On March 18 — over 50 years since the original formation of Electric Light Orchestra — Jeff Lynne’s ELO took to Instagram to announce “The Over and Out” tour, their final tour after a decade of performing under this title.
The tour will hit 27 cities, beginning Aug. 24 in Palm Desert, California. The tour also ends in California, concluding in Inglewood on Oct. 25.
Although the band has only released North American tour dates thus far, fans predict Jeff Lynne’s ELO will make their way to Europe in lieu of the canceled “From Out of Nowhere” tour, originally planned for 2020.
Presale for the North America shows began on March 20. A limited number of tickets and plenty of resale tickets are still available for the TD Garden show on Sep. 23.
The original members of Electric Light Orchestra were guitarists Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood, drummer Bevan and pianist Richard Tandy. Wood left the band only two years after its formation in 1972, pushing Jeff Lynne to the front as lead vocalist, guitarist, songwriter and producer. His hard work finally earned his name a place in the band’s titled in 2014, as well as inductions into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2023 and 2017 respectively.
During their 16-year run, ELO released 15 studio albums and a variety of live and compilation albums, selling over 50 million albums worldwide. Some of their top hits include “Mr. Blue Sky,” “Evil Woman,” “Livin’ Thing” and “Don’t Bring Me Down.”
The band began to crumble when Lynne shifted his attention towards production work for other iconic musicians such as Tom Petty, George Harrison and Bob Dylan. In 1986, the band split, and in 1988, Lynne joined supergroup Traveling Wilburys alongside Petty, Dylan, Lynne and Roy Orbison.
Bevan formed “ELO Part II,” forever straining the relationship between him and Lynne, hence his exclusion from all future revival efforts.
Lynne also released solo music, with his 1990 album “Armchair Theatre.” Despite mixed reviews from acclaimed magazines such as Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly, the album charted in the top 100 in many countries including the U.K. and U.S., and did especially well in Norway, peaking at number 7.
Electric Light Orchestra attempted its first revival in 2001, where Lynne and Tandy came back together, accompanied by Harrison and Ringo Starr, to release the studio album “Zoom.” A tour to accompany the album was also announced, but faced cancellation due to a lack of fan interest.
Lynne saw more success in 2014 after rebranding the group as “Jeff Lynne’s ELO,” and holding a reunion show at Hyde Park in London, England. Lynne told Rolling Stone he believed it was “the best show [he]’d ever been involved with up until that point,” inspiring the band to continue touring between 2015 and 2019.
The “Over and Out” tour is likely to have similar excitement. However, there is one lingering question: will these shows also carry a bittersweet undertone as they mark the end of Electric Light Orchestra?
Naomi Zwelling can be reached at [email protected].
