Roy Wood deserved better
- aimeeelkington153
- Nov 21, 2025
- 7 min read
Roy Wood changed music. And everybody sort of forgot.
So who’s Roy Wood? From the mid 60’s through the 70’s Wood quietly changed the sound of both pop and rock.
By 23, he had already written 5 top 5 hits, including a No.1., and he kept right on that way through his career. The guy was a machine.
So why don’t people talk about him today?
Roy always had musical potential. Born in 1947 in Birmingham, he showed the signs right off the bat, picking up drums and even joining his sister's wedding band onstage at the tender age of 6.
He then attended the Moseley School of Art, and after a fateful night watching The shadows was awed by Hank Marvin’s sound. He swore to take up guitar - which he quickly mastered.
With his musical background growing, Roy started his first band aged 14 - The Falcons. He cut his teeth with them for a few years before leaving to join Birmingham band Gerry Levene and the Avengers - his first professional gig - at just 15.
So at a time when most teenagers are just starting to discover their music preference and maybe go to a show, Roy was already being paid to play them. He was always ahead of the curve - and his career showed it.
Around this time he started writing his own material, and in ‘65 - aged 17 - formed The Move.
This was the start of his incredible streak of hits.
They played an energetic blend of rock and pop, with a knack for theatrical performances. There were some psychedelic influences in there as well. A solid recipe. Roy handled lead guitar and was their primary songwriter, and also chipped in on vocals.
In fact, most of the band members helped on vocals at one point or another. Even at this stage was an accomplished multi instrumentalist and would play others, like keyboards, on their tracks.
In later years, he would be known to play almost anything on their recordings, and produce too.
And their very first release was a hit, 1966’s Night Of Fear.
Apparently Roy didn’t know how to miss. Over the next 14 months, The Move released four more top 5 hits, the lowest chart place being 5th.
Blackberry Way was No.1. It’s widely seen as their masterpiece.
And they weren’t just catchy pop jingles either: The Move explored with a layered sound, pushed by Wood, using strings, keys, orchestral accompaniments, all sorts. They were praised for their compositions and production level.
By the early 70’s they were moving away from their poppy roots and closer to something you could call orchestral rock.
But all this orchestral stuff gave Roy an idea.
He wanted to pursue a bigger, more experimental sound incorporating classical instruments and strings rather than your classic guitar stuff, and focus on theatrical elements.
At the same time, he had started a friendship with one Jeff Lynne, another Birmingham based guitarist, singer and songwriter.
Yes, this is the start of Electric Light Orchestra. Wood was impressed with Lynne’s song writing and guitar skills. He’d been playing with a band called The Idle Race, and whilst they were good, they hadn't yet seen much commercial success.
Jeff wanted more. And he shared Roy's vision. Inspired by tracks like Eleanor Rigby by The Beatles, they wanted to push boundaries.
So they started a side project together around 1970, borrowing drummer Bev Bevan from The Move, and bringing in various classical musicians.
Roy was still in The Move at this point, and would run both simultaneously for a couple years. But Electric Light Orchestra was taking up more and more of his creative focus.
Their first album dropped in ‘71, the self-titled Electric Light orchestra, It introduced their new sound and really achieved what they set out to do: It’s a great blend of rock and orchestra.
Roy Wood played basically every instrument he could get his hands on in this album. Electric guitar, acoustic, bass, cello, woodwind instruments including the clarinet and bassoon - I'd never even heard of a bassoon.
He also traded lead and backup vocals with Jeff Lynne, and had a guiding hand in the production of the album. He really was a captain.
Tracks like Mr. Radio and Nellie Takes Her Bow helped further showcase their compositions and creative flair, and so did a fun cover of Roll Over Beethoven.
This album was pioneering - it was a hallmark in the fusion of rock and orchestra. It changed the landscape of what a rock band could be, and gave everyone else a bit more space on the canvas. It really was one of the most influential albums of the early 70’s.
And the point is, a large majority came from the mind and hands of Roy Wood.
Despite the success of ELO, it wasn’t long before he left the band. He’d only just left The Move in early 1972, and had toured ELO and begun work on their second album. But it wasn’t to be.
The details get a bit hazy, but it’s believed he had political and personal disagreements with management.
Roy has openly criticized manager Don Arden. He told Birmingham Mail in 2012:
“He was the man who ruined my career. His business dealings all came out in the end, but at the time it was reported that I’d had a huge row with Jeff Lynne. That simply wasn’t true. We’ve never had a real row and we’re still mates now."
Lynne seemed to think there was the ever present ‘creative differences’ that seem to plague any good band.
Him and Lynne were both brilliant songwriters and musicians, and could produce. Inevitably, they disagreed on musical direction and sound. There were too many cooks in the kitchen.
When asked by Q Magazine in 1990, Lynne had this to say:
“I don’t know. We were both sort of producers, and it got to the point where you’d go to the studio and it’d be who could get to the desk first: I’m doing this bit! No, I’m doing this bit! And it got to be childish, really. And he’d already formed this other group, Wizzard, without telling us. There was no notice. He said, "I've got this other group, see ya!”
What’s that about Wizzard? Yep, we’re onto Roy Woods third band of the 70’s. And it’s only late 1972.
Lynne seems to think Wood has already started Wizzard, but there’s another story where Wood was invited to play a Wembley extravaganza featuring artists such as Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Bo Diddley.
He’d also been playing bass for Bo Diddley. Oh, and in 1973, dropped a solo album. Busy guy.
That version of the story runs that he accepted the gig, without really thinking about the fact that he didn’t have a band to play with. So Wizzard was born.
He wanted to do something else again with rock, this time bringing in more glam and brass elements. As usual, Wood played everything he could find, and handled the song writing and a good portion of production.
He also brought in another selection of orchestra musicians, this time focussing less on strings and more on horns.
It had two drummers, two saxophonists… It was interesting to say the least.
They were great, but the thing with Wizzard is… they didn’t really know what they wanted to sound like. It’s been said that some Wizzard songs sound nothing like Wizzard.
This may have partially been because the name Wizzard brings up images of magical, flashy, mystical music - that wasn’t really them.
They wrote great songs, but some criticized a lack of clear direction. This started to become a pattern.
Nevertheless, they still had a slew of hits, including one that fundamentally changed the sound of one of the biggest holidays there is.
They had three other top ten hits too, with Angel Fingers cracking no.1 in the singles chart.
The band's first album did well, and then.. Guess what he did. Stayed with them for the next 40 years and released 12 albums.
Oh wait, no. He left and started a solo career in 1975.
I mentioned he’d already released a solo album in ‘73, which he had: boulders. And it was well received.
Honestly, Roy Woods' timelines get confusing. He was everywhere, he just couldn’t stop. And maybe this was part of his undoing. In Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop, Bob Stanley described it as this:
“Roy Wood loved pop. He was a superfan. He wanted to be all of pop, all at the same time.”
This makes his music at times hard to place. But it didn’t hold him back.
As a solo act, he started to fade somewhat from the charts. This isn’t necessarily because he’d lost his touch. But the musical landscape was always changing, and his eclectic styles didn’t always hit the charts.
Plus, you have to apply some context: It's hard to score a bigger hit than I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day.
However, the pressures of fame and success didn’t suit him. He resented labels making demands of him, as seen in his feud with Don Arden. He wanted to be free to create, always, and labels don’t like that.
He also wasn’t comfortable in the spotlight. He’s long admitted this, calling himself ‘a quiet bloke’.
So maybe he didn’t so much get forgotten, but allow himself to fade into the background. There’s more peace and freedom away from the charts.
But it’s a shame he isn’t talked about more. Some say his name should be spoken alongside McCartney and Mercury. And I think they’ve got a point.
You can’t take this away from Roy Wood: he scored 15 top 10 hits and achieved No. 1 singles with two different bands. Not many artists across any generation can claim that kind of success, especially during such a vibrant period in music history. Roy was right at the heart of it all.
He really was a pioneer of the sound of the 70’s.
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