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(Redirected from Roy Wood's Helicopters) English rock musician (born 1946) This article is about the English musician. For other people, see Roy Wood (disambiguation).

Roy Wood
Wood in 2011Wood in 2011
Background information
Born (1947-11-08) 8 November 1947 (age 77)
Birmingham, Warwickshire, England
Genres
Occupations
  • Musician
  • singer
  • songwriter
  • record producer
  • composer
Instruments
  • Vocals
  • guitar
  • bass
  • cello
  • saxophone
  • oboe
  • percussion
  • keyboards
Years active1964–present
Labels
Formerly of
Political partyReform UK (2019-present)
Other political
affiliations		UKIP (before 2019)
Spouse(s)Unknown (divorced)
Maureen Holmes (divorced)
Websiteroywood.co.uk
Musical artist

Roy Wood (born 8 November 1947) is an English musician, singer and songwriter. He was particularly successful in the 1960s and 1970s as member and co-founder of the Move, Electric Light Orchestra and Wizzard.

Wood formed the Move in 1965, and had hits including "Flowers in the Rain". While the Move were still together, Wood, along with his band colleagues Jeff Lynne and Bev Bevan, founded Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), which was later to gain major commercial success. After increasing tensions, Wood left ELO in 1972 and formed a new group, Wizzard, who had seven hits, including Wood's most regularly broadcast song, "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day".

As a songwriter, Wood contributed a number of hits to the repertoire of the Move, ELO and Wizzard. Altogether, he had more than 20 singles in the UK Singles Chart under various guises, including three UK No. 1 hits. Wood was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 as a member of Electric Light Orchestra.

Career

Early years

Roy Wood was born on 8 November 1947 in Kitts Green, a suburb of Birmingham, England. For some years the legend persisted that his real name was Ulysses Adrian Wood, until it was revealed that this was probably the result of somebody close to the Move in their early days filling in such names on a 'lifelines' feature for the press as a joke. His first group in Birmingham in the early 1960s was the Falcons, which he left in 1963 to join Gerry Levene and the Avengers. He then moved to Mike Sheridan and the Nightriders (the band later became the Idle Race). He attended the Moseley College of Art, but was expelled in 1964.

The Move

The Move/Electric Light Orchestra in 1972

The Move was formed from other Birmingham-based groups, and quickly entered the UK Singles Chart. Their single "Night of Fear" climbed to No. 2 in early 1967. Their third hit, "Flowers in the Rain", was the first song played by Tony Blackburn at the launch of BBC Radio 1 on September 30, 1967, and the band evolved over a three-year period. After the departure of the Move's lead singer Carl Wayne, Wood's influence became more prominent. In 1967, Wood (and fellow Move member Trevor Burton) sang backing vocals on the track "You Got Me Floatin'", on the Jimi Hendrix Experience's album Axis: Bold as Love.

Wood was keen on musical experimentation, and was an early proponent of combining rock and roll and pop music with other styles, such as classical music, or the big band sound, and introduced classically styled string and brass sections into the pop record. In early 1972, Wood's composition "Songs of Praise" was shortlisted by the BBC as one of six possible choices for the UK entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1972. When performed by the New Seekers on the Cliff Richard vehicle It's Cliff Richard!, the song finished in last place with 3,842 votes. The group included the track on their album We'd Like to Teach the World to Sing. Wood recorded his own version of "Songs of Praise", releasing it on the B-side of his 1973 single, "Dear Elaine".

Electric Light Orchestra

While the Move were still together, Wood, along with his band colleagues Jeff Lynne and Bev Bevan, founded Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), which was later to gain major commercial success. The original intention was to split up the Move at the end of 1970, but contractual obligations meant that both they and ELO existed together for a year, until the former finally broke up in June 1972.

In 2017, the ELO line-up of Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne, Bev Bevan, and Richard Tandy were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Early ELO concerts and formation of Wizzard

ELO's early live performances were chaotic, due to both poor sound quality of the string instruments competing against the guitars and drums, as well as Wood's constant moving from instrument to instrument during the shows (playing bass, guitar, cello and saxophone). After increasing tensions, Wood left in July 1972 at the start of the second album sessions, following a trip to Italy. He formed a new group, Wizzard, which assembled cellists, brass players and a bigger rhythm section, with several drummers and percussionists. Wood emulated the wall of sound production style of Phil Spector while successfully and affectionately pastiching the rock and roll style of the early 1960s. Wizzard had seven UK Singles Chart hits with different songs during this period including two consecutive singles, "See My Baby Jive" and "Angel Fingers" which reached the top of that chart. Meanwhile, he released several solo albums, exploring further musical directions. His 1973 album Boulders was an almost entirely solo effort, right down to the sleeve artwork, with Wood playing a wide variety of musical instruments. A second solo album, Mustard, released in 1975 and including contributions by Phil Everly and Annie Haslam, was less successful.

Roy Wood (left) with his band Wizzard, May 1974

Post-Wizzard

By the late 1970s, Wood was appearing less in public; commercial success faded away, and his musical experiments did not always match popular taste, but he remained productive in the studio as musician, producer and songwriter. He was a fan of Elvis Presley, but never succeeded in getting him to adopt one of his compositions. He was untiring as a producer for other acts, most successfully doo-wop revivalists Darts. In 1976, Wood recorded the Beatles songs "Lovely Rita" and "Polythene Pam" for the ill-fated musical documentary All This and World War II.

The Wizzo Band and subsequent work

In 1977, he formed Wizzo Band, a jazz-rock ensemble, whose only live performance was a BBC simultaneous television and radio broadcast in stereo. The Wizzo Band split early the following year after cancelling a nationwide tour.

Between 1980 and 1982, Wood released a few singles under his own name and also as Roy Wood's Helicopters, and played some live dates under this name, with a band comprising Robin George (guitar), Terry Rowley (keyboards), Jon Camp (bass) and Tom Farnell (drums). The release of what would have been the last of these singles, "Aerial Pictures", backed with "Airborne", was cancelled owing to the lack of chart success for its predecessors, but both sides appeared for the first time in 2006 on a compilation CD, Roy Wood – The Wizzard!. "Aerial Pictures", using the original backing track, subsequently became a solo single for Carl Wayne, the Move's former vocalist.

Wood also made a one-off rock and roll medley single with Phil Lynott, Chas Hodges and John Coghlan, credited to The Rockers, "We Are The Boys" (1983), and played a leading role in the Birmingham Heart Beat Charity Concert 1986, on 15 March 1986, which was later partly televised by the BBC. As well as designing the logo, Wood performed in a line-up which also included the Electric Light Orchestra and the Moody Blues.

After a hiatus following the release of the album Starting Up (1987), a cover version of the Len Barry hit "1–2–3", and a guest vocal appearance on one track on Rick Wakeman's The Time Machine, he went on the road with a band billed as Roy Wood's Army. He also wrote and recorded two tracks with Lynne in 1989 ("If You Can't Get What You Want" and "Me and You"), which were never released.

Wood playing Bagpipes in 2013

His most regularly broadcast song is the seasonal Wizzard single "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday", which remains one of the most played Christmas songs in the UK. In 1995, Wood released a new live version as the 'Roy Wood Big Band', which charted at No. 59, and in 2000 he joined forces with Mike Batt and the Wombles, for a re-working of "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday" and the Wombles' hit "Wombling Merry Christmas", together in one song which reached No. 22. Over Christmas 2007, Wood appeared in a catalogue advertisement for Argos, where he played the part of a rowdy neighbour playing guitar along to Wizzard's "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday", and the song once again entered the UK Singles Chart, peaking at No. 16. In the 2010 Christmas special of the ITV comedy Benidorm, Wood in a cameo role performed his Christmas hit at the Benidorm Palace cabaret theatre. He later performed with Wizzard on the Christmas edition of Pointless Celebrities in December 2013.

Wood formed the Roy Wood Rock & Roll Band for occasional live dates and television performances in the UK. They were the support act for Status Quo at several UK dates in the weeks leading up to Christmas 2009 and 2011. In December 2018, Wood and his band's touring equipment worth £100,000 was stolen following a ram-raid on a warehouse in Leeds. The police later recovered the van and equipment in East Ardsley.

Personal life

Wood currently lives in South Derbyshire. He voted to leave the European Union in the 23 June 2016 referendum, and in May 2019 joined the Brexit Party. Beforehand, he was a longtime member of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), and expressed interest in standing as a candidate for the party in 2004. Wood has one daughter, named Holly.

Legacy

The BBC described Wood in 2008 as being "responsible for some of the most memorable sounds of the Seventies" and "credited as playing a major role in the glam rock, psychedelic and prog rock movements". In 2008, Wood was awarded an honorary doctorate for his contribution to rock and pop by the University of Derby. In 2015, his long and eclectic career was recognised with the "Outer Limits" award at the Progressive Music Awards in London.

Wood was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 as a member of Electric Light Orchestra.

Discography

Chronological album discography

For the complete Move discography see The Move Discography
For the complete ELO discography see Electric Light Orchestra discography
For the complete Wizzard discography see Wizzard Discography
List of songs written by Roy Wood

Solo albums

Year Title UK US Billboard 200 Notes
1973 Boulders 15 176
1975 Mustard – –
1979 On the Road Again – – Not released in the UK
1987 Starting Up – –

Sources:

Collaboration album

Year Title UK US Billboard 200 Notes
1973 The London Bo Diddley Sessions – – Wood played bass on this recording

Source:

Charting compilation album

Year Title UK US Billboard 200 Notes
1982 The Singles 37 –

Source:

Solo singles

Year Title UK AUS Credited to
1972 "When Gran'ma Plays the Banjo" – –
1973 "Dear Elaine" 18 –
1973 "Forever" 8 43
1974 "Goin' Down the Road" 13 –
1975 "Oh What a Shame" 13 –
1975 "Look Thru' the Eyes of a Fool" – –
1976 "Any Old Time Will Do" – –
1979 "(We're) On the Road Again" – –
1980 "Rock City" – – Roy Wood's Helicopters
1980 "Sing Out the Old... Bring in the New" – –
1981 "Down to Zero" – –
1981 "Green Glass Windows" – – Roy Wood's Helicopters
1982 "It's Not Easy" – –
1982 "O.T.T." – –
1983 "We are the Boys (Who Make All the Noise)" – – The Rockers
1985 "Under Fire" – –
1985 "Sing Out the Old... Bring in the New" – – (New recording)
1986 "Raining in the City" – –
1987 "1–2–3" – –

Source:

Collaboration singles

Year Title UK US Billboard Hot 100 Credited to
1969 "Dance Around the Maypole" – – Acid Gallery
1977 "I Never Believed in Love" – – Annie Haslam and Roy Wood
1984 "Hong Kong Swing" – – Cruella de Ville
1986 "Waterloo" No. 45 – Doctor and the Medics featuring Roy Wood
1995 "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday" No. 59 – Roy Wood Big Band
2000 "I Wish It Could Be A Wombling Merry Christmas Everyday" No. 22 – The Wombles with Roy Wood
2009 "My Christmas Card To You" – – The Shooting Stars

Source:

Songs recorded and released by other artists

Song Artists(s) Source
"Ball Park Incident" The Flashcubes
"Blackberry Way" The New Seekers, Gotthard, Tom Northcott, Cheap Trick, Marillion, the Wonder Stuff, the Flashcubes
"Brontosaurus" The Supernaturals, Tim Curry, Cheap Trick, the Flashcubes
"California Man" Cheap Trick, Nancy Sinatra, Drake Bell
"Caroline" The Casuals
"Curly" The Flashcubes
"Dance Round The Maypole" Acid Gallery
"Ella James" The Nashville Teens
"Farewell" Ayshea Brough
"Fire Brigade" The Fortunes
"Flowers in the Rain" Nancy Sinatra, Carl Wayne and Magnum, Kaiser Chiefs, Claude François, Strange Hobby, Annie Haslam
"Forever" The Flashcubes
"Givin' Your Heart Away" The Flashcubes
"Hazel Eyes" Neil Reid
"Hello Susie" Amen Corner, the Flashcubes
"I Can Hear the Grass Grow" Blues Magoos, the Fall, Status Quo, Jellyfish, You Am I, The Grip Weeds, the Flashcubes
"(Here We Go Round) The Lemon Tree" Jason Crest, Ant-Bee, Idle Race
"I Never Believed in Love" Annie Haslam
"I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday" Les Fradkin, Sarah Brightman, Eve Graham, Frank Sidebottom, Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers, Flash Cadillac & the Continental Kids, Paul Brooks, Tweenies, Die Toten Hosen, Wilson Phillips, Nick Lowe, Leona Lewis, Cheap Trick, Kylie Minogue, All Star United
"On Top of the World" The Flashcubes
"Rock 'N' Roll Tonight" Cheap Trick
"Rockalise – To Alison" Annie Haslam
"See My Baby Jive" Flash Cadillac & the Continental Kids, Showaddywaddy, Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers
"Sing Out the Old...Bring In the New" Darts
"Songs of Praise" The New Seekers (a finalist in the UK selection competition for the Eurovision Song Contest 1972)
"The Rain Came Down on Everything" The Flashcubes
"Tonight" The New Seekers
"Whisper in the Night" Graham Bonnet
"Wild Tiger Woman" The Flashcubes
"Yellow Rainbow" The Rockin' Berries

References

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External links

Roy Wood / Wizzard
Studio albums
Singles
Related articles
The Move
Studio albums
Live albums
Compilation albums
Singles
Related articles
Electric Light Orchestra
Studio albums
Live albums
Soundtracks
Compilations
Singles
Videography
Tours
Touring members
Related articles
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – Class of 2017
Performers
Award for Musical Excellence
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