When Jeff Lynne revived Electric Light Orchestra in 2015, he booked his return into the intimate Fonda Theatre in Hollywood, testing the waters perhaps to see if anyone was still interested in a band which had not played a proper show since 1981.
Oh, they were interested all right. That night at the Fonda was a thrill, with Lynne sounding as if he’d only just stepped away for a moment, not years, and delighting the 1,200 or so fans who packed theater including such starry friends of Lynne’s as Ringo Starr, Joe Walsh and Eric Idle.
A year later, Jeff Lynne’s ELO played three nights at the Hollywood Bowl, accompanied by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and since then he’s continued to record and perform with the group he co-founded in the early ’70s and found huge success with throughout that decade and into the ’80s.
But now Lynne, 76, is saying goodbye to all that.
The Over and Out Tour, which kicked off at the Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert in August, played its final California show at the Kia Forum on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 25-26, After a rescheduled date in Phoenix on Tuesday, that’s it for Lynne and ELO.
This was no funeral at the Forum on Saturday by any means. How could it be with so many songs – 15 that made the Top 20 – which gave so much joy to millions of listeners over the years?
How could it be with that that gigantic spaceship stage prop, an image from ELO’s album art in the ’70s made real, which shined lights and shot lasers across the stage and around the arena all night?
The show opened with “One More Time,” a song off Lynne’s 2019 ELO album, and did we mention how awesome that spaceship is? In the vernacular of the ’70s, when ELO’s 1976 release “A New World Record” was one of the 12 albums I ordered from the record club for one cent – a penny! – the flying saucer is still totally bitchin’.
That might have been the least familiar of any of the 20 songs Lynne played over 90 minutes on stage. No such issue with “Evil Woman,” which followed it, the piano riff that opens the song instantly recognizable. Same with the power chords that kick off “Do Ya,” technically a cover of a song by the Move, the ’60s band from which Lynne and ELO co-founders Roy Wood and Bev Bevan all came.
None of the original members of ELO remain in the band. Keyboardist Richard Tandy, who’d joined in 1971 and played alongside Lynne in the studio and on stage ever after died in May. But the 12 members of the current lineup, including a string section of two cellos and one violin, all are strong musicians.
Other highlights early in the set included “Showdown,” a slower, vaguely Western-themed number, and “Last Train to London,” an electronic dance-pop song from the end of the ’70s.
Lynne remains a shy presence on stage. His bushy hair, beard and sunglasses look the same as they always have. Dressed mostly in black, he stood at the right side of the stage, singing and playing guitar, but seldom saying more than thanks to the audience and occasionally giving thumbs up to their cheers and applause.
Others in the band provided more action throughout the night. Backing vocalist Melanie Lewis-McDonald’s operatic vocals shined on songs such as the ballad “Stepping Out,” and she and backing vocalist Iain Hornel added lovely harmonies to “Strange Magic.”
Violinist Jess Cox stepped forward to join Lynne on several songs including an instrumental portion of “Fire On High,” and the violin solo that leads into “Livin’ Thing,” another of the best-loved ELO numbers.
That song, like many throughout the show and the ELO catalog, features the kind of strong melody and simple lyrical hook, often in the title of the song, that makes it easy for fans to sing along as they did on almost every song on Saturday.
Highlights of the latter part of the night included “Telephone Line,” complete with the ringing phone and far-down-the-line vocal effects that begin it. “Turn To Stone” surged on waves of racing rhythms.
“Don’t Bring Me Down” closed the main set, the crunchy guitar riffs and pounding drum beats anchoring the song as Lynne and the backing vocalists sang its simple but catchy lyrics.
Lynne and Electric Light Orchestra have always acknowledged a love for and influence from the Beatles, both for a similar kind of melodic sweetness and a shared interest in the use of the recording studio to unlock fresh sounds. That influence shines brightest on “Mr. Blue Sky,” from the pounding piano chords that open the number to its stacked harmonies, cowbell-like percussion, swelling strings and more.
The song, which arrived as the encore, only reached No. 36 on the charts on its release in 1978 but since then has grown more loved with each passing year and now has more than 1 billion streams on Spotify.
As farewells go, it was a perfect pick on Saturday: The crowd on its feet, singing and dancing, making, and smiling upon the musician whose creation brought a bit of blue sky into all of their lives one last time.
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