In the 1970s, Electric Light Orchestra--led by singer/songwriter Jeff Lynne--was one of pop’s biggest selling acts. By the mid-80s, the band’s star had dimmed.
ELO appears to have played Portland twice at the band’s height: in 1974 as warm-up to Deep Purple and Elf and in 1976 with Little Feat. But Saturday, Lynne will return, bringing his immortal songs to Portland’s Moda Center.
Born in Birmingham, England, Lynne was one of thousands of post-war children with an ear glued to the radio. By 1963, he was a teen playing in his own bands as The Beatles became superstars. During a 1968 visit to Abbey Road, Lynne saw the Beatles at work on the White Album. He was kicked out of the session after only 10 minutes, but the influence on his songwriting and later production career was profound.
In 1970, Lynne joined a chart-topping British rock band called The Move. A parallel group formed immediately that incorporated classical instruments into a rock format. The result was Electric Light Orchestra. ELO became the ideal vehicle for Lynne to develop his studio techniques and his song craft. But he was a shy and reserved perfectionist thrust into the spotlight on stage, a place he was rarely comfortable.
“Back then, it was murder, trying to get the cellos right and violins and all that stuff,” Lynne was quoted as saying in John Van Der Kiste’s 2015 book “Jeff Lynne: The Electric Light Orchestra Before and After.” “It never sounded like I wanted it to.” If the string section on stage wasn’t spectacle enough, ELO also descended in a flying saucer full of lights and fog. In 2015, Lynne told The Guardian, “It was great – I used to jump offstage every night to watch the ship close. The noise and spectacle of it and the smoke, these great big whining engines – it was really good. It made our classical music feel like a science fiction movie. It was a big show for its time.”
After years of hard work to little acclaim the band broke through with a string of hit singles. Lynne penned “Evil Woman,” “Don’t Bring Me Down,” and “Turn to Stone.” Success earned him the right to eschew touring and focus his energy in the studio.
ELO scored a No. 1 single with music composed for the Xanadu soundtrack. Soon after, ELO’s brand of slick pop rock was no longer in vogue, and the group formally closed up shop. Critical recognition had largely eluded them, but Lynne was content with tens of millions of albums sold and a solid 15-year run.
Within months of the 1986 breakup, Lynne found a second career as producer for the stars. His work with George Harrison, Tom Petty, and Brian Wilson--and his membership in the The Traveling Wilburys--ensured that Lynne would not fade from the music scene. The ultimate feather in Lynne’s cap came when he was invited to produce and perform on the first new Beatles recordings in decades, using a John Lennon vocal demo that Yoko Ono passed along to the band. After an aborted effort to revive ELO in 2001, Lynne swallowed his pride and returned to studio work. But style has a way of cycling over the years. What was once considered bloated and uncool found favor with a new generation. Daft Punk sampled ELO, and British popsters Take That approached Lynne to produce their 2014 comeback album.
ELO’s highly crafted, catchy, melodic, symphonic music had aged like a fine wine. Lynne performed a few ELO songs at a 2013 charity event in London, and the response was overwhelming, leading to a concert at Hyde Park for a crowd of 50,000 one year later.
Afterward he told Rolling Stone, “I felt such relief that all these people were there, screaming and clapping to every song.”
Live technology has finally advanced to a point that Lynne says he is now thrilled with what can be achieved with sound on stage. And critics no longer treat his body of work like a guilty pleasure. In 2017, ELO was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Lynne, now 71, is savoring the moment. “It’s amazing. It’s great to be cool – I’ve never, ever been cool, so for people to think it’s cool now is absolutely wonderful.”
Though the flying saucer has been relegated to the video screen, Lynne will bring ELO keyboardist Richard Tandy and a small string section to Portland for a greatest hits tour that must seem--even to Lynne himself--to have come out of the blue.
Jeff Lynne’s ELO + Dhani Harrison
When: 8 p.m. Saturday, June 29
Where: Moda Center, 1 N. Center Court St.
Tickets: $46.50-$146.50; rosequarter.com
-- Nathan Carson