Carl Wayne
| Carl Wayne | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Colin David Tooley |
| Born |
18 August 1943 Dudley Road Hospital, Winson Green |
| Origin | Birmingham, England |
| Died | 31 August 2004 (aged 61) Birmingham, England |
| Genres | Rock music |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, actor |
| Instruments | Vocals, keyboards, guitar, bass guitar. |
| Labels | Deram, Regal Zonophone, RCA, DJM, Jet Records |
| Associated acts | The Vikings, The Move, The Hollies |
| Website | Official website |
Carl Wayne (born Colin David Tooley; 18 August 1943) was a singer and actor. He is best remembered as the front man and spokesman for The Move in the 1960s.
Born in Winson Green, Birmingham, England, Colin David Tooley grew up in the Hodge Hill district of the city. Inspired by the American rock'n'roll of Elvis Presley, Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent, he formed the G-Men in the late 1950s, and joined local band the Vikings, where his powerful baritone and pink stage suit helped make them one of the leading rock groups in the Midlands of their time. In 1963 they followed in the footsteps of the Beatles and other Liverpool bands, by performing in the clubs of Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Nuremberg etc. On returning to Birmingham, in the wake of the Beatles' success, record companies were keen to sign similar guitar bands. The Vikings went with Pye Records, but all three singles failed to chart.
A major career highlight saw him representing England at the prestigious Golden Orpheus Song Festival in Bulgaria. In front of a live and televised audience of over 20 million, Carl won first prize: "Carl Wayne is the finest ambassador our country has ever had at these proceedings. They cheered and encored him until it seemed impossible anyone else would be allowed on stage."
In December 1965 he joined the Move, a Birmingham beat supergroup drawn from top local bands. They included three members of the Vikings, bass guitarist Chris 'Ace' Kefford, drummer Bev Bevan and Wayne himself, alongside Trevor Burton, lead guitarist with Danny King and the Mayfair Set, and Roy Wood, lead guitarist with Mike Sheridan and the Nightriders. They enjoyed three years of hits with singles such as "Night of Fear", "I Can Hear The Grass Grow", "Flowers in the Rain", "Fire Brigade", and their only number one success "Blackberry Way". In their early years the Move had a stage act which occasionally saw Wayne taking an axe to television sets, or chainsawing a Cadillac to pieces at the Roundhouse, London, during "Fire Brigade", an escapade which resulted in the Soho area being jammed with fire engines, and the group being banned for a while from every theatre venue in the UK.
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