Roy Wood(I)

Born on the 8th of November, 1946 in Birmingham, England, Roy was always destined for a career in music and taught himself to play many different instruments. In 1966, Roy along with Carl Wayne, Bev Bevan, Ace Kefford, and Trevor Burton formed the legendary sixties group "The Move". Their first single, "Night of Fear" composed by Wood immediately landed the band in the UK Top 5. The Move chalked up another nine UK Top 20 hits over the next five years, such as "I Can Hear The Grass Grow", "Flowers In The Rain" (the first record ever plasyed on BBC's Radio One station), "Fire Brigade" and the chart topping masterpiece, "Blackberry Way".

Roy went on to form "Electric Light Orchestra" with Jeff Lynne with a view to creating pop songs with classical overtones. His membership of ELO was however short-lived and he went on to form another band called "Wizzard". Their first hit single "Ball Park Incident" reached No. 4 in the UK charts, and was followed by two consecutive No. 1s: "See My Baby Jive" and "Angel Fingers" in 1973. The year was rounded off with the Christmas classic "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday". The ubiquitous Wood also released a solo album "Boulders" and four UK solo hit singles between 1973 and 1975.

By 1976, Roy's success started to wane, probably due in part to contractual problems, but by the 80s he was still having the occasional hit single, as well as the umpteenth re-release of "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday".