11/06/2002 - CD Zone here in the U.K. has listed a new 2cd set called 'The Outstanding Collection' which is due for release on 15th July 2002. Catalog number is CMDDD447, but no record label mentioned. Price is £9.36. More details at www.cdzone.co.uk .

  10/06/2002 - Singer / songwriter Paul Melancon has just written a tribute song to Jeff Lynne. Called simply 'Jeff Lynne', the song can be downloaded for free from his website at www.paulmelancon.com/freemusic/ . Check out some of this guys other stuff too, there's some nice songs to listen to.

  10/06/2002 - Those nice people at Not Lame records, who brought us the Jeff Lynne tribute set 'Lynne Me Your Ears', have another interesting ELO-related item currently available. It is a limited edition 7" clear vinyl e.p. featuring 4 new bands doing their own takes on The Move's classic track 'Do Ya'. The bands include Parallax Project, Einstein's Sister, Kenny Howes & The Yeah! and Linus of Hollywood. The single can be ordered from Not Lame at www.notlame.com or direct from the record company at www.tallboyrecords.com where you can also order for $1 a nice blue button with 'Do Ya' on it.

  10/06/2002 - Check out Wally Dixon's personal website at www.openweave.org/~wdixon/ELO to view his superb concert photos, including some from The Orchestra's recent concerts in Falls Church, VA and Towson, MD.

  10/06/2002 - Issue 9 of 'Under London Skies', the ELO Part 2 / Orchestra fanzine is now available. More details can be found on the Fanzine page.

  10/06/2002 - The Orchestra have just completed a short tour of the U.S.A. this weekend. Check out the reviews from a couple of the shows and photos from 3 or 4 of the gigs will be uploaded very soon.

  01/06/2002 - Here is a nice link to check out which I found last year but was reminded of by a post to the ELO Mailing List - www.rocksbackpages.com/features/elo/ .

  27/05/2002 - The May 2002 issue of 'Record Collector' magazine has an excellent 2 page feature on Birmingham bands featured on the internet. Lots of great links to sites dedicated to The Move, Idle Race, Slade, Moody Blues and of course E.L.O.

  26/05/2002 - The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles has just published the Top 100 singles of all-time as voted for by readers of this superb book. The Number 1 single is 'Bohemian Rhapsody' by Queen and at Number 77 is 'Mr Blue Sky' by E.L.O.

  26/05/2002 - Steve Rifkin has just announced that Light!Fest East Coast 2002 will be taking place in Baltimore, Maryland on the weekend of August 17th and 18th, 2002. Sponsored by LIGHT! , the Light!Fest is open to all ELO, Move, Orchestra, Idle Race, Jeff Lynne, etc fans. You do not have to be a member of Light! to attend. For more details either email Steve at steve410@erols.com or visit the LIGHT! website at www.erols.com/steve410/elo/light .

  26/05/2002 - I have just obtained a fantastic cd from Holland - Cat number RCA Victor 74321 89761 2 - called 'Night Of The Proms 2001'. The cd contains an amazing live performance of 'Mr Blue Sky' by John Miles along with a full symphony orchestra at a show in Holland last summer. Also on the cd are 'Music' by John Miles plus live tracks by  Meat Loaf, Martin Fry of ABC and many others.

  26/05/2002 - Angel Air Records have reissued the album 'Sundance' by Sundance for the first time on cd. The group features former ELO bassist Mike de Alberquereque on this their debut album first released back in 1982. More details at www.angelair.force9.co.uk/sjpcd113.htm .

  26/05/2002 - A new 12" single release in Germany by Finnish group Op:l Bastards, is a cover version of 'Don't Bring Me Down'. The single is on Zomba Records RTD 176 2935 0. This is certainly a very original reworking of the song, in an early 1980's electro-style !!! The single can be ordered from www.jpc.de , and further details about the band can be found at www.coolglobeagency.fi and www.zomba.de .

  26/04/2002 - News reported in the April 2002 issue of 'Record Collector' magazine is that former ELO cellist, Hugh McDowell, will be leading the orchestral backing on Asia's upcoming 20th anniversary album.

  26/04/2002 - There's a nice photo of Jeff Lynne with Del Shannon on the Official Del Shannon website at www.delshannon.com/delbio.htm .

  25/04/2002 - Posted by Brendan on the ELO Mailing List is this nice link - www.superseventies.com , where as well as details of many 1970's acts, there are some original Rolling Stone magazine ELO album reviews plus a FAQ listing. 

  14/04/2002 - The track 'State Of Mind' from Zoom features in the film 'The Sweetest Thing' currently showing at cinemas in the U.S.A.

  11/04/2002 - The 'Lynne Me Your Ears' Jeff Lynne 2cd tribute set is currently available for only $18.99 from the Not Lame website at www.notlame.com . A real bargain!!!

  11/04/2002 - Here's great link provided by Michael Kriegsman on the Showdown Mailing List - there's a new ELO sheet music book currently available at www.sheetmusicsuperstore.com/cart/proddetail.cfm?ItemID=175119 . 

  04/04/2002 - 'The Voice' which is one of the major New York arts magazines has a review of Roy Wood's Army live at The Village Underground last week. Check it out at - www.villagevoice.com/issues/0214/sotc.php .

  04/04/2002 - Just added some excellent photos from Roy Wood's concert at the Village Underground, New York on 22nd March.

  04/04/2002 - Two 'new' Dutch releases of the ELO Part 2 live in Australia ('One Night') 1995 concert have hit the shelves recently. Firstly, ELO - 'Mr Blue Sky' which is a single cd compilation. Cat No - ETOCD069. Secondly, ELO Part 2 - 'Dejavu Retro Gold Collection', which is a 2cd set with 20 page booklet. Cat No - R2CD 40-67.

  25/03/2002 - The Orchestra are currently organising gigs for North America in May / June. Full details can be found at the Official Orchestra Website at www.theorchestra.net .

  25/03/2002 - Jeff Lynne has been out and about with Rosie Vela alongside Paul McCartney and Heather Mills at this weekends Oscar ceremonies in Los Angeles. Links first posted on the ELO newsgroup to the following photos.....
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/020324/170/1aw7o.html 
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/020325/168/1avtc.html 
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/020325/168/1ay1a.html 

  25/03/2002 - Just added a review and some excellent photos from Phil Bates' gig at The Acoustic Cafe, Tamworth on Sunday 24th March.

  25/03/2002 - Posted on the Move Mailing List - Steven Moore has uploaded a load of his photos taken during Roy Wood's recent concerts at the Village Underground in New York. His website is at - www.rsteviemoore.com/RWANYC.html .

  25/03/2002 - Greg Szabo, the tour manager and lighting engineer for ELO Part 2 and Orchestra has a great new personal website up and running, featuring lots of interesting and amusing photos of the band and roadies both on stage and behind the scenes!! Greg is veryinterested in your feedback on the site and also is testing the waters to see if there is enough demand for another Access All Areas-style video, due to the amount of footage George Reed has 'in-the-can'. More details at www.elo2.co.uk .

  25/03/2002 - On-line music vendors CD Zone have a couple of new E.L.O. compilations listed on their new releases section. The first is a 2cd set called 'Mr Blue Sky', priced at only £4.65, catalog number BB238 with a release date of March 4th. The second release is 'Simply The Best', a single cd priced at £7.04 and catalog number EPC4503572.

  03/03/2002 - Argentinian ELO fans are in for a treat over the next 10 weeks. Jorge Devincenzi will be presenting a 10 part series of 2 hour shows charting the history of The Electric Light Orchestra, from the formative days of The Idle Race, The Move right up to the present day. The shows will feature many rare tracks and interviews with past and present members.  The programme is called 'The Story of E.L.O.' and will be broadcast on Radio 93.30 Radio Arte based in Gaiman, Patagonia. The first edition will be on March 8th at 10pm to 12pm (Argentina time). Prior to the first show, on March 5th, there will be a 1 hour special featuring the hits of E.L.O. plus some advertisement spots to promote the show. Unfortunately the radio station is not accessible via the internet, so for anybody interested in this show please email me for more information.

  01/03/2002 - As mentioned on the main page, why not check out www.ultimatecharts.com and vote for your 5 favourite albums and singles?? ELO are currently 'zooming' up the charts with 'Zoom', 'Out Of The Blue' and 'A New World Record' all now in the Top 100.

  28/02/2002 - 'Project ELO' : well, this is the idea of a group of ELO fans who are looking for musically talented fellow ELO fans to record their own versions of an ELO song to be part of an ELO fans tribute cd being planned. More details can be found at the Project ELO website - www.thehappyhollow.com .

  27/02/2002 - A couple of new ELO internet-radio stations well worth a listen to are David Ang's ELO Radio at www.live365.com/stations/240776 and Bill's Radio Free Garside at http://members.home.net/frg365/frg365.htm . More radio station addresses can be found on the Website Links page.

  27/02/2002 - Latest news from Ian Gibbons - 'There were a few ELO II fans at this weekends Bob Geldof concerts in Tamworth, where Phil & Tina opened the shows. Geldof was very impressed, especially with the re-arrangements of the Beatles material. he was also fascinated by Phil's guitar playing - his exact words were - f****** hell, can't that guy play? Also he said to Tina that's a hell of a f****** voice you have there.

The reason for this message is that at last Phil seems to be flood free, and we have now rearranged the date for the Acoustic Cafe gig at The Lady Meadow in Tamworth. The new date is Sunday 24th March, which is the Sunday before Easter. We do hope that all of you that had tickets for 3rd Feb, can come along. We especially hope that Jim Hoban and his lady wife can make the journey yet again. (WE WILL BE THERE!!)

The concert starts at 8:00 pm. For those of you who are travelling, and would like a snack or meal before hand, Stuart will be serving food from 4 pm til 7 pm. You will then all be thrown out, while Phil & Tina have a soundcheck.

There are a few unreserved tickets resulting from the postponement, so check with Stuart for ticket availability on 01827 51400. From my point of view, seeing Tina and Phil last weekend, was a joy and you are all in for a treat. See you there.'

  26/01/2002 - FTM-Germany's 5th international E.L.O. convention will be taking place on Saturday, September 28th, 2002 at the Novotel Frankfurt (Main), Eschborn in Germany. More details can be obtained by emailing alexander@face-the-music.de .

  26/01/2002 - Just added some screen shots from Carlton tv's 'Rock Legends - Roy Wood' which was broadcast last night. Roy has created 'another' band called the Mega Dance Orquesta who will be performing his new salsa-based songs. Roy Woods Army will continue to perform the usual hits show too.

  25/01/2002 - Not Lame's 'Lynne Me Your Ears', the Jeff Lynne tribute collection is now officially available.

  19/01/2002 - The following information is courtesy of Lynn Hoskins' superb Official ELO Mailing List - The January 2002 issue of Rolling Stone magazine has an excellent article about the late George Harrison. Here is a short excerpt from the article written by Fred Goodman with comments by Jeff Lynne - 'Shortly after George Harrison died, at about 1:30 p.m. on November 29th in Los Angeles, he was dressed in traditional Krishna robes, with tulsi leaves placed between his lips and a wreath around his neck in preparation for cremation at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Harrison had spent his last few days in a rented house in Studio City, where two close friends from the Hare Krishna community chanted a mantra to help prepare him for death. And it was here that Harrison's friends, including drummer Jim Keltner, former Traveling Wilburys Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne, Monty Python's Eric Idle, record executive Mo Ostin, and Ravi Shankar and his daughter Anoushka, came to see him for the last time. After undergoing a final round of chemotherapy the week of November 19th at UCLA Medical Center, Harrison was weak and drifting in and out of consciousness.

"I went over to the house," says Lynne, a longtime friend and musical collaborator. "I was with my girlfriend, Rosie, and she brought a ukulele without telling me. So, I went into the room and strummed some little George Formby tunes - all these tunes that George loved and could play fantastically well - just quietly to him. I hope he heard me - I think he did, because he did look at me. The one thing I was upset about was that George didn't leap up and say, `That's the wrong bloody chord!' That's what I was hoping for - that I would wake him up and he would go, `You bastard, you're playing the wrong chord!'"'

  19/01/2002 - Latest news from Nicholas Cole of Not Lame Records about the delayed release of  'Lynne Me Your Ears - A Tribute To Jeff Lynne', the 2cd Jeff Lynne covers collection - 'January 16, 2002 : Good News (finally)! We have received word that "Lynne Me Your Ears" - A Tribute To Jeff Lynne will be arriving into our greasy, over-expecting hands around the middle/end of this coming week (January 23-25) and as soon as it arrives it's going to jet right on out of here and collect nary a speckle of dust.'

  17/01/2002 - The new Electric Light Orchestra single 'Moment In Paradise' has just been released in Holland. There are 2 cd singles - click here for more details. A 4-track promotional single has also been released in the U.S.A.

  05/01/2002 - The CD from the concert "Night of the Proms" in Rotterdam, Holland on 29th November 2001 is now available. The second song is "Mr Blue Sky" by John Miles. Also "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Il Novecento is on it. The disk is issued by BMG Ariola Classics GmbH and has the number 74321 89761 2.

  24/12/2001 - At long-last, Kelly Groucutt's solo album from 1982 'Kelly' has been released on cd in remastered format. The cd contains all twelve tracks which featured on both the original European and U.S. releases, plus one rare b-side and a remix of 'Am I A Dreamer' which was originally released under the name of Player featuring Mik Kaminski. More details about the cd can be found at the Official Kelly Groucutt website where a number of tracks can be previewed. The album can only be ordered direct from Kelly's website in conjunction with Face The Music.

  21/12/2001 - Latest news from Ian Gibbons - 'Kelly & I are conscious that many of you travel huge distances to support the various concerts, whether that be Orchestra or Kelly's solo shows. So I am currently working on getting Kelly out and about all around the UK. But please be patient, this takes a little time to set up. Many of you may like to know about a weekend schedule that is almost complete. We are just waiting on various licences. If you are not on holiday and would like to spend a weekend with us in the midlands then here are the details we have to hand:

  20/12/2001 - Check out www.kellygroucutt.com to see some great photos of Kelly's recent gig in Tamworth.

  19/12/2001 - Latest news from Ian Gibbons - 'Hi, it never ceases to amaze me, the commitment shown by you ELO / ELO II / Orchestra types. We've not even arrived at the Christmas dinner table yet and Kelly's summer soiree at the Acoustic Cafe in Tamworth is now 60% sold out. For those of you who don't know, I am the manager of The Eleanor Rigby Experience, but also a promoter in the midlands. I programme a small intimate venue called the Acoustic Cafe which has a capacity of 70. But we attract some fantastic acts. Next year we have Phil Bates & Tina McBain in February, Kelly Groucutt again in July, Steve Gibbons in September and Pete Best in October. Last Sunday Kelly played his solo show for us, and ELO / Orchestra fans travelled from all over. The show went so well, we instantly arranged a return visit for Kelly. So please do check your diaries, and if you're not sunning yourself, get your tickets for this show on Sunday 7th July. Telephone Stuart at the venue on 01827 51400 to reserve your tickets, they are £7.50 as before.
Tina McBain is currently talking to Kelly and Phil Bates about them guesting on her new album - Big Love - which will feature Tina's all time favourite love songs. Tina has a new Yahoo group, which give information about all her activites. Solo, ERE band, with Phil, and details of how to get the album will be posted as soon as she gets to it. Thanks to Serena for helping us set this up as Tina was not up to date on the how's and why's of Yahoo Groups. So far we have no members, so if you want to join and get information from the horses mouth, sorry Tina, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tinamcbain .'

  09/12/2001 - Latest news from Ian Gibbons on Kelly Groucutts gig on December 16th - '12 seats have become available at the Tamworth show due to a cancellation through bereavement. So if anyone wants to come along to what will be a great night, next Sunday 16th December. Telephone Stuart at the venue on 01827 51400 to book your tickets. Tina & myself attended Kelly's gig last week and although it was in a strange venue, Kelly performed his usual excellent set including versions of classic 50's and 60's songs. If you like Johnny Rae, Buddy Holly, The Everly's, you'll love this. Update on Tina McBain & Phil Bates: Tamworth show with Bob Geldof. Tickets for the Saturday night have sold out. But there is an extra show on Sunday 17th Feb 2002. Tickets are available from Tamworth Tourist Information Centre 01827 709618.'

  01/12/2001 - Do check out the reviews of Roy Woods fantastic concert here in Carlisle on November 30th. Photos from the concert will be added in the near future.

  04/11/2001 - ELO's 'ZOOM Live' dvd & video are released here in the U.K. tomorrow - November 5th. The dvd features 100 minutes of the live concerts filmed in Los Angeles last May 23rd & 24th and includes 3 extra tracks not shown on the recent PBS broadcasts in the U.S.A. Also included is an interview with Jeff Lynne and fan comments.

  04/11/2001 - Following the debut of ELO's new double-cd compilation 'The Ultimate Collection' at number 18 in the U.K. album charts, Sony are still promoting the release with tv and press advertising. So hopefully the album will continue to climb.

  04/11/2001 - Coming up this week on the U.K. satellite music channel VH1 is the European premiere of Electric Light Orchestra live on 'Storytellers'. The initial broadcast will be on Thursday, November 8th at 8pm.

  04/11/2001 - Tina McBain of The Eleanor Rigby Experience is hosting a very special Christmas show at the intimate Lady Meadow in King Street, Tamworth. The show is called the 'Acoustic Christmas' and is on Sunday 16th December at 7:30pm.  Tina's top of the bill guest for the night will be none other than Kelly Groucutt who will be performing his fantastic solo show.

  02/11/2001 - Click here to have a look at my daughter Emma's picture of The Orchestra which she decided to draw after attending the recent concert in Nottingham with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra.

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