Colin First,
Gordon Balmforth,
Alan Mayes,
Bob Switters,
Terry Widlake,
Bob Munday,
Keith Headley,
Alan James,
Billy Dean
Formed: 1968, London, England
Disbanded: 1974
Genres: Rock
Biography
The Art Movement might have been another Tremeloes, and never have been heard from outside of England, but for the chance intervention of American rock & roll legend Roy Orbison. Founded in the mid- to late '60s, the group members -- Billy Dean on guitar, Terry Widlake on bass, Keith Headley on piano, Bob Munday on drums, and John Switters on percussion -- was intending to build a career around their own music, and had enjoyed a Top 30 hit in England during 1968 with a Terry Widlake original called "Loving Touch." In early 1969, however, fate put them on a new and unexpected path in their careers. Roy Orbison had come over from America to do a tour of England and was unable to bring his established backing band, the Candy Men, with him. He needed a band and was led to the Art Movement, who were just established enough to rate the attention but not so well set in their own careers that they would be unable to consider it. They were offered the chance to back Roy Orbison on that U.K. tour, and the gig turned into a multi-year project when they followed it up with a tour of the Far East and Australia backing Orbison. By the time of this engagement, Headley and Switters were gone, and their new lineup included Alan James on lead guitar, Alan Mayes on trumpet, Gordon Balmforth on keyboards, and Colin First on trumpet. They ended up being immortalized in association with Orbison, as his backing band on the live set recorded at the Batley Variety Club on the 1969 tour, and on the DVD release (more than 30 years after the fact) of his concert from Melbourne, Australia, in October of 1972. The Art Movement ended up working with Orbison for six years, until the mid-'70s, and performed hundreds of concerts with him on ten world tours, all of the members becoming very close to him personally as well as professionally, and James eventually emigrated to America. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a restricted period of time, or, at least, with the heyday of the movement more or less strictly so restricted (usually a few months, years or decades). According to theories associated with the concept of postmodernism, art movements were especially important during the period of time corresponding to modern art. The period of time called "modern art" is posited to have ended approximately three-quarters of the way through the twentieth century. (Postmodernism in visual art refers to approximately the period after the "modern" period, that is, it begins where modernism leaves off.) During the period of time corresponding to "modern art" each consecutive movement was often considered a new avant-garde. Also during the period of time referred to as "modern art" each movement was seen corresponding to a somewhat grandiose rethinking of all that came before it, concerning the visual arts. Generally there was a commonality of visual style linking the works and artists included in an art movement. Verbal expression and explanation of movements has come from the artists themselves, sometimes in the form of an art manifesto, and sometimes from art critics and others who may explain their understanding of the meaning of the new art then being produced. The theory of postmodernism in visual art tends to assert that in recent decades art movements in the visual arts are less pronounced or even nonexistent.