In 2001 Jeff Lynne dusted off the ELO spaceship for a planned tour in support of their first album of new material in 15 years. And this would be the real Electric Light Orchestra - Jeff Lynne's Electric Light Orchestra! - not some Electric Light Orchestra II joke that former ELO drummer Bev Bevan was parading around throughout the 1990's. Kind of like CCR without John Fogerty huh?
The Zoom album was written and produced exclusively by Lynne, like most of the earlier ELO albums, and he performs the majority of the instruments as well. Along with his signature layered vocals, Lynne plays guitar, keyboards, bass, drums, and cello on the album, while getting some help from such friends as George Harrison and Ringo Star on a few of the songs.
ELO is one of those bands that has about a hundred "Best Of" or "Greatest Hits" collections floating around, especially when you include the import releases. I found a good deal on one of these while in Spain about ten years ago titled Definitive Collection - a single-disk, 19-song collection which inspired me to revisit this old band I had enjoyed so much in the past.
My first introduction to ELO was at an amusement park in Maine, near where I grew up, on this wild ride called the Astrosphere. The ride looks like a mini Space Mountain on the outside but inside you get hurled around on two scrambler rides, positioned as if they are going to collide horrifically with each other, as lasers and strobe lights fire frantically all around you. All the while ELO's "Fire On High" is blasting at an ungodly volume, as the menacing orchestration and multi acoustic guitar assault intensifies the thrill. Almost everyone comes out of that ride saying "cool ride...but what the hell was that awesome song?". Too bad they didn't perform it here.
Zoom Tour Live was filmed at CBS Television City in Los Angeles in May 2001 and was originally intended to be a dress rehearsal for a follow on tour to promote the Zoom album. This never really materialized due to poor ticket sales, so that makes this recording all the more important to all of the disappointed ELO fans. The show kicks off in a grand fashion as the giant pod-like spaceship, that has enveloped the stage, begins to pulsate radiant blue and white light while individual branches of the pod all start to open and rise upward revealing the band and the fog shrouded stage below. The opening sound effects soon fade into the famous opening guitar riff to "Do Ya" being hammered out by a black suited Lynne, whose trademark dark sunglasses, giant semi-afro, and scruffy beard make him look more like a Muppet character than ever.
Article comments
1 - drtagtedf
yes!!!!! i absolutley love electric light orchestra
2 - Chris
This is absolutely perfect when it comes to a live performance. What a band he setup. I had tickets but the concert was canceled. Bummer! At least I have the DVD.