Photo: Press

The classic pop juggernaut that is Jeff Lynne’s ELO have announced the release of Wembley Or Bust – a live CD/DVD document of their triumphant Wembley Stadium gig back in June. And to get give you a little taster, they’ve also shared the video for ‘Turn To Stone’.

Released on November 17, the new live album is an absolute embarrassment of riches as hit follows hit follows hit and so on. Just check this lot out: ‘Mr Blue Sky’, ‘Livin’ Thing’ and ‘Evil Woman’ are all present and correct, as is ‘Handle With Care’ which Jeff Lynne recorded with The Traveling Wilburys as well as early classics such as the utterly glorious ‘10538 Overture’ (a track so glorious that Paul Weller was moved to write ‘The Changing Man’).

But yes… the live video for ‘Turn To Stone’. Originally taken from the ELO’s 1977 double album, Out Of The Blue, ‘Turn To Stone’ is not only the album’s opening track, it was also the first single from the LP, fact fans. And here it is in all its splendour and transplanted to the 21st century without losing any of the magic and sparkle that made it such a joy 40 years ago. Which explains why some 60,000 people are totally and utterly losing their shit to this track.

You can tell that Jeff Lynne and his current incarnation of ELO are having the time of their lives. Little wonder that Lynne enthuses of the gig thus: “It’s the best time I ever had in music… It is beyond anything that I could’ve imagined.”

He’s not wrong.