Kelly Groucutt 1945-2009
I was sad to hear of the death of Kelly Groucutt, who had a fatal heart attack on February 19. If I have to explain to you who he was, you obviously weren't a member of the Electric Light Orchestra Appreciation Society 1978-79.
He played bass for ELO between 1974 and 1983 ie. the classic line-up; he also sang lead on a couple of songs, including the exquisite Sweet Is The Night. I loved ELO - they were my first "favourite band", after an early crush on glam rock, and I am not ashamed to say that it was my dad who got me into them. (He also got me into Monty Python and Tony Hancock - nice strike rate.) I played New World Record and Out Of The Blue until I had learned every word and examined every detail of the aribrushed sleeve images. Perhaps more importantly, I taught myself how to draw each of the band's eight members off by heart. Kelly Groucutt was as important to me as any other hairy member of ELO. I knew that they were a sum of their beardy parts. Rather poetically, Kelly was completely bald in later life as you'll see from his website, where, rather poignantly, he'd started to pen his life story but only got to the end of Chapter Two. I can't claim to have followed his solo career, or his work with various ELO reincarnations, such as ELO II and The Orchestra, but his passing is significant to me. He was only 63, and looked good on it (I discover he leaves behind four children and two grandchildren). I shall now go and play Out Of The Blue and listen more carefully to the basslines - and to his vocals on Sweet Is The Night.
Sweet, sweet is the nightHere, as a fitting tribute, is my drawing of Kelly Groucutt from my diary in 1978:
Now you are near
Dark, dark were the days
They disappear
posted by Andrew Collins @ 7:05 PM
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26 Comments:
Sad news indeed. It may have been somewhat unfashionable for a teenager in the 70's to admit to liking ELO but the sheer huge sound combined with fantastic catchy pop songs I found fantastic. Had a few of their albums hidden amongst my punk and ska records. Could never tell my mates though at the time.
RIP Kelly.
Gosh. How sad.I loved ELO a lot - and like you, had that membership certificate - then went through years of trying to be cool and denying it. Now, of course, I think they're wonderful and never fail to make me happy.
Always loved ELO - they were the first band I really liked - my parents had 'Greatest Hits' and Turn To Stone was my absolute favourite.
Sad news.
Have put a link to this on the Word Magazine website, hope that's OK Andrew.
Richard
Is there actually a better album, pound-for-pound, than Out Of The Blue? Every track an absolute gem. Even Birmingham Blues.
'Let's 'ave 'yer!'
"Out of the Blue" was my first proper album and like others have said, I also eventually hid it from my peering peer-group. In classic teenage f--kwittery I took the, now rare, blue vinyl version back to the shop because it "crackled a little" and received in replacement an in-no-way rare black vinyl copy. Perhaps an early vestige of my preference for substance over presentation.
Sad news - Mr Blue Sky alone will be a long-lived legacy.
A nice tribute Andrew.
I'm impressed with the pic. The 7 or 8 year old me had enough trouble drawing the ELO logo, I never dreamed of attempting the band members. Sad news though, "Discovery" was the first music product I ever asked for as a present. My dad even convinced me that he had a tattoo artist friend who would be willing to tattoo the ELO logo on an 8yr old. I was so upset when he admitted it was a "joke" that he had to buy me a sew-on ELO patch instead.
Now I think about it, I'm glad I didn't have the tattoo.
The first thing I always say when people ask if there are any upsides to getting older is "I don't have to pretend I don't like ELO anymore". Genius from start to finish.
Did Roy Wood form ELO then almost immediately leave the band or is my memory failing me at a greater rate than first thought.
A shame, that. He was on Absolute Classic Rock last year (I think it was last year) talking about the olden days of the 'LO. It was a very interesting interview.
64's no age, is it?
"Every track an absolute gem. Even Birmingham Blues."
What's wrong with Birmingham Blues? Probably one of my favourites on the album.
But I agree, every track on Out of the Blue is great. Especially the breakdown at the end of Summer and Lightning.
I might be getting confused but didn't Alan Partidge call ELO the band the beatles could have been?
It was Out of the Blue and Discovery for me.
One of the half decent days during my sentence at The Esteemed School of Art was when Pat Gavin came in to talk about the video for Wild West Hero. Of course that was back in the day when every FX element was a separate pass under the rostrum camera.
Mid-80s I was laughed out of a 'cool' record shop (actually a bootleg stall in a market) for asking about ELO bootlegs. Being a Beatles admirer and lover of pop generally it pissed me off no end that they couldn't see beyond the end of their noses.
Musical snobbery is something I've never really understood.
ELO came from fine roots (Idle Race) and have influenced a great number of artists (Air, Grandaddy, Divine Comedy for starters).
Wasn't that Kelly's vocals on 'Diary Of Horace Wimp' ?
[pedant mode]
I might be getting confused but didn't Alan Partidge call ELO the band the beatles could have been?
no that was Wings
the ELO reference was a concert he went to
[/pedant mode]
Sad to hear the news. I grew up listening to my parents' ELO albums. When I was older I used to organise trips to see ELO Part Two for my friends (in such places as Grimsby, Skegness and Nottingham).
And I'm sure I saw Mik Kaminski on a bus in Leeds a few years ago.
I too was truly gutted to hear the sad news break last week. Out Of The Blue ranks as one of my favourite records, cool or not. I never got a chance to see the classic line up perform back in the 70s/80s, but was delighted to be able to watch Orchestra perform last year in Edinburgh and had tickets to see them again there in a few months. Deep down, I'd hoped that Jeff and the rest of the boys would put their differences behind them and do a proper reunion tour, as most of the big bands seem to be doing, but, alas, that can't happen now.
Very sad indeed.
ELO - the ultimate guilty pleasure!
Andrew
I seem to remember you mentioning in your blog that your in-house band at 6-music played a set including at least one ELO number at your Christmas party a year or two ago (with you in the Bev Bevan hot seat!!). I don't suppose you could let us hear that, as a tribute to kelly, could you?
Cheers
Michael 50/50 - Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne formed ELO after the break up of The Move - he was only on the first album - which was the third album I bought - I still have it with a little number three sticker on.
He left and went on to Wizzard
p.s thanks to Andrew for mentioning Tinger and Tucker (sp)- I don't know anyone else who remembers them - did they live in a magic tree with Auntie Jean or am I imagining it as my wife claims
Pete
Very sad to hear that!
Huge ELO fan - my first proper gig (I don't count Johnny Mathis) was ELO at Wembley in the spaceship.
Time to listen to Out Of The Blue.
Tony Gardner
Doug, I'm not sure I have access to the bootleg of that first 6 Music Band gig (when we were called Totalshambles), but I'll have a look.
Don't worry if you can't find it Andrew. I just re-read the original blog entry, from way back in December 2006, no less. I'd forgotten that you'd said that the one and only Tom Robinson played bass on the ELO track with you. Wow!
I was listening to Out Of The Blue and Discovery a lot yesterday. Jeff Lynne certainly knew how to crank out great pop songs. I'm sure I read somewhere once that he used to treat every song as though it would be released as a single, so none got flung in as obvious 'padding'.
I agree with gunnerboy's comment about not having to pretend you don't like ELO. It's a shame that peer pressure stops us from admitting what music we really do like. Having said that, I've openly been a Genesis fanatic for the last 25 years, which hasn't made for a smooth ride!! :-)
I'm an unashamed ELOphile, which also led me to appreciate its predecessors, The Move and the Idle Race too.
Kelly joined the band for Face The Music (1975) and was the main vocalist for the excellent song Poker and stayed with the band until during the recording of Secret Messages (1983) when he had a massive falling out with Jeff Lynne over royalties and litigation followed.
I have his solo album Kelly (1982) which had ELO band members Bev Bevan (drums) and Richard Tandy (keyboards) and ex-member Mik Kaminski (violin) playing on it plus Louis "Hooked on Classics" Clark who conducted and co-arranged orchestral pieces for ELO's albums. Some decent songs on it.
Nice biog, MerseyMal. I was able to pay belated verbal tribute to Kelly on the Word podcast, which we recorded this morning. Look out for it.
Thanks Andrew. Although I love the majority of ELO's albums, the definitive line-up to me included Kelly (as well as Mik, Hugh & Melvyn). It seemed to me that from Discovery until he left that he was sidelined into providing solely bass and backing vocals.
I downloaded the Word podcast to my phone this morning and listened to it on my way to work.
I liked your tribute to Kelly at the end and in fact I enjoyed the entire podcast. Guess it's another one that I'll be regularly downloading from now!
god bless kelly, i too was introduced to the ELO by my dad. and i still have the odd listen now and then.
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