The Electric Light Orchestra



"Jazz and classically-influenced free form music with instrumentation aligned more to an orchestra than a Rock band." That was the idea when Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne and Beverly Bevan of the British band, The Move, formed Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) in 1971. The ensemble was years in the making, with Roy Wood planning and gathering members to join. When ELO first debuted in 1972 at the Greyhound pub in Croydon, Surrey in England, they were not well received. The public had never seen a Rock band that included cellos, violins and a French horn. Despite their lofty ambitions, the group still showed traces of The Move, with Lynne's grasp of melody much in evidence, particularly on the startling "10538 Overture", a UK Top 10 single in 1972. Their self-titled album was renamed in the U.S. as "No Answer", but only reached #196 on the Billboard Hot 200 chart.

Over the years, the band would have a number of personnel changes, but Lynne and Bevan remained throughout. Steve Woolam departed first, and the remaining quartet added Hugh McDowell and Andy Craig on cellos, keyboard player Richard Tandy and Wilf Gibson on violin for a series of indifferent live appearances, following which Wood took Hunt and McDowell to form Wizzard. When Andy Craig dropped out, the remaining quartet maintained the ELO name with the addition of Mike D'Albuquerque to handle bass and vocals and cellists Mike Edwards and Colin Walker.

In 1973 the band released a quasi-classical version of Chuck Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven", which reached #42 on the U.S. singles charts. Slowly, the band began to attract more and more listeners to its Classical style Rock. In 1974, the LP "Eldorado", containing the hit single, "Can't Get It Out Of My Head" (#9), was released and reached #16 on the U.S. album charts. By the time 1975 rolled around, bassist and vocalist Kelly Groucutt joined and the album "Face The Music" was released, from which the major singles were "Evil Woman" (#10) and "Strange Magic" (#14), marking a shift to a more radio friendly sound. 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 ABC's Wide World of Sports montages, though most viewers had no idea of the song's origins.

The Electric Light Orchestra became a star attraction on America's lucrative stadium circuit and achieved considerable commercial success with "A New World Record", "Out Of The Blue" and "Discovery". Lynne's compositions successfully steered the line between Pop and Pock, inspiring commentators to compare his group with The Beatles. Between 1976 and 1981 ELO scored an unbroken run of 14 U.S. Top 40 singles, including "Livin' Thing" (#13 in 1976), "Telephone Line" (#7 in 1977), "Turn To Stone (#13 in 1978), "Shine A Little Love" (#8 in 1979), "Don't Bring Me Down" (#4 in 1979) and "Xanadu", a 1980 chart-topping collaboration with Olivia Newton-John, taken from the film of the same name.

Despite their chart success, recurrent legal and distribution problems conspired to undermine ELO's momentum. "Time" and "Secret Messages" lacked the verve of earlier work and the group's future was put in doubt by a lack of quality releases and Lynne's growing disenchantment. The guitarist's pursuit of a solo career signalled a final split. During the 1980s and early '90s, Jeff Lynne made a name for himself as a producer, helping artists such as Brian Wilson and Tom Petty. A long time Beatles fan, Lynne produced George Harrison's 1987 "Cloud Nine". He and Harrison later joined Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Roy Orbison to form The Traveling Wilburys. In 1994 and 1995, Lynne helped produce The Beatles' singles "Free As A Bird" and "Real Love".

Jeff Lynn and Bev Bevan each owned 50% of the name ELO and when Bevan emerged with a new band in 1991, he had to use the name ELO 2. Although the group didn't have any recording success, they continued to tour and rehash the oldies until 2001, when Bevan left and Lynn gained 100% control of the ELO name. The remaining members of ELO 2 were then forced into another name change, opting for Orchestra. To Lynne's surprise, interest in The Electric Light Orchestra had fallen and they were forced to cancel their first U.S. tour in more than fifteen years, as the band failed to sell enough tickets to fill the arena-sized venues. The group planned a tour behind their Summer release, "Zoom", the first ELO recording with Lynne since 1986's "Balance of Power". The hiatus seemed to build disinterest rather than nostalgic fascination, as "Zoom" was met with a lukewarm reception, selling under 20,000 units in its first week, to debut at #94 on the charts. Two weeks later it exited the Top 200. ELO weren't without 2001 performances though, as the band recorded an episode of Storytellers for VH1 and a special for PBS. In April, 2003, Legacy Records released a digitally remastered collection of "ELO's Greatest Hits" and in the Summer of 2005, yet another "Best Of" collection called "All Over The World" hit store shelves.

Although there have been no new ELO projects, most of their core studio albums have now been re-mastered and expanded with bonus tracks. The essential collection called "Playlist: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra" was released on September 2nd, 2008. On August 9th, 2010, Eagle Rock Entertainment released "Live – The Early Years" in the UK as a DVD compilation that includes "Fusion – Live In London" (from 1976) along with un-released live performances at Brunel University (1973) and a German TV show Rockpalast (1974). It was released in America on August 24th, 2010.

In mid-June, 2014, Jeff Lynne announced that he and ELO would headline BBC Radio 2 Live in Hyde Park on September 14, the public broadcaster's annual concert. In a statement to the press, Lynne said: "I haven't performed live in quite some time, and I know the fans have asked for it a lot over the years. It's very exciting to come to Hyde Park with Radio 2 and do something this big, and I'm very much looking forward to playing my ELO songs for everyone." On September 23, 2015, Columbia Records announced the release of "Alone In The Universe", the first new ELO album in fifteen years. In November of that year, Jeff Lynne and company played their first date in the US in over thirty years at New York's tiny Irving Plaza. The show, which reportedly sold out in mere seconds, was an overwhelming success. A handful of live appearances in the UK were slated for the Summer of 2017. In mid-November, Lynne announced that he and ELO would tour North America for the first time since 1981, starting off August 2nd, 2018 at Oakland, California's Oracle Arena and perform ten shows over three weeks before concluding August 24th at Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center.

Sad news came on November 6th, 2018 when the band's former cellist, Hugh McDowell passed away at the age of 65 after a lengthy illness.

After wrapping up their first North American tour since 1981, Jeff Lynn announced that his band's first new album in nearly four years would be released on November 1st, 2019. Speaking about the LP, titled "From Out Of Nowhere", Lynn said, "From Out of Nowhere, that's exactly where it came from. That's the first one I wrote for this album, and it's kind of like that." More good news came for Lynn in October, 2020 when he received an O.B.E. (Order of the British Empire) for his services to music. The Queen's Birthday Honours are usually announced in June, but were delayed due to COVID-19. A tour to support the new album was announced to begin in October 2020, but the official Jeff Lynne's ELO Twitter page reported that the tour was canceled due to the pandemic.

After the COVID crisis started to fade, the group's first show took place on November 12th, 2023, at Joe Walsh's VetsAid concert in Chula Vista, California. In mid-March, 2024, Jeff Lynne announced that the band's Over And Out Tour, which was to commence on August 24th in Palm Desert, California, would be their last. The trek was slated to wrap up on October 25th in Los Angeles, but additional dated were a possibility.

On May 1st, 2024, Jeff Lynne announced the passing of ELO's longtime keyboard player, Richard Tandy at the age of 76. Tandy appeared on every one of the band's albums, with the exception of 1971's "No Answer", which was recorded before he joined the band, and 2015's "Alone in the Universe". He was the only member who remained alongside Lynne during all three incarnations until Lynne disbanded ELO in 1986. Returning for various projects since then, Tandy's last appearance with the band took place at New York City's Radio City Music Hall in 2016.

Jeff Lynne's ELO kicked off their Over and Out Tour in Palm Desert, California on August 24th, 2024. With Lynne as the only remaining original member, the band was set to play more than two dozen North American cities on their farewell trek.

Over their career, ELO collected 19 CRIA, 21 RIAA and 38 BPI awards and sold over 50 million records worldwide during their active period of recording and touring.