Jeff Lynne’s ELO

Wembley Or Bust (Sony)

[rating: 4/5]

Welcome back to the good old fashioned live album. Spanning two CDs and a DVD, this collection literally looks and sounds like the million bucks it probably cost to stage and film the show.

Almost from the moment the Move morphed into ELO in 1970, through to grunge hitting in the early nineties, Jeff Lynne strode the world of pop/rock radio like a colossus. Apart from his work with ELO, the Lynne legend was enhanced by his writing/production tenures with Tom Petty, Roy Orbison and solo artists, Messrs McCartney, Harrison and Starr. Throw in his time with the Travelling Wilburys, the fact he produced two singles for the Beatles (‘Free As A Bird’ and ‘Real Love’) and wrote ‘’Xanadu’ for Olivia Newton-John and you’re looking at a bone fide rock n roll star.

Today, the original members of ELO have either been bought out of the business, retired or passed away. With long time collaborator Richard Tandy ill for this show – recorded at Wembley Stadium in June 2017 – Lynne helms a band of session players. Don’t let that put you off. Over two CDs, Lynne & Co replicate the ELO catalogue to perfection. There’s no add-libs here. What you get is one of pop’s finest catalogues literally re-produced, with remarkable sonic results, in the live arena.

Highlights, and there are many, include ‘Evil Woman’, ‘Living Thing’, Rockaria’, ‘Showdown’ and ‘Can’t Get It Out Of My Head’. Lynne also goes way back to one of his earliest tunes, ‘Do Ya’, while the set rolls virtually right up to the present day to include 2015’s ‘When I Was A Boy’ from the Alone In The Universe album. From the margins, Lynne plays the Wilbury’s ‘Handle With Care’ and his take on ‘Xanadu’.

For a live set, the audio component is first class, but the real joy is the Paul Dugdale directed DVD which accompanies the twin-CD set. The concert film is interspersed with a modest Lynne reflecting on his music and his place in the pantheon. Visually, the gig is stunning. With this much pomp and circumstance we would expect nothing less than the space craft that hovers over the stage and the incredible laser show that follows.

Four Stars

Sean Sennett