An ‘Electric experience’ - ELO

This isn’t really very surprising as ELO’s songs — as they ended up on the records — are quite involved and very difficult to reproduce live.

However, a group of musicians from Hull have banded together as The ELO Experience — and they are really good as their recent performance at Sheffield’s City Hall revealed.

The songs that Jeff Lynne wrote for the Electric Light Orchestra are amongst some of the most recognisable around, the band being almost ever-present in the charts from 1974 to 1986.

Hits like Showdown, Livin’ Thing, Mr Blue Sky, The Diary Of Horace Wimp and Roll Over Beethoven are all well-known and you tamper with them at your peril.

“You’ve got to have good musicians and we have some excellent players, especially Steve Hemsley our keyboard player and musical director. You also need to work hard and enjoy it,” says Andy Louis, lead singer and guitarist with The ELO Experience.

“We had the idea over 20 years ago, but we really only got going about ten years ago.”

The band began slowly, appearing locally and gaining new fans wherever they played.

So good were they, that in 2008 they were invited to play a short residency in Las Vegas.

Andy says: “It came about from some contacts I'd made over there when doing an Elvis Presley tribute. I sent them a recording of us and it went from there.”

Andy himself missed out though. “Yeah, I’d temporarily left the band as I was having trouble with my voice, so I didn’t go. It was a great experience for the band and we hope that we’ll repeat it.”

In the meantime, a setback for the band occurred in 2009 when they lost bassist and founder-member Pete Allinson.

Bizarrely, he died within a couple of months of the passing of ELO's bass player Kelly Groucutt.

“Kelly was great,” Andy remembers, referring to the times that he’s seen the band play. “He came to see us a few times and was generous in his praise.”

The show itself is a two-hour trip through the career of one of Britain’s best bands.

“We basically do the greatest hits and we stick a couple of album tracks in there as well.

“We wanted a good selection from all the albums, but for the early stuff we tend to do just Roll Over Beethoven and Showdown. We kept getting asked for the band’s first hit 10538 Overture and have finally bowed to pressure.”

The band are constantly looking to improve the show and extend their repertoire, as Andy tells me.

“We try and introduce at least one new song every year. First of all, there’s the argument over which one to do and once we’ve decided, Steve writes all the parts out. We then learn it individually and when we feel we’ve got it, we’ll all rehearse it together.

“The rock and roll ones are usually fairly straight-forward, but some of the harmonies can be tricky.”

Success for the band came last year when they were voted the Number One Tribute Band at the National Tribute Awards and for 2014, the band has improved on their set-list and their visual image.

“As we are concentrating on getting the sound right, we aren’t very active on stage, so we have introduced a new light show which is like a spaceship. Firstly though, it’s very costly so we can only use it at the bigger venues; and it is quite large, so the venues have to have the right facilities for it to be used.

The concert falls neatly into two sections. “Yes, the first half is essentially a ‘listening’ set, whereas the second half is a bit more rocky and rowdy.”

The Electric Light Orchestra is this writer’s all-time favourite band, and I personally would see The ELO Experience every time they play.