ELO appeared on both shows in regularity, in fact, they hold
the record as the band appearing the most times on The Midnight Special and Kirchner stated in one of his introductions regarding ELO; “ELO now resides at the pinnacle of rock
stardom, still growing, still musically innovative, and still one of a kind.”
I always loved music, it was a means of escape from the difficulties I was going through, this love was developing during the early to late 1970's and no band had as much influence on me as The Electric Light Orchestra.
I always loved music, it was a means of escape from the difficulties I was going through, this love was developing during the early to late 1970's and no band had as much influence on me as The Electric Light Orchestra.
The primary driving force for The Electric Light Orchestra
was the brilliant Jeff Lynne. He has gone on in recent years to produce many
of the greats in music from George Harrison, Joe Walsh, Brian Wilson, Ringo Star, to Tom Petty. His own participation
in the super group The Traveling Wilbury's alongside George Harrison, Bob
Dylan, Roy Orbison, and Tom Petty has also left a mark on the history of Rock N
Roll.
Early in my youth, as is the case for many, I developed a
love for a "favorite" band that lasts a lifetime. Unfortunately,
from my youth, until my adulthood, I never got to see the band in concert. It
seemed as if for years the band had broken up and with many disagreements as to
who owned the band after an apparent split. Was it Jeff Lynne or was it drummer
Bev Bevan? It seemed as if I would never get to see them live, despite working
within the industry to some extent for some time as well as seeing a ton of
bands in my experiences. I had heard rumors that Jeff Lynne would never tour ELO
again and that his dissatisfaction with some of the American audience who complained
during one tour. They apparently quit playing the song some say introduced
them to the world, Roll Over Beethoven. Their performance is considered by many as the greatest
performance of the song of any artist in history. The likelihood of a
reformation of The Electric Light Orchestra with Jeff Lynne, the indisputable
voice of ELO was around zero to never. Then something happened.
On September 14 of 2014 Jeff Lynne along with backing band, Take
That, the Gary Barlow Backing Band and the BBC Concert Orchestra made a less than
one day surprise announcement that Jeff Lynne would be appearing at Hyde Park to perform as Jeff Lynne's ELO. What happened next is musical history, over
50,000 concert tickets sold-out in less than 15 minutes. The 50,000 plus fans
and millions more later watching the concert marveled at the performance at the outdoor rain soaked event. It was during
this performance that Lynne expressed how much fun it was and that audiences
could expect an upcoming ELO tour. My dreams of seeing the
band rose from the dead.
Unfortunately, the first tour consisted of only a few dates,
a few in Los Angeles at the Hollywood Bowl and a few back east, none of which
were a possibility for me at the time, and all in relatively smaller
venues. Another heartbreak, especially
when considering this could likely be it for the band.
I have to regress a bit, I love ELO so much that while my
daughter lived in Ohio, not far from Cleveland, I had refused to accept or visit the Rock N Roll Hall of
Fame in Cleveland due to the omissions of inductees into the
Hall of Fame. The greatest tragedy as far as I was concerned was the omission
of The Electric Light Orchestra and as a result, I refused to attend. On April 7 of 2017, that changed as ELO and Jeff Lynne was
inducted. A year later my daughter bought my wife and
I tickets to visit the Hall of Fame for my birthday. My wife and I attended in July of 2018. What we thought would be a joyous moment ended up being
tragic.
While attending the Hall of Fame I was having
trouble with my back, it was uncomfortable getting around and despite my wife
having some stomach pain,she actually got around better than I. I was disappointed
in a number of things, not only was there no display we could find of
Chuck Berry, all there was for ELO who had recently been inducted was the 2017
induction plaque with the bands name on it. This was
a massive understatement, there were many bands not in the Hall of Fame with
displays but nothing for some of the greats who were in the Hall of Fame. It just
didn't make sense. Then as I thought things couldn't get worse, they did.
It was a strange week upon our return to Kansas. My wife continued to complain of her
stomach hurting and we didn't know what to do. We got home on a Friday and the
band I play in had a Saturday night gig. It was unusual that my wife didn't
want to go so she stayed at home, still complaining about her stomach but said
she would be fine. That night I was shocked at our performance to be inducted
into the International Blues Hall of Fame as a great musician from the state of
Kansas. It
was an honor I still don't think I am deserving but an honor none the less.
I came home, woke up my bride to show her the plaque and certificate. I could
hardly sleep. As the weekend progressed my wife continued to complain
about her stomach pain. That Monday we
took her to the doctor to have some tests done. As the tests progressed and we went
back on Friday of that week to check the results, she was sent to the emergency
room from the doctors office and she would spend 4 of the next 5 weeks in the
hospital.
It didn't take long before my wife, Mary Jane, was diagnosed
with Pancreatic Cancer. I could go into a lot of detail about the disease and our
experiences but initially after a failed surgery, (the Whipple) that had to be
abandoned or she would have died on the operating table, she was given
approximately 6 months to live and with treatment, the most she could expect
would be one year. Our life was turned upside down as my bride and partner
for some 40+ years was facing the possibility, no, the likelihood of death within
the next year. I was devastated.
Over the course of the next year I became a caregiver,
giving up any form of income outside of those contributing to help as they
could. The almost weekly chemotherapy bills would have us being billed almost
$37,000 per month and this didn't account for many of the other medical bills
coming in. I would lose virtually all income but my wife needed me, and I needed her. It was during this time that a couple of things transpired. There is a great organization in Wichita called Victory in the Valley. Typically during my wife's chemo treatments which range from 3 hours to as long as 7 hours they have a waiting room lounge for families at the Kansas Cancer Treatment Center. It is great as I can connect with other families and relax. It was while there that two things happened. One of the ladies I met, her name Angel, told me about the Dream Foundation which grants wishes to families who are facing terminal cancer and that Jeff Lynne announced that he was going to be doing a more extensive tour with The Electric Light Orchestra in North America. I then put two and two together and my dreams was resurrected. Well, actually, it was our dreams as Mary Jane had also developed a love for The Electric Light Orchestra just as I had. She even told me the song Telephone Line was our song because we had made out to it and other ELO songs so many times. I won't mention my dumb response to that statement unless you ask, many have heard it.
We then got our hopes up and our oncologist helped draft a letter and wrote
a letter himself for or application to get this dream date, hopefully to
Ohio to see ELO. We were excited, only to
be let down after we were told by The Dream Foundation that with over 25,000
requests a year, ours would not be accepted. Mary Jane still
had a couple of dreams left, one to visit Lake Tahoe with friends we had made
plans with over a year prior and another to visit our family reunion for likely
the last time for her in East Tennessee. Dear friends, Doug and Shelley Prater took care of virtually all of the costs to
Lake Tahoe including our flight. We didn't know how Mary Jane would do and I
decided to do a fund raiser at Facebook to help with the trip home to East
Tennessee, remember, I had no income and we were largely living on the
donations and little money that Mary Jane brought in, of which almost every
penny goes to bills related to medical and living expenses. 
It was during this time that I thought; "why not see if our Facebook
friends and families could help with maybe seeing one of the show that Jeff
Lynne is doing in the United
States?" We looked at the options, and
ultimately decided on Nashville Tennessee. We had friends that lived in
Nashville, (unfortunately of which we only got to see one of them) and it was
earlier in the month and at the time we made the plans, we knew that the end of
July, (the time of our family reunion) would be beyond the time frame the
doctors had originally given Mary Jane to live. So we decided on Nashville and to our
great pleasure, friends and family, even some people we didn't know, came
through to give us the finances needed to make the Nashville trip possible, and
it looks as of this writing that we will also have the finances needed to take
the trip to East Tennessee for our Family reunion during the last week of July,
first week of August.
It was with great surprise that Mary Jane and I took what we
considered our life long dream date to see Jeff Lynne's Electric Light
Orchestra in Nashville.
There were things others had done for us, one individual got in touch with
Dhani Harrison, (the opening act for the show and George Harrison's son) about
letting Jeff Lynne know of our trip and there were other things, dear friend
Mark Hollingsworth, a legend in the world of Christian Music and well known in
his work with bands period would meet us prior to the concert and we would have
a meal together and catch up. I also had a high school friend, Jim Schulman who
is the Vice Mayor of Nashville that worked out and got a parking pass for us
that literally had us parking in the garage, attached to Bridgestone Arena,
that had us literally less than 25 yards from the entrance into the arena and
surprisingly, thanks to the wonder drug, Imodium AD Mary Jane looked like she
may actually make it to the concert and make it through the concert, and thank
God, she did.
The show was phenomenal, many have commented on some of the photos
and how happy she looked and the smile on her face. We truly had a great time.
Did I mention we have this thing over the last number of years, that no matter
where we are at, what we are doing, that when we hear an ELO song we have
to give each other a kiss? Well let me
tell you, on Wednesday, July 3, 2019 at the Bridgestone Arena, we did a lot of
kissing. We also met new friends, the
couple sitting next to us, was a blended marriage, the husband from Denmark, the
wife originally from the Philadelphia area, and we came to find out, we are distant
cousins, both having the same 10th Great Grandfather. I met a new friend, an individual
who came to see us at the concert who had floor tickets and saw a post I had on the Bridgestone event Facegook page, Allen Farley who was so gracious and kind to us, tagging us
in great videos and photos of the band. 
Then there was the concert, truth is, it didn't disappoint,
it had by far, the best sound of any concert, especially in a larger sold out
arena of any concert I have ever attended. For the bands refusing to take their
mix seriously, or making excuses about getting a quality sound, they should check out this concert and the
comments from people in the know. The
light show was on par with the best I have ever seen, right up there with Pink
Floyd's The Wall Tour and because of the technology used for backdrops and
video, it may have been better. I would have loved to have heard my late dear friend
of Heavy Light Productions Sam Smith's thoughts on the lighting and video backdrop. It was in a
word phenomenal, but there was something far more special about this show that most
will never imagine. Sharing it with my wife.Thanks to dear friends and family, I was able to go on the dream date with my bride that I never thought possible to see the band that not only I, but we, have loved for our 40+ years of being together and never thought would be possible. It is why I say now, not only is God Good, God is Awesome! We realize, that ultimately for all of the microcosms of the universe to come together like they did for this fabulous event in our lives, that should have never happened, but did, only God almighty could make it happen. Of course along the way, many people had to listen, either willingly or not, to the call of God for them to be involved to also make it happen. For all of that, we are grateful and say again, in all sincerity, Thank You!
The following is the finale in Nashville with the song that started it all, Roll Over Beethoven. I also have to give special thanks to Allen Farley who took the video and the opening photograph.
#dancewithjesus, #thevirtualpew, #jefflynneselo, #elo #electriclightorchestra #pancreaticcancer #dhaniharrison
Currently Mary Jane continues her battle with Pancreatic Cancer, to find out more about our
difficulties and struggles, visit out Go Fund Me Page at this following
link or click on any of the above photographs:
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