Imminent Release: Alone In The Universe -- ELO

[Craig]

And judging by the speed that they sold out, I probably wouldn't have got them anyway.

Craig

[southpaw1959]

Listening to the album on Spotify right now. Pretty darn good. Miss the earlier ELO sound with cello a bit, but Jeff Lynne still knows how to write a tune! Wish we still lived in a world where stuff like this gets played on the radio.

[George]

I'm Spotifying it too - this is good stuff!

Maybe I'll post a new New Album Day topic when I've listened a few more times..

[timfitz63]

Good news for you!  Not so much for me, though...

It looks like the tour schedule only includes a couple of U.S. venues (New York City, Los Angeles) before Jeff hangs around his old stompin' grounds (i.e., the U.K.) for the next six months or so...  Guess I'll have to wait a bit longer to catch ELO in concert...

[mgap]

This a bit late but Jeff Lynn's ELO was on the Tonight Show on Wednesday,  of course you could catch it on HULU.

[timfitz63]

This a bit late but Jeff Lynn's ELO was on the Tonight Show on Wednesday,  of course you could catch it on HULU.

I always seem to find out about these things after-the-fact.  But I appreciate the "head's up"; and through the miracle of video tape, we can all enjoy the musical performance:

Jeff Lynne's ELO "When I Was A Boy" (Tonight Show)
Jeff Lynne's ELO "Mr. Blue Sky" (Tonight Show)

Here's the general link to the band's guest appearance on the Tonight Show; from there, you can see the entire episode as it was broadcast on 18 November 2015.

[George]

I always seem to find out about these things after-the-fact.  But I appreciate the "head's up"; and through the miracle of video tape, we can all enjoy the musical performance:

Of course there are loadsout there to watch on line.  Here's probably the best; Live at the London Radio Theater earlier this year.  I've been to this venue a few times - how they squeezed the entire band in, well I don't know.  I guess it adds to the intimacy, which you can almost feel from this recording...

[timfitz63]

I always seem to find out about these things after-the-fact.  But I appreciate the "head's up"; and through the miracle of video tape, we can all enjoy the musical performance:

Of course there are loadsout there to watch on line.  Here's probably the best; Live at the London Radio Theater earlier this year.  I've been to this venue a few times - how they squeezed the entire band in, well I don't know.  I guess it adds to the intimacy, which you can almost feel from this recording...

Thanks for posting that link, George!  That was a real treat!  Think I'll break out my guitar and practice "Telephone Line" some more...

[mgap]

I always seem to find out about these things after-the-fact.  But I appreciate the "head's up"; and through the miracle of video tape, we can all enjoy the musical performance:

Of course there are loadsout there to watch on line.  Here's probably the best; Live at the London Radio Theater earlier this year.  I've been to this venue a few times - how they squeezed the entire band in, well I don't know.  I guess it adds to the intimacy, which you can almost feel from this recording...

Thanks for posting that link, George!  That was a real treat!  Think I'll break out my guitar and practice "Telephone Line" some more...

I watched the BBC2 show and it was pretty good.  50 million records sold WOW! 

One thing I did notice is that he has his original piano player with him and I think that is the only other original player from the 70's and 80's .
By the way timfitz back in his 2001 "Comeback" tour he plays a all Koa Taylor guitar on Telephone Line.

[timfitz63]

... One thing I did notice is that he has his original piano player with him and I think that is the only other original player from the 70's and 80's...

Yeah, it seems Richard Tandy is the only heyday band member who's still on good terms with Jeff Lynne.  After the 1986 disbanding of the ELO we all knew, Bev Bevan (the drummer and fellow founding member of ELO) wound up in a legal squabble with Jeff over his use of the name "Electric Light Orchestra" in his re-formed ELO Part II band.  Ultimately, the courts decided that, as a founding member of the band, Bev had equal rights to use the name.  I guess Jeff, who was arguably the primary creative source for the band, didn't take the decision so well, and he and Bev haven't been too cozy since.  When ELO Part II later disbanded and Bev went on to other endeavors, he apparently sold his rights to the name "Electric Light Orchestra" to Jeff and they parted ways, seemingly for good.

The long-time bassist, Kelly Groucutt, got into a legal spat with the band over royalties during the recording sessions for 1983's Secret Messages album and was dismissed by Jeff Lynne.  So they apparently didn't part ways as mates either.  I'm sure it also rubbed Jeff the wrong way when Bev welcomed Kelly as a member of his reformulated ELO Part II.  But Kelly was a great singer with a pretty unique voice; during live shows, he would showcase his vocal range by singing the operatic parts of "Rockaria!"  Kelly also wrote some pretty catchy songs as well, judging from those he did for ELO Part II (and it's spin-off group The Orchestra) as well as a solo album he released way back in the early 80's.  Despite any hard feelings that might have existed with Jeff, there's little chance that Kelly will be re-joining the band; he passed away suddenly in 2009.

... By the way timfitz back in his 2001 "Comeback" tour he plays a all Koa Taylor guitar on Telephone Line.

Yes, I noticed that as well (I have a DVD of the concert he did for the ELO Fan Club).  Actually he had a couple of Taylor Dreadnoughts that he used during concerts in that short-lived Zoom tour.

[mgap]

Yes, I noticed that as well (I have a DVD of the concert he did for the ELO Fan Club).  Actually he had a couple of Taylor Dreadnoughts that he used during concerts in that short-lived Zoom tour.

I like the way every time Jeff said "here is a song off the new album" the audience would say "ZOOM"

[timfitz63]

Yes, I noticed that as well (I have a DVD of the concert he did for the ELO Fan Club).  Actually he had a couple of Taylor Dreadnoughts that he used during concerts in that short-lived Zoom tour.

I like the way every time Jeff said "here is a song off the new album" the audience would say "ZOOM"

Yeah, that was pretty cool!  The audience was cracking up Jeff during "Tightrope" too, by collectively interjecting "Woooo!" at the appropriate place in the song.

[mgap]

Has anybody been to the O2 in London.  I see that he(ELO)has a couple of dates there April 20-26, it might be a nice mini vacation in April.  Heathrow is crazy though. 

[George]

Has anybody been to the O2 in London.  I see that he(ELO)has a couple of dates there April 20-26, it might be a nice mini vacation in April.  Heathrow is crazy though.

I've been there twice in recent years.  The O2's one of the more 'fashionable' venues in London at the moment.  It started life as "The Millennium Dome" - a folly built to mark the turn of the new millennium, but for quite some years now it's been enjoying life as a concert venue, sports stadium etc.  I would make the trip to see ELO, but not necessarily just to go to the O2.

[timfitz63]

Has anybody been to the O2 in London.  I see that he(ELO)has a couple of dates there April 20-26, it might be a nice mini vacation in April.  Heathrow is crazy though.

It's a nice thought.  Come April, I may have the time to loosely consider doing something like that; but I suspect that other other aspects of life (finances, family matters) will not permit it.  I will probably have to wait and see whether the tour will eventually come to somewhere near me...