Live review: Electric Light Orchestra - Blue sky in great voice
I LAST saw the Electric Light Orchestra 35 years ago when they were touring their Time album and judging by the performance on this, their first tour in more than 30 years, time has been very kind to the band.
Frontman Jeff Lynne performs
Frontman Jeff Lynne (pictured, the sole stalwart from the original line up alongside keyboardist Richard Tandy) still sports lush, dark curls and dark aviator shades, and his frighteningly memorable, huge melodies sound as bright and dynamic as ever.
Lynne’s voice is in fine form too, perhaps from not being overused for decades, or maybe keeping between-song banter to a minimum.
The show confidently opened with the lesser known Tightrope, with its moody orchestral and choral intro segueing into pure rock and roll, but was essentially a greatest hits set (Mr Blue Sky, Sweet Talkin’ Woman, Telephone Line, Rockaria et al) with enough cleverly chosen material to keep ELO anoraks happy.
Technical mastery wasn’t to the detriment of any emotional connection
There were only a couple of tracks from last year’s Alone In The Universe album; Ain’t It A Drag, with its echoes of Lynne’s fellow Travelling Wilbury Roy Orbison, and the wistful When I Was A Boy, about Lynne’s Birmingham boyhood.
ELO have always been defined by Lynne’s studio perfection, which was crisply re-created on stage by a top level band with string section and the most spot-on sound engineering I’ve heard in a cavernous venue.
Lynne is a member of the original Electric Light Orchestra line up
Electric Light Orchestra opened with Tightrope
But technical mastery wasn’t to the detriment of any emotional connection with the audience who wore a big, collective grin, and sang along with every word of Lynne’s anthemic, radio-friendly choruses.
The whole package was an utter joy and the perfect example of how a comeback can sound as lively and vibrant as three decades ago.