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Post by lasttrain929 on Jun 3, 2021 19:48:53 GMT
I would have jumped at the chance to have seen the classic lineup in 1979. It wouldn’t have bothered me if they had used pre recorded tapes. If I’m being honest I probably wouldn’t have noticed. Never got the chance to see ELO ever right up to their final tour for BOP, so for me to have seen them in 78/79 would have meant a lot. I was 14/15 in '78 '79 so probably just too young to venture out to see them (no-one else I knew then liked them to go with) but I too would have loved to see the line ups of the day back then.... I was way older than you 15/16.... There was no chance of me going over to knebworth either. I think my first concert was the Specials when I was 18, great night.
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Post by lawrev on Jun 5, 2021 23:54:34 GMT
Knebworth would have been ELO's crowning live show - never again would ELO be mentioned in the same sentence as LZ. They did have a successful year with Discovery, yes, but the videos they did in the absence of touring did nothing for the band. Dancing hot dogs? JL agreed to that?
Look at the Fusion 76 concert and compare that to dancing hot dogs. WOW. The Discovery album was #1 in the UK but not in the U.S., and from there the slow, long slide to July 1986 began.
Getting ready to do Knebworth would have required work from Jeff and the rest of the band, but maybe that work would have resulted in a stronger ELO (but that is in an alternate universe).
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Post by Timeblue on Jun 6, 2021 8:00:01 GMT
By 1978,ELO were possibly the best band in the world (certainly in the top 3) and they had to do something big in order to keep them there. Knebworth WAS that opportunity but they passed it by.
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Post by ShardEnder on Jun 6, 2021 10:19:38 GMT
From that very good point about the missed opportunity aspect, I've been inspired to write once again...
I'd been thinking of dedicating a few paragraphs of my book on the "what if?" scenario that is ELO playing Knebworth in '79, and there's definitely a case for this being a theoretical victory lap for the ELO of old (although the Xanadu soundtrack wasn't finished and released until a year later, recording for it began in October '78). However, my publisher and editor felt it was better to drop such content, so that went out along with a planned whole chapter on Hello My Old Friend. In a way, being able to share things like this here feels like an extension of the promotional process.
So, Knebworth. We know Jeff was given the original invitation and that he turned it down, allowing Led Zeppelin to reform for what turned out to be their last British show together with the original line-up. Coincidence it may be, but Knebworth has gone down in history for being the final place quite a few bands have played with their most iconic personnel, including Queen in '86, and it should be noted that The Beach Boys never played the UK again with Dennis Wilson after their 1980 appearance. As I've already suggested, ELO would have been the exception in some sense and perhaps not in others.
A lot of this guessing depends on what kind of set the band might have delivered. If Jeff was willing to put in the work, at best this one-off concert could have pointed to the (mostly) tape-free and stripped back direction of the Time Tour, though I reckon it's more likely this would have been closer to the Big Night Tour, only with the spaceship stage design replaced by something connected to the Discovery video album's themes. Maybe an Arabian setting or with the group performing from inside a crystal, similar to the Confusion promo clip?
Even without touring in '79, ELO was able to end the year with Out Of The Blue, Discovery, The ELO EP, Greatest Hits and several singles all still on the charts, serving as a near-perfect conclusion to the decade. Also, let's not forget that the two cellists weren't dismissed via letter until the end of 1980, so there's no reason why they couldn't have returned for Knebworth. Now I think about it, perhaps the biggest mystery of all is why Jeff and the others committed to the Discovery video album yet didn't shoot a single promo for the Xanadu project.
Anyway, that was a fun way to spend a few minutes out of my morning. ELO has always been the kind of band to spark both my passion and imagination, though we're not done yet. I hear the spaceship's engine being tested for one last trip All Over The World, and there's 50 years of accomplishments to be celebrated. Is a party in order, or something closer to a Festival?
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Post by Timeblue on Jun 6, 2021 11:07:36 GMT
You obviously know something big is going to happen regarding the 50th celebrations! I imagine that you have to keep a lid on certain points of it but none of us on here will say anything outside these walls, promise......
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Post by Timeblue on Jun 6, 2021 11:12:51 GMT
Speaking of 'what if's', Knebworth being a one off show would have been an ideal show to have had a full blown orchestra backing the band, now THAT would have been an ideal way to round off the 70s...
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Post by cleldo on Jun 6, 2021 17:25:04 GMT
Shardender Led Zeppelin's last shows were in fact the following year, 1980's a Tour Over Europe. Knebworth was the final UK show for this lineup. Also I was at the Queen show in 1986 and that was amazing.
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Post by lawrev on Jun 6, 2021 18:52:23 GMT
If the major failing of the spaceship (on the Big Night Tour) was the poor acoustics inside the shell, then an outdoor show like Knebworth would have provided no such problem. Sure, the music would be pared down (but with keyboards like on the Time Tour), but that would have enabled ELO to play its harder rock numbers......Fire on High, Night in the City, Roll Over Beethoven, even a Beatles track (like Daytripper), Evil Woman, Nightrider, Don't Bring Me Down, maybe a Move track (California Man), Showdown, Laredo Tornado, etc......
This is all What If? territory, but this is one question I would hope Jeff would discuss at length during a true interview.
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Post by ShardEnder on Jun 6, 2021 21:39:56 GMT
Shardender Led Zeppelin's last shows were in fact the following year, 1980's a Tour Over Europe. Knebworth was the final UK show for this lineup. Also I was at the Queen show in 1986 and that was amazing. Thanks for that! My post has now been corrected, and that was a total oversight on my part.
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