Transcribed from the Radio 2 interview by Johnny Walker on 05/12/1997.

Roy was late arriving at Radio Two due to traffic congestion on the M1, thus the interview commenced as follows:-

Johnny Walker:- Now he's here, (laughter) how's life on the M1?

Roy Wood:- Good grief we got stuck in all that nonsense down by Luton, it was terrible.

JW:- Now Mr Wood, let's give you a big build up Roy. Now this man here, he's produced and sung on Number One records with two different bands, he recorded 30 hit singles including the first song ever played on Radio One, and he has the longest and biggest beard in the British music industry!

RW:- (Laughter).

JW:- After a time with The Move, Wizzard and ELO he has formed the Roy Wood Big Band which is rocking into the millennium acording to the posters.

RW:- Oh yes, Oh yes.

JW:- So you've been on the road since October?

RW:- Yeah we've got 25 dates finishing on the 22nd December, it's going to be all right.

JW:- It's a lot of people to marshall up in the morning to get them on the bus.

RW:- It is to be honest, but we have such a great laugh, it doesn't seem quite so much pressure, it's like going on a coach trip with all your mates, if the gigs good at the end of the night it's a bonus.

JW:- Why are you still gigging? Just for the love of it or?

RW:- Yeah, cos I enjoy it again. It got to the stage when I was doing all studio work and it was getting a bit claustraphobic with it then. I'm doing it mainly cos I enjoy being with the band you know, no other reason.

JW:- Now let's get back to the beginning. I cut my teeth at amongst other places in Birmingham at the Carlton Club, Carl Wayne and the Vikings, The Move were on there, so what was your first band?

RW:- A group called Mike Sheridan and the Nightriders, we used to play there as well.

JW:- And then what happened? Several groups broke up to form The Move?

RW:- They did yeah. We used to, there's a club called the Cedar Club, all the bands used to play there, we'd used to do like doubles, play somewhere early and we'd play at the Cedar Club later on. And if we weren't playing we'd go down there anyway and like, take the micky out of the other bands that were on, we all sort of became friends really, and I think some people would get a bit fed up, we had to be a bit of a human juke box, working and playing all the top twenty stuff and that, and I'd already written some songs anyway and you know I'd actually found someone who'd wanted to listen to them - the guys out of The Move.

JW:- With Carl Wayne on vocals?

RW:- Yeah.

JW:- And with a famous man and infamous manager called Tony Secunda.

RW:- Ever so slightly yeah.

JW:- Ever so slightly and I remember as The Who were smashing up the instruments, I think he thought a bit of violence with The Move on the front pages of the papers, it was smashing up TV's with an axe wasn't it?

RW:- Yeah. Actually, cos I think before that we were probably a better band musically but you know, I mean that caused us a bit of publicity and people were queuing up round the block at the Marquee.

JW:- But you say you were a better band before.

RW:- I thought musically I thought we were yeah.

JW:- It often happens, I remember Steve Winwood, he left the Spencer Davies Group, he said "I can't go on stage and sing Georgia On My Mind and mean it, just night after night after night". You get on the treadmill don't you? Just endless gigs.

RW:- That's the only problem. Yeah, like I was saying basically a lot of gigs on this tour, I've done like loads of times before, I enjoy being with the people in the band, there's no pressure you know, it's alright, a good laugh.

JW:- Now you can get a lot of music on a Cd, about 74 minutes worth, but it takes three to catalogue all the fine moments of The Move's career Thirtieth Anniversary Anthology, not bad when you look at this.

RW:- Yeah, it's alright, I've got a thing about compilation albums to be perfectly honest, I mean the record companies release them and don't actually get in contact with the artist so you can put some input into it, and even though it was recorded years ago they still put it on the shelf now in 1997 with your face on the front, so I really think that you should be consulted about it as to what tracks you want and which order they go in, and that matters for a good album, and a lot of them just put them in chronological order so then you might get three slow ones all together, or three fast ones all together and it doesn't like mix as a good album. This actually is quite a nice, a good collectors piece, I think you'd have to be a big fan to want it because there's a lot of stuff, bootlegged stuff on there which doesn't particulary appeal to me.

JW:- It's a shame you weren't consulted, there some box sets which the artists do get very much involved, Jimmy Page remastered all the Led Zeppelin stuff.

RW:- Yeah.

JW:- The thing I felt a bit disappointed about a box with three Cd's in that you think maybe there's going to be a bit of a booklet in there?

RW:- Yeah, they should have done that actually.

JW:- And there isn't so you take out the bit out of the front of the Cd and....

RW:- It's a bit cheap and nasty.

JW:- It could do with a few words about some of the history.

RW:- Yeah, everybody will have to ring me up and I'll tell them about it (Laughter).

JW:- All right here's one of the songs.

Plays Blackberry Way.

JW:- That's Blackberry Way from Movements the 30th Anniversary Anthology.

RW:- Blimey! I never thought I'd make it that far.

JW:- Roy Wood Big Band are on the road, in Tunbridge Wells on the 8th of this month at the Assembly Hall, 9th at Exmouth, 10th Swansea, 18th Boston at the Gliderdrome, 21st in Birmingham. Is it always good when you go back to Brum?

RW:- Yeah, it's a riot, it's great actually were are having a special one this year as well, the Walsall Jazz Orchestra are actually playing with us so it will be a super band, and I think Nigel Kennedy is going to get up and do a little bit of a scrape as well.

JW:- A bit of a scrape? Kennedy of couse.

RW:- The artist formerly known as Nige!

JW:- We'll call him Nige now just to wind him up. And we have some photographs of some of the 12 members of the Big Band and you kind of look at them and you think the auditions must have been like the Commitments, was it?

RW:- It was hell! (Laughter).

JW:- And you have got a randy trombone player?

RW:- Two of them!

JW:- Two of them! (Laughter). All right well, time to play out with the Christmas record, I guess it's back on release again this year?

RW:- Well unfortunately not, it gets played on the radio a lot but it's not re-released unfortunately but never mind.

JW:- I always loved it because right at the end the girls chorus comes in "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday" (sung with a brummie accent), and you can tell they are from Birmingham.

RW:- You certainly can. You have the Big Band version there haven't you? The live version, we actually recorded it at the Swansea festival in the summer, so that was a laugh.

JW:- All right let's see if the crowd got into the spirit of things even though it was summer time. Roy thanks for battling down the M1 to be with us.

RW:- Thanks a lot John.

JW:- Great to see you and good luck with the Big Band and the new music that you are doing.

RW:- Thanks a lot.

JW:- And we'll dedicate this to young Michael who is eight years old today and we're all pleased to hear that for his birthday present he's received his first ever radio. Happy birthday Michael and lot's of love from David, and the live version of I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday.

Plays I Wish I Could Be Christmas Everyday.

JW:- And spare a thought for poor old Woody in a band with eight other women.

RW:- Laughter.

This interview was first transcribed into 'King Of The Universe' Fanzine in 1998.