LONG ENDURANCE, BULKY CURTAINS; ctd...

Happy 63rd Birthday, Jeff....

NOW LIVIN' THING

A new recording of ELO's Livin' Thing by Jeff Lynne is now in a Dutch commercial for the World Wildlife Fund:

For those keeping score, re-recorded versions of:
Mr. Blue Sky
Showdown
Evil Woman
Don't Bring Me Down
Livin' Thing
have made the rounds on film and TV shows/commercials.

TBD

Joe Walsh discusses his new album on Undercover News, perhaps aiming for a spring release...

DBMD TURNS UP AGAIN...

The re-recorded Don't Bring Me Down now in a shorter film trailer for The Dilemma.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Just wanted to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy Holidays and Happy New Year.  This was quite a quiet year.  With the exception of a new ELO DVD and a few Rossif Sutherland tracks, there's not been much to discuss this year.  Hopefully, that will change with the new year.

Anyway, have a safe and enjoyable holiday.  See you in 2011!

CONCERT FOR GEORGE

Musictap.com is reporting that Concert For George is coming to Blu-Ray on February 22, 2011.  Well, it was shot in high-def...

BLUE LIPS

Credit to Nicolas at ELO Discovery for catching this one first.  Regina Spektor's new DVD Live in London has a great little surprise.  An instrumental mix of the Jeff Lynne-produced Blue Lips plays over the closing credits...

This is the kind of stuff that turns my crank and re-affirms everything I've always loved about this song.  So original and so well done.  This DVD has been on my shopping list, but I just finished a big move (for a new job) and haven't had the chance to settle in yet.

Anyway, the track was slowed down a bit perhaps for effect.  Except for the short edit in the beginning, the whole track is there.  Awesome.  You can get this on DVD or Blu-Ray with a concert CD.

'... AT ANOTHER POINT, WE PLAYED PING PONG.'

The lead singer of Rooney experiences what many of us would love...

MTV Shows

A TRIBUTE TO BUDDY HOLLY...

The Hollywood Reporter has a new interview with producer Peter Asher who revealed he's working on a Buddy Holly tribute collection and that Jeff Lynne is contributing a song to it, a cover of 'Words of Love':

THR: You’re equally passionate about the music of Buddy Holly. Tell us about the tribute album you’re putting together. 

Asher: I am a huge fan. Buddy Holly was one of the things that brought Gordon and I together at school, back in the very formation of Peter and Gordon. I was more of a folkie, Gordon was more of a rocker and he pretty much taught me about Buddy Holly. Those songs always meant a lot to me, so when I was approached to take on the production of a Buddy Holly tribute for the 50th anniversary of his death, I was happy to do so. We've done seven tracks so far: Stevie Nicks, Lyle Lovett, Jeff Lynne who produced his own version of “Words of Love,” which is brilliant, The Fray, Chris Isaac .... Who have I left out? 

Even though Asher is an acclaimed producer in his own right, he says Jeff produced his own version:

THR: And you’re producing every track? 

Asher: So far, the only one I didn't do is Jeff Lynne because he does all his stuff in his own studio, his own way. So I was happy spectator and visitor, but everything else has been tracked in L.A. at Conway Studios.

And the next question... when:

THR: When do you hope to have it out and who will release it? 

Asher: I'd like to see it come out in late spring. It may be a direct-to-retail deal, it’s still a bit up in the air.

POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE

The ELO merchandise shop at elo.biz has two new entries: One, a 14x20 print on heavy stock paper featuring artwork for something called Mr. Blue Sky: The Best of Electric Light Orchestra and two, a set of postcards featuring the ELO spaceship including a rework of Zoom's artwork.

Could this be a preview of things to come?

MR. BLUE SKY IS BACK

Just a heads up for the UK fans, BBC Radio 6 will re-air Mr. Blue Sky: The Jeff Lynne Story on 27 and 28 of November.

ORIGINAL ALBUM CLASSICS SERIES

The card sleeves on this set are straight up scans of original LP covers.  A New World Record even shows sleeve wear along the top and On The Third Day is kinda dirty.  Was that on purpose??

That said, the set is actually kinda cool.

A NOVEMBER FLASHBACK IT IS

It looks like November 8 is the UK release day for the re-sized Flashback box set from ELO which was originally released 10 years ago.  Hard to believe it's been ten years.

Anyone have or find a higher-res picture/jpg of this set?

SUTHERLAND CD?

Rossif Sutherland has been blogging about his recent recording experience and it turns out he may release a physical CD after all, one way or another. Here's a relevant passage:

After that, hopefully sometime before Christmas, I'll make my way back down here with Seth to work with Matt on mixing this thing. And after that, we'll get it mastered. By that point I should have all the art work for the album done and be ready to actually make cds. Not quite sure how I'll be making it available at first, online I guess and hardcopies through ebay maybe. I look forward to sharing the music...

Another:

In early January, after I finish shooting this movie I have to do here in Toronto, which I'm very excited to be a part of, I will return to Texas for seven days of mixing, then the last step will be mastering, and then I have a record:) I look forward to sharing the music...

Sutherland's These Words, Waiting For The Train and In The Clouds are produced by Jeff Lynne and are still available to hear on his MySpace page.  He previously wrote that he'll include all three on his CD, but time will tell if he sticks to that plan.  It sounds like he's been pretty productive lately.

FLASHBACK RESIZED

What the resized Flashback will look like courtesy of Play.com:

ORIGINAL ALBUM CLASSICS SERIES ctd...

What the Original Album Classics series will look like:

A SMALLER FLASHBACK

Tim Fraser-Harding at Sony Music Int'l gave everyone on the Showdown mailing list a heads-up about this a few weeks ago.  A re-sized (to DVD-sized hard-bound book) Flashback box set is on the schedule for release, perhaps as soon as November.  Amazon's various websites are differing on the release date with the UK site saying 8 November, but ominously not taking pre-orders yet.  The US site, which is offering the box set as an import, is showing November 16, and the German site is saying 5 November.  Play.com says 8 November as well.  Standby for clarification.

THE ELO STORY IN 12 MINUTES

Saw this link to a Swedish TV show on the ELO Forever Boards.  The program focuses on 1978 and ELO takes up a big portion of the program.  Bev Bevan is interviewed for the show and gives the audience a general overview of the band.  Watch it now, the video is only available until 11 October.  After that, the link will apparently go dead.

The thing I noticed most was the number of rarely-seen ELO promo videos that appear to be intact (and cropped to widescreen) for this show to use.  Kinda whets the appetite for the upcoming BBC documentary, doesn't it??

Later in the same video is a segment about Olivia Newton-John where she has a quick little anecdote about Jeff.

ORIGINAL ALBUM CLASSICS SERIES

ELO is one of several artists who will be getting 5 catalog CDs grouped into one box to be released next month.  What may make this instance a bit different is the last '5CD box series' Sony put out a few years ago had unique card sleeves for the CDs, as opposed to just grouping 5 discs with their jewel cases and putting them in a box.  That could make it more interesting for collectors.  Time will tell.  Release date for this series is 25 October 2010 and will apparently be only a UK/European release.

This box will group On The Third Day, Face The Music, A New World Record, Discovery and Time.  Question remains since they are showing the now outdated Third Day artwork, will this box contain the newer remasters or the original ancient history CDs.

MIKE EDWARDS

Former ELO cello player Mike Edwards has been killed in a bizarre hay bale accident in southwestern England.  He was 62.

FTM is building a tribute section in honor of Edwards.

From the Daily and Sunday Express.

ELO founder Jeff Lynne paid tribute to Edwards yesterday, saying: “I still think about him on stage in his woollen balaclava playing his cello solo with an orange. Now that was pretty original. Mike was a great cellist but most of all a real gentleman.”

News links:
Daily Mail
Telegraph UK
The Sun
BBC
Birmingham Post
This is Devon
CNN