Ahead of his “triumphant appearance”* in the Dolly Parton slot at Glastonbury Festival this weekend, Jeff Lynne and ELO disciple, DoctorJ, aided by Iain Mc tries to convince DFB & Steven C that he is the messiah and not a naughty Fabs tune ruining boy
We get alternate reviews of ELO’s recent delayed dat at the 3Arena in Dublin (The Point, for all you old heads)
Discover if the line up who played on the band’s 1974 live album from Long Beach, CA are still all above ground
Why is he back and is it just the case that rock snobbery got him so wrong?
Won’t DFB just let DoctorJ speak without slipping shit jokes under his enthusiastic theories cos it’s really annoying.
Is it just rock / pop music for people who know fuck all about rock / pop music?
Don’t bring me down, let’s rockaria!
* so spake Nostradamus DrJ
A much appreciated bit of light relief today
I’d also add to the ‘Guilty Pleasures’ aspect that these were also a band Alan Partridge played on Radio Norwich “Pray silence please..for the Electric Light Orchestra” – I’m not an ELO fan but I do like…in an un-ironic way…a lot of Alan’s playlist which at the time was ‘ironic’ including China Crisis, OMD and Sir Gareth of Numanshire.
Yes I attended Guilty Pleasures live where Ed Harcourt gave Sweet Talking Woman a right good outing.
Other things on editing room floor was the watershed of 1986 Heart Beat concert featuring ELO & George Harrison, Steven C’s contention that fellow Brummie Denny Laine was light years ahead of Jeff with his Electric String Band in the 60s and the revelation that Dr_J didn’t forget to go the the oven
Excellent podcast, gents.
As a pedant, I feel compelled to point out that Mike Edwards, alas, is dead. I’m also pretty sure that the young Jeff’s ‘witnessing-the-Beatles-in-the-studio’ song was ‘Why don’t we do it in the road’.
On the subject of the recent shows, my experience at the Glasgow gig chimed with the views of someone on the panel (sorry, I can’t remember who said it). I too had tears in my eyes at some points; the only things that would have improved the gig would have been:
1) The impression that Sir Jeffrey was actually enjoying himself. His stage presence registered about 0.0000073 on the richter scale. Having been to see Adele the week before, I was struck by how much difference a little bit of audience engagement can make to a gig. I quite like Adele, but loved her gig; she’s got such a big personality and an easy way with her audience that you can’t help but feel part of the event. I love ELO, but there were times when the gig felt like an exhibition at a gallery or museum; the band played those ELO songs brilliantly, but maintained a distance from the audience.
2) Slicker transition between songs. With the complete absence of any stage banter, the time between songs often felt like an eternity. There were at least a couple of occasions when the audience, having got to its feet during song A, sat down again before song B, because nobody had cajolled them with a bit of the old “how you doing Glasgow … you alright? Let’s get everyone on their feet. for this one.”
It wasn’t exactly rivetting watching Jeff change guitars and having a sip of water every three and a half minutes.
But I’ve got enough good stuff in the bank with ELO to get over these quibbles.
Thanks again for producing such an entertaining podcast.
Echo almost everything you said Raymondo, bar the Adele-worship.
Poor old Jeff always seems somewhat stunned by the fact that he’s still here, still doing this stuff, and still getting paid for it, and never seems to have grasped that fact that, “You know what, Jeff? That huge bungalow-ranch-style that you have in The United States of Neverland? That bank balance? It means there are lots of us out here who love what you do.”.
That picture of the crowd in Dublin with Doctor J gurning at Jeff’s left elbow
http://i.imgur.com/69GkTyx.jpg
The Dolly Parton slot, formerly known as the Rolf Harris slot before they started getting acts who were only semi-ironic, and the phrase ‘the Rolf Harris slot’ took on a less wholesome meaning.
Nothing semi-ironic about Dolly Parton. She is a bonafide superstar and international treasure.
Fine singer and songwriter and an astute businesswoman.
And just because she reads her between-song banter off an autocue doesn’t mean that she doesn’t mean it.
No arguments here. I have a couple of Dolly albums, which means I have infinitely more Dolly than, say ELO. By semi-ironic I meant the kind of artist who gets put under the heading Guilty Pleasure.