I know what you mean as it almost sounded too perfect which is often a red flag, but as you say, they had a ton of musicians and vocalists on stage so maybe it was all legit. The live album from that tour certainly sounds good.Originally Posted by 3LockBox
The videos of Lynne's 2019 ELO tour on YT show some of the band members handling verses while Lynne chimed in on the choruses. It was the east coast leg of a tour that started on the west coast. I saw him in Tacoma (only 4 dates into that tour) and he sang everything.
A friend's band is playing at a local bar this Friday. His original bass player passed away last year and the replacement bass player can't make it this week. The bass player filling in is the bass player who fills in when the bass player for ELO can't make it.
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF STUPID PEOPLE IN LARGE GROUPS!
RIP Richard Tandy (announced by Jeff Lynne on Facebook)
https://consequence.net/2024/05/rich...boardist-dead/
RIP - wonderful player.
What can this strange device be? When I touch it, it brings forth a sound (2112)
Richard seemed like a top bloke and was integral in not only the orchestral arrangements and in the studio with Jeff, but played all of that fantastic keyboard work on the classic albums.
So glad I got to see Richard, Jeff and the rest of the electric light orchestra in concert twice back in the day, late 1974 and early 1976. Man, they were good. I feel younger just thinking about it, and that doesn't happen often.
Having a bunch of insanely talented musicians on stage faking it? I seriously doubt it. Lynne is one of the most hardcore consummate musicians out there, why would he sacrifice his integrity? This isn't The Milli Vanilli Band from 1989...
As an orchestra teacher for 28+ years, I heard slightly imperfect intonation from the (gorgeous!) violist, so I know her part was as real as rain.
Fans of ELO II here? I love the opening track "In Old England Town" with that nasty but delicious proggy groove in 9/8
Must be true today, or in recent years (decades ?).
But I remember that back in the 70ies E.L.O had the bad reputation of using backing (playback) tapes in concerts for the orchestral sounds and the musicians were faking.
I've never seen them live and can't attest if these rumours were based on any reliable proven sources.
BTW, QUEEN had the same bad reputation back then...
I am a fan of both the first two albums. Love the rawness of them. I kind of lost interest a bit after that when the sound became more polished. Still, I do have a later album or two, which I've enjoyed.Fans of ELO II here? I love the opening track "In Old England Town" with that nasty but delicious proggy groove in 9/8
Lou
Atta boy, Luther!
Yeah, I was going to bring that up. I suspect that, in light of that controversy, Lynne would do everything he can to avoid fakery.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
Love that album. Always have. Whole album is great but favorites are In Old England Town, From The Sun To The World, and especially Kuiama.Fans of ELO II here? I love the opening track "In Old England Town" with that nasty but delicious proggy groove in 9/8
Ever tried to move around with a cello and play in tune?
And why should they "move around" ?
If it's "only for the show" then J.L should hire dancers/acrobats, not fake musicians.
It's a poor excuse, really.
Last edited by Mr.Krautman; 05-11-2024 at 06:54 PM.
Have you ever seen Apocolyptica live? They do a pretty good job of it.
I'm not saying they should move around, but they did. Probably because someone thought sitting musicians were to static.
If it's "only for the show" then J.L should hire dancers/acrobats, not fake musicians.
It's a poor excuse, really.
I don't think Apolyptica moved around with their cellos the way ELO did. But perhaps I should look at the DVD-R and DVD I have.
I saw them a few years ago and they moved around quite a bit. I never saw ELO back in the day (only one of the recent re-union tours), so can't really compare.
I recall reading they used backup tapes in 1978 because the "spaceship" stage design was very hot and caused tuning problems with the strings. Also Lynne used a larger string section on the records than the three guys touring with them then so it was probably hard to get a convincing sound.
I saw the Pittsburgh show last week. Freaking amazing. Lynne is definitely looking a bit feeble, but his voice sounded really good. Not perfect, but very impressive. He played no lead guitar and had some help with some of the singing, but handled most himself. Killer light show, great band, good set list, good sound.
Parking was a total rip-off, as it seems to be all the time these days. We got the cheap lot at $48.00.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
I don't think it was the spaceship so much as someone deciding that Hugh McDowell and Melvyn Gayle needed to be able to run around the stage doing Chuck Berry and Pete Townshend impressions. I can't imagine playing a celo accurately while simultaneously duckwalking across the stage. And even if you could, I imagine that would also causing monitor issues.
I seem to recall Kelly Groucutt once claiming that, because he and Jeff were the only singers onstage, they had to use tapes for the backup vocals, as well. If you watch the Live At Wembley video, you can see Groucutt apparently "singing" the opera soprano intro to Rockaria, but I'm pretty sure that's still a woman we're actually hearing (and yes, I'm talkng about the more recently release, where they used the actual live sound, versus the original release from the early 80's, which had the studio tracks overdubbed the footage).
I saw the show here last Saturday. IT was a great show, if a mostly predictable setlist. They effectively did the entire original ELO's Greatest Hits album, except for one song. They did a Move song. They did two numbers from Out Of The Blue that I didn't expect (in addition to the three that I did expect), three numbers from Disco?Very!, and a song from a movie soundtrack. OH yeah, and they did one song from the first album. Oh and they did one song from Out Of Nowhere.
They did nothing from Time (though about a second of The Rain Is Falling was used in the pre-recorded "play on" montage). That was mildly disappointing to me, because Time is my favorite ELO album, but I recall, on the last tour, they didn't do anything from it, either, so maybe Jeff isn't too fond of it. Also, nothing from Secret Messages or Balance Of Power (no suprise on either of those). And thankfully, no Traveling Wilburies songs either.
Although they had two cellists and a violinist onstage, I think a lot of the strings was coming from one of the three keyboardists they had onstage. The guy on stage left, I think that was his main job. I noticed sometimes, the keyboardist on far stage right, just seemed to be doing "icing on the cake" things, like e.g. Clavinet riff in the choruses of Evil Woman. And I think they had about six people singing backup vocals altogether, so I suspect there wasn't much need for any "backing tapes" on that front.
Visually awesome show, too. Lots of lasers, and it was neat how they used the spaceship as the backdrop.
Last edited by GuitarGeek; 09-20-2024 at 12:14 PM.
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