Jump to content

Electric Light Orchestra: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
No edit summary
→‎'''Cultural References''': Livin' Thing featured in Boogie Nights when Marky Mark unleashes the beast. Internal link better for BCFC.
Line 87: Line 87:


=='''Cultural References'''==
=='''Cultural References'''==
*Birmingham City Football Club [http://www.bcfc.com] play the ELO track "[[Mr. Blue Sky]]" before every home fixture. The home team run out onto the pitch to the final drum roll at the end of the track.
*[[Birmingham City Football Club]] play the ELO track "[[Mr. Blue Sky]]" before every home fixture. The home team run out onto the pitch to the final drum roll at the end of the track.


*The [[1996]] film [[Kingpin (film)]] features the song "[[Showdown]]".
*The [[1996]] film [[Kingpin (film)]] features the song "[[Showdown]]".

*The [[1997]] film [[Boogie Nights]] features the song "[[Livin' Thing]]" during the final scene.


*In [[2002]], [[Volkswagen]] used the song "[[Mr. Blue Sky]]" to advertise the [[Volkswagen New Beetle| Volkswagen Beetle convertible]].
*In [[2002]], [[Volkswagen]] used the song "[[Mr. Blue Sky]]" to advertise the [[Volkswagen New Beetle| Volkswagen Beetle convertible]].

Revision as of 12:08, 17 March 2007

Template:Infobox musical artist 2

"ELO" redirects here. For other meanings, see ELO (Disambiguation).

The Electric Light Orchestra, also known as E.L.O., were a successful rock music group of the 1970s and 1980s from Birmingham, England that was originally intended to be a side project of established rock band The Move; however, the departure of founding member Roy Wood saw Jeff Lynne finally achieve the success and recognition that had eluded him from his days in the Idle Race.

It was in the United States that the band was first warmly received, billed as The English guys with the big fiddles [1]. They soon gained a cult following despite lukewarm reviews back in their native United Kingdom. They were managed by no-nonsense businessman Don Arden (the father of Sharon Osbourne).

By the mid seventies they had become one of the biggest selling Rock music bands in the world. Under Lynne's leadership the group scored twenty top-20 UK hit singles, as well as fifteen top-20 appearances in the US Billboard chart, The band also holds the record for having the most Billboard Top 40 hits of any band in US history, without ever having a #1 single [2]. The band proved to be an excellent vehicle for confessed Beatles fan Lynne's semi-classical Beatlesque compositions, steering a fine line between an album-oriented rock outfit and a hit-making machine.

The group's name is an intended pun based not only on electric light (as in a light bulb as seen on early album covers) but also using "electric" rock instruments combined with a "light orchestra" (orchestras with only a few cellos and violins that were popular in Britain during the 1960s).

Biography

Birth of a supergroup

Formed in October 1970 by Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne and Bev Bevan (the remaining members of the 1960s rock group The Move), the band used cellos, violin, horns and woodwinds to give their music a classical sound. This was an idea Roy Wood initially had while with The Move to take rock music in a new direction.

In January 1970, when Carl Wayne left the The Move, Jeff Lynne, front man with fellow Brum band Idle Race, responded to Wood's second invitation to join the line-up with the lure of starting the new band. To help finance the fledgling project, two more Move albums were released during the lengthy recordings for their eponymous first album between 1970 & 1971, which produced the UK hit "10538 Overture".

In the US, this album was released with the mistaken title of No Answer, due to a mix-up with an uncompleted telephone call to the American label and subsequent secretarial message. [3]

However, tensions soon surfaced between Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne. With most of the media attention focused on Wood, differences in musical direction and a disastrous first live outing followed by an uneven tour of Italy took a toll on the Wood-Lynne friendship. The band went through the first of its many line-up changes as Wood took cellist Hugh McDowell and horn player Bill Hunt with him to form Wizzard

Despite the music press's predictions that the band would fold without Wood, who had been the driving force behind the creation of ELO, Jeff Lynne stepped up to lead the band, with Bevan remaining on drums, bassist Richard Tandy switching to moog synthesizer, Mike de Albuquerque taking over on bass, Mike Edwards and Colin Walker adding cello and Wilfred Gibson replacing Steve Woolam on violin. They released ELO 2 in 1973, an album begun before Wood's departure, from which came their first U.S. chart hit, a hugely elaborate version of the Chuck Berry classic "Roll Over Beethoven".

During the recording of the third album, violinist Gibson was dismissed, allegedly due to a payment dispute, and replaced by Mik Kaminski. The band released On The Third Day in 1973 featuring the hit "Showdown", with Mike Edwards playing all the cello parts due to Colin Walker leaving the band. Second lead guitar on two tracks on the album ("Ma-Ma-Ma Belle" and "Dreaming of 4000") were contributed by Lynne's friend Marc Bolan. Later that same year saw the return of Hugh McDowell, who had jumped ship the year previous, to replace cellist Colin Walker. In 1974 Lynne hired a thirty-piece orchestra, choir and Louis Clark, then began work on the next LP Eldorado, A Symphony by the Electric Light Orchestra, a concept album about dreams, scoring their first U.S. Top Ten hit with "Can't Get It Out Of My Head" in 1975.

Global success

File:ELO FACE THE MUSIC.jpg
Classic Lineup making a first album appearance on Face the Music

After the release of Eldorado, A Symphony, bassist and vocalist Kelly Groucutt and cellist Melvyn Gale joined, replacing de Albuquerque and Edwards respectively. At this point the line-up would be at its most stable and enjoy worldwide stardom throughout the remainder of the decade. In 1975, Face The Music was released, from which the major singles were "Evil Woman" (whose instrumental string hook was sampled in 2006 by Pussycat Dolls to form the basis of their hit "Beep") and "Strange Magic", marking a shift to a more "radio friendly" sound, helped along the way by renowned German producer and engineer Mack. From the same album, the instrumental "Fire On High", with its mix of strings and blazing acoustic guitars, saw heavy exposure as background music on CBS Sports Spectacular montages, though most viewers had no idea of the song's origins.

The band concentrated most of their touring efforts in the United States at this point and were a star attraction on the stadium and arena circuit, as well as regularly appearing on The Midnight Special, although surprisingly they were still largely ignored in the United Kingdom. The multi-platinum album A New World Record was released in 1976 and became the band's first true breakthrough album on a global scale, finally giving them their first top ten LP in the UK. It contained hits such as "Livin' Thing", a re-recording of The Move's "Do Ya", "Telephone Line" and "Rockaria!".

That was followed by another multi-platinum selling album, this time a double-LP Out of the Blue in 1977, although the record's momentum was slowed somewhat by a lawsuit filed by the band against their former distributor, United Artists, who they claimed had flooded the US market with substandard pressings of the album, it still managed to sell ten million units within its first year of release. The double set featured the singles "Turn to Stone", "Sweet Talkin' Woman", "It's Over", "Mr. Blue Sky", and "Wild West Hero". The band then set out on a 92-date, nine-month world tour, with an enormous (and hugely expensive) space ship stage set in tow, complete with fog machines and a laser display.

On the UK leg of the world tour the band played at the Wembley Arena for (a then record) eight sold-out nights, the first of these shows was recorded and televised and later released on video and DVD. In the United States the concerts were billed as The Big Night. The 44-date 'Big Night' tour played to Stadium audiences, including their biggest-ever headlining gig at the Cleveland Stadium to 80,000 people. It was during the famous spaceship tour the band were criticized for allegedly playing backing tapes. [4] By the end of 1978 they were the biggest live draw in the USA, averaging fifty thousand people at their shows.

File:String section.jpg
Melvyn Gale, Hugh McDowell, Mik Kaminski (1979)

In 1979, Lynne set out to capitalize on the growing popularity of disco with the album Discovery (or "Disco very" as has been quoted). The album generated their biggest hit "Don't Bring Me Down" (the first ELO track not to feature strings), along with "Shine A Little Love" (sampled in 2005 by Lovefreekz for a dance hit called "Shine"), "Last Train to London" (sampled in 2003 by Atomic Kitten on their hit "Be With You"), "Confusion" and "The Diary of Horace Wimp". Also that year Randy Newman wrote "The Story of a Rock and Roll Band", an ELO tribute song about "The English boys from Birmingham", including the lyrics,

I love their Mr Blue Skies, almost my favorite is Turn to Stone and how 'bout Telephone Line? I love that E.L.O.!

This song appeared on his Born Again album.

Although there would be no live tour associated with the Discovery album, the band did record the entire album in video form. Not long after this, the violinist Mik Kaminski and the two cellists Hugh McDowell and Melvyn Gale were considered surplus to requirements and dismissed. The Discovery (music video)'s would be the last time the original late 1970s line-up would be seen together. The Electric Light Orchestra finished 1979 as the biggest selling act in the UK.

The '80s and beyond

Soon after, in 1980 ELO was enlisted to provide half of the soundtrack for the musical film Xanadu, the other half provided by Olivia Newton-John, who starred in the movie along with Gene Kelly. The movie bombed, but the soundtrack did very well, with hit singles from both Newton-John ("Magic" and "Suddenly" with Cliff Richard) and ELO ("I'm Alive", "All Over The World" and "Don't Walk Away") as well as the title track to the movie, performed by Newton-John with ELO, which was #1 in the UK. The Electric Light Orchestra Story, Bev Bevan's memoirs from his early days and throughout his career with The Move and ELO, were also published this year.

In 1981, ELO's sound changed again, moving away from disco and into the 1980s, with the science-fiction concept album Time (singles: "Hold On Tight", "Twilight", "Rain Is Falling", and "Here Is the News" / "Ticket to the Moon"), in which synthesizers largely replaced classical strings. The band embarked on what would be their last world tour, to promote the new LP. The live line-up would have no cello players for the first time ever; instead they recruited Louis Clark (who had previously conducted the strings on their classic '70s albums) and Dave Morgan to play the string sounds on synthesizers; Mik Kaminski also appeared with his famous "blue violin", and "Fred the Robot" voiced the "Prologue" and "Epilogue".

Not surprisingly, those among Japanese popular culture fixated on ELO's transcending sound. At the 1983 Daicon IV convention, amateur animators, who would eventually form Gainax, created their second fan-pleasing opening animation, which used ELO's "Twilight" as it's soundtrack. To this day, the combination of amazingly hand-drawn animation coupled with a well-recieved ELO composition, is still considered one of the greatest pieces of art from the Golden Age of Anime

By 1983 it was becoming clear that band leader Lynne had grown tired of the project that he had helped to create thirteen years before, when he announced that there would be no tour to promote the new album Secret Messages. This was coupled with the news that drummer Bevan was to play drums for Black Sabbath and of bassist Kelly Groucutt's departure from the band. Rumours about the group disbanding were publicly denied by Bev Bevan. Sales of the new album were relatively slow and most music reviews further added to the problems. Secret Messages was originally recorded as a double album. However, the record company had different ideas, citing that it would be too expensive (due in part to ELO's declining popularity). Some of the songs that did not survive the hatchet job cropped up as single B-sides and on later box sets. However, the tribute song "Beatles Forever" is still unavailable. It has been reported that Jeff Lynne is embarrassed by this song, hence its unavailability. Shortly after this album, Kelly Groucutt sued Jeff Lynne, Bev Bevan, and ELO's management for alleged lost royalty fees. The matter was settled out of court.

With Bevan expressing a desire to join Black Sabbath permanently, Lynne and Tandy recording tracks for the Electric Dreams soundtrack under Jeff Lynne's name, and Groucutt having departed, it appeared that ELO was no more by 1984. But Bevan left Black Sabbath because of his objection to the band performing in apartheid South Africa, and Lynne needed to make one more ELO album to fulfill his contract.

File:ELO Balance Of Power.jpg
Balance Of Power (1986)

Lynne, Bevan and Tandy returned to the studio in 1985 as a three-piece (with Christian Schneider playing saxophone on some tracks) to record ELO's final album of the 20th century, Balance of Power, released early in 1986. Though the single "Calling America" placed in the Top 20 in the US (#28 UK), subsequent singles failed to chart. The album, jokingly called "Balance Of Payment" by Lynne, was totally absent of classical strings (except on the Secret Messages leftover track "Endless Lies") and had minimalist album art, missing the customary ELO logo that had appeared on every album since 1976. Lynne re-formed the 7-piece Time Tour band (with Martin Smith replacing Groucutt on bass) for a small number of live ELO performances in England and Germany, including the Heartbeat charity concert (organized by Bevan) on March 15 in ELO's hometown of Birmingham and ELO's last performance (prior to re-forming) on July 13 in Stuttgart. A hint of Lynne's future was seen when George Harrison appeared onstage during the encore at Heartbeat, joining in the all-star (including Robert Plant and the Moody Blues) jam of "Johnny B. Goode".

There was no announcement made of ELO's breakup during the next two years, when Harrison's Lynne-produced album Cloud Nine and the pair's follow-up (with Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan and Tom Petty) Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 were released to critical acclaim and commercial success. Only when Bevan approached Lynne to make another ELO album in 1988 was it declared that ELO had ceased to exist. In 1990, Bevan's version of the band, titled ELO Part II, released their debut album Electric Light Orchestra, Part Two.

Reformation in 2000

Jeff Lynne's comeback with ELO started in 2000 when he acquired full use of the ELO name as well as rights to the ELO Part II name from Bev Bevan. He then started work on a retrospective box set Flashback, remastering many tracks, most notably a new version of Lynne's only UK number one hit "Xanadu". Also that year Lynne started to write new songs which would appear on the Zoom album in 2001.

On completion of the album Lynne reformed the band with completely new members including his then-girlfriend Rosie Vela (a popular `70's/`80's Vogue model who had released her own album in 1986) and announced that ELO would tour again. Former ELO member Richard Tandy rejoined the band a short time afterwards for two television live appearances including a VH1 Storytellers and a PBS concert later titled Zoom Tour Live that was released shortly after the planned tour was aborted due to poor ticket sales. Zoom was made after Lynne had collaborated with the Traveling Wilburys and took on a more organic sound, with less emphasis on strings and electronic effects. Guest musicians included former Beatles Ringo Starr and George Harrison.

Harvest (First light series) and Epic/Legacy released ELO's back catalogue from 2001 to 2007, included amongst the remastered album tracks were unreleased songs and outtakes, including a new single "Surrender" which became a minor hit for the band some 30 years after it was first recorded. Today much of ELOs music is as popular as ever and can be heard used in Hollywood movies and advertisements. In 2005 the track "Twilight" was used in the opening (animated) sequence of the immensly popular Densha Otoko drama about a romance between an Anime-obsessed geek and an up-town rich girl.

Current releases

Although there has been no news on any forthcoming new projects by band supremo Jeff Lynne, he continues to remaster ELOs studio albums, the latest and last in the Epic/Legacy series is Out of the Blue and Balance of Power that were released in February 2007. A lost track from 1977s Out of the Blue sessions was released as a single on February 6th titled "Latitude 88 North".

File:Elo logo.jpg

The official band logo (left), designed in 1976 by artist Kosh, was first seen on their 1976 album A New World Record and is based on a 1946 Wurlitzer jukebox speaker, model 4008. The band's previous moniker (right) caused copyright infringement problems when it was claimed by General Electric that their elo design was a rip off of their own G E logo. The logo has also appeared on most of the bands albums in various forms. For instance, on 1977's Out of the Blue the logo was turned in to a huge flying saucer space station, an enduring image that is now synonymous with the band. Again, on the follow up Discovery, the logo became a small glowing artifact on top of a treasure chest. Bev Bevan usually displayed the logo on his drum kit.

Cultural References

  • In 2005, the smash hit Japanese TV series Densha Otoko featured "Twilight" as its theme song, sparking a resurgence of interest in ELO in Japan.
  • In 2006, the popular Fox teenage drama The OC featured a special cover version of "Can't Get It Out Of My Head" in an episode, as well as commissioning the indie artist John Paul White to cover the track for Music From The OC: Mix 6 'Covering Our Tracks'.
  • In 2007, it was used in an advertising campaign for the French mobile phone company SFR.
  • In the 2007 movie "Wild Hogs" the song "Showdown" was used. Shortly after the song stopped playing John Travolta stated "it's time to face the music".

Personnel

Members

Guest musicians

Live Lineup History

1972 Debut Tour

Roy Wood's only live ELO tour.
After the tour, Wood, Hunt and
McDowell leave ELO and form Wizzard.
  • Roy Wood - vocals, cello, bass guitar, guitar, woodwind
  • Jeff Lynne - vocals, lead guitar, piano
  • Bev Bevan - drums, percussion
  • Wilfred Gibson - violin
  • Richard Tandy - bass guitar, keyboards
  • Mike Edwards - cello
  • Bill Hunt - French horn, piano
  • Hugh McDowell - cello
  • Andy Craig - cello
  • Trevor Smith - (occasional cello)
1972 - 1973 ELO 2 Tour

Bassist Mike de Albuquerque and cellist Colin Walker join ELO after the departure of Wood, Hunt, McDowell, Craig and Smith.
  • Jeff Lynne - Vocals, lead guitar
  • Bev Bevan - drums, percussion
  • Richard Tandy - keyboards, moog, mellotron
  • Mike de Albuquerque - bass guitar, backing vocals
  • Wilfred Gibson - violin
  • Mike Edwards - cello
  • Colin Walker - cello
1973 - 1974 Do It With The Light On Tour

Mik Kaminski replaces Gibson on violin,
and McDowell returns from Wizzard to replace Walker.
  • Jeff Lynne - Vocals, lead guitar
  • Bev Bevan - drums, percussion
  • Richard Tandy - keyboards, moog, mellotron
  • Mike de Albuquerque - bass guitar, backing vocals
  • Mik Kaminski - violin
  • Mike Edwards - cello
  • Hugh McDowell - cello
1974 - 1975 Eldorado Tour

Kelly Groucutt replaces de Albuquerque.
  • Jeff Lynne - Vocals, lead guitar
  • Bev Bevan - drums, percussion
  • Richard Tandy - keyboards, moog, mellotron
  • Kelly Groucutt - bass guitar, backing vocals
  • Mik Kaminski - violin
  • Mike Edwards - cello
  • Hugh McDowell - cello
1975 - 1978 Classic Lineup, touring in support of the albums
Face The Music, A New World Record and Out Of The Blue

Edwards is replaced by cellist Melvyn Gale.
The band's most successful period.
  • Jeff Lynne - Vocals, lead guitar
  • Bev Bevan - drums, percussion
  • Richard Tandy - keyboards, moog, mellotron
  • Kelly Groucutt - bass guitar, backing vocals
  • Mik Kaminski - violin
  • Hugh McDowell - cello
  • Melvyn Gale - cello
  • Jake Commander - additional backing vocals (offstage) on Out Of The Blue Tour
1981 - 1982 Time Tour

Cellists McDowell & Gale are replaced with "Technology",
Dave Morgan, longtime orchestral arranger Louis Clark
and "Fred"
  • Jeff Lynne - Vocals, lead guitar
  • Bev Bevan - drums, percussion
  • Richard Tandy - keyboards, synthesizer
  • Kelly Groucutt - bass guitar, backing vocals
  • Mik Kaminski - violin, keyboards
  • Louis Clark - synthesizer
  • Dave Morgan - guitar, vocoder
  • Fred the Robot - Spoken Prologue and Epilogue
1986 Balance Of Power Tour

Martin Smith replaces Groucutt, and no "Fred"
  • Jeff Lynne - Vocals, lead guitar
  • Bev Bevan - drums, percussion
  • Richard Tandy - keyboards, synthesizer
  • Mik Kaminski - violin, keyboards
  • Louis Clark - synthesizer
  • Dave Morgan - guitar, vocoder, backing vocals
  • Martin Smith - bass guitar
2001 Zoom Tour

Featuring a whole new band save for Lynne & Tandy. The only time the band has not featured a violinist although the cellos return.
  • Jeff Lynne - Vocals, lead guitar, rhythm guitar
  • Richard Tandy - keyboards, synthesizer, vocoder
  • Marc Mann - lead guitar, rhythm guitar, keyboards
  • Matt Bissonette - bass guitar, backing vocals
  • Gregg Bissonette - drums, backing vocals
  • Peggy Baldwin - electric cello
  • Sarah O'Brien - electric cello
  • Rosie Vela - backing vocals

Discography

For a full discography and chart placings please see Electric Light Orchestra discography.

Influences

Notes

  1. ^ http://www.dprp.net/proghistory/index.php?i=1974_03
  2. ^ http://www.jefflynnesongs.com/elousasingles/
  3. ^ http://snopes.com/music/hidden/noanswer.asp
  4. ^ http://www.jefflynnesongs.com/ootbtour/

External links


Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Electric_Light_Orchestra&oldid=115772481"