Roy Wood & his Band - 'Xmas Show Special'
Roy Wood & his Band Xmas Show Special
Featuring Roy Wood & his Rock ‘N Roll band performing all his classic hits, "I Can Hear The Grass Grow," "Flowers In The Rain," "Blackberry Way," "California Man," "See My Baby Jive," "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday"... and much more.
Born in Birmingham, Roy’s first instrument was drums, which is the only instrument he has ever had any tuition on! Influenced by Hank Marvin's sound, he took up playing guitar, and formed a group called The Falcons at the age of fourteen.
At seventeen, he became founder of The Move, who went on to enjoy multiple chart successes with songs all written by Roy himself, including "Flowers In The Rain," which reached No. 2 in the chart, and was the first record to be played on BBC Radio One. Also "Night Of Fear," "Fire Brigade” and “I Can Hear The Grass Grow” were all top five hit singles, and "Blackberry Way" was a number one record in the British singles chart.
In 1970, Roy teamed up with fellow Birmingham songwriter Jeff Lynne, who joined The Move for their final two albums. The final single recorded by The Move during this period was "California Man”.
Roy had an ambition, over a number of years, to form a classically based band featuring live strings instead of the conventional guitar line up. Together with Jeff, they formed Electric Light Orchestra.
After leaving ELO, he formed a rock n roll style pop band which he called “Wizzard," together with long time friend Rick Price, bassist with The Move, and a bunch of buddies from Birmingham.
Wizzard went on to score seven major hit records, including two number one singles "See My Baby Jive " and " Angel Fingers". This was followed by one of the biggest Christmas anthems of all time, “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day".
Apart from recording and performing with Wizzard, Roy also had solo hit singles in his own right, two of which entered the top ten U.K. chart: “Dear Elaine” and “Forever”.
Roy has won many awards, including the Ivor Novello Award for Most Outstanding Song Collection, the Kerrang Songwriter Award, Rock Radio's Classic Songwriter Award, Mojo Honours List, Classic Songwriter Award, and in January 2008, the Degree of Honorary Doctor of Music was conferred upon him from The University of Derby. He was given his own star on The Birmingham Walk of Stars in 2010.
Roy has so far written more than thirty U.K. top 30 chart singles, and is one of the very few people to have written and performed on number one hits with three different acts: The Move, Wizzard and ELO.
Don’t miss this exclusive show!
www.roywood.co.uk
with support from THE VALS
The Vals are a well-travelled 60’s influenced pop band from Belfast.
Recently they were invited by Paul Weller to join him as special guests for his entire European tour, playing alongside the Modfather from Brussels to Berlin.
During that period The Vals released the LP ‘Wildflower Way’ to much acclaim, winning best album at the Galaxy Awards, London and showcasing their music on radio and television across Europe, the UK and Ireland. This included appearances on television to over 4 million viewers.
In recent years the band have shared the stage with Peter Green (Fleetwood Mac), The Zombies, Jeff Beck, Ocean Colour Scene, Echo and the Bunnymen and more.