Roy Wood Rock N Roll Band, Royal Hall, Harrogate

He was the writer behind the hits for The Move, Wizzard and some of the early ELO tracks, it is no wonder that Roy Wood has recently been inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.

These days he is mostly associated with I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday, especially at this time of the year, but there is more to him than this track.

Most of the songs he recorded always had a brass section on them so it was pleasing to see he had his 4 piece brass section with him. It appears he always wanted the sound he heard on the Little Richard songs.

The gig is a mixture of the hits he has had over his career, including several Number 1's and some that were held off the top spot "because Englebert Humperdinck was at Number 1".

California Man benefited from the brass section as did Ball Park Incident. With vocalist Shell Naylor it added to the tracks, her vocal hitting some of the higher notes on the songs.

Are You Ready To Rock saw Wood playing the bagpipes as he does on the recorded version. See My Baby Jive was uplifting, Blackberry Way timeless.

By the time we got to the last song of the night, I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday the band had got their Santa hats on and even some of the sedate Harrogate audience were on their feet.