Skip to main content

Review of The ELO Experience at Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton

Last year I attended The ELO on courtesy reviewing tickets for an official job for The Public Reviews website. Due to this I had to make a somewhat professional account of the show. I attended the show again yesterday as a paying guest and I write for my own personal blog, so expect frivolous.


In my "official" review last year (here) I made no mention of the fact that I was a huge ELO fan long before I found myself seeing the simply superb ELO Experience. This year I was once again joined by my companion of last year as well as a couple of pensioners, including a seventy-nine year old teenager and ELO superfan. It was all to make a most perfect night as once again the ELO Experience, led by our Jeff Lynne, a.k.a Andy Louis provided perfect representations of those classic tunes.

In a more relaxed state with no pressing need to make mental notes for review, I felt the whole experience an even more joyful affair. This is what truly comes across from the ELO Experience. On that stage are eight people who visibly are loving what they are doing. They have an infectious repartee with one another, there is fun on their faces. This to the outsider appears to be more than a job.

The show itself was basically the same as that of last year, with I believe (memory serving) a couple of different songs. Everything was there once again from the very classic songs as well as including a few of the same jokes from last year. However it mattered not, this was just pure musical joy and more of the same, was always going to be just more of the fun.

So once again we had the delightful Lego film during Horace Wimp, the uplifting Olympic footage during Hold On Tight and my very favourite ELO song Livin' Thing once again closing the first half.

The second half as before became a more relaxed affair with many up and dancing at the sides and in the boxes. I didn't this year detect a jiving couple during Beethoven, but there did seem to be more £20, sorry quid glow sticks on display. I know that I was more relaxed, and yes therefore more embarrassing (sorry once again you know who). I was just simply enjoying every minute.


As I know from the company I kept, music can stir memories like no other. So whether they be bitter sweet, flash backs to your youth, or just unadulterated madness, the ELO Experience brings it in the bucket load.

The best evening I have spent in the Derngate auditorium to date full stop and I am ready, just ready for the next time already. A simply must see if you are an ELO fan, and very much maybe a must see if you are not. I have no other way of recommending the ELO Experience any higher.

««««« with a little strange magic on top!


Performance reviewed: Thursday 24th September at the Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton. 

The ELO Experience performed at the Royal & Derngate (Derngate) on Saturday 6th September and are currently touring until Wednesday 3rd December. Full details can be found on their website here: http://www.elotribute.com/

Popular posts from this blog

Review of The Karate Kid - The Musical at Milton Keynes Theatre

There is no denying that the world of musical theatre is tremendously imaginative, and of all the films that could be adapted, perhaps the eighties teen drama The Karate Kid was not at the top of most people's lists for a musical adaptation. However, as our stage versions of Mr Miyagi and Daniel LaRusso arrive at Milton Keynes Theatre on a UK tour, I am happy to say that this is one of the most sensible film-to-musical decisions. Recently relocated from New Jersey to LA, Daniel becomes the target of a gang of Cobra Kai dojo students. However, unbeknownst to him, a quiet and unassuming maintenance man at his new home, Mr Miyagi, is on hand to offer a little more than some bonsai training. The first thing that ticks the box for a film-to-musical adaptation is having an original soundtrack, not an endless collection of awkwardly shoehorned music classics into the story. Here, alongside book writer Robert Mark Kamen, are some brilliantly crafted tunes by composer and lyricist Drew Gasp...

Review of Eric and Ern at Royal & Derngate (Royal), Northampton

The comedy of Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise is carved into the very essence of Britishness, and while the years may now be distant from their domination of TV comedy, the light still shines bright on their work. This is thanks mostly to generation after generation being introduced to the shows via that near-annual appearance on TV schedules at Christmas. This will perhaps one day pass, but for now, this brilliant little show, Eric & Ern , now at Royal & Derngate, continues to honour that comedy on stage. Created and performed by Ian Ashpitel and Jonty Stephens, Eric & Ern is a show bringing the duo's most famous sketches and jokes back to the stage. Having worked together now for over twenty years, Ashpitel and Stephens have created the comedy act to perfection. Stephens brings Morecambe’s edgy, frantic energy and combines it perfectly with his timing and mannerisms; everything from the flick of the glasses to the wipe of the nose is pure Eric. Ashpital, as Wise has pe...

Review of Les Misérables at Milton Keynes Theatre, Milton Keynes

The musical version of Victor Hugo's 1862 novel Les Misérables has been thrilling audiences for over 30 years, and in London is has run continuously since October 1985, so, it is safe to say that it comes to Milton Keynes Theatre on it's UK and Ireland tour will some pedigree. I don't need to sell the name to you, and I didn't need to sell it to myself, because despite never having seen the full version, it is still one of my favourite musicals, thanks to seeing two different School Edition productions and the 2012 film. However, how does this version, the 2009 reimagining of the original stage show stand up on this tour production? After 19 years as a prisoner, Jean Valjean, imprisoned for stealing bread, is freed by Javert, the officer in charge of the prison workforce. After Valjean promptly breaks parole, he uses the profit from stolen silver to reinvent himself as a mayor and factory owner, but Javert vows to recapture Valjean and is on his trail across the ye...