That’s an interesting myth about how ELO were lip-syncing, and it all has to do with the huge spaceship they had to play underneath. What the audience heard was all live. But because the ship caused the onstage sound to echo horribly, they piped in the rhythm tracks (from the album) to the monitors so Jeff and the orchestra could all be on the same page. A fan who attended the tour in two different cities timed the performances, which were of course exactly the same length.Then the media just assumed that they were lip-syncing, and spun it that way. (“Some have said…”?)The famous “Out of the Blue at Wembley” concert film bears this out well; the original release was the audio from the monitors (what the band heard), a later remastering used audio of what the audience heard, which was much clearer.The fans at the recent concert in Hyde Park for BBC 2 didn’t seem to miss the actual space ship.
That’s an interesting myth about how ELO were lip-syncing, and it all has to do with the huge spaceship they had to play underneath. What the audience heard was all live. But because the ship caused the onstage sound to echo horribly, they piped in the rhythm tracks (from the album) to the monitors so Jeff and the orchestra could all be on the same page. A fan who attended the tour in two different cities timed the performances, which were of course exactly the same length.Then the media just assumed that they were lip-syncing, and spun it that way. (“Some have said…”?)The famous “Out of the Blue at Wembley” concert film bears this out well; the original release was the audio from the monitors (what the band heard), a later remastering used audio of what the audience heard, which was much clearer.The fans at the recent concert in Hyde Park for BBC 2 didn’t seem to miss the actual space ship.