Post by curiousgirl on Nov 8, 2016 9:26:17 GMT
He is best known for Wizzard’s perennial Christmas novelty hit, but, as Roy Wood celebrates his 70th birthday, his idiosyncratic pop is ripe for rediscovery
On YouTube, there are a plethora of clips of Roy Wood at the height of his fame, the years between January 1967 and December 1974 when he piloted 15 singles into the Top 10, three of them No 1s. In all of the videos, he is pretty spectacular: wearing what looks like a warped version of a medieval knight’s outfit (accessorised, for some reason with a load of chains wrapped round his neck) to perform the Move’s 1968 hit Fire Brigade on Top of the Pops; fronting Wizzard’s peerless run of glam-era hits in deranged face paint, clashing tartan and explosive, multicoloured hair. But he also appears oddly uncomfortable, even when See My Baby Jive or Angel Fingers are at No 1, their glorious, chaotic updating of Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound – in which Wood’s sparkling pop hooks had to fight for space with the sound of four drummers, eight guitarists and umpteen saxophonists – outselling everything else. He keeps nervously glancing off to the side of the stage. He never looks directly into the camera, as if he thinks that ignoring it will make it go away. Roy Wood looks both like a fantastic pop star – one of those unreconstructed oddballs who wouldn’t get past reception at a major label nowadays – and someone genuinely ill at ease with the idea of being a pop star.
www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2016/nov/08/roy-wood-wizzard-the-move-glam-rock-pop-genius
photo by Alan Messer/Rex
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