The Electric Light Orchestra was formed in 1977 by two former members of The Move, Roy Wood and Ben Bevan. Ron Wood soon enlisted the help of fellow musician and friend Jeff Lynne. All 3 of them come from Birmingham and were joined by Hugh McDowell, Andy Craig, Wilf Gilson, Bill Hunt and Richard Tandy.

After the group's live debut in 1972 - which wasn't well received - Craig left, Wood quit too but took Hunt and McDowell with him to form Wizzard. Other musicians were recruited by Lynne for E. L. O. as replacements.
It wasn't until 1974 that they had a more stable line-up with Lynne on vocals, Bevans on drums and a new style of sound which, in the early days, was influenced by the Beatles. Never afraid to 'temper' with new techniques and ideas they used a 30-piece string section for the ballad "Can't Get It Out Of My Head". The song proved a hit and was followed by "Strange Magic", "Living Thing", "A New World Record", "Mr. Blue Sky" and "Don't Bring Me Down". In fact, from 1976 to 1981 E. L. O. had 15 U.K. top 20 singles.

In 1980 the group collaborated with Olivia Newton-John for "Xanadu" which was taken from the film of the same name and was the band's first U.K. chart topping single. However, that particular album as such didn't sell well, maybe because it was also made up with other pieces of music from the musical itself.

Lynne continued to sing and write for the group. Nonetheless, with the albums "Time" and "Secret Messages" they failed to live up to their previous achievements.
In 1986 they gave a concert in their hometown Birmingham where they were joined on stage by George Harrison.
Soon afterwards Jeff Lynne released what became his last album with E. L. O., "Balance Of Power", yet another 'flop'.

However, the story was certainly different for the E. L. O. vocalist. He produced several songs for other artists such as Duanne Eddy, Del Shannon, Roy Orbison and George Harrison's hit single "I Got My Mind Set On You" and most recently Paul McCartney's "Flaming Pie". He was also a member of the Travelling Wilburys.

On a different note , though Bevan left E. L. O. in 1983 to join the band Black Sabbath, he returned to try - in vain - to rekindle the group's previous success, even after Lynne's departure.


 

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