ELO Lives On with The Orchestra's Blue Skies Forever Tour

Today I had the pleasure of speaking with Eric Troyer and Dave Scott-Morgan of The Orchestra. 

This may be one of my favorite chats because I felt like a fly on the wall watching two very talented friends catch up. A somewhat talkative fly, but a fly nonetheless.

If you’re unfamiliar, “The Orchestra Starring ELO and ELO Part II Former Members” is a successor band to Electric Light Orchestra, formed by former members of ELO and ELO Part II. At its inception as ELO Part II, the group featured five ELO members and has since evolved into a true rock supergroup, continuing today as The Orchestra, carrying forward the music, legacy, and spirit of ELO for audiences around the world.

They can explain their history better than I can so I hope you’ll stick around and join me as we listen to two old friends banter, reminisce, and entertain the nosy fly on the wall.

Thanks for listening!

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Transcript

Meet The Orchestra’s Voices

Gina Marie Rodriguez 0:04

This is Gina Marie Rodriguez, and you're listening to the Jersey Arts podcast. Today I had the pleasure of speaking with Eric Troyer and Dave Scott Morgan of The Orchestra. This may be one of my favorite chats because I felt like a fly on the wall watching two very talented friends catch up. A somewhat talkative fly, but a fly nonetheless. If you're unfamiliar, the orchestra starring ELO and ELO Part 2 former members is a successor band to Electric Light Orchestra, formed by former members of ELO and ELO Part 2. At its inception as ELO Part 2, the group featured five ELO members and has since evolved into a true rock super group, continuing today as the Orchestra, carrying forward the music, legacy, and spirit of ELO for audiences around the world. They can explain their history better than I can. So I hope you'll stick around and join me as we listen to two old friends banter, reminisce, and entertain the nosy fly on the wall.

Eric Troyer 1:02

He's in England, I'm in the US, so you know it's like, well, uh well, we'll see each other soon though, won't we?

Dave Scott-Morgan 1:08

This is technology gone wild, isn't it? Yes, we'll see each other soon. Um, just about a month, I reckon. And um gosh should be awesome.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 1:18

I'm excited, and I always love hearing English accents, so I'm like extra excited today, I have to say.

Eric Troyer 1:23

Oh, so pour it on, Dave. Really pour it on.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 1:25

You're the give the Yeah, just make it a little bit bigger for me. I appreciate it.

Dave Scott-Morgan 1:30

I was gonna do an American accent, but uh I guess not then. Okay.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 1:34

Oh my gosh, can you? Because now I want to hear that.

Dave Scott-Morgan 1:37

And I'll take my hey man, I'm you know, I'm transatlantic.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 1:43

I love it. Well done. Well done. Wait, so Eric, where are you calling from then?

Eric Troyer 1:48

New Jersey, in northern Jersey.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 1:50

You are in northern Jersey. Okay, awesome. I call it central. Do you believe in central Jersey?

Eric Troyer 1:55

Yeah, so I know there is no, I mean, actually, I'm in western northern Jersey. There is no designation for us. I know we're kind of left in the lurch, aren't we? I've been in Jersey for a while. I grew up in Indiana, but um I've lived in New Jersey for 30 35 years.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 2:12

So oh gosh, well, that's a long time. So you know, we rock, except maybe during snow times, because I'm not a huge fan of the snow.

Eric Troyer 2:20

Oh my god, we have so much snow and it's not going anywhere soon. So that's it's a pain.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 2:25

It's miserable, but we won't focus on that. Dave, where in England are you calling from?

Dave Scott-Morgan 2:30

I'm in Birmingham, which is right in the middle. It's about as far as you can get from the sea. Mind you, the sea is only a hundred miles away because we're we're only a small island compared with your land mass out there.

Eric Troyer 2:44

So are you close? Are you closer to the western or the eastern uh part of the the English Channel would be on the on your uh one side, right?

Dave Scott-Morgan 2:54

The English Channel would be south. That'll be a little bit further, probably a hundred probably 150 mile or more to the English Channel. Um, but if we go west, we hit the Irish Sea in about a hundred miles, a hundred and a bit miles, and if you go east, we hit the North Sea in about the same distance, yeah.

Eric Troyer 3:13

Yep, surrounded. It's an island. The uh the uh yeah uh Albion as a nickname, right? Albion?

Dave Scott-Morgan 3:19

Wasn't that Albion is the name of a football club. I I I don't know what it's it's probably the name of a lot of things, but yeah, but yeah, yeah. It's a local football club just up the road, actually.

Eric Troyer 3:30

Oh, okay.

Dave Scott-Morgan 3:31

Yeah, they're called Baggies. The nickname is the Baggies.

Eric Troyer 3:36

The Baggies, oh that's great. I love it. I don't know about that. I don't follow football, so I don't know. Yeah, oh man.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 3:44

You guys are making me want to go to England now. I've never been to any of the British Isles.

Eric Troyer 3:49

Oh god, it's so beautiful. It's so I miss it so much. I haven't been over there for a while, but I I just love just everything about it. Um, and Dave, he's he he's probably looking forward to come over here and check out some USA sites too. So um, yeah, it's some something new, right, Dave?

Dave Scott-Morgan 4:07

Well, um, I haven't really been to America um for an extended time for a long for many years. We went for a few just a few days, um, a couple of years ago now, and to see an old friend there. That old friend has since died, so I'm jolly glad we went, but it we just saw just a very small bit of um Maryland where we were.

Eric Troyer 4:30

Oh, Maryland, okay.

Dave Scott-Morgan 4:31

Yeah, it's kind of cool to to um see some of the America that you see on the movies, like these these big long roads that go straight for for hundreds of miles, you know, across the desert or something. But you know, I don't know.

Eric Troyer 4:46

Yeah, I don't know that we'll see any of those on this tour coming up, but um that'd be that'll be some.

Dave Scott-Morgan 4:51

I was looking forward to that, Eric. You've already spoken for me now.

Eric Troyer 4:55

I know. I I I I have to do some rearranging here with the with the bookings here, so you can see some of that.

Dave Scott-Morgan 5:03

Yes, so it's on that what on that road, you know.

Eric Troyer 5:07

Yeah, isn't that a great scene? Oh my god, I love that scene. That's in Indiana. We will be in Indiana, so you will see some of that. Yes.

Millville’s Levoy Theater Preview

Gina Marie Rodriguez 5:15

Okay, yeah, there you go, silver lining. Although I will say that you're gonna be at the Leaveway, which is uh what we're talking about today, the Leaveway in Millville, New Jersey, which is a gorgeous theater. So hopefully you'll be excited about that. I mean, I don't know if the road's getting there, but this place is beautiful.

Eric Troyer 5:30

That's a really cool part of New Jersey down there. Uh it's pretty awesome. So yeah, we're looking forward to coming in there. And the theater is amazing, right?

Gina Marie Rodriguez 5:39

It is, it's really stunning. I mean, it looks just like a Broadway house. It's gorgeous.

Eric Troyer 5:44

It's how when was it built? Because it's uh has it's been renovated, right?

Gina Marie Rodriguez 5:47

For yes, I don't know that information offhand, so I won't say, but recently, yes. To be fair, I'm easily stumped. You'll find that very quickly. But yeah, it is fairly recent. I I believe within the past 10 years, last 10 years, I think. Um, but yeah, Millville is kind of it's it's grown a lot. They have a racetrack down there now. Um, if you're into glass arts, uh Wheaton is down there as well, and that's some really beautiful glass artwork that they have. So I don't know how much time you have to tour and you know, wander around.

Eric Troyer 6:23

It's not too far from Philadelphia, too. You're just literally uh what 20 or no, 35, maybe 40 minutes from there.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 6:30

Right, you're not far at all. So if that's you know, if you would like to see Philadelphia, that is Philadelphia's kind of cool.

Eric Troyer 6:36

It's uh the historic part of it's kind of nice, yeah.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 6:39

Yeah, maybe you can educate Dave on our US history by taking him to see the Liberty Bell or something.

Eric Troyer 6:45

Yeah. Yeah, back when we were at war with you, uh Locke over there, you English people.

Dave Scott-Morgan 6:51

Yes, yes. What what rogues we were, yes.

Eric Troyer 6:54

Yes, King George III and his stamp tax and all that stuff. Yeah.

Dave Scott-Morgan 7:00

Well, I hope you're not holding that against us, Eric. I mean, that's a long while ago, you know. He's been harboring this for a while.

Eric Troyer 7:11

Definitely not. I like I said, I love I love England and uh just can't wait to get over there again sometime soon.

No Rewind Documentary Origins

Gina Marie Rodriguez 7:19

I love it. I'm excited, guys. I want to talk to you about obviously what's what's coming up at the Levoy, but I also wanted to talk to you about the documentary that was released recently. I think that was a 2024 release, No Rewind.

Eric Troyer 7:32

Yeah.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 7:33

Can you guys just tell me about what it was like? Um, you've been working together for a long time now, and you finally put something together to show your fans the behind the scenes. What was that process like?

Eric Troyer 7:42

Let me just speak a little bit about this. So the band has taken shape, a bunch of different shapes. And this uh the Gnome Rewind documentary was basically about uh a recording that we put together, an album that we put together uh some 15 years ago. And then we wanted to memorialize how it all came about. Now, Dave wasn't a part of the of the band at that time. Uh he's more of a recent uh addition, but he actually goes back further than we do because he was part of the original ELO uh back in the day. So, but as far as the documentary goes, it's uh it you know, we just wanted to show some of the humor and some of the camaraderie behind the scenes and um, you know, put together these videos, as it were. It's kind of a bunch of different videos of the band at work um and singing these songs that um we we've gotten we've had a lot of um accolades for the for the recording that we did. And uh so it's it's very um it's a really interesting documentary. You can see it on um on Amazon and all the different streaming services, but that was a lot of fun to make and uh we're really proud of it. But we're um we're kind of evolving and shifting again with as some people retired from the band. And so Dave has uh joined us for um, you know, he he was resting peacefully at home doing all his projects and stuff, and suddenly we give him a call and said, Hey, would you like to come back on the road? And he said, Yeah, why not? Right, Dave?

Dave Scott-Morgan 9:17

That's about uh that's that's that's it, yeah.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 9:21

That's exactly what the phone call sounded like.

Dave Scott-Morgan 9:24

You know, I wasn't in the original Leola though, I was in them from 1981 through 86, but I did I did know Jeff before he could even play guitar, and so we're we're we were all pals going way back, you know. And uh so I weren't I wasn't in the group, but I but I hung I hung out with them all the while while they were back in England. We were pals and that we always used to chat a lot, and I didn't get to join them till 1981. So yeah.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 9:51

Well, how did that come about in 1981? What was that initial entry like for you?

Dave Scott-Morgan 9:55

It was great because I was broke, and uh uh yeah, and I so I got a job with ELO strumming my guitar and playing a keyboard and uh doing some singing and stuff, and um uh so and and of course we were powers. I was powers with Jeff and with Richard, I was very close with Richard, and so it was we had a whale of a time on that first tour, I gotta say. It was the uh it was really it was like um great, really good fun. Yeah, lots of laughter.

Joining ELO And Early History

Eric Troyer 10:27

Yeah, the the Elo, the original, was really three guys started it Bev, uh Roy Wood, and Jeff Lynn. And then there were there people came and went as the as the life of the band.

Dave Scott-Morgan 10:40

Uh you know, Richard was actually in it from the word go. He answered an advert in the local paper, they wanted a musician, and he was just gonna give up music because he was fed up of it. And he'd uh he said, You know, I'm no good at it, I'm not doing any good, so I'm gonna give you up. And his friends said, No, give just go go and answer this ad. And if you don't get that, then go and drive your van or whatever you're gonna do, you know. And so he went up for this ad and he he started by playing bass guitar for for Jeff's new group, ELO, you know, or Roy Wood's new group, really. He was the most famous guy at the time, yeah.

Eric Troyer 11:13

Yeah, and um, and Richard was a right-hand man in um you know, creating the ELO sound and contributed so many parts. I think so, yes. Yeah, yeah. No, I think it's uh you know, when I used to talk to Kelly, um Kelly said, you know, Richard was there, he made it, he he made up this part, he did this, he did this. Yeah, so a long history there where people came and went. And but anyway, so yeah, we uh reformed the band, so to speak, um, E as ELO part two back in '88. Yeah. Um, after the band kind of had a long hiatus, and Bev wanted to continue touring, so he got a hold of me and uh many of five. We had five of the other band members at the time, Huey, um Kelly, uh Lou, Mick, and was there one more? Um Bev, yes, of course. We started off with uh with that as ELO part two, and then it's evolved down through the years, and now it's the orchestra since uh year by year 2000. And we continue playing all over the world, making fans hearing ELO music very happy.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 12:24

I love this so much. I mean, I'm such a fan of well, I'm a fan of music in general, especially as someone who cannot play, I can't sing, I can't do anything. But I I love asking musicians when did you first start? How did you first fall in love with music? Have you been doing this since you were two years old? Or, you know, like at what point was it that you realized I kind of want to do this for the rest of my life?

Dave Scott-Morgan 12:47

Um, I heard the Beatles, and I was just entranced by the the chords and the and the music and the statements that came across. And uh I just learned to play guitar because I heard the Beatles, and um both Jeff and I both absolutely loved the Beatles and Richard also. We all just um we followed the Beatles in every way. We learned a great deal from them, yeah. Uh so it the Beatles are to blame completely. I blame them, yeah.

Eric Troyer 13:15

And same for me. I was um I well I was I was in a folk group uh before before that. And you you were probably um were you a sk in a skipple band at all? Did you do part of the skipple? No, no, no, okay.

Dave Scott-Morgan 13:29

I was in um just a rock and roll group, it was, yeah.

Eric Troyer 13:33

The first group before the yeah, but then the Beatles changed everything, and uh, you know, for us, we didn't hear about them till 63, but you might have heard about them 62 or 61, I guess that's when they started making noise.

Beatles Influence And The British Invasion

Dave Scott-Morgan 13:47

That's right. They were they were it was a year later that they got to America, but uh, but we only cop we only caught all of them in 1962. Um, I I'm not quite sure of the of the of the dating there, but uh the record Please Please Me became number one, and then the album became all the songs on the album have been sung by everybody. I saw a standing there became a rock and roll standard, and yeah, and um Oh my lovin' yeah, that was on the second album, but that that was uh that I mean we were just we were knocked out because you know, other artists uh used to put all um substandard music on on albums and on B sides and stuff, but the Beatlers you could always be sure you turn a record over after you've heard the A side, and you're like I want to hold your hand, you turn it over, and this boy's on the other side, I think it was, you know, whatever, and you go, wow, you know, and or whatever. There'd always be something they'd always give real quality stuff even from the album.

Eric Troyer 14:49

Absolutely. So China, remember there were you probably don't know this, but there were records, you know, they were less like this, and they had two sides, and it was probably your parents might have had records, but I'm not sure you have two photographs of them, you know.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 15:06

Yes, magazines in the I may surprise you because I'm sitting in front of and I don't think you can see it, it's in the the shelving behind me. I have a whole stack of records, and to my right is a record player, so I do have them. Now, do I know how to play them without scratching them? Is the question.

Eric Troyer 15:25

That's right. Well, there's a whole process, and you can't walk, you can't stomp on the floor, you know, the thing skips, and uh yeah, it's uh with a different technology for sure. But um, I don't know whether you're I mean, the Beatles have influenced so much music, and I've like you said, uh ELO, uh you know, everything that came after it is had something to do with it. But there was the whole British invasion, probably 20 bands that suddenly uh came over to the USA and you know had hits the searchers, the you know, Herman's Hermits, or just everybody, you know.

Dave Scott-Morgan 16:00

Yeah, yeah. You know, there's some bands from Birmingham that tried to uh break it into America, like the MOVE, which was the first Birmingham supergroup, but they they never did any good in America.

Eric Troyer 16:11

That's right.

Dave Scott-Morgan 16:12

I think the first group to do any good was was ELO, but I'm I'm not sure there may have been another one, but but the first group from Birmingham that I remember doing any good was was ELO, and they started to sell records in America a lot more than they did in in England.

Eric Troyer 16:27

That's right. Yeah, they became more popular, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, anyway, so we're out here still chugging away. I mean, this is before your time, I'm sure uh you're probably uh ancient history to you, all that stuff, right?

Gina Marie Rodriguez 16:43

Hey, history is always relevant if we've learned anything. History is always relevant, but I will say I love your music, I love your music, and I was just rocking out to the documentary a bit ago as well. And like I said, I have zero musical talent, so I get really excited when I see people who I I know that you have to teach yourselves this, right? Or or someone else does.

Dave Scott-Morgan 17:07

I never admit to that myself, though.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 17:10

No, but I I do genuinely love your music, and I one of the things that I was enjoying about the documentary is the camaraderie that comes with a band, because I think as someone who's never been in a band, the things that you hear about musicians are like, oh, well, they there was a lot of infighting, and then that's why the band broke up, and then years later they decided to get back together. But here, you know, at least in watching the documentary, it seems that everyone is is genuinely friendly and and familial with one another, which I think is exciting and makes for better music and a better performance.

Eric Troyer 17:47

It's unique, you know. The band we part of it is maturity too, you know. We're not like 20-year-olds. When you're a 20-year-old, then you're I'm sorry, you guys aren't 20?

Gina Marie Rodriguez 17:56

What are you talking about?

Camaraderie, Maturity, And Band Culture

Eric Troyer 17:58

Yep, we're not. Um, you know, maturity comes and then you you st you learn to like we you know honor each other and you know wish to the best for them and not tear them down, you know. You these are your brothers, and so that's how this band has evolved. And um, you know, I think we care about each other and um look after each other and try to make sure everybody's comfortable and you know, and it makes for a much pleasant, more pleasant atmosphere, that's for sure.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 18:28

I I think that's a really good point. Maturity does make a difference because I I think when you hear those stories about bands breaking up or fighting over women or whatever, they're probably in their teens or their 20s or they're just starting out.

Eric Troyer 18:40

Oh, we're we're still gonna fight over women.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 18:44

Well, I mean, maybe we can save those stories for later. I don't know.

Eric Troyer 18:48

Yes, definitely. Just no, that's a joke, obviously. We're all married, happily married, and uh and but um shall I mean wives. Yeah, but um yeah, it really makes a difference. So when you can have fun playing and you, you know, you're like I said, a band of brothers and sisters or whatever, it depends. We have um violin player now, a female violin player, and uh she's amazing, Susan Aquila. And um if you see any promo, if you see our promo reel, you'll see her in action.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 19:20

I don't know about this question, but I'm gonna ask it anyway. What part of making music or performing music do people romanticize the most? And what do you think is the least glamorous part?

Dave Scott-Morgan 19:33

What do they glamorize the most? Was that romanticize the most? Romanticize, yeah.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 19:39

So people like me who aren't, you know, performing on the travel, right, Dave?

Eric Troyer 19:44

I mean, travel is always like, you know, it gets weary, a bus, a plane, a car, you know. I I don't know.

Romance Vs. Reality Of Making Music

Dave Scott-Morgan 19:52

Um I was thinking of something else there, of cre sort of creating music, but uh but the the thing that's the most um that's the most uh drudgery about it is it takes a lot of work to to make behind the scenes to make a to make them work. And it's the most boring thing in the world, it's like watching paint dry for somebody else to watch you know because it's trying something and trying something else. And and um but but when you get a when you get an idea for a song, when you get an idea for something, that is magic, you know. And that's the that is the um what did you call it? The what the what people um romanticize the most if you think about the glory of music, then that's the glory of it, is is creating something that's never been quite created before, you know. And and that's uh that's magic. As far as touring goes, I I think I like I just like traveling. I I like traveling anywhere. If I go to another town in England, I just see see things and I think that's that's great, you know. Um so I I do like traveling, I must admit, yeah.

Eric Troyer 21:01

I I I'm the same way. I'm I'm uh I know a lot of people do complain about the travel and stuff, and it can get tiring. It for sure you get tiring. Yeah, yeah. But um, as long as you get rest at night, and you know, you you after a long day of work, you know, traveling, then you play a gig and stuff, you you're pretty tired by the end of the day. And uh so, but that's part of you know what Dave touched on was the um the romanticizing. Like if you see a movie where somebody was some band, like they're not making it, and suddenly one guy gets an idea and boom, you know, off they go, and then there's an overnight sensation. Um, you know, movies they have to do that in a way because you know, there's only so much time in a movie. But um that's the part that always is laughable when you're a musician. You go, Oh god, come on, give me a break, you know. But um, yeah, so there are things that and especially like And be even putting on a show. Um, you don't see that we're rehearsing. We spend a lot of time rehearsing, assigning parts. Okay, you sing this part, I'll sing this part. We'll let's let's try this together and you harmonize. Okay, make sure the phrasing is right. Um, you know, okay, you've if you play this good part here, then we'll, you know, I mean there's a lot of that stuff in the performance that's been picked apart, put back together, the lights. We've got we have a whole video show that goes along with it. So we've spent a lot of time and uh effort in creating like an entertaining um you know event. And uh and people usually walk away and go, wow, what was that? That was incredible. Um, and then then you know you're successful when when that happens.

Dave Scott-Morgan 22:48

A lot of boring little details.

Eric Troyer 22:50

And unfortunately, the details have to be sweated over behind the scenes, and and if ever the public saw them, they would be bored to tears with it, you know, because uh you know it's funny because we always during a sound check, it's like okay, you know, some you're standing around, you're looking at each other, something doesn't work, something gets fixed, you stand around some more, you go get a cup of coffee, you get a bite to eat. You know, uh if you saw all that happening, I mean you'd have to be a real super fan before you go, oh, this is really exciting. Oh, he's drinking coffee.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 23:24

Well, I'm sure those super fans exist.

Eric Troyer 23:28

They do.

Feedback, Gatekeepers, And The Audience Test

Gina Marie Rodriguez 23:29

I think that whole conversation, um, all of that behind the scenes stuff, the the quote unquote boring stuff that happens, it reminds me of that image. And I don't know if you've seen like the iceberg under the water, right? So all of the work that goes into creating perfection or or masterpieces is really under the water, and you only see just the teeny tip at the top. And that is essentially what music is. But you're right, if we put that in a movie, nobody would watch it just be three years of watching somebody figure out how to build a band. I'm just curious about like what it is to live the the musician's life, I guess. So can I ask you whose criticism do you trust the most? Like when you're putting a show together, who do you have your wives come in? You know, do you have a set of best friends who come in and watch the show for the first time and say, Oh yeah, this is great, or oh no, those lights were too much? Do you do you have uh someone like that?

Eric Troyer 24:27

Dave, you you Dave is very creative, he's always working, and I don't know who he goes to uh for feedback, but um does Mandy tell you whether something's Mandy Mandy is great, yeah.

Dave Scott-Morgan 24:39

She's really um quite definite, um, can be quite negative about things if they're not, you know, and and really force force me to rethink things. She's she's really good. She's um one of my uh Richard Tandy was a close pal of mine, and he was a great curator. I would call him. He would be a he would absolutely great, he would say things, he would be very blunt about it if he didn't like something say that's that doesn't work there. I'm sure he did this with Jeff in the studio. That doesn't work there. And uh or that's great, don't touch that, don't don't re-record that's great. Put it, you know, put the lock on that. That's that's wonderful. Um he'd be just uh it would be like that, Richard. And um but uh Richard was a real gold gold standard, really, in that respect. But I would say that ordinary folk are are probably some of the best people to go to because uh musicians are not necessarily the best arbiters of of what you're doing because uh you're not really entertaining them at the end of the day if you've got something, you know, it's just it's just uh some somebody who's not that bothered about music, not really interested in you. For example, I work at a flying club and I I I just play to the guy at the flying club, the guy who runs it. I say, what do you think of this? And he's not in music, he doesn't care about music. Well, he probably cares about music, but but and he so I I get real good opinions off him, you know, because he's not he's just not plugged into the the the issues that you know musicians are, yeah.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 26:14

No, I think that's really important because those people are just going off of vibes, pure vibes. They're not wondering, like, oh, did you hit the right note there? Did it come across the right way? They just want to know, did I like it or did I not like it? Yes, and that's the best feedback.

Dave Scott-Morgan 26:27

That's exactly right. That's exactly right. That's what music is, it's taking people on a journey. And but if you can't take ordinary folk, if you've got you can only take musicians, you haven't got a very big audience.

Blue Skies Forever Tour And NJ Invite

Eric Troyer 26:38

True. Yeah, I think it's good that uh it's absolutely the audience that Joe Schmoe, you know, um um they're the ones that if if it's right, just like you said, if it's good, they're gonna know right away and they won't know the technical part of it or the all that. I I do see you you what you just pointed out though is that you took it to somebody who's very knowledgeable, and then you took it to somebody who was just a punter, you know. So in fact, um both those ways are really helpful, you know. If you had Richard, if Richard said it was uh suck, this sucks, you know, then okay, I got it. And if he likes it, then you take it to the punters, and if they like it, then okay, this is working.

Dave Scott-Morgan 27:21

Uh Richard, you uh people I don't think that would never get to the punters because if Richard said it was wasn't any good, it would never get completed. Oh, that's true. Uh um because he was he was really definite about it. He's saying, No, that's rubbish, that you know, so we'll whatever you know, put in so many words, and uh yeah, and um uh it was just a wonderful encouragement. You know, if if there could be a credit for encouragement, Richard would would would have got every credit going on every record because he was great at that's really important, you know, in the studio. It's so good to have a cheerleader have someone just like keep the energy up, like the positive energy in the room somebody who can be can be honest about it, not just yeah, you know, not just keep not a yes man, but but somebody you can be honest about what you're doing, yeah.

Eric Troyer 28:10

Yeah, so you don't waste your time going down the like a dead end or something, yeah. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 28:16

I love it, guys. Is there anything that you're looking forward to specifically? I mean, I know that Eric, you live in New Jersey, but is there anything that you're looking forward to at the show in New Jersey, anything you'd like to say to Jersey audiences?

Eric Troyer 28:28

Well, we're just really excited that we've got a really cracking lineup. And um, you know, we've gone through some changes, but this band is as good as it ever was. And um, we're really excited to, you know, we we love seeing the people come out and seeing the joy when they uh when they you know hear the music. And uh it's just so rewarding. So we're really looking forward to seeing a good Jersey crowd.

Gina Marie Rodriguez 28:56

The orchestra, starring Electric Light Orchestra and ELO Part 2 former members, are bringing their Blue Skies Forever tour to the Levoy Theater in Millville on March 15th at 7 p.m. For tickets and more information about this show, be sure to visit Livoy.net. For more about the tour, visit theorchestraband.com. If you liked this episode, be sure to review, subscribe, and tell your friends. A transcript of this podcast, links relevant to the story, and more about the arts in New Jersey can be found at jerseyarts.com. The JerseyArts Podcast is presented by Art Pride New Jersey, advancing a state of creativity since 1986. The show was co-founded by and currently supported by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. This episode was hosted, edited, and produced by me, Gina Marie Rodriguez. Executive producers are Jim Atkinson and Isaac Cernadiaz. And my thanks, of course, to Eric Troyer and Dave Scott Morgan for speaking with me today. I'm Gina Marie Rodriguez for the Jersey Arts Podcast. Thanks for listening.