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Electric Light Orchestra ('''ELO'''), from Birmingham, England , was a successful Rock Music group of the 1970s and 1980s . HISTORY The band, formed by Jeff Lynne (of The Idle Race ) with Roy Wood and Bev Bevan (the remaining members of The Move ) in 1971 , used Cello s and Violin s to give their music a " Classical " sound. Roy Wood left ELO shortly after the release of their eponymous first album (which produced the UK hit "10538 Overture") and Jeff Lynne stepped up to lead the band. In the USA , 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. {Link without Title} The band went through a line-up change (as Wood took some musicians with him to form Wizzard ), including a new Keyboardist , Richard Tandy , and released ''ELO II'' in 1973 , from which came their first U.S. chart hit, a hugely elaborate cover of the Chuck Berry classic "Roll Over Beethoven". They also released ''On The Third Day'' in 1973 , and ''Eldorado'' in 1974 , scoring another U.S. Top 40 hit with "Can't Get It Out Of My Head". In 1975 , bassist and vocalist Kelly Groucutt joined, and ''Face The Music'' was released, from which the major singles were "Evil Woman" and "Strange Magic", 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 CBS Sports Spectacular montages, though most viewers had no idea of the song's origins. The multi- Platinum album ''A New World Record'' was released in 1976 with hits such as "Livin' Thing" (remade by The Beautiful South in 2004), a re-release of The Move's "Do Ya", and "Telephone Line". The songs "Livin' Thing" and "Telephone Line" were prominently featured in the films '' Boogie Nights '' and '' Billy Madison '', respectively. That was followed by the double album ''Out Of The Blue'', featuring the singles "Turn To Stone", "Sweet Talkin' Woman", and "Mr. Blue Sky". The band then set out on a world tour, with an enormous (and hugely expensive) space ship set in tow. In 1979 , Lynne set out to capitalize on the growing popularity of Disco with the album ''Discovery'' (or "Disco very" as he 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 ) and "Last Train To London" (sampled in 2003 by Atomic Kitten on their hit "Be With You"). Not long after this album, the violinist Mik Kaminski and the two cellists Hugh McDowell and Melvyn Gale were considered surplus to requirements and dismissed. Soon after, 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", #1 in the U.S.) and ELO ("I'm Alive" and "All Over the World") as well as the title track to the movie, performed by Newton-John with ELO which reached #1 in the UK single charts and #8 on the U.S. Billboard top 40 chart. 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") on which synthesizers replaced classical strings. Following this, their popularity began to wane. ''Secret Messages'' was released in 1983 , with a guest appearance by former ELO violinist Mik Kaminski on the track "Rock 'n' Roll Is King"; this was the only hit single taken from this album. ''Secret Messages'' was originally recorded as a double album; however, the record company had different ideas, citing that it would be too expensive. Some of the songs that didn't 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 was dismissed from the band, and subsequently sued Jeff Lynne for royalty fees. By 1986 , ELO was reduced to a three-piece band. They released their final album, ''Balance Of Power'' (singles: "Calling America", "So Serious"), which was all synthesizers and no strings, before going their separate ways. Electric Light Orchestra, Part II Without Lynne's approval or permission, former ELO drummer Bev Bevan formed "Electric Light Orchestra, Part II" 1990 , releasing an album that went straight to the bargain bins. Though offended by the unauthorized use of the band name, Lynne decided that the expense of a court battle was not worth the effort, and so Bevan's venture continued. A second album, ''Moment Of Truth'', was released in 1994 . The quality of music produced by Part II, compared with the original ELO, is a bone of contention amongst fans. Many fans conclude that without Jeff Lynne at the helm, it is not ELO. It was revealed through later interviews that Jeff Lynne did not particularly enjoy touring and preferred the confines and experimental nature of studio production to capture a distinct sound. The touring ELO act of the 70's was a visual extravaganza due to the elaborate spaceship sets, but the music was weak, with taped backing tracks providing most of the orchestral riffs the band was famous for. ELO Part II remedied this problem by playing with a full symphony orchestra on many dates providing the massive, undistorted "wall of sound" which was lost during the arena shows of ELO's heyday. While the two studio records produced by ELO Part II may fall short Lynne's pop genius, the live shows provided by the band far outshone the musicianship of the "spaceship" era ELO as best heard on the "One Night, Live in Australia" CD, which has been remixed, remastered, and re-released under so many guises that the original CD may prove difficult to acquire. ELO Part II first consisted of Bev Bevan, Pete Hancock, Neil Lockwood and Eric Troyer. These four were augmented on tour with former ELO members Hugh MacDowell (cello), Mik Kaminski (violin) and Louis Clark (orchestra and orchestral keyboards). Prior to their first live album, former bassist/vocalist Kelly Groucutt joined the band. After the first studio album and first live album, MacDowell, Hancock and Lockwood left the band. ELO Part 2 leader Bev Bevan recruited former labelmate Phil Bates (of "Trickster"). Bates remained with the band until the mid 1990's and was replaced by Parthenon Huxley. In November of 1999, Bev Bevan played his last show with the band at the Sands hotel in Atlantic City. The group reformed under the name "The Orchestra" with drummer Gordon Townsend. In 2002, the Orchestra released an extremely limited number of their CD "No Rewind" which was produced and released without involvement from a major record label. The album contains the Orchestra's best known non-ELO song, "Over London Skies" and a cover of "Twist and Shout" which begins in a slow, plaintive minor key with arpeggiated chords before building to the familiar, rocking major progression. The band continues to tour, albeit irregularly, in the United Kingdom, India, Spain, Brazil, and occasionally the United States. In 2005, the band won the right to return to its ELO-based name and is now called ELO Part 2 Former Members. Their first tour of the UK in years is to commence later in 2006. Reforming Electric Light Orchestra Jeff Lynne's comeback with ELO started in 2001 when he reformed the band with completely new members and released the album ''Zoom''. Former ELO member Richard Tandy rejoined the band a short time afterwards for a tour that was unfortunately cut short due to poor ticket sales. A DVD of the opening concert was released in the wake of the aborted tour. ''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 . In 2003 and 2004 , ELO's song "Mr. Blue Sky" enjoyed a resurgence. It appeared in a commercial for the Volkswagen Beetle convertible, was featured as a song sung by the main characters in the movie adaptation of ''The Magic Roundabout'' and was used in the trailers for the films '' Adaptation. '' and '' Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind ''. "Mr. Blue Sky" was also the theme song of the Television Series , '' LAX ''. In 2005 , ELO's song "Hold On Tight" was used in an Ameriquest commercial. "Do Ya" has been used in a Monster.com commercial and also in trailers for the movie '' The 40-Year-Old Virgin ''. In the 1996 Comedy movie Kingpin (film) , "Showdown" was used as background music during a one on one bowling tournament. Additionally, "Twilight" from ''Time'' was used as the theme song for the popular Japanese TV series '' Densha Otoko '' and in the opening of the 1983 Japanese sci-fi convention Daicon IV . JCPenney used "Livin' Thing" in its 2005 Christmas commercials and the TV Comedy My Name Is Earl used "Livin' Thing" in 2005 for the episode "Quit Smoking". In 2006 the The Pussycat Dolls' hit "Beep" used an instrumental string hook sample from "Evil Woman" as its musical foundation. ELO's latest release is a remastered compilation, ''All Over The World: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra''. ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA BAND MEMBERS
DISCOGRAPHY Studio albums #'' Electric Light Orchestra '' ( 1971 ) - released in the US as ''No Answer'' ( 1972 ) UK#32 #'' Electric Light Orchestra II '' ( 1973 ) UK#35 #'' On The Third Day '' (1973) #'' Eldorado '' ( 1974 ) #'' Face The Music '' ( 1975 ) #'' A New World Record '' ( 1976 ) UK#6 #'' Out Of The Blue '' ( 1977 ) UK#4 #'' Discovery '' ( 1979 ) UK#1 #'' Xanadu '' ( 1980 ) UK#2 #'' Time '' ( 1981 ) UK#1 #'' Secret Messages '' ( 1983 ) UK#4 #'' Balance Of Power '' ( 1986 ) UK#9 #'' Zoom '' ( 2001 ) UK#34 Live album #'' The Night The Light Went On (In Long Beach) '' ( May 12 , 1974) Reissues
Compilation albums
Singles and highest chart positions Today are many of those songs famous in Jive competitions, for example Rockaria! and Rock 'N' Roll Is King. ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA, PART II Band members
Discography
TRIVIA A famous, deliberately recorded Backward Message comes from the beginning of the song "Fire on High," where the mysterious deep mumbling reverses to "The music is reversible, but time is not...turn back! Turn back! Turn back!" — ostensibly a shot at the hysteria surrounding "reversed speech" at the time the album was released. At the end of "Mr. Blue Sky," there is a vocoder speech. Jeff Lynne says "please turn me over" as this was the last song on the first side of the 2nd vinyl included as part of this double-album. EXTERNAL LINKS
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mr-blue-sky - Unofficial Mailing List for fans of The Electric Light Orchestra
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wizzard-Brew - Unofficial Mailing List for fans of The Move, Wizzard and Roy Wood VIDEOS http://music.aol.com/artist/main.adp?artistid=4177 Hold on Tight http://www.mediamob.co.kr/tearsfor/Post/PostView.aspx?PKId=50754 |
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