When
Jeff Lynne abruptly purchased
Bev Bevan's share of the
ELO brand, name and rights in November 1999, it opened the door for the
ELO maestro to embark on another
electric light fantastic journey with a band not only underpinned by his acclaimed songs, production and musicianship but now his 100% ownership. It also put fans on notice of the potential recommencement of new
Electric Light Orchestra material whilst also signalling the eventual transition of
ELO Part II into
The Orchestra. Within a year
"Flashback" - a 3CD career anthology - had been released to rave reviews with hints of a new album circulating in fanzines and a world largely devoid of Facebook, Twitter and other social media.
Thinking that
Jeff's
ELO career was over, many fans had been expecting a second solo album to follow up the modest chart success of
"Armchair Theatre" in 1990 but his various production projects during the nineties with the likes of
Tom Petty,
Julianna Raye, the late
Roy Orbison,
Paul McCartney and
(of course) The Beatles likely meant that it remained incomplete and shelved. So when news of a new
ELO album - the first since
"Balance Of Power" in 1986 - surfaced in the early part of 2001, the
ELO fan base got excited.
Who would it feature? What would it sound like?
Yours Truly KJS still remembers when
Sir Terry Wogan aired
"Alright" as announced it as
"the new ELO single" on his then BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show in May 2001. New album
"Zoom" followed in June. My initial reaction upon first play was that
"Zoom" sounded more like a
Jeff Lynne solo effort that an
ELO record. In fact, I still recall renaming it
"Armchair Theatre Part II".
"Zoom" sported the familiar
ELO logo and the artwork was appealing and impressive. The familiarity of Lynne compositions and arrangements gave it an
ELO feel in places but one could not escape the fact that this was
Jeff plus a few famous friends, even though
Richard Tandy appeared on one track. Essentially, that is what most reviewers said at the time too. It had the
name of
ELO but the
sound of
Jeff Lynne - an observation, not a criticism.
Perhaps the strangest thing about the release of
"Zoom" was the lack of promotion by both artist, management and record company - almost as if it had been presumed that it would pick up commercially where
"Balance Of Power" left off. The casual record buying public in 2001 were very much different than that in 1986 and some
ELO fans had long since moved on. I remember struggling to find a copy in my local HMV store. There was no attention grabbing display, like those that were found for the debut
Electric Light Orchestra Part Two album in 1991 or the frequent TV adverts that elevated the
"Very Best of ELO" compilation put out by Dino in 1994 to
#4 on the
Official UK Album Chart, their highest chart placing of the nineties. The tide was out at that time for
ELO with a number of greatest hits packages permeated by the aforementioned
"Armchair Theatre" (#24) and
"Electric Light Orchestra Part Two" (#34). It was therefore ironic that
"Zoom" peaked at the same chart position as
ELO Part II's debut LP ten years earlier.
