The Move His professional music career started with a stint with
Denny Laine in his group Denny Laine and the Diplomats, then with
Carl Wayne & the Vikings, followed by
the Move in 1966. The Move was known for being the boost to fame for
Roy Wood. The Move's highest-selling songs are "
Fire Brigade" and "
Blackberry Way". ,
Roy Wood,
Ace Kefford, Bev Bevan and
Trevor Burton Bevan has a deep singing voice. With the Move he sang lead on a remake of "
Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart" and the
country and western spoof, "Ben Crawley Steel Co". He composed one Move song: "Don't Mess Me Up", an
Elvis Presley spoof from the album
Message from the Country, which was also the B-side of the Move's single "
Tonight". He is also credited with writing the rock-blues "Turkish Tram Conductor Blues" on
Looking On:
Roy Wood actually composed the song, but gave the songwriting credit to Bevan as a reward for his promotional efforts on behalf of the band. They released their final single, "
California Man", in 1972.
Bev Bevan's Move After Carl Wayne died in 2004, the drummer formed Bev Bevan's Move with Phil Tree and former ELO Part II colleagues
Phil Bates and Neil Lockwood, to play a set comprising mostly Move classics on tour. Bates left in July 2007 to re-join ELO Part II, by then renamed to
The Orchestra. Bevan was then joined by former Move guitarist
Trevor Burton.
Electric Light Orchestra The Move’s spinoff,
Electric Light Orchestra, was formed by Bevan, Wood, and
Jeff Lynne in 1970. They released their first album in 1971, by which time the Move existed only as a recording outfit. Among ELO's output, Bevan's distinct baritone vocals can be heard most prominently on "
Fire On High" and "
Strange Magic", both from the album
Face the Music (1975). Often called one of the most influential groups in music history, their songs "
Mr. Blue Sky", "
Sweet Talkin' Woman", "
Livin' Thing" and "
Don't Bring Me Down" left an impact on 1970s music, all written, composed and sung by Jeff Lynne. He recorded a solo single in 1976, a cover of the
Sandy Nelson instrumental "
Let There Be Drums". Bevan played on all Electric Light Orchestra and ELO Part II albums up to 1999. In 1980 he published a historical memoir of the Electric Light Orchestra. In 1982, Bevan played drums on the solo album released by ELO bassist and co-vocalist
Kelly Groucutt. In 1988, Bevan approached Lynne with a proposal to reunite ELO, record a new album and embark on a world tour. Lynne declined to participate and would not allow Bevan to use the Electric Light Orchestra name, thus Bevan managed to swerve around this by forming a spinoff group called
ELO Part II. While initially the sole member of Part II to have been involved with the original band, Bevan was eventually joined by ELO violinist
Mik Kaminski, Kelly Groucutt and ELO orchestrator
Louis Clark, all of whom toured and recorded with Part II for the majority of the 1990s. Bevan ultimately departed Part II in November 1999 and sold his share of the ELO name back to Jeff Lynne.
Black Sabbath In 1983, he replaced
Bill Ward in Black Sabbath for the
Born Again Tour. Bevan was known for his heavy powerhouse drumming during this tour. He also appeared in Sabbath's videos "
Trashed" and "
Zero the Hero". A headlining appearance at the 1983
Reading Festival – extracts of which appear on a reissue of
Born Again – was only Bevan's second gig with the band. "It was just all over the shop", recalled guitarist
Tony Iommi. "Bev didn't know [the songs] at all. He did try. As we went on the tour, he did get a lot better… We went to America and he done good. That particular stage, doing the Reading Festival, was a definite wrong for us." Bevan rejoined Black Sabbath briefly in 1987, recording percussion overdubs for the album
The Eternal Idol, but was replaced by
Terry Chimes after refusing to play shows in South Africa, which was at the time under
apartheid rule.
Later works Bevan appeared on
Paul Weller's 2010 album
Wake Up The Nation and played drums on two songs: "Moonshine" and "Wake Up The Nation". Weller told him that he was his second choice; his first choice would have been
Keith Moon. Bevan formerly presented a radio show on
BBC Radio WM on Sunday afternoons. He also reviews records for the Midlands newspaper
Sunday Mercury and has a blog on its website. It was announced at the Best of
Broad Street Awards on 17 January 2011 that Bevan would be honoured with a star on the
Birmingham Walk of Stars. Bevan is also a patron of The Dorridge Music School (Knowle). In 2012, Bevan narrated the audiobook version of
Tony Iommi's biography
Iron Man – My Journey Through Heaven and Hell. Bevan's 2014 calendar contained no fewer than 102 gigs in 11 months, some of which formed the final gigs for the Move, before Bevan and Burton went their separate ways again. In 2014, Bevan joined Quill, a Birmingham-based band. As of 2022, the Bev Bevan Band had played gigs with Bev's former school mate
Jasper Carrott under the name "Stand Up and Rock" since 2017. ==Personal life==