Roy Wood

As the leader of The Move and Wizzard, co-founder of Electric Light Orchestra, and a solo artist, Roy Wood established himself as a startling multi-talented and eclectic British rock visionary in the '60s and '70s. Born in Birmingham, England on November 8, 1946, Wood played in a number of bands in the first half of the '60s including The Falcons, Gerry Levene & The Avengers, and Mike Sheridan & The Nightriders. He formed The Move at the end of 1965, and they released their debut single, "Night of Fear," the next year. Over the next couple of years, with Wood at the helm, they became darlings of the burgeoning British psych-pop scene with such hits as "Fire Brigade," "Flowers in the Rain," and "I Can Hear the Grass Grow." After four albums they called it quits in 1972, by which time Wood and Jeff Lynne had already started The Electric Light Orchestra. Wood was only on hand for their self-titled symphonic-rock debut LP, departing to found glam-rock band Wizzard. The band was an even bigger success in the U.K. than The Move, scoring big hits with their first five singles between 1972 and '74. But after two albums, Wizzard hung it up in 1975. The mercurial, prolific Wood had already begun his solo career by that time, having released his classic one-man-band album Boulders in 1973. He followed it up in 1975 with Mustard. Around that same time he started the short-lived jazz-rock group The Wizzo Band, releasing the Super Active Wizzo album in 1977. Wood released a string of non-LP singles in the early '80s, some as Roy Wood's Helicopters, and in 1987 he put out his final solo LP, Starting Up. He would never release another album, but continued to make sporadic live appearances into the 2010s and participated in a couple of Christmas singles in the 2000s.