Wizzo Band
Encyclopedia
Wizzo Band was formed by Roy Wood
after Wizzard
split in 1975, fulfilling his ambitions to create an outfit that was more jazz
-oriented than rock
or pop
. The line-up included former Wizzard and Move
member Rick Price
(pedal steel guitar
), alongside Bob Wilson (trombone
), Billy Paul (alto
and baritone saxes
), Paul Robbins (keyboard
s, backing vocals
), Graham Gallery (bass
), and Dave Donovan (drum
s).
"A lot of people had been doing jazz-rock stuff. There had been jazz musician
s getting into the rock field, like Chick Corea
and Stanley Clarke
, but it's very rare that you find a band doing it the other way around a rock and roll
band
getting into jazz, and it's quite interesting. The rhythm section
is very heavy, almost Zeppelinish
, the horns
are very jazzy and the songs are very commercial, so it makes for quite an interesting combination." - Roy Wood, Melody Maker
, 3 September 1977
They played one show, broadcast live by BBC Television
and BBC Radio 1
in the 'Sight and Sound In Concert' series, on 2 April 1977. Most of the material they played was new, though they also included The Move
's "California Man
", interpolating the basic riff from another Move oldie, "Brontosaurus
", and Wizzard's "Are You Ready to Rock". Several of the songs appeared on their only album Super Active Wizzo
, released in September 1977 on the Warner Bros.
record label
. They also issued two singles
, "The Stroll
" (1977), and "Dancin’ At The Rainbow’s End" (1978). None of these ever charted
.
A UK
tour was scheduled for spring 1978, but was cancelled as they disbanded at around the same time. Wizzo Band had proved an uncommercial venture; the records
received unenthusiastic reviews from critics who were baffled by the music, especially in the light of Wood's earlier track record as a creator of hit record
s with his previous bands, and they were ignored by radio programmers.
The live version of "California Man" was issued as the B-side
of Wood's 1982 single "O.T.T.", under the title "Mystery Song". A similar arrangement was used by Cheap Trick
in their own cover version
of the song.
Roy Wood
Roy Adrian Wood is an English singer-songwriter and musician. He was particularly successful in the 1960s and 1970s as member and co-founder of the bands The Move, Electric Light Orchestra, and Wizzard. As a songwriter, he contributed a number of hits to the repertoire of these bands.-Career:Wood...
after Wizzard
Wizzard
Wizzard was a Birmingham-based band formed by Roy Wood, former member of The Move and co-founder of Electric Light Orchestra. The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits states, "Wizzard was Roy Wood just as much as Wings were Paul McCartney."-Biography:...
split in 1975, fulfilling his ambitions to create an outfit that was more jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
-oriented than rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
or pop
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
. The line-up included former Wizzard and Move
The Move
The Move, from Birmingham, England, were one of the leading British rock bands of the 1960s. They scored nine Top 20 UK singles in five years, but were among the most popular British bands not to find any success in the United States....
member Rick Price
Rick Price (bassist)
Rick Price is an English bassist, who has played with various Birmingham based rock bands, most notably Sight and Sound, The Move , Electric Light Orchestra and Wizzard...
(pedal steel guitar
Pedal steel guitar
The pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal bar to "fret" or shorten the length of the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar. Unlike other types of steel guitar, it also uses pedals and knee levers to affect the pitch, hence the name "pedal"...
), alongside Bob Wilson (trombone
Trombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
), Billy Paul (alto
Alto saxophone
The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...
and baritone saxes
Baritone saxophone
The baritone saxophone, often called "bari sax" , is one of the largest and lowest pitched members of the saxophone family. It was invented by Adolphe Sax. The baritone is distinguished from smaller sizes of saxophone by the extra loop near its mouthpiece...
), Paul Robbins (keyboard
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
s, backing vocals
Backing vocalist
A backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
), Graham Gallery (bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
), and Dave Donovan (drum
Drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
s).
"A lot of people had been doing jazz-rock stuff. There had been jazz musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
s getting into the rock field, like Chick Corea
Chick Corea
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...
and Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke is an American jazz musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and electric bass guitar as well as for his numerous film and television scores...
, but it's very rare that you find a band doing it the other way around a rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
band
Band (music)
In music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform music. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* All-female band* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band...
getting into jazz, and it's quite interesting. The rhythm section
Rhythm section
A rhythm section is a collection of musicians who make up a section of instruments which provides the accompaniment section of the music, giving the music its rhythmic texture and pulse, also serving as a rhythmic reference for the rest of the band...
is very heavy, almost Zeppelinish
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
, the horns
Horn section
In music, a horn section can refer to several groups of musicians. It can refer to the musicians in a symphony orchestra who play the horn . In a British-style brass band it refers to the tenor horn players. In popular music, it can also refer to a small group of wind instrumentalists who augment a...
are very jazzy and the songs are very commercial, so it makes for quite an interesting combination." - Roy Wood, Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
, 3 September 1977
They played one show, broadcast live by BBC Television
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation, which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927, has produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television...
and BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
in the 'Sight and Sound In Concert' series, on 2 April 1977. Most of the material they played was new, though they also included The Move
The Move
The Move, from Birmingham, England, were one of the leading British rock bands of the 1960s. They scored nine Top 20 UK singles in five years, but were among the most popular British bands not to find any success in the United States....
's "California Man
California Man (song)
California Man is a song by The Move.Released in 1972 as a maxi single with "Do Ya" and "Ella James" as a double B-side, this was The Move's last official single release. The Electric Light Orchestra, originally conceived as a side-project to The Move, issued its first single,10538 Overture, a...
", interpolating the basic riff from another Move oldie, "Brontosaurus
Brontosaurus (Move song)
"Brontosaurus" is a song by rock group The Move.Released as a single early in 1970, it was also included on the band's Looking On album later that year...
", and Wizzard's "Are You Ready to Rock". Several of the songs appeared on their only album Super Active Wizzo
Super Active Wizzo
Super Active Wizzo is the only album by the short-lived Roy Wood Wizzo Band, formed by Roy Wood in 1977 to fulfill his more jazz-oriented ambitions. The band also released the two singles "The Stroll", preceding the album, and "Dancin’ At The Rainbow’s End". Neither singles nor album charted and...
, released in September 1977 on the Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
. They also issued two singles
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
, "The Stroll
The Stroll
The Stroll was both a slow Rock 'n' Roll dance and a song that was popular in late 1950s. The dance called the Stroll began in black communities to the song "C. C. Rider" by Chuck Willis prior to the song by the same name....
" (1977), and "Dancin’ At The Rainbow’s End" (1978). None of these ever charted
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
.
A UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
tour was scheduled for spring 1978, but was cancelled as they disbanded at around the same time. Wizzo Band had proved an uncommercial venture; the records
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
received unenthusiastic reviews from critics who were baffled by the music, especially in the light of Wood's earlier track record as a creator of hit record
Hit record
A hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...
s with his previous bands, and they were ignored by radio programmers.
The live version of "California Man" was issued as the B-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
of Wood's 1982 single "O.T.T.", under the title "Mystery Song". A similar arrangement was used by Cheap Trick
Cheap Trick
Cheap Trick is an American rock band from Rockford, Illinois, formed in 1973. The band consists of members Robin Zander , Rick Nielsen , Tom Petersson , and Bun E...
in their own cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of the song.