The Idle Race

The Idle Race were a British rock group from Birmingham who in the late 1960s and early 1970s had a cult following but never enjoyed mass commercial success. In addition to being the springboard for Jeff Lynne, the band holds a place of significance in British Midlands' pop-rock history as a link between the Move, Electric Light Orchestra, the Steve Gibbons Band and Mike Sheridan & The Nightriders. The group has been retrospectively described as freakbeat.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia.