LIVE AT THE FILLMORE 1969

A prime slice of live Move, and which shows what a staggering group they were live, this is the 1969 band pre 'Jeff Lynne', but post 'Ace Kefford' and 'Trevor Burton'. The line up 'Rick Price' on Bass, 'Bullfrog Bevan' on Drums, the late 'Carl Wayne' Vocals (and the source of the tapes which make up this two disc set) and 'Roy Wood' on anything that can be plucked (guitar and Electric Sitar I believe.

Packed with Improvisation which almost pre-dates prog rock and heavy like Birmingham compatriots 'Black Sabbath'. Fans of the 'Shazam' album will love this as all but 'Beautiful Daughter' from that LP appear on this. Yes the sound may leave a little to be desired but this is far better than bootleg quality, and puts official live albums like King Crimson's 'Earthbound' for instance in the shade.
Highlights for me are the already release on the Move box set ' I can Here the Grass Grow', and the previously unheard 'Goin' Back' and the two versions of Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited'

As a bonus you also get a nice interview with Bev, 10 Minutes or so of quite insightful reminiscence of that tour.

This album shows what a great live band 'The Move' were and baring the equally good Something Else EP pretty much all there is. Embrace this as its shameful that its been stuck in a vault for over 40 years. Yes I am a very big and unapologetic Move fan but I love this. And will be playing it many times over the next few years.

In October 1969 The Move embarked on their only tour of the United States, playing - so far as I can tell from the booklet - only in Detroit (opening for The Stooges!), LA (at the Whiskey-a-Go-Go) and San Francisco, where they opened for Joe Cocker and Little Richard at the Fillmore. What you get here is all of one performance (about 80 minutes), part of a second (different versions of 3 of the same songs that appeared in the first performance) and 10 minutes of Bev Bevan reminiscing about the tour. Apparently Carl Wayne hoarded these tapes away for over 30 years in the hope that technology would develop to the point where they could be made good enough to release.

Sadly, not only did this not happen in his lifetime but technology has still not reached the point where these tapes can be made to sound like a professionally recorded official live album - and probably never will. There's no information about how exactly it was recorded but it's stereo, with strong separation between the guitar and bass. You can hear everything clearly enough - it's good bootleg quality - but the boxy sound, lacking low bass frequencies and high frequency "presence", implies it was recorded on a cassette, though the strong stereo separation and nearly inaudible applause suggests a 2-track reel to reel connected to the PA. Perhaps it only survived on a cassette copy, in which case whoever restored it for release has done a good job as it is reasonably punchy and hiss-free. Unfortunately the beginnings of the first track on each disc ("Open My Eyes" and "Fields Of People") are missing - the former lacks the power chords of the intro and is quite neatly cut in from the next riff section and the latter fades in, suggesting whoever recorded it didn't hit the record button in time.

What they actually played is fascinating. They worked up a set specially for the US tour, ditching all of their UK hits except "I Can Hear The Grass Grow" and only playing two other Roy Wood songs, "Hello Susie" and "Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited", the latter appearing twice here. All the rest of it is covers, and the selection is incredibly eclectic and all American. They must surely have been the first band ever to cover a Todd Rundgren song, opening their set with a cracking version of The Nazz's "Open My Eyes" and amazingly enough they finish with an extended version of another Nazz song, "Under The Ice" - Todd returned the favour years later by covering "Do Ya", though of course its composer Jeff Lynne was still a few months away from joining The Move at the time of this recording. By far the best-known cover here is "Goin' Back", unsurprisingly closer to The Byrds' version than Dusty's. They stretch out hugely on many of the songs, in the style of the times, and frequently drop hints of other songs in - ICHTGG has little bits of "Born To Be Wild", for instance, as well as a drum solo, and on "Under The Ice" Roy Wood keeps dropping Beatles tunes into his guitar solo. It's fair to say that this doesn't always do the songs many favours, but the performances are strong, with good harmonies, though the vocals are often mixed too high. The whole thing illustrates what a schizophrenic band The Move were - Roy Wood wrote numerous fantastic pop-rock tunes, but they didn't play them and opted instead to play a set mostly consisting of more or less obscure American covers.

As the only complete Move show available, and one that shows a different side of the band, this is a valuable and fascinating historic document. As a listening experience, however, it's probably not one you'll return to that often due to its so-so sound - it's OK but I've got better-sounding bootlegs - not of The Move, more's the pity. Shame no one ever did make a really good, professional live recording of them - the Marquee EP was a bit rough-sounding too as I recall.

AT LAST, ABOUT FORTY YEARS ON WE NOW HAVE THE PLEASURE TO LISTEN TO ONE OF THE
BEST BANDS TO COME OUT OF THE 60S,(LIVE), OK EXCLUDING THE EP SOMETHING ELSE,AND
BOY WAS IT WORTH THE WAIT,THAT SAID I MUST ADMIT IM A BIG MOVE FAN,I WAS LUCKY TO SEE THEM LIVE THREE OR FOUR TIMES, LIVE AT THE FILLMORE IS A GREAT CD BEV BEVANS DRUMMING IS MIND BLOWING, I CAN HEAR THE GRASS GROW IS ABOUT 11 MINS LONG IT COULD LAST FOR 1 HR AND IT WOULD HAVE YOU LISTENING TO IT TIME AND TIME AGAIN, FIELDS OF PEOPLE FROM THE SHAZZAM ALBUM WILL HAVE YOU ROCKING, YEP EVEN A SLOW TRACK SOUNDS LIKE 16 MINS OF PURE ROCK ON THIS CD,ONE OF THE BEST TRACKS HAS TO BE UNDER THE ICE
14 MINS LONG AND BRILLIANT IF YOU LIKE THE MOVE BUY THIS CD, IF YOU LIKE LIVE MUSIC
BUY THIS CD, BUT IF YOU DONT LIKE THEM OR LIVE MUSIC STILL BUY THIS CD,IT IS ONE OF THE BEST BUYS IN YEARS PLAY ONCE THEN PLAY IT AGAIN VERY LOUD, WOW, WELL DONE AND THANK YOU BEV, ROY, RICK,
AND GOD BLESS YOU CARL.