– The Move – live at Stadthall Offenbach, Germany – June 26, 1967 – Beat, Beat, Beat – Hessischer Rundfunk – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
The Move tonight – recorded at Stadthall, Offenbach, Germany on June 26, 1967, as part of the Beat Beat Beat program.
Why The Move were not embraced with the same enthusiasm they encountered everywhere else is a mystery. I could understand the lack of enthusiasm when they were initially on Deram (the subsidiary of London Records over here). Deram had a hard time breaking acts, and very few of the artists on that label went on to bigger things. But when they were licensed to A&M, the label was very high on the band and did much to promote them. And they had excellent material to work with – from their first album, Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited is a classic and it did receive a goodly amount of exposure via the fledgling underground FM stations. But they had a string of catchy, tight and memorable singles – most all of which were huge sellers overseas, but in the U.S. – nothing.
The only reason I can possibly think of for the lack of acceptance was not spending much time touring the U.S. – a situation where the direct opposite happened when The Move morphed (for the most part) into ELO, and they practically made a career out of criss-crossing the U.S. – that proved to be the magic formula.
But The Move during this period were the quintessential British Rock Band, and this performance via the German program Beat Beat Beat gives ample evidence that they were just as engaging live as they were in a studio setting – a fact echoed by one of their rare appearances at Fillmore East in 1969. Even with three numbers and a little over nine minutes, this one’s a keeper.
Crank it up.
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