An article from the Melody Maker on March 29th 1975

Jeff Lynne, founder and mentor of the Electric Light Orchestra, is quite often bothered by his critics. “For about ten minutes and then I get over it. It doesn’t bother me after that”. Jeff Lynne, writer, producer and arranger, is also bothered by the English public’s taste. “When I look at the charts I sometimes get a bit depressed. Like that new Led Zeppelin album should have been a number one immediately. They’re a great band, they’re adventurous and they deserve a lot of support, even more than they’re getting now.”

BOTHERED

And Jeff Lynne, gentleman farmer with a spread in beautiful rural Worcestershire, is bothered by animals killing each other. “I know it’s part of nature but it upsets me anyway. One of my cats got a rabbit the other day. Although I rescued it, but when I picked it up it had blood coming out of it’s throat. So I just chucked it down and said ‘Here puss’.” All these and more are facets of Jeff Lynne, an amiable Birmingham guy whose career from the lost and lamented Idle Race through the last days of the Move and the founding of the ELO has not always been roses. Even as we sat in Brum’s plush Albany Hotel a voice from the past impinged on our merry banter. To wit one of the waiters, clad in Russian costume (Birmingham, capital of the Urals?), who recognised Lynne and said “Remember me?” Amazingly Mr L. did. The ersatz Russian used to work at Brum’s Cedars Club where the Idle Race played for money and a free plate of spaghetti when the world was young and Lynne still lived in a Birmingham suburb.

PROBLEMS

Bev Bevan was there too, sporting a classy black eye received when his Great Dane hit him in the face with a sawn-off tree trunk. “The early days of the ELO were a bit of a joke really,” said Bev, “and we had a lot of problems on stage, sorting out the sound. But it’s well sorted out now.”

Of course, the only thing that isn’t sorted about ELO is critical response in Britain, something which does give Jeff some concern, despite his protestations to the contary. Like when I suggest that there were passages in “Eldorado” that did quite honestly remind me of classical works. “Well, if there are I’m sorry, but then again I didn’t nick anything from anybody so I’m not sorry. I suppose there are bound to be similarities between some pieces of classical music and the stuff we do because there are really only certain ways of arranging strings.

PASSAGES

“If you listen to classical music a lot, which I don’t, I should imagine you’re bound to find passages in one piece which remind you of passages in other pieces. That sort of question is quite annoying because people don’t have the sense or the knowledge of what they are being reminded of. “I’ve never copied anything. If something in one of my songs sounds like something else then it’s a mistake. I mean, I’m influenced by people like the Beatles but as far as nicking tunes goes I’ve never done that - ever. There’s just no point in nicking material if you’re writing songs. That would turn into a job, hard work, and I don’t want that to happen. I enjoy writing, it’s fun and that’s the way I want to keep it. “You see, our group has been based on using classical instruments and I suppose people hear hints of classical music in it simply because of the orchestration. We set out to get away from the old set-up with guitar breaks and what have you when we started the group and we’re still going along in that direction.” “You know in the States,” Jeff pauses to consider his comment “no-one ever raises this question of nicking tunes. They accept us as we are, which is fine by me”. In fairness to Jeff he was pleasant and affable all through his reaction to the question of borrowing tunes, despite the apparant harshness of his comments. And he became even more affable when the conversation turned to the States, the spititual home of ELO and the place where they have gained most recognition. “Well, it’s the home of good music isn’t it?” said Jeff. “The U.S. has been good to us and for us. We’ve sold loads of records, we can play to 5,000 people at a time and we’ve had critical acclaim. What more could you want?

CAREER

“But England .... well we want to do well in England if only because your Mum can say ‘Oh look there’s our Jeff on stage’ But financially I’m glad we concentrated on the States - and from a career point of view as well. We’ve got a gold album for “Eldorado” and that’s a nice thing to happen - you’ve got something there which represents an achievement, something which tells you you’ve done something.” But England? “The charts here are pretty sick. You’ve only got to compare our charts with the American and you can see it’s a bit of a joke. I mean Zeppelin, I’ve got to say it again, they should have been number one straight off. They’re the only band I would wish to get to number one - even before us.” Still, it doesn’t seem likely that ELO will join the exodus across the Atlantic, at least not according to Bev. “No, I don’t think we will. Jeff’s got his place in Worcestershire and I’m just about to buy a house as well so we want to stick around. We see plenty of the States anyway.”

SINGLE

However, they won’t be seeing much of that country for a few months this year anyway because ELO are getting down to some hard recording work. Bev, for example, is releasing a solo single next month, his version of the old Sandy Nelson tom-tom extravaganza “Let There Be Drums.” And Jeff is heading studiowards with an old friend of his, humerous folky Jasper Carrot. Jeff’s doing producer dues on Big J’s new album. “That won’t be taking up much time though. I’ll be doing that for just two days, but it should be good fun because Jasper’s a very funny bloke.” And then there’s a new ELO album coming out in May, although Jeff isn’t saying too much about that. “Wait till it comes out,” he said with a grin. “We’re cooling off on the States for a bit this year,” he added, because we’ve been there so much.

FARAWAY

Instead the lads with cellos will be heading for such faraway places as Spain, Australia, Japan and Scandinavia. “We’ll all be quite busy,” commented Jeff. Incidentally Jeff, just before the restaurant closes, what about that letter Roy Wood wrote to MM concerning his difference of opinion with the critics about a recent gig and the album? “I felt very flattered by what Roy said and it was great of him to actually write about it. Roy understands what we’re trying to do, naturally. The move right at the beginning was to do something different to what’s coming out in the rest of music at the moment - to record strings as a part of a group rather than having them dubbed on. “We’re not an experimental group and no-one in the States regards us like that. We’re just trying to do something different, thats all”.