How’s this for a Friday night date – dinner and a show featuring The Orchestra at Epcot. It’s a possibility on one night only – February 25.
THE ORCHESTRA ~ featuring former members of ELO is going to play three shows at America Gardens Theatre that evening, at 5:15, 6:30 and 7:45 p.m. You can queue up for a seat with regular Epcot admission.
The Orchestra brings with it a heritage of symphonic rock hit-making dating to the early 1970s. Don’t know about you, but for me the original Electric Light Orchestra was one of my favorite “plays” back in the day. Certainly there were some others – like ELO, from across the pond – that convinced me all rock was not created equal; that some rock was genuinely music to my ears. (I’d mention some other performers, but I’m betting you might actually like to do the name-dropping.)
As for The Orchestra, all six players were part of ELO Part II, which was put together by former Electric Light Orchestra drummer Bev Bevan in the late 1980s. Gordon Townsend, who’s coming to Epcot, inherited the sticks when Bev disbanded ELO Part II and The Orchestra was formed in 2000.
Two of the players coming to Disney – Mik Kaminski (the famous “Blue Violin”) and keyboardist Louis Clark – were part of the scene back in the 1970s during the time of the original Electric Light Orchestra.
They also had a role in my personal favorite ELO project, “Out of the Blue.”
Here’s hoping February 25 brings blue skies and “Mr. Blue Sky” to Epcot!
Comments
That sounds great.
i wish i could go!!! ELO was always one of my favorites….
count on us we were going to be down there that week.The kids will love it
Just found out about this tonight. Great! I’ll be up there as long as I can take the day off. Should be no problem. I was going to try to make it up for ESPN weekend, but this is more important to me. ELO is one of my favorite bands of all time. The night will be great. Can’t wait.
Sounds great to me, and I plan on being there.
I know this is a long shot, but does anyone have any idea how crowded this is likely to be? I go to a lot of the Eat to the Beat and Flower Power concert series, and for most of them I’ve been able to walk up just a few minutes before showtime and have no trouble getting a seat.
But for Rick Springfield last year, we got on a long line at around 6:45 that we thought was for the 7:00 show. Turned out that people were lining up for the 8:15 show already. And this was a weeknight.
So I’m just trying to figure out whether ELO is like Starship or like Rick Springfield. IE, whether I should show up early and plan to wait on line, or if I can wait til maybe 15 minutes before showtime and walk right in.
I have always loved ELO, they were my favorite back in the day and I still love to listen to them. They were unlike any other. I really, really, really wish I could be there for this!
that’s awesome, but without Jeff Lynne, its different 🙁
We were there for the 5:15 show. They were phenomenal! They engaged the audience and we sang along! Wow–talk about time travel!! Even though we were in the back got a pretty good picture of the “Blue Violin” and drummer.
Thanks for the great unexpected treat. Nothing like live music!!
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