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From The Desk Of The Minders: The Move (“Colour Me Pop,” 1969)

Since forming in 1996, Martyn Leaper and the Minders have morphed from Elephant 6 darlings to twee-pop anarchists, throwing love bombs and denouncing nothing. Most non-fans remember the Minders’ auspicious 1998 debut, Hooray For Tuesday, and its unfairly derided follow-up, 2001’s Golden Street, but the band was active until 2006’s slight-but-lovely It’s A Bright Guilty World. The Minders’ only interim release has been the second web-only iteration of their odds-and-sods Cul-De-Sacs And Dead Ends. In the gap, Leaper wrote and demoed new songs when he could crowbar it into his 40-hour work week. Along with renowned producer Larry Crane (Elliott Smith, Sleater-Kinney), Leaper began finding the thread of Into The River, the first actual Minders studio work in a decade. Leaper will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our Minders feature.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQvMl4iZoZE

Leaper: I’ve been watching a bunch of videos of the Move (the late, great psych/pop band from Birmingham, England). The BBC’s Colour Me Pop TV program performances from 1969, in particular, are the best live shows that I have seen of them. I’m reminded over and over just how tragically underrated this act was and still is. Most folks know the Move for being the forerunner to the Electric Light Orchestra, and this acknowledgement is as far as it goes. Those who are familiar with ELO’s early catalog, know that their sound was steeped in an experimental fusion of classical and rock music, which was heavily influenced by the guiding genius of Roy Wood (founding member of the Move). These television performances of the Move, as demure as they are, reveal a band at the peak of their brilliance. This half-hour set sees the band perform 10 songs, including some of their most memorable hits, such as “I Can Hear The Grass Grow, “Flowers In The Rain” and “Blackberry Way.” They also play the Louvin Brothers classic “The Christian Life” with Wood exhibiting wicked guitar chops—handily transposing the lead, which is normally played on a pedal steel. All in all, this installment with the Move is one of the only studio recordings to survive from the very short-lived Colour Me Pop TV series. Of all the acts to have played on the show, I’m most thankful that the Move’s was one of the performances to have been saved.