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Showing posts with label ELO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ELO. Show all posts
April 24, 2026
April 16, 2026
ELO ~ Out Of The Blue Tour (The Big Night Tour)
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Electric Light Orchestra - 1978
Net links:
YouTube links:
On Sunday, April 16, 1972, The Electric Light Orchestra played their first live show at the Greyhound Pub in Croydon, Surrey, England. The line-up was Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne, Bev Bevan, Bill Hunt on keyboards and French horn, Andy Craig, Hugh McDowell and Mike Edwards on cello, Wilfred Gibson on violin and cello and Richard Tandy on bass.
Their seventh studio album and most commercially successful, was the double album, Out of the Blue released on the 24th of October, 1977, in the United States and four days later in the UK on the 28th of October. It sold about 10 million copies worldwide by 2007. Jeff Lynne
wrote the entire album in three and a half weeks after a sudden burst
of creativity while hidden away in his rented chalet in the Swiss Alps. It took a further two months to record in Munich. It was one of the first pop albums to have an extensive use of the vocoder. The opening song on the album, Turn To Stone, is one of my favorite cuts on the album.
In 1978 the band set out on a nine-month, 92-date world tour, with an enormous set and a hugely expensive spaceship stage with fog machines and a laser display.
Out of the Blue stage set
photographer unknown
I attended the August 24 concert of that year, at the Oakland Arena during this tour; it was a truly amazing experience as shown in the images of the souvenir program I got that night (link below).
In the United States the concerts were billed as The Big Night and were their largest to date, with 62,000 people seeing them at Cleveland Stadium. The Big Night became the highest-grossing live concert tour in music history up to that point (1978).
Viewfinder links:
A New World Record reel to reel tape
Out Of The Blue Tour (The Big Night Tour) 1978 program
Net links:
May 21, 2024
March 1, 2021
May 1, 2014
Electric Light Orchestra ~ Out Of The Blue Tour (The Big Night Tour), 1978
photos by Styrous®
One of the great experiences of my life was
the concert by the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), which I attended on August
24, 1978. It was during their "Out of the Blue" tour; in the United States it was called, "The Big Night" tour.
I have the souvenir program from that concert, "The Big Night" tour for sale on eBay. I also have the reel-to-reel tape, A New World Record, for sale on eBay (link below), so, I thought I'd put some shots I got of the program as a remembrance of that concert. The photographs in the program were taken by Gary Register and Phillippe Megani.
I have also written an article here on the Viewfinder about the group's album, A New World Record (link below).
The Event
To quote , "ELO’s 1978 tour design was inspired by the jukebox-style flying saucer used on the cover of the band’s Out of the Blue album—vinyl, naturally. The tour featured an enormous mockup of a spaceship housing the lighting rig that started the show sitting on stage and raised—took off—to a position suspended above. What designer Stephen Bickford achieved in his concept was groundbreaking, with lighting, fog, and lasers rigged on the underside of the ship, emulating 1977’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, an intentional homage. The nine-month, 92-date world tour, became the highest-grossing live concert tour in history at that point, selling out an incredible eight consecutive dates at England’s Wembley Stadium."
Thanks for your great description, Marian. It was an incredible concert to witness and hear and one that could never be forgotten.
back cover with close up of date
ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA – The Big Night Tours Book; (Concert Tour Program Book) 11” x 14”; 32 pages including covers; CB-203-1;
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ELO (Electric Light Orchestra) ~ A New world Record
ELO program on eBay
A New World Record reel-to-reel tape on eBay
reel-to-reel tapes on eBay
Styrous® ~ Thursday, May 1, 2014
ELO program on eBay
A New World Record reel-to-reel tape on eBay
reel-to-reel tapes on eBay
Styrous® ~ Thursday, May 1, 2014
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