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Post by Timeblue on Sept 16, 2020 21:59:24 GMT
What if ELO had made it big in the first 3 years or so,not huge but big enough to sell albums and decent sized gigs. Roy could have stayed longer,Mike de Albequerque probably wouldn't have left so no Kelly, Mike Edwards would have partnered Hughie longer, Wilf Gibson might have prevented Mik from joining. I think that this line up probably wouldn't have conquered the world as the 7 that we know and love did but would have done 'ok ...ish'
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Post by queenofthehours on Sept 17, 2020 18:52:45 GMT
If ELO had been big in the early years and remained with Roy for longer than they did, ELO would probably be seen now as more of an important "serious" group, a bit like Pink Floyd perhaps. Also I think they might only have lasted until about 1975 because that early style wouldn't have sold many records by the mid-70s when Jeff began to show the world just how good a producer and writer he was. Music was a lot glossier by then and Roy is not a glossy person like Jeff is.
I'd like to have heard a version of ELO with Mike de A performing on a few more albums. His era is a favourite of mine because it is midway between the noise of first years and before the snazzy popular years.
Had ELO been finished by 1975 and Jeff gone solo to create all his 'MBS' stuff I think we'd be admiring Roy-era ELO more because we'd have heard much more of it and the Jeff who went on to create 'MBS' wouldn't be the same person.
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Post by denny on Sept 18, 2020 20:56:29 GMT
I think this is a great topic! Purely speculation, but if the early version of the band had made it bigger my belief is they would have stayed an 'album' band instead of becoming a 'singles' band. They could have been like Rush, always going platinum on albums with a hardcore following for live shows all without AM radio play. Don't get me wrong, there was/is nothing wrong with having a hit single, but once you get mixed up in the Pop world, the record companies will demand/expect hits. You get put on the treadmill, and you're only as good as your last hit. Unless the sales tracking is completely incorrect (it might be?) ELO's wheelbarrows full of hit singles didn't translate into mega album sales (in North America for sure...) Pop success means big attendance when you are hot (Out of the Blue/Big Night) and middling attendance when you are not (Time tour). The 'album' band more cult type following ensures a standard size touring experience with sometimes more/sometimes less folks interested but the core will remain. If the early band made it, and stayed in that style I don't think there would have been any invitation for songs for Xanadu, and the slow drip of the '80s to the breakup might have been avoided. Full disclosure: I rate No Answer and ELO II on the bottom of my personal album rankings... I have begun to enjoy OTTD more in recent years.
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Post by nobodyschild on Sept 19, 2020 21:44:47 GMT
I’m not sure how I feel about this one. On the one hand, I’ve always wished that ELO kept up the strings sounds after OOTB. But on the other hand, I can’t say their beginning sound was something I’m totally sold on. It was a bit too prog for me, and although all the parts were musically complex, intriguing, talented, etc, they didn’t feel cohesive as a whole song. (I’m talking the first 2 albums here.) So as much as I would have wished for FOON to have strings, I don’t think I would actually change a thing about Discovery for instance, I enjoy the songs as they are and they don’t have strings. As for the lineup....I’m glad history unfolded as it did (at least some of it). I like the “magnificent seven” lineup best, and personally Roy’s prog influence on the band was a lot for me to handle. Sounded too much like the Move, I’m more of an Idle Race person.
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Post by Timeblue on Sept 19, 2020 22:06:11 GMT
For what it's worth, I'm glad it worked out as it did. If the prog rock theme had continued and we had Battle of Marston Moor part 7 in 1976 then I probably would have continued to follow The Rubettes. I would have loved to have heard Mike de Albuquerque, Mike Edwards and Mike Walkers take on 'So Fine' and 'Shangli La' though...
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Post by lasttrain929 on Sept 20, 2020 9:11:41 GMT
This was a tough one, I only got to know about ELO after Telephone Line, It made me rush out and buy ANWR, after that I worked my way backwards buying their records. So for me I can only imagine that the golden era of ELO music and the classic line up may never have happened if they had stayed together and carried on with the early line up. ELOs early music has its merits but would I have bought it without first hearing ANWR and OOTB, I really doubt it. Horrible thought that no TIME, no OOTB etc. Thankfully it all worked out the way it did.
PS I liked the Rubettes as well.
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Post by Timeblue on Sept 20, 2020 9:27:53 GMT
In an alternative universe, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester meet Roy, Wilf, Mike dA, Mike Edwards and his grapefruit at Wembley.....
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Post by vlogdance on Sept 20, 2020 13:28:34 GMT
And cactus man Wilf forms his own spin-off group, Violinspiky...
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Post by vlogdance on Sept 20, 2020 14:13:19 GMT
The Mike Edwards Arm was less effective while it was holding an orange.
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Post by StrangeMagic on Sept 21, 2020 5:20:04 GMT
According to Bev's book, there doesn't seem to be any alternate timeline where Wilf gets to stay in the group. As much as I admire his violin-playing ability, Bev described him as too arrogant to be tolerated. I think we always get Mik.
Mike De Albuquerque might have stayed in the group if they were more successful after the first three albums. He left to be with his new family, right? It may have been harder to leave a group that was making more money with a new family, but it depends on priorities.
I'm not sure what it would have taken to get Roy to stay. Better cello pick-ups? Someone else to play all the instruments he was playing? Jeff Lynne being less talented?
I think Mike Edwards left precisely because the group was getting more popular and attracting more fans. He became a Buddhist monk, you know. Mel Gale probably always would have come on the scene.
I'm finding it difficult to rewrite this history.
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Post by Timeblue on Sept 21, 2020 8:52:09 GMT
According to Bev's book, there doesn't seem to be any alternate timeline where Wilf gets to stay in the group. As much as I admire his violin-playing ability, Bev described him as too arrogant to be tolerated. I think we always get Mik.
Mike De Albuquerque might have stayed in the group if they were more successful after the first three albums. He left to be with his new family, right? It may have been harder to leave a group that was making more money with a new family, but it depends on priorities.
I'm not sure what it would have taken to get Roy to stay. Better cello pick-ups? Someone else to play all the instruments he was playing? Jeff Lynne being less talented?
I think Mike Edwards left precisely because the group was getting more popular and attracting more fans. He became a Buddhist monk, you know. Mel Gale probably always would have come on the scene.
I'm finding it difficult to rewrite this history.
We all know what happened to the early line up and why they left, I'm just asking 'what if....'
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Post by StrangeMagic on Sept 22, 2020 4:54:31 GMT
According to Bev's book, there doesn't seem to be any alternate timeline where Wilf gets to stay in the group. As much as I admire his violin-playing ability, Bev described him as too arrogant to be tolerated. I think we always get Mik.
Mike De Albuquerque might have stayed in the group if they were more successful after the first three albums. He left to be with his new family, right? It may have been harder to leave a group that was making more money with a new family, but it depends on priorities.
I'm not sure what it would have taken to get Roy to stay. Better cello pick-ups? Someone else to play all the instruments he was playing? Jeff Lynne being less talented?
I think Mike Edwards left precisely because the group was getting more popular and attracting more fans. He became a Buddhist monk, you know. Mel Gale probably always would have come on the scene.
I'm finding it difficult to rewrite this history.
We all know what happened to the early line up and why they left, I'm just asking 'what if....' Okay. Roy Wood starts Wizzards as a side project and doesn't leave ELO, but because he's so busy writing songs and producing Wizzard albums, he hardly contributes anything to ELO II or On The Third Day. Jeff convinces him that a full orchestra is better for Face the Music, and Roy sticks to tambourine and shaker after that.
Wilf Gibson seeks psychotherapy for his narcissistic personality and becomes an empathic person. He is eventually prompted by Mike Edwards into joining the Rajneeshees. Because Mike now had someone to meditate with, he doesn't leave the group, although he did change his name to Pramada, and both he and Mike wore the characteristic red, maroon, and pink robes of their sect onstage when performing with ELO. Jeff didn't care that they were dressed so strangely because they were easy to get along with now, and he wrote "Strange Magic" for them.
Hugh doesn't have Mik to party with, and he's so bored and sober, he hardly ever picks his cello up off the floor. Mike stops playing the exploding cello, stating "it's too violent." He begins wearing a red balaclava and playing his cello in the traditional seated posture of a concert cellist. He sometimes recites verses of the Bhagavad Gita between songs.
Onstage, Roy paints his face in more and more outrageous designs, and Jeff is forced to follow suit or be completely overlooked. For ELO's last concert for Heartbeat '86 Jeff went onstage on six-foot stilts dressed like Bozo the clown. George Harrison attended the concert. He was overheard to say, "I'm never working with that wanker."
Reality was so much better than what might have been.
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Post by Timeblue on Sept 22, 2020 8:51:17 GMT
We all know what happened to the early line up and why they left, I'm just asking 'what if....' Okay. Roy Wood starts Wizzards as a side project and doesn't leave ELO, but because he's so busy writing songs and producing Wizzard albums, he hardly contributes anything to ELO II or On The Third Day. Jeff convinces him that a full orchestra is better for Face the Music, and Roy sticks to tambourine and shaker after that.
Wilf Gibson seeks psychotherapy for his narcissistic personality and becomes an empathic person. He is eventually prompted by Mike Edwards into joining the Rajneeshees. Because Mike now had someone to meditate with, he doesn't leave the group, although he did change his name to Pramada, and both he and Mike wore the characteristic red, maroon, and pink robes of their sect onstage when performing with ELO. Jeff didn't care that they were dressed so strangely because they were easy to get along with now, and he wrote "Strange Magic" for them.
Hugh doesn't have Mik to party with, and he's so bored and sober, he hardly ever picks his cello up off the floor. Mike stops playing the exploding cello, stating "it's too violent." He begins wearing a red balaclava and playing his cello in the traditional seated posture of a concert cellist. He sometimes recites verses of the Bhagavad Gita between songs.
Onstage, Roy paints his face in more and more outrageous designs, and Jeff is forced to follow suit or be completely overlooked. For ELO's last concert for Heartbeat '86 Jeff went onstage on six-foot stilts dressed like Bozo the clown. George Harrison attended the concert. He was overheard to say, "I'm never working with that wanker."
Reality was so much better than what might have been.
This sounds plausible!
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Post by queenofthehours on Sept 24, 2020 19:55:03 GMT
I’m not sure how I feel about this one. On the one hand, I’ve always wished that ELO kept up the strings sounds after OOTB. But on the other hand, I can’t say their beginning sound was something I’m totally sold on. It was a bit too prog for me, and although all the parts were musically complex, intriguing, talented, etc, they didn’t feel cohesive as a whole song. (I’m talking the first 2 albums here.) So as much as I would have wished for FOON to have strings, I don’t think I would actually change a thing about Discovery for instance, I enjoy the songs as they are and they don’t have strings. As for the lineup....I’m glad history unfolded as it did (at least some of it). I like the “magnificent seven” lineup best, and personally Roy’s prog influence on the band was a lot for me to handle. Sounded too much like the Move, I’m more of an Idle Race person. I agree.
I'd rather have pop ELO but prog ELO would have been interesting in a scholarly way.
Hugh fits well with both types of ELO, flamboyant pop and dramatic prog.
I like the Rubettes as well!
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Post by eloandy on Sept 25, 2020 19:01:55 GMT
It's an interesting debate. The very first time i heard the 'ELO' album i was horrified. (That would probably have been in about 1978). I don't feel like that about that album anymore. I literally never played the album again for at least 10 years. Now, i love the album (with a 'Marston Moor' caveat). Many a time i have pondered the 'what ifs'. As others have commented, ELO would probably have remained a 'prog rock' band and popped up every few years on TOTP with the occasional commercial gem rather than the main stream juggernaut that they became.
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