Welcome to The ELO Network
  • Home
  • About
  • News & Gossip 2013-25
    • News (Jan - Dec 2012)
    • News (Jan - Dec 2011)
    • News (Jan - Dec 2010)
    • News (Jan - Dec 2009)
    • News (June - Dec 2008)
    • News (July - Aug 2006)
    • News (Jan - June 2006)
    • News (July - Dec 2005)
    • News (Jan - June 2005)
    • News (July - Dec 2004)
    • News (Jan - June 2004)
    • News (Jan - June 2000)
    • News (July - Dec 2003)
    • News (Jan - June 2003)
    • News (July - Dec 2002)
    • News (Jan - June 2002)
    • News (July - Dec 2001)
    • News (Jan - June 2001)
    • News (July - Dec 2000)
    • News (July - Dec 1999)
    • News (Jan - June 1999)
    • News (July - Dec 1998)
    • News (Feb - June 1998)
  • Concert Photos
    • Concert Photos 2025
    • Concert Photos 2024
    • Concert Photos 2023
    • Concert Photos 2022
    • Concert Photos 2021
    • Concert Photos 2019
    • Concert Photos 2018
    • Concert Photos 2017
    • Concert Photos 2016
    • Concert Photos 2015
    • Radio 2 Live : Hyde Park 2014
    • Jeff Lynne Walk Of Stars 2014
    • Concert Photos 2014
    • Concert Photos 2013
    • Concert Photos 2012
    • Concert Photos 2011
    • Concert Photos 2010
    • Concert Photos 2009
    • Concert Photos 2008
    • Concert Photos 2005
    • Concert Photos 2004
    • Concert Photos 2003
    • Concert Photos 2002
    • Concert Photos 2001
    • Concert Photos 2000
    • Concert Photos 1999
    • Concert Photos 1998
    • Concert Photos 1994
    • Concert Photos 1993
    • Concert Photos 1981
  • Gigs
  • Concert Reviews
    • BBBV - The Cavern 13/03/2010
    • BBBV - Huddersfield 15/11/2009
    • Orchestra - Glasgow 03/11/2009
    • Orchestra - Newcastle 02/11/2009
    • Orchestra - Liverpool 30/10/2009
    • Orchestra - Buxton 12/10/2009
    • Orchestra - Crewe 16/05/2009
    • Kelly G Tribute - Robin 2 11/05/2009
    • Orchestra - Edinburgh 09/05/2009
    • BBBV - Huddersfield 01/03/2009
    • BBBV - The Cavern 15/11/2008
    • Orchestra - Blackpool 06/10/2008
    • Phil Bates - Tamworth 30/06/2006
    • Orchestra - Edinburgh 24/06/2006
    • Orchestra - York 21/06/2006
    • Orchestra - Manchester 21/05/2006
    • Orchestra - Guatemala 09/12/2005
    • Bev Bevans Move - Glasgow 15/10/2005
    • Phil Bates Band - Germany Sept 2003
    • Magic - Glasgow 22/02/2003
    • Magic - Redditch 15/02/2003
    • George Harrison Tribute - RAH 29/11/2002
    • Orchestra - Kansas 08/06/2002 (2)
    • Orchestra - Kansas 08/06/2002 (1)
    • Orchestra - New York 28/05/2002
    • Phil Bates - Tamworth 24/03/2002
    • Roy Wood's Army - Carlisle 30/11/2001 (2)
    • Roy Wood's Army - Carlisle 30/11/2001 (1)
    • Orchestra - October 2001 UK Tour
    • Orchestra - Nottingham 20/10/2001
    • Orchestra - Manchester 14/10/2001
    • Orchestra - Blue Ash 03/07/2001
    • ELO - CBS, Los Angeles 23 & 24/05/2001
    • ELO - VH1 'Storytellers' 20/04/2001
    • Orchestra - Copenhagen 27/10/2000
    • Orchestra - New York 02/09/2000
    • Orchestra - Irvine 24/08/2000
    • Orchestra - Madrid 21/07/2000
    • Orchestra - Costa Mesa 14/07/2000
    • Orchestra - 'Maddies', PA 06/07/2000
    • ELO Part 2 - Arlington Heights 03/07/2000 (2)
    • ELO Part 2 - Arlington Heights 03/07/2000 (1)
    • ELO Part 2 - Charleston 01/06/2000
    • ELO Part 2 - Tucson 21/05/2000
    • ELO Part 2 - Richardson 22/04/2000
    • ELO Part 2 - Toledo 20/04/2000
    • ELO Part 2 - Corpus Christi 15/01/2000
    • ELO Part 2 - Atlantic City 15/11/1999
    • ELO Part 2 - Kansas City 04/09/1999
    • ELO Part 2 - RAH, London 28/051999
    • ELO Part 2 - Carlisle 15/05/1999
    • ELO Part 2 - Blackpool 19/10/1997
  • Album Reviews
    • ELO - The Light Went On Again
    • ELO - Eldorado, Live in Japan 1978
    • ELO - Twilight, Live in Germany 1982
    • ELO - Hold On Tight, Live in London 1982
    • ELO Part 2 - Live At The Whisky 1991
    • ELO Part 2 - The Light Shines In Buenos Aires
    • ELO Part 2 - Live in Manchester 1999
    • ELO Part 2 - Time After Time
    • ELO - Live 1974, 1976 & 1978 (Record Collector)
    • ELO - Afterglow (Record Collector 1994)
    • ELO - Zoom (BBC TV Teletext)
    • ELO - Zoom (Channel 4 Teletext)
    • P Hux - Purgatory Falls
    • Various Artists - Into The Light
    • The Chads - 1964 to 1999
    • Paul McNulty - Into The Red (Mojo Magazine)
  • Video Section
  • Audio Section
  • Website Links
  • ELO Books
  • The Fan Zone
  • Tour Programmes
  • Collectors Items
  • Newspaper & Magazine Articles
    • ELO 'Look In' Article 1978
    • History of The Chads
  • 'Blast From The Past'
  • ULS Fanzine
  • The Orchestra Newsletter
  • Mr Blue Sky
    • Brumbeat Article - NME Magazine 1974
    • Roy Wood's letter - 'Melody Maker' Magazine 1974
    • Jeff Lynne Interview
    • Face The Music Album Review
    • Jeff Lynne Interview - 'Melody Maker' Magazine 1975
    • Jeff Lynne & Bev Bevan Interview 1975
    • Jeff Lynne Interview - 'Daily Express' 1976
    • ELO Article - 'Melody Maker' Magazine 1977
    • Bev Bevan - 'The ELO Story' Review
    • Jeff Lynne Interview - EQ Magazine 1991
    • Lou Clark Interview - 2nd April 1996
    • Radio 1 30th Anniversary Article 1997
    • Phil Bates - 'Sound On Sound' Magazine, May 1997
    • Phil Bates - 'Agony & Ecstasy' Review
    • Roy Wood Interview - BBC Radio 2, 5th December 1997
    • The Don Arden Story
    • Dave Morgan - 'Long Way Home' Review
    • Dave Morgan Interview - 4th March 1999
    • Richard Tandy Interview - April 1999
    • Dave Morgan - 'Reel Two' Info & Review
    • ELO Tour Dates 1972
    • ELO Tour Dates 1973
    • ELO Tour Dates 1974
    • ELO Tour Dates 1975
    • ELO Tour Dates 1976
    • ELO Tour Dates 1977
    • ELO Tour Dates 1978
    • ELO Tour Dates 1981
    • ELO Tour Dates 1982
    • ELO Tour Dates 1986
  • Contact / Disclaimer
BACK TO THE FUTURE by JEFF LYNNE

I was always led to believe that you had to record in a proper studio and that you had to have all this state-of-the-art equipment. This was true especially toward the end of ELO, during the mid-eighties, when I became deeply involved in high technology. I started using all these machines and all these tracks and all this digital stuff and then I suddenly thought, “I hate this now. I don’t even enjoy making records anymore. I think I’ll go back to the old way I used to do it in the first place.” This meant analog, lots of acoustic instruments, odd little rooms to record in, and a lot less than 48 tracks.

Actually this was when it first dawned on me that you could create a great recording outside of a proper recording studio. George Harrison asked me to help out with his album, “Cloud Nine”. I went to George’s house and his home studio didn’t have any kind of modern stuff. At least it wasn’t pandering to any kind of new gadget. It was just an old - a really old - desk, a great one, and a 24 - track tape recorder and that was all. There were a couple of outboard things, but not much to be impressed with. Just some great musicians, great sounds, and a great recording environment,

We made this anolog record and it was a big success. And I realised, “Wow! You really don’t need all that stuff.” From then on I’ve gone on to do a few successful records using the same principles, just analog and 24 - track recording. And I really enjoy myself now. I mean, I can just do it. And it’s done. You don’t have to hire 43 technicians just to tell you what’s gone wrong with the equipment. But you do need a good engineer, and for me that’s Richard Dodd, who I first worked with when recording “Cloud Nine”.

BACK ON CLOUD NINE

After seeing the kind of studio George set up at home, I set up one of my own, in my 15th Century English house. It’s a real analog environment. In fact, it’s where I did my first solo record, “Armchair Theatre”, for Reprise/Warner Bros. I literally did almost do it from my armchair. I put in a desk, a Raindirk, which is not a famous one, but the guy who builds them makes them all by hand. It’s really warm on the bass end. A lot of desks, I think, are just too hard. The Raindirk also has a nice EQ on it, which you don’t have to use much anyway. For recording, I always use a Otari 24 - track, which is very robust and it seems to always work for me. It doesn’t go bang in the night. I got to a point where I was sick of linking up two machines. The one sound I got to hate more than any other was that “rrrhhmm, woooooow!” as the two 24 - tracks got into sync. And I decided, “If I can’t get it all on 24 tracks, when the Beatles used to get it on four...”

Of course, I do sometimes think, “Ah, Shit! If I only had another six tracks I could really have some fun on this.” But I’ve been trying to discipline myself. In the past I tended to go, “Well, it needs piano,” So I’d have eight pianos. Of course, I retain my options. It’s still an inventive process. I may still want eight pianos on it. There aren’t any rules. But the way I work now has evolved through trying all these various systems and working things out. Now I’m thinking, “Simplicity is the best thing after all.” The fewer gadgets and boxes and shit in the way, the better. To tell the truth, I like a microphone and a tape recorder best of all.

BANG (&O) OUT OF LIFE

That’s how I got into producing in the first place. It was in 1968 and I was with an English band called the Idle Race. We went in to make an album and there were just these two engineers producing on a part-time basis (Gerald and Eddie, who worked in Advision) in addition to their regular jobs. It took us a long period of time to make that record. Every Sunday for a month of Sundays. I was only a young lad then, but I knew I had what it took to produce.

At home I had a Bang & Olufsen tape recorder that did sound-on-sound, so you could start with a rhythm guitar, adding the piano by bouncing from the left to the right as you went along. Then you would add another instrument by bouncing from right to left and put the harmonies on, etcetera. I could get up to 20 tracks on it doing it this way. It sounded like shit; it was mostly hiss at the end of the day. But you could hear all these parts going at once, and I was fascinated by it, and it taught me how to produce. I realised that the first thing I had put on tape sort of disappeared, so I always had to put it back on again. The original rhythm guitar would be gone entirely, having gone down with each generation. So I’d put it back on and then that would sound like shit. So I’d wind up doing everything over again - on the same bit of tape, which you could practically see through by the time you were finished.

When the Idle Race was asked to do another album, I said, “Well, I’ll produce it. I know how to do that.” In any event, I did it. And got away with it. Nobody said, “Well, it should have had a proper producer.” The second Idle Race record was my first official credit. That B&O was really small, too, about a foot wide. But I kept it in this great big box, with a couple of lights on it so it looked really impressive.

ELO - pement

My next career move was joining The Move in 1970, after which we formed ELO. Producing ELO, even though we were using only 16-track back then, I used to go into the studio every day and go, “I can’t believe my luck! Nobody’s gonna kick us out. It’s really a proper studio and I can actually do it!” It was just an amazing thing for me. I was overwhelmed, really.

Later on, I began working in the following way: I’d record the 30 to 40 piece orchestra, the choir of 20 or 30, do all the backing, lay it down first, having everything finished - but no tune and no words. That’s when I’d go home and write the entire song in one go. In fact, nobody ever knew what it was going to be until I tagged it on at the very last. Frankly, I didn’t know what it was either - sometimes. I had a rough idea, of course, but I operated on the theory that all that great backing would inspire me to come up with a really great tune and lyric. That’s living on the edge, I suppose. I don’t do it like that anymore.

When I tell people like Tom Petty now that that’s what I used to do, he’s totally amazed. “How’d you do it?” he’d say. Because producing Tom is a whole different procedure. When I write something with him I’ll say, “We’ve got it just playing on the guitar, with no fancy stuff. In fact, we’re pretty much confident from there that it’s going to work on record. If the melody and words stand up on guitar, then it’s a proper tune. Tom’ll call me up in the middle of the night and say, “Oh! I’ve got that verse now!” And he has got it. He really works tremendously hard.

For Tom’s latest album, “Into The Great Wide Open” (MCA), we recorded in Studio C at Rumbo Recorders. It’s as close to recording at home as you can get in a commercial facility. It’s this tiny little studio, with an Otari 24-track and this tiny little Trident desk. We even used the kitchen there to record the drums,

I like commercial studios and many do a great job of making you feel comfortable and at home. But that’s just it - they’re trying to recreate the home studio experience. Unfortunately, they can’t recreate that suprise when you turn the corner in your house and go, “What a nice airy cupboard sound.” These days, I don’t miss anything from the studio when I’m recording at home. In fact, I think the home studio gives you more scope because you’ve got places like the cupboard to put mics where you’d never have them in most studios. You get at home different, funny-shaped rooms where you say, “Wow!” There’s just an endless supply of different ambience.

ROOM TO WORK IN

Of course, you can change homes as much as you change studios. I’m planning to move to France, and I’ll be moving my English home studio with me. It’s very modular, you see, just cables and plugs. I can pull all the plugs and take it anywhere, really.

I haven’t picked out the house in France yet. But when I go looking I’ll walk in, clap my hands a few times and say, “Yeah ....

Article taken from EQ magazine Oct/Nov 1991.