Paul Fitzpatrick: Sept 2025

I was invited by Dave Ruch from the excellent A Sound Day blog to write a piece for his monthly Turntable Talk feature. This months topic was to to nominate a band or artist who I didn’t appreciate at the peak of their success, but who I do now.

The school holidays in 1972 are forever etched upon my memory as being a great summer for music.  
“Starman” by Bowie, “Virginia Plain” by Roxy, and “Schools Out” by Alice Cooper were all released within weeks of each other and great songs apart, they were all performed by a bunch of unknown and other worldly weirdos, who all looked as if they’d been transported to earth on the Mothership from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
 
Of course, there was a lot of other great releases that summer from the likes of Van Morrison, Rod Stewart, Derek and the Dominoes and many more, but buried beneath this feast of music was a debut song from another band of unknowns, Electric Light Orchestra (ELO)…. with a track called “10538 Overture”.  
 
It was a great introduction to the band, but plainly Jeff Lynne and his crew weren’t as engaging as messers Bowie, Ferry, Cooper, et al… although they certainly tried hard enough in their first video (maybe a bit too hard!)

ELO would go on to have lots of hits. Twenty-seven in total but despite their obvious popularity, there was minimum hype or fanfare, even in their pomp I don’t recall seeing too many Jeff Lynne posters on bedroom walls. 
 
Whilst the 70s pop stars of the day Jagger, McCartney, Bowie, Stewart would court attention and be splattered all over the front pages, Jeff Lynne who basically was ELO, was nowhere to be seen, happy to tinker away and perfect his art in the studio…. more Horace Wimp than Rebel Rebel. 
 
Nonetheless, ELO would go on to sell over 50 million albums and Jeff Lynne gained recognition not just as an artist but as a collaborator and producer, working with the likes of George Harrison, Tom Petty and Paul McCartney, as well as being invited to co-produce unreleased Beatles material. 

Indeed, one of the criticisms aimed at ELO was that they sounded a bit too much like the Beatles and true enough Jeff Lynne’s devotion to the fab four was obvious from the “I am the Walrus” sound effects on the band’s first release.  
It could be argued that his Beatle’s homage peaked with “Mr Blue Sky’ a song I took an irrational dislike to at the time even though it sounded like a cut from Sgt Pepper. 

I kind of switched off from ELO after their second single “Showdown” in 1973, which to be fair was another great song. 
Whilst their music was always well written and produced, Jeff was a bit too vanilla at a time when we expected our rock stars to bed Playboy models, wreck hotel rooms and bite the heads off bats.  

Cut forward a few decades, well four to be exact and I was sitting down to watch a bit of the BBC’s coverage of Glastonbury in 2016. 
 
Glastonbury Festival started in 1970 with T-Rex, Al Stewart and a bunch of hippy/folk bands you’ve probably never heard of, but has grown exponentially since then. 
Always looking to innovate, in 1998 Glastonbury introduced a ‘Legends’ slot to the festival after a barn storming performance by Johnny Cash created a lightbulb moment for the festival’s organiser’s. 
 
Thanks to the Man in Black, the Legends spot is now an annual event where icons are invited to relive their youth on the main stage on the last day of the festival.  
Tony Bennett formally kicked off the tradition in 1998 and has been followed by the likes of Paul Simon, Dolly Parton, Neil Diamond, Brian Wilson, Diana Ross, James Brown…. etc.
 
ELO were the allocated legends in 2016, so with low expectations I thought I’d watch a couple of songs to see how they fared, having learned from previous experience, that expecting artists in the twilight of their careers to perform like their 24 year old selves is a game of musical Russian Roulette.
Anyone who witnessed Diana Ross’ Glastonbury set in 2022, would attest to that. 
 
Anyway, back to ELO.  
All I can say is that after watching their ninety minute set I went straight online to see if they were touring anywhere near me (they were, Wembley, and it was sold out) and then onto my Apple Music library to compile an ELO playlist. 
 
I was blown away…. from “Evil Woman” to “Roll Over Beethoven” they executed an expertly curated fifteen song set of perfectly crafted pop songs.  
 
Despite not having an ELO album to my name, I knew all of them, and like any great performance the songs sounded even better live. With the help of a full string section and a band so tight on rhythm and harmonies that they must have rehearsed for 30 days straight before the gig. 
 
Watching the set, one hit after another I realised how underappreciated ELO had been (by me anyway) and I came to the realisation that with this band it’s always been about… content over style.  
Yes, Mr. Lynne isn’t the most charismatic. Yes, he still looks like a Geography teacher, but the guy can write a song, sing in tune, play a mean guitar and produces an amazing sound. 

One of the big surprises for me was how much I warmed to “Mr Blue Sky” when I heard it live, and it’s grown on me even more since then, as it was the song our new baby granddaughter was born to, you see my eldest son loves a playlist too and when little Willa came into the world he set up the music to play one of his partners favourite songs…. “Mr Blue Sky” 

A Selection of Jeff Lynne’s Best Moments