E L O (part 2)  well, after the incredible success of Out of the Blue and a huge World Tour Jeff and the band, who bore very little resemblance to the first incarnation took almost 2 years to release a new album Discovery.  In some ways this was at least a good as the last one and was an even bigger seller.  But Jeff was being influenced more and more by Disco, which was the big thing in the late Seventies (maybe it was an in joke Disco Very?).  Still a wonderful record with songs such as ‘Shine a Little love’, ‘Last train To London’, ‘Midnight Blue’ and of course the fabulous ‘Diary of Horace Wimp’.  It seemed that they could do no wrong at all.  And yet the next album was a bit of a flop, simply titled ‘Time’, it was a real disappointment.  Maybe Jeff was chasing the latest sounds, synths and all, and neglecting the actual key to all good music – the songs.  Only one standout track ‘Hold on Tight’ and the rest of the record just sounds bland and frankly a bit boring.  Oh Well.  I sort of gave up on them around this time – though having bought the box set I have since listened to the final two albums.  Secret Messages came out in 1983, and in many ways it is a return to form.  The songs are much better, even if the production is a bit soft and moving to middle of the road.  But the songs themselves ae quite good – the rocker ‘Four Little Diamonds’, ‘Letter From Spain’ and ‘Rock and Roll is King’ are especially good – but the record feels a touch tired, a bit less exciting.  Or maybe it is just us, the audience – after 10 albums we begin to flag, to be ELO’ed out.  And it is almost impossible for any artist or band to keep going for more than 10 years at the top of their game.  Almost all the greats have either had poor periods or simply taken far longer between albums.  Anyway – one more album came out; A Question of Balance (1985).  And by now the pretence that this was a band effort was completely abandoned.  In fact no orchestra at all, but not such a bad record really.   And that was it…the band broke up – or not quite – they left Jeff and continued, mostly as a live band ELO II.   Jeff went off to become a top producer in America.

Inadvertently I bought a greatest hits album called Gold Collection, not realizing it was actually not by the original band but by Bev Bevan and a few others – and it is really excellent, in fact almost identical to the original studio versions, even though this was a live album.  Some of the tracks were new from ELO 11 too, but a strong reliance on the early ELO records. – best for me was ‘Four Little Diamonds’.  Of course, the voice is not the same, but all in all not a bad effort at all.  I did actually see the original ELO live once at Wembley Arena, and though excellent they played exactly the same as the records, in fact they could have been miming and you would never have known – not the most exciting live show.

I already had a Greatest Hits collection on CD called All over The World.  Excellent of course, and sometimes that is all you really need. Jeff has revived the ELO name recently, but so far I haven’t bought the three new albums…

E L O (part 2)  well, after the incredible success of Out of the Blue and a huge World Tour Jeff and the band, who bore very little resemblance to the first incarnation took almost 2 years to release a new album Discovery.  In some ways this was at least a good as the last one and was an even bigger seller.  But Jeff was being influenced more and more by Disco, which was the big thing in the late Seventies (maybe it was an in joke Disco Very?).  Still a wonderful record with songs such as ‘Shine a Little love’, ‘Last train To London’, ‘Midnight Blue’ and of course the fabulous ‘Diary of Horace Wimp’.  It seemed that they could do no wrong at all.  And yet the next album was a bit of a flop, simply titled ‘Time’, it was a real disappointment.  Maybe Jeff was chasing the latest sounds, synths and all, and neglecting the actual key to all good music – the songs.  Only one standout track ‘Hold on Tight’ and the rest of the record just sounds bland and frankly a bit boring.  Oh Well.  I sort of gave up on them around this time – though having bought the box set I have since listened to the final two albums.  Secret Messages came out in 1983, and in many ways it is a return to form.  The songs are much better, even if the production is a bit soft and moving to middle of the road.  But the songs themselves ae quite good – the rocker ‘Four Little Diamonds’, ‘Letter From Spain’ and ‘Rock and Roll is King’ are especially good – but the record feels a touch tired, a bit less exciting.  Or maybe it is just us, the audience – after 10 albums we begin to flag, to be ELO’ed out.  And it is almost impossible for any artist or band to keep going for more than 10 years at the top of their game.  Almost all the greats have either had poor periods or simply taken far longer between albums.  Anyway – one more album came out; A Question of Balance (1985).  And by now the pretence that this was a band effort was completely abandoned.  In fact no orchestra at all, but not such a bad record really.   And that was it…the band broke up – or not quite – they left Jeff and continued, mostly as a live band ELO II.   Jeff went off to become a top producer in America.

Inadvertently I bought a greatest hits album called Gold Collection, not realizing it was actually not by the original band but by Bev Bevan and a few others – and it is really excellent, in fact almost identical to the original studio versions, even though this was a live album.  Some of the tracks were new from ELO 11 too, but a strong reliance on the early ELO records. – best for me was ‘Four Little Diamonds’.  Of course, the voice is not the same, but all in all not a bad effort at all.  I did actually see the original ELO live once at Wembley Arena, and though excellent they played exactly the same as the records, in fact they could have been miming and you would never have known – not the most exciting live show.

I already had a Greatest Hits collection on CD called All over The World.  Excellent of course, and sometimes that is all you really need. Jeff has revived the ELO name recently, but so far I haven’t bought the three new albums…