Bev Bevan and
Louis Clark interview on
UK TV show Pebble Mill.
ELO Part II were a band formed by
Electric Light Orchestra drummer and founder member Bev Bevan.
The band also included former
ELO bassist
Kelly Groucutt, and violinist
Mik Kaminski for most of its career, along with conductor Louis Clark who worked with ELO in its later years. After Bevan left the band in late
1999, he sold his half of the rights to the Electric Light Orchestra name back to
Jeff Lynne and the band changed their name to
The Orchestra.
In
1988 drummer Bev Bevan approached Jeff Lynne wanting to record another ELO
album. Lynne declined to participate, so Bevan signalled that he intended to continue the band without him. Lynne, however, objected over use of the ELO name. The final agreement reached between the two resulted in Bevan forming a new band in
1989 called
Electric Light Orchestra Part Two.
Original ELO co-founder
Roy Wood was approached about joining the band, but declined. Bevan recruited longtime ELO string conductor and co-arranger Louis Clark into his new band, along with
Eric Troyer (keyboards and vocals),
Peter Haycock (guitar and vocals) and Neil Lockwood (guitar and vocals).
ELO
Part Two released a self-titled album in
1990 which featured former ELO violinist Mik Kaminski on one track. The album was intended to harken back to ELO's classic sound of the mid-to-late
1970s. The first tour featured the band performing live with The
Moscow Symphony Orchestra, (
MSO), and was well received in the UK. Approximately two-thirds of the songs performed were ELO hits. The concert in ELO's home town of
Birmingham was captured on video and on the live album with the long-winded title Performing
ELO's Greatest Hits Live Featuring The Moscow Symphony Orchestra. Kaminski, former ELO cellist
Hugh McDowell, and former ELO bassist Kelly Groucutt were part of the live band, with Groucutt sharing lead and backing vocals with Troyer, Haycock and Lockwood. Kaminski and Groucutt were initially appearing as guest artists from another ELO offshoot band they had formed called OrKestra, but eventually ended their own band and joined ELO Part II full-time by
1993. McDowell's tenure with the band was short.
Plans to tour the
USA with the MSO were cancelled as costs became prohibitive.
The band continued to tour
Germany and the UK in
1992 with Louis Clark playing keyboards to duplicate the strings of the absent orchestra. In 1993 Haycock and Lockwood left the band, and were replaced by guitarist/vocalist
Phil Bates, who had been in the band
Trickster who were one of the opening acts for ELO's 1978 world tour. A world tour was undertaken by ELO Part II in 1993, including dates in the USA and
Eastern Europe.
Now a six-piece band with a slightly altered name,
Electric Light Orchestra Part II recorded a second studio album,
Moment of Truth, which was released in
1994. The album was not a commercial success. The band continued its tour schedule over the following years, sometimes augmenting the core band with a backing orchestra. On these occasions they took only a small number of string players on the road and added local musicians to the orchestra at each venue to cut down costs. Another live album with orchestral backing was recorded in
Sydney, Australia in
1995 and was released the following year in Germany as a double album
One Night, and the year after that in the USA as a single album One Night -
Live in Australia. The band sold the master tapes of this album and it has since been remixed, remastered, and re-released.
Bates remained with the band until
January 1999 and was replaced by
Parthenon Huxley (guitar, vocals). In 1999, Bates studied for a
History degree with the
University of Wales, and on graduation briefly taught
Welsh history to undergraduates. By
2007 he had returned to the band (now renamed The Orchestra) taking over from
Huxley.
In
November 1999 Bevan played his last show with the band at the
Sands Hotel in
Atlantic City and issued a press release in early
2000 indicating that ELO Part II had split. The remaining members, however, recruited drummer
Gordon Townsend and decided to continue as The Orchestra who continue to tour up to the present day. With the death of Kelly Groucutt in
February 2009,
Glen Burtnik, of
Styx and Beatlemania, joined the group. They toured the US in 2009 billed as "The Orchestra featuring former members of
The Electric Light Orchestra and ELO Part II."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELO_Part_II
- published: 08 Jun 2013
- views: 13482