END NOTES 2012

A few quick notes before we let this year slip away...

First off, for those of you who pledged to the Songs After Sandy benefit album, make sure you check your e-mail... the link to download the 2012 Electric version of Save Me Now was e-mailed to everyone around Dec. 16 or so...

And don't forget, Dave Morgan's new album Across the Divide is now out on CD.  You can check it out and order one at his website.

A heartfelt thanks to everyone who helped contribute to the blog this year. Best wishes for a happy and healthy 2013!  Happy New Year, everyone!

LONG ENDURANCE, BULKY CURTAINS ctd...

Happy 65th Birthday, Jeff...

And thank you for all the amazing stuff this year!

SOME HOLIDAY JAMMING

Look who was having some fun at the Troubadour a few nights ago... (hat tip: Neil)

More from Lynn Hoskins at Showdown:

Thursday night at the Troubadour in Los Angeles Jeff Lynne was part of Jonathan Wilson's Merry Minstrel Musical Circus that did a benefit jam-a-thon to raise money for Little Kids Rock and the Tazzy Animal Rescue Fund. Taking turns onnstage were Bob Weir, Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench, and Jackson Browne, who called Jeff's appearance a 'visitation.'

COMING SOON ON BLUE VINYL

It appears next month will see the release of a new batch of vinyl for Jeff Lynne's Long Wave and Mr. Blue Sky: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra - this time on limited edition blue vinyl - Mr. Blue Sky will be on two discs.  They will be limited to 1000 each and are on the schedule for January 28 2013 in the UK.

Preorders also at Amazon:

Long Wave

Mr. Blue Sky

(hat tip: Rich)

ALSO ON ITUNES

Mr. Blue Sky: The Story of Jeff Lynne & ELO comes to iTunes on Tuesday, but just added and available to buy now are four more ELO videos from back in the day.

The live Wembley version of Sweet Talkin' Woman and the original promo videos for So Serious, Last Train To London and the rare version of Shine A Little Love are now available to buy for $1.99 each.

MR. BLUE SKY: THE STORY OF JEFF LYNNE & ELO

From elo.biz:

The full version (presumably) of Mr. Blue Sky: The Story of Jeff Lynne & ELO will be available to download starting Tuesday December 18 on iTunes.

A physical release on DVD is still on target for next year.

The trailer:

RECORD COLLECTOR

ELO is the cover story and Jeff Lynne is gracing the cover of the December 2012 Record Collector Magazine in the UK.  Two full articles about ELO - one from Jeff Lynne:

Two albums released on the same day saw Jeff Lynne break a lengthy silence. Terry Staunton meets up with ELO’s head honcho and asks just why he had to hide away for so long. 

The Top 10 albums chart in late October made interesting reading, with a familiar name dominating the list. One of the highest new entries was Long Wave, a collection of vintage oldies from the 50s and 60s refashioned for the 21st century by Jeff Lynne. Just below it was Mr Blue Sky, with Lynne revisiting some of his old band ELO’s best loved songs, re-recording each one from scratch. A few places below those offerings was a catalogue compilation of ELO originals, sales reignited by the buzz surrounding the front man’s return. 

Not that Lynne has ever been away, he’s just been out of the spotlight. Since the demise of ELO in 2001 (having fought and won a legal battle for rights to the name from drummer Bev Bevan’s touring outfit ELO II), Jeff has mostly worn his producer’s hat. He worked on George Harrison’s last album, Brainwashed, continued his long association with Tom Petty, and his name can also be found on the credits of releases by Regina Spektor and Joe Walsh. 

He was involved in the Traveling Wilburys reissue campaign in 2007, which saw the supergroup that also featured Harrison, Petty, Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison top the album charts again, but releases with his own name front and centre have been conspicuous by their absence. 

All that changed in the autumn of 2012, …

The other article is on Bev Bevan...

The strings soared, Jeff Lynne delivered the hits, but the foundation was Bev Bevan, driving it all behind the drum kit. Here, he recalls his times with The Move, Black Sabbath and ELO. Matt Eastley snares him for an interview
Sometimes, what looks on paper like the dream ticket simply fails to come off. 

The metamorphosis of Birmingham band The Move into the Electric Light Orchestra and the subsequent failure of the Roy Wood/Jeff Lynne partnership is one of the more curious tales in rock’s annals. 

The Move had been one of the finest bands to emerge in the late 60s, largely driven by the creativity and inventiveness of Wood. 

But come the 70s, the band was struggling for direction and when close mates, mutual admirers and stellar talents Wood and Lynne finally hooked up, they looked set to take the world by storm with a vehicle that would satisfy both their ambitions. 

But as far as the pairing was concerned, it never happened, and within a year, Wood had stunned everyone by upping sticks and leaving to form the complex but often-amusing and parodic Wizzard. 

Watching all this at first hand was drummer Bev Bevan, who had known Wood since the mid 60s. To this day is flummoxed as to why the Wood/Lynne axis did not flourish.

On newsstands in the UK but you can also order one right from Record Collector's website...

WEEKEND READING

While housecleaning this weekend, I came across this nugget from the Philadelphia Inquirer dated February 1, 2003.  It was the first time many of us heard the new remake of Mr. Blue Sky in a Volkswagen Beetle commercial.  The tongue-in-cheek(ish) article's writer has a hard time accepting that bands like ELO are finding a niche in 'hip' movies and TV commercials. Enjoy.

BLU-SPEC CD2

First up in 2013 so far looks to be this: A New World Record, Out of the Blue, Discovery and Time will be released on a new Blu-Spec CD2 "format".  The blurb:

Features the high-fidelity Blu-spec CD2 format (compatible with standard CD players). Part of a 4-album Electric Light Orchestra Blu-spec CD2 reissue series featuring albums "New World Record," "Out of the blue," "DISCOVERY," and "Time." *Blu-spec CD2 is the next generation Compact Disc that employs the Phase Transition Mastering, the technology developed for mastering of Blu-ray discs, to further perfect the acclaimed characteristics of Blu-spec CD. Fully compatible with standard CD players, Blu-spec CD2 completely alters the experience of music.

We'll see... Release date for Japan: March 6, 2013

NOW PLAYING: ADAM CAROLLA PODCAST

The Adam Carolla Show podcast is now available for download...

THE ECONOMIST AND MR. BLUE SKY

The Economist has a nice new article about Jeff Lynne in today's online edition.  It has a small blurb about the upcoming release of Mr. Blue Sky: The Story of Jeff Lynne and ELO.  Pre-orders for the documentary will begin next month on iTunes (for the digital download) followed by the DVD release next year.

NOW STREAMING: SAVE ME NOW 2012

Preorders and pledges are still being taken for Songs After Sandy: Friends of Red Hook for Hurricane Sandy Relief.  But if you put in your $15 pledge now, you can hear a stream of the entire first volume of tracks including Jeff Lynne's new version of Save Me Now.

COMING SOON: SONGS AFTER SANDY

Joe Walsh, Ringo Starr and Jeff Lynne will be among the musicians who are contributing to a new benefit album for people who were affected Hurricane Sandy.

It's called Songs After Sandy : Friends of Red Hook for Hurricane Sandy Relief and an official announcement was made today.

Jeff's contribution:

...is a new version of a song he’d written decades ago. In a statement, he said, “This is a brand new electric version of ‘Save Me Now,’ a song I wrote 22 years ago about this very subject — global warming and the need to listen and be kind to our planet. I wanted to contribute to Songs After Sandy because I feel terrible about what happened, and my heart goes out to all of the people still stuck in it and trying to work through it.”

Here is a direct link to pre-order Songs After Sandy.  It appears it will be available for a $15 donation.  More details as soon as we find them...

LINER NOTES

From Eric Idle:

The story so far. In a fit of egotistical madness Eric Idle has agreed to write the liner notes for Jeff Lynne’s album, but so far he has no idea what to do. He is assembling for dinner with Jeff and Billy at an expensive West Hollywood watering hole, called The Expensive West Hollywood Watering Hole. He has sat with Billy for half an hour and made a bad joke about Shark Infested Waiters at the Peninsular. They are waiting for Jeff. He appears.

His blog picks up the story from there...

MERCY MERCY UK SINGLE

From eBay: A UK 1-track promo CD for Jeff Lynne's Mercy Mercy, the new UK single from Long Wave.

COMING UP...

Don't forget, Jeff Lynne appears on Rockline this Wednesday November 7 at 11:30pm Eastern/8:30pm Pacific.  You can hear it online at Rockline Radio.com.

Plus PaladiaHD is still airing Mr.Blue Sky The Story of Jeff Lynne and ELO in case you haven't been able to catch it yet...

Tuesday, November 06 6:00 PM
Saturday, November 10 10:00 AM
Friday, November 16 12:00 AM
Sunday, November 25 1:00 PM

BIRMINGHAM POST

There's a new interview with Jeff Lynne in today's Birmingham Post.  Much of the stuff we've heard before - but he does discuss the status of his relationship with Roy Wood and Bev Bevan today - plus his favorite non-hit ELO song.

MORE BLUE SKY

KLOS in Los Angeles will be hosting another screening of Mr. Blue Sky: The Story of Jeff Lynne and ELO at The Grammy Museum on Wednesday November 14 at 7pm.  Jeff Lynne will be on hand for a Q&A following the screening.  The press release:

Los Angeles radio station 95.5 KLOS-FM today announced a special screening, Wednesday, November 14 at The GRAMMY Museum in downtown Los Angeles, of the JEFF LYNNE documentary “Mr. Blue Sky: The Story of Jeff Lynne and ELO.” It will be followed by a Q&A with the creative force of ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA and the singularly accomplished British singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer. KLOS DJ Cynthia Fox will host the event, which starts at 7:00 PM, and moderate the Q&A. 

LYNNE‘s illuminating and entertaining documentary “Mr. Blue Sky: The Story of Jeff Lynne and ELO,” written and directed by Martyn Atkins, gets to the heart of who JEFF LYNNE is and how he has had such a tremendous musical influence on our world. The answer–as told by the British artist himself and such distinguished collaborators and friends of JEFF as Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Tom Petty, Joe Walsh, Olivia and Dhani Harrison, Barbara Orbison and Eric Idle–is that LYNNE is a true man of music for whom the recording studio is his greatest instrument. 

In other news, LYNNE recently received a nomination for inclusion in the 2013 Songwriters Hall of Fame. The event will take place June 13, 2013 in New York City. 

LYNNE just released two albums on Frontiers Records on October 9 to critical praise: the solo disc LONG WAVE, a heartfelt and vivid tribute to some of the very songs that originally inspired him, and MR. BLUE SKY–THE VERY BEST OF ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA. For the latter album, LYNNE has artfully revisited and created brand new versions–at his home studio in Los Angeles–of the greatest hits of ELO, actually improving on the gems that catapulted them to sales of 50 million-plus records worldwide. 

The release of the albums marks the 40th anniversary of ELO. Both albums contributed to what Billboard.biz called a “spectacular chart comeback (10/15/12),” with three top-10 albums on the U.K. charts at the same time—LONG WAVE, MR. BLUE SKY—THE VERY BEST OF ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA, and ALL OVER THE WORLD.

MR. BLUE SKY ON THE UKE

Many of you remember Joe Brown from the Concert For George.  He's about to release The Ukulele Album early next month - and has covered Mr. Blue Sky.  It even gets a nod from Jeff on Jeff's official Facebook page:

I've always been a big fan of Joe Brown and so to hear him singing Mr Blue Sky is a treat.
Thanks, mate!
All the best, Jeff Lynne

Also on the album is a cover the Traveling Wilburys' Where Were You Last Night...

100.3 THE SOUND

Reminder for tonight... Jeff Lynne will be the guest DJ at 100.3 FM The Sound in LA tonight - 9PM Eastern (6 PM LA Time) - You can LISTEN LIVE here.