Kelly Groucutt - Bass, Acoustic Guitar, Vocals. Louis Clark - Orchestral Keyboards, Flute, Bass and Orchestral arranger. Mik Kaminski - Violin. Eric Troyer - Keyboard, Guitar, Vocals. Parthenon Huxley - Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Vocals. Gordon Townsend - Drums, Backing Vocals
Orchestra have a pedigree that stretches back over many years. It's roots go back to the Electric Light Orchestra, (ELO), of the 1970's, but it is in 1991 that our story starts with the emergence of the Electric Light Orchestra Part II.
Formed by Bev Bevan and featuring former ELO members Mik Kaminski, Kelly Groucutt, Louis Clark and Hugh McDowell plus American session singer/musician Eric Troyer, Climax Blues Band guitarist/vocalist Pete Haycock and session singer/musician Neil Lockwood, the Electric Light Orchestra Part II made their stage debut on 26th May 1991 at Wembley Arena, London, along with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, an enormous sound and lighting system, a fantastic laser show and a road crew that equaled the size of the orchestra. This also coincided with their self titled, debut CD album. It was an impressive beginning, but the cost of taking a 85 piece orchestra on the road took its toll and the show, crew, etc was scaled down to something that, at least, would be more manageable...and show a profit! Two singles were released from that first album. Honest Men and Thousand Eyes, both penned by Eric Troyer. A live CD and video were released of this inaugural tour.
1991 saw the departure of Hugh McDowell after the first tour, much to the disappointment of the fans and by early 1992 both Neil Lockwood and Pete Haycock had left too. It was time to start recruiting. They replaced both Pete Haycock and Neil Lockwood with one man - Phil Bates.
This line-up of Bevan, Clark, Kaminski, Groucutt, Troyer and Bates became very popular with fans and in 1994 they recorded and released what was probably their best album, "Moment Of Truth", which saw two singles pulled from it, "Power Of A Million Lights" and "Breaking Down The Walls". It wasn't long before they started playing with full orchestra's again, but this time, with lessons learnt from the 1991 tour, they used orchestra's local to the area they were playing in. This led to orchestral gigs in Sydney, Australia in front of an audience of 18,000 people, the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York and an open air event at Tilgate Park, Crawley in the UK with the world famous Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra.
At this time ELO Part II was probably one of the hardest working bands on the road, having done something in the region of 500 shows since 1991, and in 1997 they brought out a live double CD album, One Night, which was recorded in Australia, and featured three brand new tracks written by the band.
Time away from home, and constant touring, finally took it's toll and in 1998, Phil Bates decided to call it a day and it was time for the band to start recruiting again. The result of which saw the introduction of Parthenon Huxley and the ELO Part II band wagon was back on the road.
Parthenon quickly established himself in the band and it wasn't long before he started writing the result of which was "Over London Skies". They toured throughout the USA and Europe playing with many orchestra's. In the UK in 1999 they played two orchestral shows during their tour, the first was at the impressive Bridgewater Hall in Manchester with the Hallé Orchestra. This was recorded and broadcast by BBC Radio 2. The tour ended at The Royal Albert Hall in London with The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra.
In 2000 a bombshell was dropped when Bev Bevan announced he would be leaving the band after their next tour in the USA. The band still had bookings to complete so a new drummer had to be found and fast. Parth came to the rescue and brought in his friend Gordon Townsend so that the remaining dates could be completed. It didn't take the band long to realise what a great drummer Gordon is and he was asked to join the band full time. It was around this time the band were known as ELO2 for a very brief period.
Bev's departure caused a problem over the ownership of the names ELO and ELO Part II, but after a legal settlement the band re-emerged as Orchestra - different name, but still the same great band. After a rest of six months, they went back on the road with a US tour in June 2001 and are now looking forward to continue the legacy created over the many years as ELO Part II with a brand new album "No Rewind" which should hopefully see release later this year.
