Five reasons to totally love Roy Wood
He’s mostly forgotten now, but for mandatory plays of the wonderful I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday, and as the answer to the trivia question of whose was the first record played on Radio 1, but I think Roy Wood was a truly great pop star, for lots of reasons.
1. He made loads of terrific singles - a string of fine hits with the Move and Wizzard plus the one ELO single I ever liked, 10538 Overture.
2. The look: he wasn’t terribly lovely, so went for entertainment, with a colossal beard and yards of false hair in every colour of the rainbow, which he would pull out in handfuls as he performed.
3. The show: if you catch any of the old performances on TOTP2 or some such, especially those of Wizzard, there will be costumes (I fondly remember gorillas playing saxophones), dancing, backing performers and lots of larking around. There may not be any act ever who offered more fun TOTP performances.
4. With the arguable exception of George ‘Shadow’ Morton, one of the greatest geniuses in the history of pop, no one ever understood Spector’s production better than Roy Wood.
5. He made the soloest album ever - on Boulders he wrote everything, sung everything, produced everything, played nearly forty different instruments (sitar, clarinet, banjo, bagpipes…) and (the clincher) he painted the album cover.
I think he should be regarded as some kind of national treasure, personally.
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FT's pˆnk s lørd sükråt cunctor on July 20th, 2006
we need a picture!
FT's Martin Skidmore on July 20th, 2006
I did search, but I couldn’t find any good ones, astonishingly.
FT's pˆnk s lørd sükråt cunctor on July 20th, 2006
FT's pˆnk s lørd sükråt cunctor on July 20th, 2006
in my opinion this is a sixth reason
FT's Ward Fowler on July 21st, 2006
Martin, I wld place Jack Nitschze and Brian Wilson (well) above Roy Wood in the ‘deep-understanding-of-Spector-Sound’ stakes
As a child I used to find Roy TERRIFYING when I saw him on TV
FT's pˆnk s lørd sükråt cunctor on July 21st, 2006
yes but b.wilson has the burden of being a BEACH BOY = all rub all the time >:(
funf on January 28th, 2007
We desperately need 2000 signatures to persuade Warner Brothers to release Roy’s two classic albums, “On The Road Again” and “Super Active Wizzo” on CD. Please help by visiting http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/roy_wood/index.html and add your name.