Carl Wayne - "I don't really like our music"

Disc and Music Echo, March 9th 1968

Interview by Steve Webbe

You'll never believe it - Carl Wayne, lead singer of the explosive Move used to work for an explosives firm! But despite the group's outrageous, anarchic image, 23 year-old Brummie Carl would like to do cabaret - and sing numbers like "Maria," "Stay With Me Baby," and "Take Another Piece of My Heart."

"Although it's great to be in the Move, I don't really like the music we play," he told me as the group stood by for their fourth 'Top of the Pops' appearance in five weeks. "But a lot of things offset the boredom of repeating a hit record," Carl went on, "especially audience appreciation."

The group's destructive stage act which terrified a good few dance hall managers earned them an enviable fame. "It made us a world-wide name without world-wide hits," Carl observed. "All's fair in love and war and the pop business as long as you don't step on other people's toes."

Would he draw the line anywhere in the quest for publicity? "Certain types of publicity are damaging. I mean, I don't condemn the use of drugs and I quite enjoy a smoke myself, but I wouldn't want to preach acid-taking - that's something that would hang the kids up."

He admitted the group had set out to attract publicity. "But it's not all publicity. It's the way we are, the way we feel."

I asked Carl what he most liked about the pop scene. "The life," he replied immediately, "I've met a lot of people both in the pop business and outside it and my outlook has definitely broadened. Of course we're in it for the money but we always try to put 100 per cent personal effort into whatever we do. I feel incredibly honoured to be invited on to shows like 'Top of the Pops' when you think of the competition to get there."

The Move don't make plans, least of all for record releases. "We don't work to a pattern and we just bring out a record when we need one."

The group has released four singles over the last 18 months and devoted some 15 months to one LP. In contrast, Carl said the group may release four or five albums this year.

Carl has a refreshingly original view of the pop world. "The only people who say it's phony are the purists and the pretentious purists," he said. But he is critical of groups who don't make their own records. "It's certainly not fair that groups like the Love Affair should receive the adoration and royalties for something they didn't do."

Carl left school at 18 with 10 'O' levels - just missing out on three 'A' levels. "I was never a natural scholar and playing in a school group took up my time," he said. "But I've never regretted anything in my life, in fact I'm very happy with the way it's turned out. I thought I could make it and I didn't give up, even though my mother didn't agree with me."

The group's success has meant wealth but Carl claims he never buys anything except food. "I might buy some clothes but mostly I spend money on good food - especially Italian and Indian. I like calamares and Tandoori and back home I eat at the Albany and when in London often at the Bagdad."

Carl matches a taste for exotic food with a liking for sentimental sounds. His favourite artists include P.J Proby, Lorraine Ellison, Irma Franklin, the Beatles and Count Basie. Besides cabaret ambitions, Carl would like to appear in a comedy film and he insists his Move membership is paving the way for the next stage of his career. But a change of scene is far from his thoughts. "When we've made one hit record we want to make more and we'd like to experiment on LPs as well."

Besides acting aims, Carl would like to do a lot of foreign travel and see his mother "very well settled." Meanwhile Move-mania grows and this month the group tour Holland, Belgium and France, and in June they leave for an American tour, chiefly on the West Coast. "I feel sorry for Britain and its economy. Unless the country can find something of great value to export I don't see anything can be done to improve the situation," observed Carl. "Pop is doing its share but why does everybody knock it? - the business is one of the biggest tax sources in the country."

Carl believes that the rich besides helping the country should help the underprivileged. "Wealthy people should contribute to animal homes and old folk homes," he said. And he disappeared into a cloud of special effects smoke for a run-through of "Fire Brigade."