The Orchestra Starring Elo Former Members and Jeff Lynne's ELO

In the late 60's, the guitarist and vocalist of The Move Roy Wood had the idea to form a new band that would use violins, cellos, string basses, horns and woodwinds to give their music a classical sound. This may seem like a given nowadays with every contemporary rock band using a variety of instruments to create their sound, yet at the beginning of the 1970s, The Electric Light Orchestra were considered revolutionaries of the genre. They have more combined US & UK top 40 chart hits than any other band in the world.

They enjoyed moderate successes with their first few releases in the early 70's, yet it was their fourth album 'Eldorado' which managed to crack the top 20 of the US Billboard chart and incorporated a live string section and orchestra, it also included their first US top ten hit 'Can't Get You Out Of My Head'. They continued to have mammoth successes stateside when releasing their album 'Face The Music', the band played 68 shows in 76 days yet they were still snubbed in their native UK until their next release, the platinum selling 'A New World Record' and featured the hit singles 'Do Ya' and 'Livin' Thing'.

The band's touring and recording momentum seemed to show no sign of slowing as their next release 'Out Of The Blue' went double platinum and featured another string of singles that charted on both sides of the Atlantic including their now cult classic 'Mr. Blue Sky'. They later collaborated with vocalist Olivia Newton-John on the soundtrack for musical film 'Xanadu' where the title track became a huge hit all over the world. The band eventually disbanded in 1988 after a string of disappointing single releases after they replaced actual strings with synthesisers, they reformed in 2000 but the following album 'Zoom' also failed commercially. Their 2014 reformation was a larger success when performing a benefit gig for Children In Need with Jeff Lynne hinting at a 2015 UK tour.