the guardian, 3rd september 2004
The
rock singer Carl Wayne, best known for his work with 1960s group The Move, has
died aged 61. Helped by Wayne's vocal skills, The Move caught the mood of the
psychedelic era and enjoyed a string of hits in the late 1960s. These began with
Night Of Fear (with its borrowed motif from Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture), I Can
Hear The Grass Grow and Flowers In The Rain, and culminated in Goodbye
Blackberry Way (1968), songwriter Roy Wood's homage to John Lennon and Paul
McCartney's Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever; it was one of Wayne's most
memorable performances.
He was born Colin Tooley and grew up in
the Hodge Hill district of Birmingham. As a schoolboy he was entranced by the
American rock'n'roll of Elvis Presley, Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent. He formed
the G-Men group in the late 1950s and at 18, Tooley, now renamed Carl Wayne,
joined Birmingham group The Vikings, where his powerful baritone and pink stage
suit helped the Vikings to become one of the leading rock groups in the
Midlands.
In 1963 the group followed in the
footsteps of The Beatles and other Liverpool bands by performing in the clubs of
Hamburg's Reeperbahn red-light district. They played seven 45-minute sets each
night between 7pm and 2am. When the group returned to Birmingham, The Beatles
had broken into the charts and record companies were on the lookout for other
guitar bands. The Vikings eventually signed with Pye Records, but their three
singles were not commercial successes.
Undeterred, Carl Wayne joined The Move,
a Brum beat supergroup drawn from three top bands. It included three members of
the Vikings (bass guitarist Ace Kefford, drummer Bev Bevan and Wayne himself),
Trevor Burton, lead guitarist with Danny King and the Mayfair Set, and the
flamboyant Roy Wood from Mike Sheridan And The Nightriders. Their dynamic and determined manager
Tony Secunda kitted out The Move with gangster-style suits and secured a
residency at London's Marquee Club. He encouraged Carl to construct a stage
persona that regularly smashed or set fire to television sets, effigies of
politicians and on one occasion the Marquee's stage. This resulted in the
streets of Soho being jammed with fire engines. The band's controversial image
led to a recording deal. Secunda's most outrageous prank was to publicise the
release of Flowers In The Rain, the first record to be played on Radio One, with
a postcard containing an image of the then prime minister, Harold Wilson, in a
compromising position. The resulting furore, including a successful libel suit
against Secunda and The Move, led to a split between group and manager. The following year, The Move itself
began to split as Kefford and Burton left the band. This was followed by clashes
between songwriter Wood and singer Wayne that resulted in the the latter leaving
in early 1970. His successor was Jeff Lynne from the Idle Race, another
Birmingham beat group.
As a solo performer Carl Wayne carved
out a career as a singer and actor from the early 1970s until his death. He sang
in cabaret and on television, recording versions of songs from the shows of
Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. He recorded numerous voiceovers and jingles
and had a small role in the Birmingham-based soap opera Crossroads. He later
became a presenter on BBC Radio WM. His most acclaimed stage role was as the
narrator in Willie Russell's Blood Brothers between 1990 and 1996.
For the past five years, he had been
the lead singer of the current version of the great Manchester group The
Hollies, touring Europe and Australasia with them. The Hollies' drummer Bobby
Elliott described him as "a fearless performer and powerhouse singer".
A fundraiser for leukaemia research,
Carl Wayne is survived by his wife, the former Crossroads actress Sue Hanson,
and son Jack.