The Idle Race

The Idle Race were a cult rock group from Birmingham, England in the late 1960s. In addition to being the springboard for a very young Jeff Lynne, the band holds a place of signifcance in Midlands rock histo

The Idle Race were a cult rock group from Birmingham, England in the late 1960s. In addition to being the springboard for a very young Jeff Lynne, the band holds a place of signifcance in Midlands rock history as a link between Electric Light Orchestra, The Move, the Steve Gibbons Band and Mike Sheridan and The Nightriders.

The core of the group -- Nightriders rhythm guitarist Dave Pritchard, bass guitarist Greg Masters and drummer Roger Spencer -- were relatively unchanged from the late 1950s until 1971. The band went through several incarnations, lead guitarists and lead singers -- first Billy King and later, more successfully, with Mike Sheridan, with whom they first rose to prominence and, in 1964, to a record deal with EMI. While Mike Sheridan and The Nightriders failed to crack the charts, the band's lineup during this period included a young lead guitarist and composer named Roy Wood, whose first commercial song "Make Them Understand," appeared on one of the band's B-sides in 1965.