Electric Light Orchestra

Electric Light Orchestra

(ELO)

— the legend of art-rock — performed for the first time on public.



The ELO Story



During the late 60's, Birmingham was a hotbed of musical talent with many bands trying to hit the big time, one in particular had already made the grade and was as popular in the UK as you could get. The Move were churning out hit records and were famous nationwide by being the first ever band played on BBC Radio 1. At the turn of the decade, three members of the band decided they wanted to move in a different musical direction and take off from where the Beatles 'I Am The Walrus' had finished. The new band fronted by Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne and Bev Bevan, financed by the continued success of The Move, and started as a side project to run alongside their more illustrious counterpart, was called the Electric Light Orchestra.



Releasing their first record in Italy as part of a Harvest promotional flexi disc, the band released their first single proper in the UK in 1971. 10538 Overture sounds as fresh today as it did over 30 years ago and the success of ELO was suitably assured. Their first album, self titled, was released the same year to extremely encouraging reviews, especially from the UK music media. The compositions weren't really pop songs, more musical experiments, sometimes lasting in excess of ten minutes and combining strings with good old rock and roll.



The initial success of the band was proving to be a bit too much for the founders with both Jeff and Roy wanting to take the band in different directions. There would be only one winner and Roy left the band to concentrate on several other projects.





Moving from Harvest after a second album, similar in style to the first, to Warners, ELO released On The Third Day. A wonderful album full of horns, cellos and violins. It spawned a hit single in Ma Ma Ma Belle but contains some absolute gems especially Dreaming Of 4000, a wonderfully haunting melody. Success was just around the corner. It finally came but strangely enough it came across the Atlantic. Eldorado, with the famous ruby red slippers cover, played on the American's love of the Wizard of Oz. It was a masterstroke as Eldorado sold by the hatful. It wasn't just a promotional gimmick, the album itself was truly beautiful — every song could have been a single. Can't Get It Out Of My Head is usually found in every ELO fan's top 3, it's certainly my favourite ELO track.





A live album, ELO's only ever official live album, followed before the band moved to Polydor and ultimately Jet, their home until Epic in the mid-eightie's. The band was just moving from strength to strength with gold albums released every two years — Face The Music was a classic with tracks like Evil Woman, Strange Magic and Fire On High (surely the finest instrumental of all time!) — followed by A New World Record which contained Livin' Thing and Do Ya and then came probably ELO's finest hour. In 1977, Jeff locked himself away for two weeks in a Swiss chalet and penned a huge collection of songs which was to make up their only studio double album Out Of The Blue. The album sold millions across the world and the band embarked on a world tour, selling out ten nights at the Wembley Arena in the process. Helped by a fantastic stage show, shaped around a spaceship stage complete with lasers, ELO cemented themselves as probably the biggest band in the world at that time.



In 1979, as Disco was creating the new musical phenomenom across the globe, Jeff used the current influence to create another platinum album in Discovery. The album went to number 1 pretty much everywhere it was released and singles such as Shine A Little Love and Don't Bring Me Down were huge hits, the latter presenting Jeff with his biggest single hit as it reached number 3 in the UK.



A greatest hits package was followed by a new album in 1981 entitled Time. This album saw a new leaner band line-up with Richard Tandy and Kelly Groucutt joining Jeff and Bev to make up a foursome as the strings section was disbanded. Again Time went to number 1 around the world and Hold On Tight became a top 10 hit in the UK. The writing was on the wall though. Kelly left the band claiming he had been paid a pittance over the years despite the bands success and the record company Jet wouldn't allow the next album Secret Messages to be released as a double album as Jeff had wanted. In 1986 ELO released their final album and split up. The album Balance of Power was a pale shadow of the previous top selling lp's with undertones of Jeff's misery and despondancy evident in the lyrics.





Over the next 15 years, Bev and Kelly set up ELO Pt. 2 and toured the world incessantly, playing the hits of ELO live, creating their own cult following in the process whilst Jeff played a part in the Travelling WIlbury's and became more well known for his production skills. In 2001 though the unthinkable happened and Jeff reformed ELO. With Richard Tandy on keyboards and Jeff's girlfriend Rosie Vela on backing vocals, ELO released a new album entitled Zoom. Unfortunately, a less than inspiring promotional push by Epic didn't push the album to the top of the charts but it did hit the top 30 in the UK. The last two years have seen the 30th anniversary of the band, backed by two anniversary box sets from EMI and a package of greatest hits collections and remastered releases. Despite being over 30 years old, ELO still command a massive worldwide audience and if their profile remains as high thanks to the continued use of ELO tracks in hit movies and television adverts, the future of the Electric Light Orchestra will be as bright as their past has been. The light hasn't gone out, it still shines brightly on!!



http://www.elolya.co.uk