Initially, the band had four main vocalists (Wood, Carl Wayne, Trevor Burton, and Chris "Ace" Kefford) who divided the lead-vocal duties among themselves.

[5] Besides Wood, The Move's original five-piece line-up in 1965 was drummer Bev Bevan, bassist Ace Kefford, vocalist Carl Wayne, and guitarist Trevor Burton.

The band's later years saw this lineup develop a side project called Electric Light Orchestra, which would go on to achieve major international success after The Move disbanded.

[5] Their early career was marked by a series of publicity stunts, high-profile media events and outrageous stage antics masterminded by Secunda; these included Wayne taking an axe to television sets.

[8] In April 1967, NME reported that The Move had offered a £200 reward (equivalent to £4,600 in 2025)[9] for the recovery of the master tapes of ten songs intended for their debut album.

[10] The tapes were found in a skip (dumpster) shortly afterward, but the damage caused to them meant that new mixes and masters would have to be made, resulting in the delayed album only being released in March 1968 instead of the original plan of autumn 1967.

[4] Without consulting the band, Secunda produced a cartoon postcard to promote the single "Flowers in the Rain"; this showed the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Harold Wilson, in bed with his secretary, Marcia Williams.

[5] In the Family Trees documentary special on the Birmingham music scene, Wood says that while the band as a whole lost their royalties, it affected him the most, as he wrote the song.

[11] For their fourth single the group had planned to release "Cherry Blossom Clinic", a lighthearted song about the fantasies of a patient in a mental institution, backed by the satirical "Vote For Me".

However, The Move had been unnerved by their court experiences; they and the record label felt it unwise to pursue such a potentially controversial idea, so the single was shelved.

"Vote For Me" remained unreleased until it appeared on retrospective collections from 1997 onwards, while "Cherry Blossom Clinic" became one of the tracks on their first LP, called Move.

[5] The Move responded with their most commercially successful song to date, "Blackberry Way" (co-produced by Jimmy Miller), which topped the UK chart in February 1969.

[4] The new, more pop-oriented musical direction, and the single hitting number one was the last straw for the increasingly disenchanted Burton, who wanted to work in a more hard rock/blues-oriented style, and he left the group in February 1969 after an altercation on stage with Bevan in Sweden.

Some years later, Wayne recalled that to be nothing more than a publicity stunt; however, Marvin himself, in an article in Melody Maker in 1973 and elsewhere, has maintained that he was approached by Wood and invited to join The Move, but declined because their schedule was too hectic for him.

In October 1969, The Move made their only concert appearances in the US, opening two shows for the Stooges in Detroit, and playing dates in Los Angeles and at the Fillmore West in San Francisco.

When neither their US record company nor promoters showed any more interest—the band even had to make their own accommodation & travel arrangements—the remaining proposed tour dates in New York were cancelled and the group returned home.

[citation needed] Walsh, who specialised in cabaret acts, began booking the band into cabaret-style venues, which further increased the tension between Wayne and Wood.

By this point, Wood was openly discussing his desire to form a band playing more eclectic music, including both harder rock and classical instruments, which he tentatively dubbed "The Electric Light Orchestra".

"Hello Susie" (a Wood composition), which was a Top 5 hit for Amen Corner in 1969, quoted Booker T. Jones' and Eddie Floyd's "Big Bird".

The album also featured a slightly slower re-recording of "Cherry Blossom Clinic", an instrumental medley of public domain works, and a cover of a Tom Paxton song, "The Last Thing on My Mind".

Despite such superficial similarities with their past, however, the album represented a clear break from The Move's identity as a pop group, reintroducing them as a hard-edged underground band.

As a result, by the time Looking On was released in December 1970, with five songs composed by Wood and two by Lynne, Fly Records had lost interest in it, despite the fact that the album included a No.

Although Wood and music critics continue to hold Message from the Country in high regard,[6][17] in 2005 Bevan referred to that album as his least favourite from The Move.

[4][8] For several television appearances behind those songs, The Move added two musicians who became members of the original ELO: Bill Hunt (horns, woodwinds, piano) and a returning Richard Tandy (guitar, bass).

Wood went on to front the glam rock band Wizzard, as well as releasing a solo album in 1973, Boulders, while Lynne, Bevan and Tandy kept touring as ELO and finally achieved international success.

Guests on the tour included Trevor Burton, Geoff Turton and Joy Strachan-Brain, alongside Bevan, Kelsey, Tree and Brant.