Midlands music favourites Joy Strachan-Brain and legendary ELO drummer Bev Bevan will be live in the Lichfield Radio studio on Tuesday 8 September, joining Ian St Peters and Scott Milligan ahead of Quill’s forthcoming appearance at The Rugeley Rose.
Lichfield Radio will welcome two familiar faces from the Midlands music scene when husband and wife Joy Strachan-Brain and Bev Bevan of Quill join host Ian St Peters and station director Scott Milligan for a special edition of the Hangry Lunchtime Show.
The pair will be live on air during the show, which runs from 12pm until 2pm, talking about their careers, the remarkable story of Quill, their lives together in music and the band’s forthcoming live show at The Rugeley Rose in Rugeley on Saturday 3 October.
The interview follows Lichfield Radio’s first meeting with Joy and Bev earlier this year, when the station caught up with the couple at the opening of Stylus Records in Lichfield in May. Bev was there to officially open the new independent record shop, with Lichfield Radio’s Ian St Peters interviewing him as part of the station’s coverage of the occasion.
Now Joy and Bev will be making the trip to the Lichfield Radio studio for a longer conversation and a chance to share some of the stories behind careers that span decades of Midlands music.
Quill’s history stretches back to the early 1970s and, more than half a century later, the Birmingham band continues to perform around the country. Led by vocalist Joy Strachan-Brain, Quill have developed a distinctive sound drawing on rock, folk, country and Celtic influences, with violin, percussion and vocal harmonies helping to give the band its unmistakable character.
Over the decades the line-up has evolved, but Joy has remained at the heart of Quill as lead vocalist. The band celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2023 and continues to attract audiences with a mixture of its own material and distinctive interpretations of classic songs.
Behind the drums is a musician whose career takes in some of the biggest names and moments in British rock history.
Birmingham-born Bev Bevan began his professional career in the early 1960s before becoming a founding member of The Move in 1966 alongside Roy Wood, Trevor Burton, Ace Kefford and Carl Wayne. The Move went on to score a string of hit singles, including Flowers in the Rain, famously the first record ever played on BBC Radio 1, and the 1969 number one Blackberry Way.
In 1971, Bevan joined Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne as a founding member of Electric Light Orchestra. ELO went on to become one of Britain’s biggest international bands, enjoying huge success throughout the 1970s and early 1980s with a catalogue that remains familiar to millions of music fans around the world.
Bevan’s extraordinary CV also includes playing with Black Sabbath during the band’s Born Again era and later touring internationally with ELO Part II. In 2017, his achievements as a member of ELO were recognised with induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Bevan joined Quill in 2014, having been an admirer of the band for many years, beginning another chapter in both his career and Quill’s long history. His musical partnership with Joy subsequently became a personal one too, with the couple marrying on 1 September 2022. They continue to perform together as part of Quill, with Joy fronting the band and Bev behind the drums and percussion.
The band’s forthcoming visit to The Rugeley Rose on Saturday 3 October will celebrate both Quill’s music and the extraordinary musical heritage of the Midlands.
Following the success of their Midland Beat album, the band will perform a selection of songs paying tribute to artists who emerged from the region, with music associated with Duran Duran, The Moody Blues, Black Sabbath, Ocean Colour Scene, Slade, Steve Winwood, The Move and ELO all represented.
The evening will also pay tribute to Bev’s own remarkable career, with classics associated with The Move and ELO forming part of the show.
Quill featuring Bev Bevan appear at The Rugeley Rose, Taylors Lane, Rugeley, on Saturday 3 October at 8pm, with tickets priced at £25.
Before then, listeners will have the chance to hear Joy and Bev talking about Quill, their forthcoming Rugeley show and some of the stories from more than half a century of making music when they join Ian St Peters and Scott Milligan on the Hangry Lunchtime Show.
Hear Joy Strachan-Brain and Bev Bevan on the Hangry Lunchtime Show, Tuesday 8 September, from 12pm to 2pm on Lichfield Radio.