classic, I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday, on Christmas Eve. So set your VCR up now!!!! ********** Subject: Re: Woody on GMTV! Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 15:47:14 -0800 From: Gmcorie Is there anyway some of us USA list members can get a copy of Roy on GMTV Christmas Eve? louisiana george ********** Subject: Roy Wood - XMAS???? Date: Wed, 18 Dec 2002 11:58:30 -0800 From: "Paul Watkins" Well it Christmas time again J. Where is the customary list of Roy's app's on TV?? Does anyone have details? I believe Roy is on GMTV on Christmas Eve, but is he appearing anywhere else?? ********** Subject: Re: Roy Wood - XMAS???? Date: Wed, 18 Dec 2002 11:58:52 -0800 From: Lynn Hoskins >Where is the customary list of Roy's app's on TV?? Does anyone have >details? Paul, no list this year. And I noticed that the GMTV website (http://www.gmtv.co.uk) doesn't have Roy down for their Christmas Eve show. However, the Cheeky Girls are scheduled, so all is not lost. Is the show itself promoting Roy's appearance on the 24th? ********** Subject: "Get rich quick with a festive hit" Date: Sun, 15 Dec 2002 00:18:05 -0800 From: Lynn Hoskins Last Thursday's Western Mail ran a very entertaining story about whether the composer of a perennial Christmas favorite could live off that song's earnings. The author talked to Mike Batt about "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday"... "Get rich quick with a festive hit - The Best Christmas Hits Album Ever (Nos 1, 2 & 3)" Western Mail; Cardiff December 12, 2002 by Rhodri Owen So, you're working for a record company, it's the middle of July and you're compiling THE Christmas compilation album to end all others. Which songs would you pick? The first three down on most people's list would probably be John and Yoko's Happy Xmas (War Is Over), Greg Lake's I Believe In Father Christmas and Fairytale of New York by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl. It simply isn't Christmas until you've heard Lennon singing, "And so this is Christmas..." Festive pop reached a pinnacle in the Glam Rock era so, even if the 1970s left you cold, you'd have to find room for Slade, Wizzard and Mud with Merry Christmas Everybody, I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday and Lonely This Christmas. However if it's a touch of class you're looking for, then there are plenty of top-notch old standards. The grand-daddy of all Christmas hits has to be Bing Crosby's White Christmas and he also duetted with Frank Sinatra on Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. For many Dean Martin summed up the Christmas mood with Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow, as did Nat King Cole with The Christmas Song. Elvis's Blue Christmas is a festive classic and you could blindfold yourself and stab a pin into the running order of Phil Spector's Christmas Album and come up with another. Over the years almost all the superstars of pop and rock have had a stab at a Christmas hit so there's no lack of choice including Paul McCartney's Wonderful Christmastime, Bruce Springsteen's Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town and Queen's Thank God It's Christmas. Name anyone famous on the 1980s pop scene and they probably sang on Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas? Right, that's Disc One taken care of. What about something for the older generation? Disc Two's obvious choices would include Cliff Richard's Mistletoe and Wine, Harry Belafonte's Mary's Boy Child and Johnny Mathis's When A Child Is Born. Outside bets might be Bing Crosby and David Bowie's Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy and Jonah Lewie's Stop The Cavalry. You can't forget Wales, so that means Tom and Cerys's Baby, It's Cold Outside, Shakey's Merry Christmas Everyone and good old Brian Hibbard and The Flying Pickets with Only You. Then there's the sadly burgeoning catalogue of comedy Christmas recordings for Disc Three, including The Goons's I'm Walking Backwards To Christmas, The Goodies's Father Christmas Do Not Touch Me or the Smurfs's Christmas in Smurfland? And finally there's the cringeworthy St Winifred's School Choir with their emotionally-blackmailing There's No-One Quite Like Grandma - and Grandad by Clive Dunn. Any takers? Have you seen the movie About A Boy in which Hugh Grant plays a character who lives off the roy-alties of a Christmas hit single written by his father? Nice idea, isn't it? But totally unrealistic. That sort of idyllic lifestyle could only ever be dreamed up by a Hollywood scriptwriter, or a novelist, couldn't it? Or could it? Consider this. One night around 30 years ago a certain young man from the West Midlands had a few too many beers in his local pub and was too far over the limit to drive home. So instead he went back to his parents' house in Walsall where he penned a hit record which, three decades later, is still earning him a small fortune in royalties every Christmas. In his autobiography Who's Crazee Now? Noddy Holder recalls the night he came up with his perennial festive smash hit Merry Christmas Everybody as "a very lucrative night indeed". Of course the rest of his band Slade's catalogue of songs have also helped the hirsute Holder to earn a tidy living in the rock business. But his story does tend to suggest that if you come up with the right song - maybe even a one-hit wonder - you might be able to live off it reasonably comfortably for the rest of your life. Paul Barrett, a Penarth-based booking agent and manager who has worked most of his life in the music industry, agrees. "I'm quite sure if you've got a big enough Christmas record it will look after you," he says. "It will get re-issued, it will get covered by other artists, it will get selected for compilation albums. "Take one of the early Christmas hits, Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree, which was written in the mid-1950s by an American named Bobby Helms. "Brenda Lee had a hit with it, and since then it's been revived by Michael Jackson and his brothers, by a British band called The Jets and even by the comedian Mel Smith and Kim Wilde. There's probably even a trip-hop version of it. "The great thing about Christmas is that it comes round every year. It's doubtful that either the twist or disco will come back, but Christmas always will." Sounds fair enough, but there's no substitute for hearing the truth from the horse's mouth, so to speak. Or perhaps we should say the Womble's mouth. Mike Batt has spent many years at the sharp end of the music business and been directly connected to two Christmas hits - A Wombling Merry Christmas, which went to number 2 in the singles charts 1974, and David Essex's A Winter's Tale (number 2, 1982), which he co-wrote with Tim Rice. "I know that whenever I go into the supermarket before Christmas they're playing A Winter's Tale, and I'm more than happy to hear it while I'm buying my frozen peas," jokes Batt on the phone from New York's Plaza Hotel. The Plaza? No wonder he's smiling. "Roy Wood of Wizzard is a great mate of mine - a couple of years ago we did a spoof version of I Wish It Could Be A Wombling Merry Christmas EveryDay together - and his Christmas hit is one of those huge evergreens. And I know he does make a good wedge of cash at Christmas." Batt explained how an income can be generated by a Christmas standard being played on the radio every December. "Radio stations like the BBC and so on pay several million quid quarterly to The Performing Rights Society. So the PRS has a certain amount of money and they dish it out to people whose songs have been played. If your song is played 10 times a week on Radio 2 you get a certain number of points towards your final share when the money is divvied up. If you get lots of radio play at Christmas your points total adds up and you get a bigger slice of the pie." He confirms that just like the tourist and consumer industries, the record industry does a large proportion of its business at Christmas. "Noddy and Roy must open their PRS statements in the spring and hug themselves because of the money they've earned over Christmas," he said. Batt says he saw About A Boy on a plane on one of his frequent trans-Atlantic trips and he thinks the idea of living on the proceeds of a Christmas hit is possible, though in practice, unlikely. "In Britain the song would have to be one of those big, hardy perennials by Slade or Wizzard. But even then most songwriters - and I speak partly from my own experience here - are spendthrifts. Unless they have incredible control over themselves they tend to get illusions of grandeur after their first couple of hits and live well above their means. If someone took away the income from all your regular hits and asked you to live on your Christmas single, it wouldn't be easy." He reckons to make a good living as a songwriter you have to be writing hits consistently over a long period. "The amount of royalties can be very small, especially when you think that you're getting 7% of the record's cover price in the shops," he says. "The publishing company takes a chunk; your co-writer takes a chunk; whoever wrote the B-side takes a chunk; by the time you work all that out and multiply by 100,000 sales the amount you're left with is only a few quid. To be able to make enough to run a normal family you have to come back again and again with hits and you have to transcend the three-to-four year cycle of success." All right, but just how much might someone like Noddy and co-writer Jimmy Lea expect to be getting each year from Merry Christmas Everybody? "If your Christmas hit is chosen to be in a TV commercial you're looking at a figure in the pounds 100,000s," says Batt. "And if it's selected for a compilation album that's another pounds 20,000-30,000. "You might expect to get pounds 10,000 from the Performing Rights Society and, if having heard the song again the public demands a re-release and it sells 50,000 units, you're talking about another pounds 10,000." Suddenly, somehow, a total of around a quarter of a million each Christmas doesn't seem totally out of the question, does it? But before you drop everything and head off down the pub with your guitar, here's a word of caution on the matter from pop journalist Michael Heatley. "Whether you can live off a Christmas hit all depends on what contract you have signed," says Heatley. "For every pop star who has managed to get a good contract and a good royalty, there's 10 or more who have signed away their rights for a pittance. Sure, when you look at Slade's Merry Christmas Everybody, the fact that their manager Chas Chandler was in the right place at the right time no doubt ensured Holder and Lea a good deal. "But take a talented guy like Steve Marriott. He wrote all those Small Faces classics but died a very embittered man after earning little or nothing from them. And the same can happen at Christmas." Copyright © 2002 Western Mail and Echo Ltd. ********** Subject: Idle Race Sound Alike Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2002 11:13:55 -0800 From: "Greg Weatherby" I was listening to and organizing my collection of BritPsych music (and I would certainly put the classic Move 5 man line-up into this category). I have a pretty extensive collection (he says modestly). I was listening to a Swedish band called The Jackpots doing a song called "Jack In The Pot". This song has to be the closest thing that I have heard to The Idle Race (who, of course, had that Lynne guy before he joined Roy Wood's Move, and they did a few things and then went off and formed that three letter band that did a Move song) hee hee. While in no way related to The Move, or anyone in any of the ancillary bands, they sound incredibly like the Idle Race (I think, anyways). Anyone interested in hearing it? I could post an .mp3 of it if there is an affirmative action. I'm sure they listened to the Move and Roy over in Sweden (keeping it on topic as best as I can) ********** Subject: Re: Idle Race Sound Alike Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2002 15:37:27 -0800 From: "Greg Weatherby" I wrote: >...listening to a Swedish band called The Jackpots doing a song called >"Jack In The Pot". This song has to be the closest thing that I have >heard to what the....? I was reading my own post just now, and I got the title wrong.......it's actually "Jack In The Box"!.........and, no, i wasn't "in the pot" when I was typing it! Greg sheesh End of Useless Information #424 ******************************* [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.]