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Remastered
in 1998 from the "true clean mix" stereo master tape
(not used for the original Warner Bros. vinyl LP) and released
only in the UK and Europe. 8-page color booklet has in-depth sleeve
notes, interview with Jeff Lynne and Bev Bevan,
rare photos plus full original artwork from the original 1974
release. Hear ELO performing a mix of original material
and covers, surrounded by the excited screams of an American audience
discovering "the English guys with
the big fiddles"!
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Rare
even when first issued on vinyl in 1974 and again in remixed
form in 1985, deleted and expensive to buy on the collectors
market, The Night The Light Went On
(In Long Beach) was remastered fully during 1998,
but only for release in the UK and Europe.
Of
all the original ELO albums produced during the bands’
existence, this has been the odd one out. Recorded at California's
Long Beach Auditorium on May 12th 1974, ELO's
one and only official live album in a 16 year career was
regarded purely as a sampler. It saw limited release in
August of that year to countries which had not experienced
the band live - Australia, France, Netherlands,
New Zealand, South Africa and Germany.
Prematurely assigned a US catalogue number by United Artists
but not released, Great Britain and America (ELO's two strongest
markets) had to obtain copies on import. Even rarer was
the single Daytripper (Warner
Bros. WB 16 456) (pictured right) lifted in edited form
and available in a picture sleeve in Germany and the Netherlands.
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For
many years, Warner’s, Jet, and Epic ignored requests to give
the album a full release, on the grounds the band hated the recording.
Thankfully, this record company misinterpretation was corrected
when we decided to revisit the tapes to investigate why two versions
of the same concert were released and if the show merited remastering
.
Deep
in the Sony archives, we found two sets of stereo master tapes,
one each for the Warner Bros. and Epic vinyl releases. To our
ears and aside from the countless (and poorly recorded) live bootlegs,
the Epic tape was exceptional and warranted a proper CD release.
The remastered CD really is the closest a listener can get to
an ELO live concert, showing just how exciting the experimental
band were during 1974.
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Jeff
Lynne explained at the time:
"We've
got a good little show set up for America. We tend to do
mad things on-stage, especially Mike Edwards our cello player
who is really a bit of a maniac, he's doing things like
playing his cello with an orange! We can do most things
on stage, we've got so much scope to improvise 'cos the
cello can start up and do his own thing over a certain passage,
there's a lot of spontaneous things from us on-stage."
Jeff Lynne did not favour live albums, due to the difficulty
of capturing his band's intricate studio sound. Whilst the
band saw live and session performances for the BBC as vital
promotion, plans to release On The
Third Day as a double album, with one half a live
recording from London's Rainbow Theatre and New
York's Carnegie Hall, were shelved. The Rainbow gig
was filmed for limited cinema release though. Certainly,
the initial vinyl release (Warner Bros. WB 56 058) of the
Long Beach show supported Jeff's view. A muddy sound and
edited versions of 10538 Overture,
Mik's Solo, In The Hall Of
The Mountain King and Great
Balls Of Fire did nothing to recommend it.
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Back
to our investigation. Bizarrely, Warner Bros. had used the
incorrect tape to produce the album originally - a tape that
was very clearly marked, "Rough Mix - Do Not Use"!
The correct 2-track stereo mix, produced and approved by Jeff
Lynne, was filed away in the offices of Jet Records with the
original 24-track tapes of the complete concert. During 1985,
Epic requested the original multitrack tapes from Jet Records
to enable repairs to be made to damaged sections of the Warner
Bros. tape. |
When the tapes arrived from Jet Records, they were packaged in
large cardboard boxes. On opening, the existence of the correct
master was discovered amongst the various reels and used to produce
the Epic edition in November 1985. The long deleted album was
released on vinyl and cassette (Epic Records EPC 32700) in the
UK, Hong Kong, Japan and the Netherlands. Again, a limited release
but this time the way the band intended it to appear, even down
to the correct versions of Showdown
and Roll Over Beethoven. With typical
record company efficiency, the tapes were (thankfully!) never
returned to Jet Records but filed in Epic’s own UK archives
and it was to these that we returned for remastering the new compact
disc version.
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The
Night The Light Went On (In Long Beach)
shows a young band on the verge of worldwide super-stardom
but still in search of their "true" ELO sound.
A band near their live peak, performing a mix of Jeff Lynne's
original material and covers of his favourite artists, surrounded
by the excited screams of an American audience discovering
"the English guys with the
big fiddles"!
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Rob
Caiger
First Light Series producer & ELO archivist
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