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Geoff Nicholls (Rhythm Magazine)
ELO
As Roy Wood goes off to enjoy top 10 British acclaim with Wizzard, Jeff Lynne drives ELO to international success. Bev later finds out that playing with orchestras can be a double-edged sword…
“My favourite ELO albums were Face The Music and New World Record. Out Of The Blue is not too shabby either. There’s an instrumental on Face called Fire On High and the drumming is really good.
On Evil Woman we had girl backing singers, I’m playing an almost Ray Charles, soulful vibe. I had lots of freedom on Face and New World, but as the lush orchestrations got more complicated I had to keep it pretty simple.”
“With ELO Part II, through the ‘90s, we played with loads of orchestras - the Sydney and Moscow Symphonies. But it was so controlled, with 80 people relying on you. If you mess up everything collapses. Not very enjoyable from the drumming angle.”
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