Jeff & Bev Interview

The website dedicated to the Electric Light Orchestra (E.L.O.)

Jeff Lynne & Bev Bevan talk about the new ELO album 'Face The Music' in 1975

It seems fitting that the Electric Light Orchestra’s new album “Face The Music” has already gone gold in America and is only being released in Britain this week. Jeff Lynne and his boys have always received greater public and critical acceptance in the States than here, a fact which has not escaped their notice.

Says Bevan: “In the two and a half years we’ve been going we’ve done five tours of America and each one’s lasted about two months. In the same time we’ve done about four shows in England.”

Lynne laughs and says that the band is going to redress the balance this month. “Yeah,” he remarks in his singular Birmingham accent, “We’re doing a British tour - three universities, the New Victoria in London and the Birmingham Odeon".

Of course, America is a far more lucrative record-buying market than this country. “But it’s not just a question of record-buying markets,” Lynne explains. “From the very first tour we did in America, even when we were supporting big name groups like the Beach Boys or someone, the audiences always sat back and listened to us. In the quiet bits they paid attention, it the rock bits they boogied around. Now you’d have thought that if they’d paid out money to see a group you couldn’t really expect them to pay attention to a band they’d never even heard of. They’d want you out of the way so that the headlining act would come on. But they’ve always listened to us and they’ve always been interested in what we’ve been doing.”

The ELO’s actions at the time of the release of their last album ‘Eldorado,’ exemplified their attitude to Britain. Lynne: “We just didn’t bother about the album here. Where we concentrated was the States. And it did fabulous there. It did quite well here, but it should have done more. “With this one we’re making a conscious effort to promote it. We’re doing as much as we can - interviews, radio promotion, and we’re going to be doing Top Of The Pops and Supersonic as well.

We decided there wasn’t much point in releasing an album if we didn’t try and sell it. “We’re doing the same for the single too, which is ‘Evil Woman’ from the album. The last single ‘Can’t Get It Out Of My Head,’ just died over here, rolled over and died.”

Bevan interjects. TOTP is hardly the sort of thing that you would expect a band like ELO to get involved in, I know. But if you think of all the other bands that you might put in the same category as us well, it’s never harmed them. “Despite what we’ve said just now I don’t think the band really has an attitude towards Britain - we just forget it.” “To us America is home from a working point of view. Although we all live in England, it’s America where we do most of our work - it’s our professional home, if you like.”

Lynne nods in agreement and adds, If ‘Face The Music’ and the single don’t do well over here I suppose we’ll just carry on the way we were before. England is only a small part of what we’re concerned about, anyway. If the records do well, then maybe we’ll change our attitude. If not it’s not all that important.”

The Electric Light Orchestra was born out of the Move, making their first recording foray with “10538 Overture” in 1972, a song written by Lynne and recorded two years previously. The band was the brainchild of Lynne and fellow Brummie Roy Wood - although by the time their first single was out Wood had already split and was forming Wizzard.

Despite his early departure Wood was generally credited with being the brains behind the Ork, a misconception which irked Lynne considerably, and put a strain on their friendship. The motive in forming the band was to synthesise rock and classical music in a form which did not sound pompous to a cynical public. And the recipe worked well, with the ELO earning two smash hits in Britain in 1973 with “Roll Over Beethoven” - to which Lynne added a piece of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony - and “Showdown”, which was even more R & B than anything else.

The first album, titled “The Electric Light Orchestra” (1972), was basically a Move offshoot, featuring just Lynne, Wood and Bevan plus plenty of multi-tracking. By the end of ‘72 Lynne and Bevan had recruited two cellists, a violinist, keyboardist and a bass-player in the wake of the departing Wood. This line up recorded ELO’s fourth single hit in 1974 with ‘Ma, Ma, Ma, Belle’ and the band’s second and third albums ‘ELO 2’ and ‘One The Third Day’.

It was Eldorado that saw the band really flexing their musical muscles - a concept album, according to Lynne, about a dreamer who lives in his fantasies and is unable to face the real world. That was in 1974. That one really cracked it for the band in the States, earning them their first gold album. The resounding effect it had on the States was still manifesting itself on the band’s last tour there this year. “It was Phoenix, Arizona,” explains Bevan. “See, on the back of Eldorado we had a scene from ‘The Wizard Of Oz’. So we did this concert and out in the audience there were these five people all dressed up like characters from The Wizard Of Oz. Really good gear it was, as well, not cheap or shabby. There was the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and some chick dressed as the character Judy Garland played. “The next night we were playing in Tucson. We looked out into the audience and there they were again. They loaded themselves into a car, costumes and all, and driven over to see us again.”

Lynne is a great fan of American audiences, citing them as being far more receptive to experimentation than their British counterparts. “They don’t seem to worry about having to categorise people all the time - they just accept what you’re trying to do.” And what Lynne is attempting has very little to do with fusing classical and contemporary music - according to him at any rate. A suggestion that he and the Light Ork might be bracketed with bands such as Camel for their respective work with full scale orchestras, brings an emphatic shake of the head from Lynne. “All we’re doing is just using strings in a way that makes them acceptable on stage. The whole idea is to take a guitar line, for example, and take it a step further by using a different and perhaps nicer instrumentation. “There’s never any question of trying to pioneer something. It just happens that I like the sound of the cello and in fact all of us in the band enjoy using strings.”

“On some tracks in ‘Face The Music’ we used a 30 piece orchestra but it wasn’t us trying to break new ground or go one step further than The Beatles or someone. It just makes it sound a bit more interesting.” “We don’t feel the need to take an orchestra on stage with us, though. We use a Mellotron and a Moog together with the cellos and violin and we find that really does sound like a big section. The keyboard instruments help to fill out the gaps left by the string instruments.”

Both Lynne and Bevan are understandably highly enthusiastic about ‘Face The Music.’ It’s a very good collection of songs” asserts Bevan, “And if there’s any justice at all in the world it should do really well in Britain.” Unlike ‘Eldorado’ it’s not a concept album - a decision taken not through a reaction to criticism of concept albums as a genre, but because Lynne felt the band could do with a change. “I don’t think it follows on from ‘Eldorado’ in any way, really. Parts of it sound a bit similar, I suppose, but that’s only because of the big orchestra. I must say we had to work a bit harder to get into it than with the last one - don’t know why, though.” “I didn’t want to do a concept again because that would have meant that on future tours we’d be doing two concepts in one stage show, which might have been a bit boring and certainly wouldn’t have left any space for anything else.”

“As for the next album - who knows? We might do a concept and I’ve already got a few of the songs written. It depends how we feel at the time.” Lynne and Bevan are never ones to intellectualise and have even been known to utter that old cliché about “letting the music speak for itself.” However, the problem of returning ELO to it’s former position of British eminence is a subject which will get them as near to self-analysis as anything, and one which recurs with frequency in any conversation with them, making a joke of their claims that they just “forget about Britain.”

According to leader Lynne, the ELO spend three months out of every year touring and promoting themselves across the Atlantic. Drummer Bev Bevan places the time at nearer five months. Whatever the actual figure, they both agree that America is where it’s at and England doesn’t even rate a poor second. Says Bevan: “In the two and a half years we’ve been going we’ve done five tours of America and each one’s lasted about two months. In the same time we’ve done about four shows in England.” Lynne laughs and says that the band is going to redress the balance this month. “Yeah,” he remarks in his singular Birmingham accent, “we’re doing a British tour - three universities, the New Victoria in London and the Birmingham Odeon.”

Of course, America is a far more lucrative record-buying market than this country. “But it’s not just a question of record-buying markets,” Lynne explains. “From the very first tour we did in America, even when we were supporting big name groups like the Beach Boys or someone, the audiences always sat back and listened to us. In the quiet bits they paid attention, it the rock bits they boogied around. “Now you’d have thought that if they’d paid out money to see a group you couldn’t really expect them to pay attention to a band they’d never even heard of. They’d want you out of the way so that the headlining act would come on. “But they’ve always listened to us and they’ve always been interested in what we’ve been doing.”

The band was the brainchild of Lynne and fellow Brummie Roy Wood - although by the time their first single was out Wood had already split and was forming Wizzard. Despite his early departure Wood was generally credited with being the brains behind the Ork, a misconception which irked Lynne considerably, and put a strain on their friendship.

The motive in forming the band was to synthesise rock and classical music in a form which did not sound pompous to a cynical public. And the recipe worked well, with the ELO earning two smash hits in Britain in 1973 with “Roll Over Beethoven” - to which Lynne added a piece of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony - and “Showdown”, which was even more R & B than anything else. The first album, titled “The Electric Light Orchestra” (1972), was basically a Move offshoot, featuring just Lynne, Wood and Bevan plus plenty of multi-tracking. By the end of ‘72 Lynne and Bevan had recruited two cellists, a violinist, keyboardist and a bass-player in the wake of the departing Wood. This line up recorded ELO’s fourth single hit in 1974 with ‘Ma, Ma, Ma, Belle’ and the band’s second and third albums ‘ELO 2’ and ‘One The Third Day’. ‘It was Eldorado’ that saw the band really flexing their musical muscles - a concept album, according to Lynne, about a dreamer who lives in his fantasies and is unable to face the real world. That was in 1974. That one really cracked it for the band in the States, earning them their first gold album. The resounding effect it had on the States was still manifesting itself on the band’s last tour there this year. “It was Phoenix, Arizona,” explains Bevan. “See, on the back of Eldorado we had a scene from ‘The Wizard Of Oz’. So we did this concert and out in the audience there were these five people all dressed up like characters from The Wizard Of Oz. Really good gear it was, as well, not cheap or shabby. There was the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and some chick dressed as the character Judy Garland played. “The next night we were playing in Tucson. We looked out into the audience and there they were again. They loaded themselves into a car, costumes and all, and driven over to see us again.”

Lynne and Bevan are never ones to intellectualise and have even been known to utter that old cliché about “Letting the music speak for itself.” However, the problem of returning ELO to it’s former position of British eminence is a subject which will get them as near to self-analysis as anything, and one which recurs with frequency in any conversation with them, making a joke of their claims that they just “forget about Britain.”

In a rare moment of objectivity Lynne muses, almost to himself. “Maybe we should play more over here - that would certainly give us more sales. I mean, you can’t expect people to go and into a record shop and ask to hear a record that they aren’t even aware is released yet, or which they haven’t heard on stage.” “We’re doing our best to promote this one and if it doesn’t go... well, it’s better to have spewed up than not to have drunk at all.” There he goes again, puncturing the mood and keeping things flip. “No, it’s nice to do well here and play at home if only ‘cos your mum can say, ‘Look that’s our kid’.”

This interview was included in 'King Of The Universe' Fanzine 1999

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