New Move in Violence

Carl Wayne talks to Bill Harry

Top Pops, March 1969

PT Barnum was the greatest showman of all time. Everything he did was larger than life and full of sensationalism. He was the idol of Tony Secunda, former manager of The Move, who also believed in the outrageous and the outlandish.

It was during the period of their career when Secunda managed them that The Move shocked, startled and scandalised people throughout the country with their stunts, violence and rebelliousness.

Initially hitting the headlines when posing for photographs with a fake H-Bomb, they went on to create further juicy copy for the National newsmen in a variety of ways which culminated in that world-wide sensation when the Prime Minister sued them for libelling him on a publicity postcard. As far as Britain is concerned, those saucy days are past. At home The Move concentrate on their musical ability to attract and are quite happy to do so. However, their days of axe-wielding are not entirely behind them, as Carl Wayne recently pointed out to me:

"We'll be reviving our violent act when we tour America in the near future. We had to delay the trip when Trevor left, but we'll be going soon. In the States they want the visual and violent thing. The Who went down well there, but we believe we have a stronger, more horrific violence in our act than they have. We're doing our old act because we think it will create an immediate impression there and bring in the money. We're in it for the money and we want as much as we can get.

"Personally, we think that everyone needs to be involved in violence as an outlet, either visually or physically."

Carl pointed out that he had gathered a wealth of information regarding the American scene from some very reliable sources. "It's a completely different market and all sorts of musical styles are acceptable...but when we were originally scheduled to visit there, the American press went to town on our violent image and we decided to give them what was expected of us.

"I'm looking forward to the trip, it'll relieve a lot of the frustration in me. On stage we'll have effigies of ordinary people and smash them. We'll have the heads blow up and spatter out tomato ketchup all over the place - it'll look really horrific. We'll also be smashing up TV sets and if there's a stage in the way, we'll chop that up too. But we'll avoid political issues.

The Move don't really mind turning the clock back. "After all, we adapt our act to suit the countries we appear in. we've appeared in most countries in Europe - Scandinavia, Germany, France, Holland, Italy - and are interested in being rebooked for more money.

"Britain is the biggest influence on pop music in the world, although there's a rift increasing between England and America at the moment. A lot of British groups are interested in the Underground trend in America - but Europe and Scandinavia follow the British chart market.

"We like to play in Britain for the prestige, but there's no money in it, particularly for one-nighters. We're also tied down to playing our five hits here, that's what the people want to hear when they come to see us. But we've had no hits in the States and are free to play exactly what we want.

Carl continued to stress the group's interest in financial freedom and explained why. "our ultimate ambition is to be able to work on our own on things we want to do individually. We're compatible as a group, but need financial security. We're not poor, we all have considerable amounts of money - and if things don't work out I won't be broke. But we eventually want enough money to achieve certain goals."

Carl Wayne has been in the business many, many years - and I remember when he led the Birmingham group Carl Wayne and The Vikings five years ago. He reminisced: "Yes, it was incredible then. Everyone wore suits and worked out routines. There was none of the freedom, liberalism, ad-libbing there is now. But I think it is good for everyone to go through those early stages. It was good experience and I prefer to have made it that way."