The Move – Fire Brigade (Something for the Weekend)

February 28th, 2009

… Cast your mind back ten years to the girl who’s next to me in school, If I put my hand upon her leg she’d hit me with a rule …

Surely one of the greatest opening lines to a song in musical history, provided by one of its greatest bands. Birmingham’s very own, The Move.

Here at Head Full of Snow, we love The Move. They sit exclusively on a list of bands that could do no wrong, having disbanded and become the equally mighty Electric Light Orchestra in 1972 -- long before the dawning of the 80s turned many a fine group sour.

This is the wonderful ‘Fire Brigade’ from their eponymously-titled debut album of 1968, featuring the original line-up of the mighty Roy Wood (the creative force behind The Move and the one doing the singing on this track), Carl Wayne (usually the main singer, here providing harmony), Bev Bevan (drums), Trevor Burton (guitar) and Chris ‘Ace’ Kefford (bass and wearing a superior hat he must’ve liberated from Jimi Hendrix’s wardrobe).

At this point, The Move were still popsters with a psychedelic edge. They would go on to embrace psychedelia fully and then move into the realms of progressive rock, losing three of the original members along the way, before becoming the Electric Light Orchestra.

There will be features on The Move and Roy Wood, as well as reviews of their four albums and the recently released and superlative Anthology 1966-1972, in the near future.

Until then, take time to enjoy ‘Fire Brigade’.