(Credits: Far Out / Jeff Lynne)
Mon 20 October 2025 9:43, UK
Thousands of rock bands have earned their stripes on the road. Even though it might be fun to experiment in the studio now and again, the main draw of a rock band has been about delivering songs to the people directly, engaging with the crowd in a unique way than just buying the record. Although Jeff Lynne could make a sweeping epic whenever Electric Light Orchestra played live, he seemed to tire of life on the road very quickly.
Coming from projects like The Move, Lynne was already working on the basics of what ELO would go on to do. Rather than arranging the traditional string lines for the band, Lynne was practically writing guitar leads that happened to be played by classical instruments, taking the building blocks of rock and roll and refining them through a sophisticated lens.
Sophisitication became the name of the game for Lynne. His style wasn’t necessarily suited to the blunderbuss braggadaccio of rock and roll in 1970s. Instead, he would become a somewhat reserved rockstar, preferring to remain largely where he excelled: the studio. But, Lynne knew he needed to tour to keep the business flowing. Performing shows was all a part of being in a band.
Once the group started gaining traction from songs like ‘Can’t Get It Out of My Head’, though, Lynne started to see the stage as more of a confined space than an open playing field. Considering the massive amount of overdubs that went into every song, Lynne would become dissatisfied with how the band sounded whenever they took to the stage, never quite equalling what he heard in his head.
When working on Out of The Blue, Lynne had already begun on one of the most lavish productions he would ever create. Sprawling across a double album of material, the song ‘Mr Blue Sky’ would become one of the band’s signature tunes, featuring various musical parts like handbells, vocoder, and a lavish choir singing on the back half of the song.
(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Although the song would remain a milestone achievement for Lynne, he described how difficult it was to translate the same thing to the audience. When asked why he quit touring, Lynne said he started noticing the separation between the studio and live when playing this song, saying, “The Beatles quit because they couldn’t do ‘Paperback Writer’. That’s why they couldn’t play it onstage. And here I was, 30-piece orchestras on record, pianos, guitars, and choirs, trying to do it with seven people. I didn’t like the sound at all. The live set was not much fun for me.”
While Lynne would be complimentary of the massive setup that went into the shows, he thought that the massive productions were far too great to be done with just seven people, explaining, “We were all doing our best. We were trying to get it as good as we could get it, but it was difficult. Especially in those 10,000 seater places where you couldn’t really hear yourself”.
Even though ELO would run for a few more years, Lynne would spend the rest of his time in the studio, following in the footsteps of his idols, The Beatles, by making music from the comfort of the recording console. Once he made the studio his home, though, the massive talent began coming to him.
As soon as the late 1980s got underway, Lynne would end up working behind the board for some of the biggest acts in the world, reviving the career of Roy Orbison, forming the supergroup the Travelling Wilburys, and producing for his bandmates Tom Petty and George Harrison.
For most people, being a rock star is synonymous with being in the spotlight. It feels strange to separate the two. But artists like Lynne, are just that: artists. They don’t necessarily seek out fame and fortune but a route to express themselves properly. The touring life may not be for everyone, but Lynne has still been able to become a legend of rock from behind the glass.
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