Despite predictions from the music press that the band would fold without Wood, who had been the driving force behind the creation of ELO, Lynne stepped up to lead the band, with Bev Bevan remaining on drums, joined by Gibson, Richard Tandy ( now on the Moog synthesiser ), Mike de Albuquerque on bass and vocals and Mike Edwards and Colin Walker on cellos.

ELO had become successful in the United States at this point and the group was a star attraction on the stadium and arena circuit, as well as regularly appearing on The Midnight Special ( 1973, 1975, 1976 & 1977 ) more than any other band in that show's history with four appearances.

ELO had reached the peak of their stardom, selling millions of albums and singles, and even inspiring a parody / tribute song on the Randy Newman album Born Again, titled " The Story of a Rock and Roll Band ".

The album also shed the customary ELO logo that had appeared on every album since 1976.

Upon completion of the album Lynne reformed the band with completely new members including his then-girlfriend Rosie Vela ( who had released her own album " Zazu ", in 1986 ) and announced that ELO would tour again.

* 2004, a team of computers ( Hydra, Deep Junior and Fritz ), wins 8. 5 – 3. 5 against a rather strong human team formed by Veselin Topalov, Ruslan Ponomariov and Sergey Karjakin, who had an average ELO rating of 2681.

It includes an extra 21 minutes of music, considerably lengthening what had been the shortest ELO album.

It was while playing with Barefoot in Birmingham that he was spotted by ELO's Jeff Lynne ; and after Lynne, Bev Bevan and Richard Tandy had watched him play, he was invited to join ELO, to replace Mike de Albuquerque, who had recently left the band.

Upon joining, he was immediately asked to adopt a stage name because ELO had already had several members named Michael, Mike or Mik ; he chose Kelly as being a school nickname.

By this time ELO had become one of the most popular bands in the world, and Jet reissued ELO's back catalogue albums and some new singles in many different colours of vinyl.

In 1985 Tandy formed the Tandy Morgan Band featuring Dave Morgan and Martin Smith, both of whom had worked with ELO in live concerts.

Ponomariov had an ELO rating of 2710 at the time of the match.

The Xanadu soundtrack and all its singles by both ELO and Newton-John were released on MCA Records in the USA and Canada, and on Jet Records elsewhere in the world.

As well as ELO, he has collaborated musically with Jeff Lynne on many projects, among them songs for the Electric Dreams soundtrack, Lynne's solo album Armchair Theatre and Lynne produced Dave Edmunds " Information ".

He struck gold when two groups formed by ex-Move members, ELO and Wizzard ( 1972 ), started having international hits such as " See My Baby Jive " and " Angel Fingers " ( 1973 ) and ELO with " 10538 Overture " ( 1972 ) and " Roll Over Beethoven " ( 1973 ).

In 2012 Tandy teamed up again with Jeff Lynne to record another ELO studio project, a re-recorded album of the bands biggest hits plus a new previously unheard song.

The band released their second album, ELO 2 in 1973, which produced their first US chart single, a hugely elaborate version of the Chuck Berry classic " Roll Over Beethoven ".

ELO also made their first appearance on American Bandstand.

It was on the American tour that ELO first debuted their use of coloured lasers.

ELO Part II released their debut album Electric Light Orchestra Part Two in 1990.

The disc pays homage to classic rock songs of their childhood, originally recorded by Blondie, The Kinks, Sweet, ELO, and Badfinger among others.

Discovery is notable in that it was the first ELO album not to feature their resident string trio of Mik Kaminski, Hugh McDowell and Melvyn Gale, although they did make an appearance on the Discovery music videos that were created as a substitute for a live concert tour.

ELO played some live concerts in the UK and Europe ( their last for fifteen years ), and in one UK show George Harrison performed as guest guitarist.

ELO then set off on their Eldorado tour.

This album featured fellow ELO members Bev Bevan, Richard Tandy, Mik Kaminski and their orchestral co-arranger and conductor Louis Clark.

He replaced original ELO violinist Steve Woolam in 1972 and performed in their first live concert.

Later, in 1972, Tandy was the bass player in the first live line-up of ELO, then switching to keyboards when Jeff Lynne decided that their live sound needed improvement.

Olé ELO is the second compilation album by the Electric Light Orchestra covering their early years.

" Roll Over Beethoven " was the second single released by the band, and became their second consecutive top ten hit in the UK, as well as a hit in the United States when an edited version of the track was taken from ELO 2.

ELO were formed to accommodate Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne's desire to create modern rock and pop songs with classical overtones.

The album spawned hit singles from both Newton-John (" Magic ," No. 1 in the United States, and " Suddenly " with Cliff Richard ) and ELO (" I'm Alive ", which went gold, " All Over the World " and " Don't Walk Away ").

The Electric Light Orchestra Story, Bev Bevan's memoirs from his early days and throughout his career with The Move and ELO, were also published in 1980.

Lynne, with the 7-piece line-up that supported Time ( with the exception of bassist Groucutt being replaced by Martin Smith ), played a small number of live ELO performances in 1986, including shows in England and Germany along with US appearances on American Bandstand, Solid Gold, then at Disneyland that summer.

ELO effectively disbanded after that final show in Stuttgart in 1986, but there was no announcement made of it for the next two years, during which George Harrison's Lynne-produced album Cloud Nine and the pair's follow-up ( with Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan and Tom Petty as Traveling Wilburys ) Traveling Wilburys Vol.

Bevan ( under an agreement with Lynne who co-owned the ELO name with him ) continued on in 1989 as ELO Part II, initially with no other former ELO members except Clark.

Lynne's comeback with ELO began in 2000 with the release of a retrospective box set, Flashback, containing three CDs of remastered tracks and a handful of out-takes and unfinished works, most notably a new version of ELO's only UK number one hit " Xanadu ".

* Louis Clark, musician and conductor with the Orchestra ( former members of ELO and ELO Part II )

* " All Over the World " ( ELO ) on the film's music track in the " franchised glitz dealer " store, with Danny running through various dance steps, and some rollerskating, as he tries on different outfits.

* " I'm Alive " ( ELO ) on the film's music track, as Muse wall paintings come to life.

* " Drum Dreams " ( ELO ) ( non-soundtrack LP track released as B-side of the " I'm Alive " and " All Over The World " singles ) beginning of Xanadu opening night roller disco sequence, with Danny leading the group on skates ; segué into ...

In the 1980 movie Xanadu, she appears as one of the nine immortal Muses during the opening song I'm Alive by ELO as well as the final title number of Xanadu.