“People might not be as snobbish about this band as some of the others, but I think there’s a little prejudice against them. Jeff Lynne’s songwriting and production – what I particularly love is how he would sit down and say, ‘I’ve got this song. What kind of musical universe can I create for it that will make it completely unique and distinctive from any other song I’ve ever written?’

“This was such a great lesson for me. The Beatles were masters of that, too. It’s like, you’ve got a song, but you don’t just do it the regular way like you’ve done for your other songs. You look for a way to make it stand out from everything else in your catalogue. It’ll still sound like you, but there’s a change, a little bit of a twist.

“Out Of The Blue, the double album from 1977, is like a mini-pop symphony all its own. Every song has its own approach, but it all sounds like Jeff Lynne and ELO. I would put it up there with one of the top 20 or 30 pop records ever made, right alongside The Beatles.”