Kelly Groucutt RIP

rogerg · February 20, 2009, 10:38:47 PM

Kelly Groucutt dies.

a sad day for all ELO fans and music fans in general.

Trapezium Artist · February 20, 2009, 10:50:10 PM

Quote from: "rogerg"Kelly Groucutt dies.

a sad day for all ELO fans and music fans in general.

Sad indeed. Along with Going For The One, Out Of The Blue was never far from the turntable back in 1977, and now more than 30 years on (jeez), I'll have to say I've started listening to it again of late: it has stood the test of time remarkably well. ELO appear to be creeping back into acceptability again, something that's long overdue in my opinion, one which I know is shared by many here.

Not sure if Kelly was with them at the time, but one of the more bizarre musical experiences of my life was seeing ELO play in the decidedly middle-of-absolutely-bloody-nowhere Antofagasta in northern Chile in 1999, as witnessed in the poster below. I was there at a conference and when one of my colleagues said "ELO are playing at a club tonight", I was 1001% sure he must've meant a tribute band. But nope, ELO Part 2 it was, many of the originals included (yes, Kelly was there: I just checked on Wikipedia, and he's on the poster too).

So I tip my hat to you, sir; farewell.

Trapezium Artist · February 20, 2009, 11:02:19 PM

p.s. Much to my amazement, there's actually a very long diary entry by Parthenon Huxley, who sang with ELO Part 2, about that very concert in Antofagasta 10 years ago next month:

//http://www.bluerailroad.com/columns/parthenon_0407_01.html

He even mentions the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope, which is precisely the reason we were there: it was for a symposium celebrating the commissioning of the observatory.

Weird. 10 years on.

Trapezium Artist · February 23, 2009, 06:14:55 PM

Amazed no-one else responded to this thread, Roger; I would have sworn there'd be loads of closet (or not-so-closet these days) ELO fans round these parts.

Now I've gone and stuck it back up at the top of the active topics list; let's see what happens.

rogerg · February 23, 2009, 06:18:51 PM

Quote from: "Trapezium Artist"Amazed no-one else responded to this thread, Roger; I would have sworn there'd be loads of closet (or not-so-closet these days) ELO fans round these parts.

Now I've gone and stuck it back up at the top of the active topics list; let's see what happens.

yeah, I've been a bit surprised, too.

LivingForever · February 23, 2009, 06:32:56 PM

Sad news. I wonder what this means for the never-ending ELO Part II / 'The Orchestra' tour?

DannySoisSage · February 23, 2009, 06:34:05 PM

Sorry, responded to this elsewhere. I was really sad

Another legend of prog, gone! There could be one hell of a jam upstairs right now...

johninblack · February 23, 2009, 07:29:29 PM

Quote from: "rogerg"
Quote from: "Trapezium Artist"Amazed no-one else responded to this thread, Roger; I would have sworn there'd be loads of closet (or not-so-closet these days) ELO fans round these parts.

Now I've gone and stuck it back up at the top of the active topics list; let's see what happens.

yeah, I've been a bit surprised, too.

Not in the closet at all. We like ELO in these parts. Another sad loss to music, there seem to have been rather a few too many in recent weeks. :cry:

Jem · February 23, 2009, 09:55:58 PM

Me and TBE have been talking about him a lot lately as Andy is connected with the Groucutt clan via Kidderminster College. This is terrible and I'm sure completely unexpected news and I send truly heartfelt condolences to Kelly's family. Terrible news and a great loss to all that's good about music.

TBE · February 24, 2009, 11:33:07 AM

Yes, I'm friends with his son who is a great engineer and works here at the college. I'm really sad for him and hope he is ok.

Really Really sad

Trapezium Artist · February 24, 2009, 11:46:52 AM

Quote from: "TBE"Yes, I'm friends with his son who is a great engineer and works here at the college. I'm really sad for him and hope he is ok.

Really Really sad

As far as is appropriate, Andy, please pass convey my sympathies to Kelly's son and family, along, I'm sure, with those of many other Frosties*.

While ELO have long been out of fashion, to those of us of a certain age and/or a certain musical temperament, they provide a timeless reminder both of our youths and of how adventurous music can be. For me, A New World Record and Out of the Blue will always be there.

Twang · February 24, 2009, 05:00:50 PM

Oh my, I didn't know! I'm gutted now. I don't care if ELO is acceptible these days I have always loved the band, & always will. That's really brought me down.

Oh talking of Don't bring me down.

(After all these years I'm still trying to find out who the hell is Bruce?)

DannySoisSage · February 25, 2009, 03:21:01 PM

How true it is I don't know but I think it was on the last DVD where Jeff was introducing the song and said that its actually 'gruce' which doesn't mean anything, it was just a sound he liked that fitted in. As it went out and people got to know the song everyone sang 'bruce' and it just caught on.