In The 1970s Wizzard

The ex-member of the sixties group The Move was Roy Wood who went on to form one of the most popular glam groups of the 1970s. Wizzard was formed by some members of ELO and the Move, and was inspired by writing disagreements between Roy and the ELO’s Jeff Lynne.

Roy Wood was born in Birmingham in 1946 and in the 1970s even wrote a song for the UK entry to the Eurovision Song Contest, but the song came last in the national selection process. Roy went out on the road with Wizard playing at Wembley area no less; Roy had a solo hit called Dear Elaine in 1973 which reached No. 18 in the UK. A slower song called Forever was released afterwards and got to No. 8.


The band included Bill Hunt and Hugh McDowell. Hugh use to be with ELO and played first with them when he was 19. Other members were Trevor Smith, Rick Price, Charlie Smith and Keith Smart.  On saxophone were Mike Burney and Nick Pentelow.

The band had their first hit in 1972 with a No. 6 hit called Ball Park Incident. But it was 1973 when the group had the big No. 1 song with See My Baby Jive which was written and produced by Roy.  The song actually inspired Abba when making Waterloo. The follow up also got to No. 1 and was called Angel Fingers (A Teen Ballard). The backing vocals were by the Bleach Boys!

The end of the year brought the group’s biggest song ever. It is played in the UK every year and has become a tradition of British Christmas time. I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday was NOT o.1 that year, because Slade had the impressive Merry Xmas Everybody.

I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday had a school choir singing on it. The choir were Stockland Green Bilateral Year On Choir with help from Class C. The song was huge and the video so memorable, but it was in fact recorded in the previous August. Now that is planning ahead.

1974 came and a No.6 hit for the group with Rock N Roll Winter and later in the same year came the No. 8 song Are You Ready To Rock which was the last 1970s hit for the group. I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday was reissued many times and charted several times too. It got to No. 16 in 2007.
Roy Wood was once romantically involved with Ayesha Brough who had a top show on ITV for the early 70s, she was also in The Golden Shot and UFO.