Liverpool Today - Birmingham tomorrow. That’s the forecast for the beat business in rock music. Yes, the Brum Beat is all set to take over from the booming Merseyside market.” - TV Times, 1965.

BIRMINGHAM is a natch for rock ‘n’ roll. It is dour and grubby, the biggest industrial city in Britain. Birmingham is flanked by coal fields, steel mills and car and engineering plants. Something a little like Detroit, in fact. And Birmingham is also the pivotal centre of the country. Stuck right in the middle. Just a handful of miles away is the Black Country: Wolverhampton, Smethwick, Dudley.

To the north lies Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield.

To the south, a hundred or so miles down the M1, is London. But most of all Birmingham is a strong working class community producing a culture which has found contemporary substance in high energy rock ‘n’ roll. Too close, perhaps, to form it’s own unique identity, but situated just right to catch whatever happens to the north or south.

And so it was in the early-Sixties. First off, there was Liverpool and “Mersey-beat.” Then the r & b groups in London. As sure as night follows day, it was certain that Birmingham would soon catch fire. It was a time when everything was neatly categorised, when even Dave Clark found himself as principle exponent of the “Tottenham Sound,” whatever that was.

Up in Birmingham it was called, with true inventiveness, “Brum Beat.” At it’s height, around 1964 and ‘65, this meant a staggering 500 or so beat groups who just happened to come from the same town. There was no one linking sound, no unifying style. Sure, all the bands had a few numbers in common, they’d all listened to Chuck Berry records, but only their backgrounds and that high energy characteristic seemed essentially Brummie.

There were the Planets, the G. Men, the Con-Chords, John Bull Breed, Gerry Levine and The Avengers, the Beachcombers, the Dominators, U.K. Bonds, the Hounds Dogs, the Renegades, the Shakers, Mark Stuart and the Cresters, the Mountain Kings, Dave Lacy and the Corvettes, the Kavern Four, the Strangers, the Senators, the Redcaps, Danny King’s Mayfair Set, the M & B Five, Denny and The Diplomats.

Most of them never made it, the vast majority were just sterile and unoriginal. But it was a bit of a giggle. They say you need a sense of humour to live in Liverpool. Well, you need a sense of endurance to stay the course in Birmingham - Denis Detheridge, editor of Midland Beat.

And some did endure. After the record companies had run berserk signing up every no-hope Liverpool band, they turned their attentions to Brum. Local journalist Denis Detheridge recognised the burgeoning Birmingham scene and formalised it with a new paper along the lines of Mersey Beat, and called it Midland Beat. It helped to give some sense of identity to the whole thing. The very first Brum single was “Sugar Baby” by Jimmy Powell and The Dimensions, issued on March 23, 1962. That was followed, in ‘63, by “Wah Wah Woo” by the Rockin’ Berries, Powell’s old group. But still there was no strong hype about “Brum Beat.” That was to come in 1964 with the release of two albums.

In February 1964, a local company called Dial Records released “Brum Beat,” billed as the “biggest showcase” of Birmingham talent, and all for 19s 7d. The album featured 14 tracks by different groups, none of which went on to better things. There were the Senators, for instance and the Sinners, the Shakers, and Mark Stuart and The Cresters.

The big companies, too were becoming interested in the possibilities. And, in May ‘64, Decca came out with their “Brum Beat” album starring the Mountain Kings, David Lacey And The Corvettes, the Blue Stars, the Strangers and the Kavern Four. That wasn’t all. Polydor was later to go completely bananas about Birmingham and sign up Bobbie Ember, The Con-Chords, U.K. Bonds, Michele, the Nightriders, the John Bull Breed and the Stringbeats.

Meanwhile, right in the middle of all this, Birmingham scored it’s first major hit record. Ironic, perhaps, but it was a limp pop effort called “Tell Me When” by the Applejacks, a group distinguished only by the fact they had a girl bass player called Megan Davis.

Finding a start to all this is like unravelling a tangled ball of string. But anyway, back in 1964 there was a Brum band called Keith Powell And The Valets. A big local band, they even had a few singles. Powell, however had visions of Stardom and left the band after recording a dire cover of Hank Ballard’s “Tore Up.” So the bass player/vocalist took over as front man and the group became Carl Wayne and the Valets, soon to change their name once again to Carl Wayne and the Vikings. At some stage during their life-span the band also included a drummer called Bev Bevan and a bass player by the name of Chris “Ace” Kefford.

They were competing with a group called Mike Sheridan and The Nightriders for the honour of being Brum’s top band. The Nightriders were Roger Spencer (drums), Dave Pritchard (rhythm guitar) Greg Masters (bass guitar) and Roy Wood (lead guitar, harmonica). But there was another band in the running, Denny and the Diplomats, which also - for a time - had Bev Bevan on drums. The group was fronted by Denny Laine. “I remember seeing Denny Laine and the Diplomats on a bill in Kidderminster with a group called Cliff Ward And The Cruisers.

In these days the Diplomats all had dyed blond hair and they wore black crocodile-skin suits, looked very effective. Cliff Ward, of course, is now Clifford T. Ward - Dennis Detheridge.

Denny And The Diplomats never did make a record, although they auditioned for EMI. Without a contract, however, the band split up and Laine went with another local band, the Moody Blues.

But anyway, back to the narrative. There was another big local band called Danny King’s Mayfair Set. King was something of a Brum hero, the musician’s musician. But he never made it. That band, however, had a guitarist called Trevor Burton.

None of these Birmingham bands had exactly succeeded. Big in Brum, perhaps, but everywhere else, well, forget it. The Moodies had rocketed to the top at the beginning of ‘65 with “Go Now,” and although they had to wait another three years for a big follow-up single. And the Spencer Davis Group - Spencer Davis (rhythm guitar), Muff Winwood (bass guitar), Peter York (drums) and Stevie Winwood (guitar, organ, vocals, piano) - broke through in December 1965 with a number one hit, “Keep On Running.”

So the following year, Ace Kefford and Carl Wayne from the Vikings joined forces with Roy Wood from the Night-riders, Bev Bevan from the Diplomats and Trevor Burton from the Mayfair Set. That was it, The Move. Right through 1967 they hit paydirt with “Night Of Fear,” “I Can Hear The Grass Grow,” “Flowers In The Rain,” followed by “Fire Brigade.” “They looked mean as hell. Eternal Brummers, dour and monosyllabic. And Carl Wayne their lead singer, did a nice line in mike throwing and Ace Kefford was the singing skull itself, his flesh eaten away, his jaws clamping endlessly on gum, his face set rigid in infinite boredom. So they were the nastiest looking bunch you could hope to meet and they sang well, they made a big noise”.. - Nik Cohn from his book Awopbopaloobop.

They were brilliant and their hustler - manager Tony Secunda was brilliant. First off, they were moody rockers, chomping TV sets. Then they were flower children, bells strung around their necks. But Birmingham is no place for peace and love and, when the craze passed, the band gratefully converted to their former image. But then came the splits. Early in ‘68. Ace Kefford left the band, to work on a single. “William Chalkers Time Machine,” with a band called the Lemon Tree.

Lemon Tree failed and Kefford went on the form a band called Ace Kefford Stand. That too flopped, although Ace surfaced again with Big Bertha and then Kefford/Bonham before dropping completely from sight. Today he’s believed to be running a boutique.

The Move continued as a quartet, although their next single “Wild Tiger Woman,” failed to make the charts. At this point Tony Secunda left the band behind and things looked a bit grim. But then the band came back once again with “Blackberry Way,” in January 1969. Only trouble was that Trevor Burton decided to leave the group to join another Birmingham band, the Uglys.

Now, the Uglys has been going since the mid-Sixties even notching up a sizeable Australian hit, “Wake Up My Mind,” in 1965. The Uglys included Steve Gibbons and, for a time Dave Pegg - the latter now with Fairport Convention. But then, a few months after Burton’s arrival, Denny Laine also joined the band. Laine had left the Moodies after “Go Now,” formed the Electric String Orchestra a similar concept to ELO - and tried to make it as a solo artist. With Laine in the band they changed the name to Balls, did a few gigs and then split up. But a year later, after several record projects which were never released, Laine and Burton joined by drummer Alan White in the Mark Two version of Balls, recording a single “Fight For My Country,” released in January 1971.

That ain’t nothing compared to what was happening with The Move. Rick Price was brought in as replacement for Burton.

Price too, was from Birmingham, playing with a band called Sight And Sound who are now doing the cabaret rounds. So, with Price in the line-up, The Move had another chart single, “Curly,” in late ‘69. But then came the splits again. This time it was Carl Wayne who decided to go, wanting to be a cabaret star.

Anyway, Wayne was replaced in The Move by Jeff Lynne who at that time, was fronting another Birmingham band called the Idle Race. Lynne had already turned down an offer to join The Move when Burton left, the Idle Race at the time being called “the most exciting group since The Beatles.” And indeed they were a superb band. Lynne was one of Britains most under-rated songwriters. Still is, in fact. And with him in the band were Greg Masters, Dave Pritchard and Roger Spencer.

His first gig with The Move was on February 28, 1970, although, perhaps, it wasn’t The Move that interested him so much as Roy Wood’s new rock/classics concept the Electric Light Orchestra.

And so, when, Wood dropped out of the ELO project to form Wizzard, Lynne took it over completely.

Rick Price, who had branched out on a few solo projects on the side, including a Sheridan/Price album with, yes, Mike Sheridan, went with Wood and so two distinct bands were formed from the embers of The Move.

What happened to the rest of the Brum bands?

Well the Spencer Davis Group also had problems when Stevie Winwood left to form Traffic. In fact Spencer Davis has never recovered from that traumatic departure. Davis, with Winwood notched up five mammoth hits in two years, following “Keep On Running” with “Somebody Help Me” “When I Come Home and “Gimme Some Loving” in 1966 and the superb “I’m A Man” in ‘67. It was a good run, producing much more than Traffic’s ever been able to come up with.

And, of course, the Moody Blues finally surfaced with a new line-up in 1968, coming up with “Nights In White Satin” and a new epic quality in rock muzak. Today they’re one of the world’s biggest rock bands, which must mean something, I suppose.

There was also a band called Earth who late ‘69, changed their name and came up with a monster first album. Today they’re called Black Sabbath, perhaps the logical extension of that high energy rock they once produced in Birmingham.

Rob Partridge, NME 1974.