To be clear, Jeff Lynne’s ELO only has two members of the original ELO: singer, guitarist, songwriter and producer Jeff Lynne and keyboardist Richard Tandy. It’s likely most people aren’t that familiar with other members of Electric Light Orchestra, save for perhaps the group’s drummer, Bev Bevan, who also did a spell with Black Sabbath for a couple years. As it is, there have been many factions of “ELO”, including ELO II, ELO III and the Orchestra with Bevan, former ELO bassist Kelly Groucutt, and former ELO violinist Mik Kaminski. For most people, however, the heart and soul of ELO pretty much belongs to Jeff Lynne. In between producing records for everyone under the sun, he’s resurrected ELO twice under his name: first with 2001’s Zoom and more recently with a special concert at Hyde Park in 2014 and a studio album slated for late 2015. To get things going, Eagle Rock has issued Live In Hyde Park on DVD and Blu-ray Disc, featuring the concert from September 2014, plus an interview and extensive documentary about Jeff Lynne.
On stage at the Hyde Park, Lynne is accompanied by Tandy, a full string section, and a band consisting of two additional keyboard players, two guitar players, a bassist, a drummer, a percussionist and two backup singers. This version of ELO is built to replicate those classic ELO songs like “Mr. Blue Sky,” “Sweet Talkin’ Woman,” “Livin’ Thing,” “Evil Woman,” “Telephone Line,” “Don’t Bring Me Down,” “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Can’t Get It Out Of My Head” and “Strange Magic.” Lynne’s voice sounds relatively unchanged as he guides the band through the masterful pop songs he created in the 70s and 80s. With space-flavored backdrops and a big sound, this is ELO in all its splendor in front of 50,000, headlining the BBC Radio 2’s Festival In A Day in London’s Hyde Park.
Along with the hits, Lynne and company go deep with prime nuggets like “10538 Overture,” the band’s first single from 1972, the rather obscure “Steppin’ Out” from 1977’s double Out Of The Blue, and a song from Lynne’s other group, the Traveling Wiburys’ “Handle With Care,” which features four guitarists backing Lynne’s vocal and Les Paul. There’s just no way this ensemble can hit a bum note, as the songs, anthems to many, roll out and the audience soaks it all up. The response was apparently strong enough to motivate Lynne to record a new ELO album called Alone In The Universe.
As if the live performance weren’t enough, there’s the interview with Jeff Lynne and the documentary called Mr. Blue Sky: The Story Of Jeff Lynne & ELO, which is really the story of Jeff Lynne. Even as one of the few in the world to have worked with the Beatles, Lynne’s so damn modest and shy, he has to drag the ELO name into it. At any rate, he gets props from Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Tom Petty, Eric Idle, Dhani Harrison, Olivia Harrison, Barbara Orbison, Joe Walsh, and no one that was in ELO except Richard Tandy and Jeff Lynne himself. His band’s the Idle Race, the Move, and ELO are all covered, but then Lynne’s journey as a producer for recordings by George Harrison, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison and the Beatles is thoroughly explored. His membership in the Traveling Wilburys gets a nice scrubbing. And along the way, he wanders the hallways and rooms of his house or sitting in his home studio, playing multiple instruments, recording a song here and there. Live In Hyde Park may be centered around the concert performed by Jeff Lynne’s ELO, but it’s really about Jeff Lynne, the songs he’s done with ELO, and the work he’s done since.
~ Shawn Perry
