“It’s hard to say how The Beatles would have evolved,” Lynne told The Guardian in 2014. He was Lennon and McCartney in one package. But as Lynne took over the reigns as ELO’s chief songwriter, producer, and sonic architect, it became clear that he operated best without a co-writer. Despite operating at opposite ends of the rock spectrum – Lynne the studious craftsman, Wood the cello-bashing oddball – the duo clearly couldn’t align their talents to a Lennon/McCartney level, and Wood left the band after only recording one full LP: their self-titled debut, which cracked the UK Top 40 but flew totally under the radar in America. Their actual trajectory was slightly different. Eldorado would become ELO's first gold album.Īfter the release of Eldorado, bassist and vocalist Kelly Groucutt and cellist Melvyn Gale joined, replacing de Albuquerque and Edwards respectively.When Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood formed Electric Light Orchestra in 1970, their goal was to carry the torch of the recently disbanded Beatles, expanding that band’s psychedelic blueprint for “I Am The Walrus” with a classical-rock scope. Top Ten hit with Can't Get It Out Of My Head in 1975. In 1974 Lynne hired a thirty-piece orchestra, choir and Louis Clark, then began work on the next LP Eldorado, A Symphony, a concept album about dreams, scoring their first U.S. Later that same year saw the return of Hugh McDowell, who had jumped ship the year previous, to replace cellist Colin Walker. They also released On the Third Day in 1973, with Mike Edwards playing all the cello parts due to Colin Walker leaving the band. After their second album, violinist Gibson was dismissed and replaced by Mik Kaminski. chart hit, a hugely elaborate version of the Chuck Berry classic Roll Over Beethoven. They released ELO 2 in 1973, from which came their first U.S. Despite the music press's predictions that the band would fold without Wood, Jeff Lynne stepped up to lead the band, with Bevan remaining on drums, bassist Richard Tandy switching to moog synthesizer, Michael d'Albuquerque on bass, Mike Edwards, Colin Walker (cello) and Wilfred Gibson replacing Steve Woolam on violin. With most of the media attention focused on Roy Wood, differences in musical direction, and a disastrous first live outing, it was no surprise when the band went through the first of its many line-up changes as Wood took Hugh McDowell and Bill Hunt with him to form Wizzard. However, tensions soon surfaced between Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne. 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. To help finance the fledgling project, two more Move albums were released during the recording of their eponymous first album in 1971 which produced the UK hit 10538 Overture. In 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. This was an idea Roy Wood initially had while with The Move, to take rock music in a new direction. The band used cellos, violin, horns and woodwinds to give their music a classical sound. The band claim that their music 'picks up where The Beatles left off.'įormed in 1970 by Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne and Bev Bevan (the remaining members of the 1960s rock group The Move). The musical content of ELO songs often went far beyond usual chord structures, mixing pop songwriting with classical romanticism and synthesized sounds. They incorporated the sounds of string ensembles, vocoders and dub echos into rock songs, thereby creating a very sophisticated studio version of rock. Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) was a very successful rock music group of the 1970s and 1980s, formed in Birmingham, England.
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