ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA (England) Do Ya A New World Record 1976 Superb track from the best band Birmingham ever produced m.youtube/watch?v=hiGYiimpPUA&itct=CCkQpDAYBiITCMnpkPvo7cECFW--wgodTXQAZVIJRWxvIGRvIHlh&client=mv-google&hl=en-GB&gl=GB Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) are a British rock group from Birmingham, England, who released eleven studio albums between 1971 and 1986 and another album in 2001. ELO was formed to accommodate Roy Woods and Jeff Lynnes desire to create modern rock and pop songs with classical overtones. After Woods departure following the bands debut record, Lynne wrote and arranged all of the groups original compositions and produced every album. Despite early singles success in the United Kingdom, the band was initially more successful in the United States, billed as The English guys with the big fiddles. They gained a cult following despite lukewarm reviews back in their native United Kingdom. By the mid-1970s, they had become one of the biggest-selling acts in music. From 1972 to 1986, ELO accumulated 27 Top-40 hit singles in both the UK and the US, with 20 Top 20 UK singles and 15 Top-20 US singles (as charted by Billboard magazine). The band also holds the record for having the most Billboard Hot 100 Top 40 hits, 20, of any group in US chart history without ever having a number one single. ELO collected 19 CRIA, 21 RIAA and 38 BPI awards, and sold over 50 million records worldwide during the groups original 13 year period of active recording and touring. In the late 1960s, Roy Wood — guitarist, vocalist and songwriter of The Move — had an idea to form a new band that would use violins, cellos, string basses, horns and woodwinds to give their music a classical sound, taking rock music in the direction that The Beatles had left off. Jeff Lynne, frontman of fellow Birmingham group The Idle Race, was excited by the concept. In January 1970, when Carl Wayne left The Move, Lynne accepted Woods second invitation to join the band on the condition that they focus their energy on the new project. On 12 July 1970, when Wood added multiple cellos to a Lynne-penned song intended to be a Move B-side, the new concept became a reality and 10538 Overture became the first Electric Light Orchestra song. To help finance the fledgling band, one further Move album Message From the Country was also recorded during the lengthy ELO recordings. The resulting debut album The Electric Light Orchestra was released in 1971. (It was released in the United States in 1972 as No Answer, the name being chosen because a record company secretary had tried to ring the UK company and get the name of the album – since they were unable to contact them they left a note saying No Answer.[8]) 10538 Overture became a UK top-ten hit. Lynne, Wood and Bev Bevan were the founding members of Electric Light Orchestra. They were joined by Bill Hunt (horns, keyboards) and Steve Woolam (violin) on the debut album. ELOs debut concert took place on 16 April 1972 at The Greyhound Pub in Croydon,[9] UK, with a line-up of Wood, Lynne, Bevan, Hunt, Wilfred Gibson (violin), Hugh McDowell (cello), Mike Edwards (cello), Andy Craig (cello) and Richard Tandy (bass). However, tensions soon surfaced between Wood and Lynne due to problems with management, and an unsatisfactory tour of Italy, where the cellos and violins could not be heard over the electric instruments.[10] During the recordings for the bands second LP, Wood left the band taking cellist McDowell and horn/keyboard player Hunt with him to form Wizzard. Despite predictions from the music press that the band would fold without Wood, who had been the driving force behind the creation of ELO, Lynne stepped up to lead the band, with Bev Bevan remaining on drums, joined by Gibson on violin, Richard Tandy now playing the Moog synthesiser, piano and other keyboards in place of Hunt, Mike de Albuquerque on bass and vocals, and Mike Edwards and Colin Walker on cellos. The new line-up performed at the 1972 Reading Festival. Barcus Berry instrument pick-ups, now sported by the bands string trio, allowed them to have proper amplification on stage for their instruments, which had previously been all but drowned out by all the sound of the electrified instruments. The band released their second album, ELO 2 in 1973, which produced their first US chart single, a hugely elaborate version of the Chuck Berry classic Roll Over Beethoven. ELO also made their first appearance on American Bandstand show. During the recording of the third album, Gibson was let go after a dispute over money, Mik Kaminski joined as violinist, and Walker left since touring was keeping him away from his family too much, while remaining cellist Edwards finished the cello parts. The resulting album, On the Third Day, was released in late 1973, with the American version featuring the popular single Showdown. Hugh McDowell who had left the band the previous year returned for the subsequent American Tour in support of the album. For the bands fourth album, Eldorado, A Symphony, a concept album about a daydreamer, Lynne stopped overdubbing strings and hired an orchestra and choir instead. Louis Clark joined the band as string arranger.[11] The first single of the album, Cant Get It Out of My Head, became their first US Billboard charts Top 10 hit, and Eldorado, A Symphony became ELOs first gold album. After the release of Eldorado, bassist and vocalist Kelly Groucutt and cellist Melvyn Gale joined, replacing de Albuquerque (who, like Walker before him, quit since the ELO tours were keeping him away from his family too long) and Edwards respectively. The line-up stabilised as the band took to a decidedly more accessible sound. ELO had become successful in the United States at this point and the group was a star attraction on the stadium and arena circuit, as well as regularly appearing on The Midnight Special (1973, 1975, 1976 & 1977) more than any other band in that shows history with four appearances. Face the Music was released in 1975, producing the hit singles Evil Woman and Strange Magic. The opening instrumental Fire on High, with its mix of strings and blazing acoustic guitars, saw heavy exposure as background music on CBS Sports Spectacular montages. The group toured extensively from 3 February till 13 April 1976 promoting the album in the US, playing 68 shows in 76 days. It was on the American tour that ELO debuted their use of coloured lasers. Despite the recognition and success they enjoyed in the States, they were still largely ignored in the United Kingdom until their sixth album, the platinum selling A New World Record, hit the top ten there in 1976. It contained the hit singles Livin Thing, Telephone Line, Rockaria! and Do Ya, a re-recording of The Move song. The band toured in support in the US only from October 1976 to April 1977 with a break in December, then an American Music Award show appearance on 31 January 1977,[12] plus a one-off gig in San Diego in August 1977. Casey Kasem said that The Electric Light Orchestra is the Worlds first touring rock n roll chamber group before he played Livin Thing at #28.[13] A New World Record was followed by a multi-platinum selling album, the double-LP Out of the Blue, in 1977. Out of the Blue featured the singles Turn to Stone, Sweet Talkin Woman, Mr. Blue Sky, and Wild West Hero, each becoming a hit in the United Kingdom. The band then set out on a nine-month, 92-date world tour, with an enormous set and a hugely expensive space ship stage with fog machines and a laser display. In the United States the concerts were billed as The Big Night and were their largest to date, with 80,000 people seeing them at Cleveland Stadium. The Big Night went on to become the highest-grossing live concert tour in music history up to that point (1978).[14] The band also played at the Wembley Arena for eight straight sold-out nights during the tour as well, another record at that time. The first of these shows was recorded and televised, and later released as a CD and DVD. In 1979, the multi-platinum album Discovery was released. Although the biggest hit on the album (and ELOs biggest hit overall) was the rock song Dont Bring Me Down, the album was noted for its heavy disco influence. Discovery also produced the hits Shine a Little Love, Last Train to London, Confusion and The Diary of Horace Wimp. Another song, Midnight Blue, was released as a single in Southeast Asia, and was a hit particularly in the Philippines.[citation�needed] The band recorded videos for all the songs on the album.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 15:29:45 +0000
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