Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It might have been shock, it was more than likely reverential, but the early applause for some of rather ear catching songs played by Jeff Lynne’s E.L.O. was certainly building up to the cascade, the utter crescendo of wall to wall sound that would eventually come pouring down upon the Echo Arena, would be one that would have justified completely the decision by the much loved man from Birmingham to bring back his version of E.L.O. to the arenas and venues of the country.

There are many to whom E.L.O. is of mythic status, belonging perhaps in part to a generation’s soft whispers of lament and regret of never having watched the band at their absolute height, of seeing the pictures come over the television sets last summer and seeing the sun gleam down upon a man who gave George Harrison and Roy Orbison their smiles back and to whom arguably is the finest composer of music to come out of the Midlands; it is in that mythic status, that fabled legend to which Tolkien himself would have cast somewhere into the world of hobbits, monsters and heroes, to which the conqueror arose.

Half the audience may have wondered what the fuss was about, those being dragged along by knowledgeable and well-meaning parents, adults to whom a single heart beat Time has stood still, waiting, tapping its foot with eager anticipation to a Birmingham beat that owed much to the Liverpool shores; a debt gratefully acknowledged by the likes of Paul McCartney who praised Jeff Lynne. If half the audience wondered then by the time the night at the Echo Arena finished, then surely Jeff Lynne’s name would have been talked about during the drive home and the video channels overloaded as dawn yawned over Merseryside.

The first tour by Jeff Lynne’s E.L.O. in so long that the term operator had become almost obsolete, that large productions had become to be seen as opulence and yet as the music rang out, as songs from the latest album and tracks so well loved they held special memories played out, to play the first night in a city so well loved by Mr. Lynne was only to be seen as right; the conqueror had made the finest of musical decisions.

Spellbound in some cases, the open mouths of innocence could be seen around the arena and as songs such as Ain’t It A Drag, Don’t Bring Me Down, Tightrope, Evil Woman, When I Was A Boy, Secret Messages, Turn To Stone, Sweet Talkin’ Woman, Telephone Line and the rousing Mr. Blue Sky all played their magical part, all left their own particular charm on what was the most enchanting of April evenings.

Time may have waited patiently for Jeff Lynne to return to the stage as part of a tour, with the reception of applause that greeted the night’s end, all surely would have left the Echo Arena understanding just how big an occasion they had witnessed, just how worthwhile the wait was.

Ian D. Hall