Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 122

tJORUUMCNTS -AMUSEMENTS AMUSEMENTS Sound Undtr Urn tutptctt of Tlw OrcfwdMf Attwtatlon Atded lrtd Association Electric Light Orchestra gets turned off temporarily 1979 980 Season 3 Outstanding Series In Orchestra Hall of THE WBRbB'S GREATEST PERFORMERS 34th Annual Piano Series Sundays at 3:00 pm Earl Wild, Oct 7 Paul Rutman, Oct. 28; Yourl Egorov, Nov. 25; Walter Klien, Dec. 9. Garrick Ohlsson, Dec.

16; Claudio Arrau, Jan. Oxana Yablonskaya, Jan. 27; Alfred Brendel, Feb. liana Vered, Feb 10; Ralph Votapek, Feb 24; Joseph Katichstein, March.9; Uydia ArtymlvtMarch 18; Later Berman, Wlarch 23; Gary Graft man, April 6. Andre Watts, April 20; Byron Janls, May 18; Tedd Joselson, June 1 Bradford Gowen, June 8.

Secure Your Seats Now for the 1979-80 Season Box Seats and 1st Balcony SOLD OUT Main Floor 2nd Balcony Gallery $35.00 Subscriptions accepted through Sept. 20 45th Annual Music Series Nathan Milstein, Oct. 14. Polish Chamber Orchestra, Oct. 28; Isaac Stern, Nov.

Galina Vlshnevskaya A Mstlslav Ros-tropovich, Nov. 11; LA Philharmonic with Carlo Maria Glullnl, Dec. Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Feb. 10; Jean-Pierre Rampal and Alexandre Lagoya, Feb. 24; Viktor Tretyakov, March Dame Janet Baker, April 20: Jullllard String Quartet, May 2.

Chicago's Best Musical Bargain Box Seats and 1st Balcony SOLD OUT Main Floor $70 2nd Balcony Gallery $35.00 By Lynn Van Matre Rock music critic "THE SPACE SHIP? I think It got broken up for scrap. A rather inglorious end to its career, yes," acknowledged Bev Bevan of the Electric Light Orchestra, which toured last year with a 60-foot-wide "flying saucer" stage set that took $300,000 to 8 tractor-trailer trucks to transport, 'and 10 hours to assemble for each show. The lavish, laser-lit lodging for ELO'i seven purveyors of "orchestral rock" actually a lively mix of pop and rock with strings attached netted the British band plenty of attention and pretty much took the prize for the most awesomely ambitious rock stage setting of 1978. But the thrills did not come cheap; the effect may have been out of this world, but, according to Bevan, so was the cost. "Actually, that tour ended up losing money," he insisted- "You may not believe that, but it's true.

We drew very big crowds, and we sold out our concerts almost everywhere; but the overheads were just incredible. "Toward the. end of the tour, the space ship was beginning to be a little unsafe," he continued, "but even if it hadn't been starting to fall apart, we wouldn't have used it again. I mean, we did it already, and next time around, it'll have to be something completely different. But at the moment, I think another U.S.

tour of the magnitude that we did last year would be quite impossible, what with things slowing down the way they are in. the record industry. Everybody's cutting back. And just the physical effort and expense of a big tour It took 13 semitrucks to haul all of our equipment last year. Just finding enough gas to get across America could prove difficult." So after touring steadily for years and slowly building a following that turned it into one of the major concert attractions of 1978, ELO is taking this year off.

"What's happening with us? Not much, really," Bevan said recently, speaking from his home in a "little village, just two shops and a pub, really," near England's Stratford-Upon-Avon. There, on a four-acre spread complete with a "bleak, black-on-white English style home" that be has filled with Victorian and Edwardian furniture and late 19th-century oil paintings and pastels, Bevan and his wife live what he calls "the quiet life," which is even quieter this year with the Electric Light Orchestra temporarily unplugged. "I think this break will do us good," reflected Bevan, the band's drummer and along with ELO singer, songwriter, and creative spark Jeff Lynne one of the band's original members since its formation in 1971 as an offshoot of the British classical-rock group the Move. "I think we were getting a bit stale. When wacome back, we'll be fresh and raring to go: And I'm hopeful that the audiences will miss us.

You can certainly overexpose yourself; then people get bored and blase and think, 'Oh, yes, them That's happened to acts in the past They've overdone it and killed it for themselves." Of course, the old "out of sight, out of mind" principle also holds true in pop music. But ELO hasn't exactly dropped out of the 1979 scene; turn on the radio and chances are you're within earshot. "Don't Bring Me Down," a cut from their new album, "Discovery," is currently among the Top 10; so is the album. "People say our music is a lot more commercial now," Bevan complained mildly. "Actually, we're not any more commercial now than we were five years ago, when we did the 'Eldorado' album.

If you want to talk about our first couple of albums, OK, those were less commercial. But since around 1974, we've been doing stuff in the same It's just that we've gotten this mass acceptance now and people hear our stuff on the radio continually and they get the impression we've suddenly become a commercial band." At any rate, while the band's last group effort climbs the charts, the component parts of ELO are currently pursuing a number of solo projects, "little things to keep us amused until we get back together again next year." The band members live far enough apart that they probably won't see each other again until the group is ready to record its next album, sometime next year. "We're not the sort of band that lives in each other's pockets," Bevan noted. "We get along fine together on the road, though. Actually, I think that it helps that we don't see each other all the time.

If we did, chances are that some sort of rot would set in." The only band member who lives close enough to Bevan for occasional fraternization is Lynne. "And he's in Los Angeles, right now, working on a film score for an upcoming movie that's scheduled to star Olivia Newton-John. I think it's called, though that may be just a working title. Anyway, he's pretty busy." Bevan himself is busy writing a book, or at least attempting to, about the adventures of ELO on tour. "It's proving more difficult than I thought," be admitted.

"What I've done is just put together any sort of interesting or humorous happenings. I've done some magazine articles on the subject before, diary-type things about ELO on the road; but stretching things out for a couple of hundred pages is a lot harder. Actually, I think I'm going to start all over again, with the help of a professional writer. "Writing's always interested me, though," Bevan con- 9th Annual Folk Festival Series Sundays at 8:00 pm Bohemian State Folk Ballet of Prague, Oct. Ballet Folklorico Mexico, Nov.

4. Romanian Folk Ballet of Bucharest, Nov. 25; Gl-sela and her Flamenco Fiesta, April 27. 4 Exciting and Authentic Folk Ballets Main Floor and Box Seats $25.00 1st Balcony 2nd Balcony Gallery $15.00 Subscriptions accepted through Sept. 28 Order Today and Save! I enclose check for fof subscriptions to the Series at each.

Please send the 1 979-80 brochure. Name. Address City, State. Zip Please enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope and mail to: Allied Arts Association, 116 S. Michigan Suite 1201, Chicago, Illinois, 60603.

For Information, call 782-6034 AMUSEMENTS I Northern Illinois University presents ThoVermeer Quartet INDULGE YOURSELF THIS WEEKEND at Fantastic Sunday Brunch eompleta. FRESHMcompott Appebiar Butte SaladBar. CURRIED EGOS WATERFRONT Stead ago IgMy curttad dKa aaim aauoa THE WATERFRONT BENEDICT Ergfch muffin, poached agg, lump tratmwal and artehoka I la amotharad In holandafca tauca LOBSTER SIERRA Luscious avocado tScn ooverad wrh Hch tatatar nawbanj. dmnar menu avaMN 943-7494 SJmJ 1015 N. RUSH ST.

is I 5 3 l) 7 Artist Faculty Department of Music Slimuel Ashkenasi and Pierre Menard, violins Jerry Horner, viola and Marc Johnson, cello Guest Artist Anton Kuerti, piano (Oct IS) Mctvin Warner, clarinet (Jan. 2 1 nt thoGoodmcinTheatro 200 S. Columbus, Chicago Monday evenings, 7:30 p.m. Septcnilier 17 A October IS, 1979 January 21 A April 28, 1980 Tickets are S. For reservations, contact NIU's College of Continuing Education, DeKalb, Illinois 60115, 815-753-1781.

isi'inSto SK.ti cfMijiViV I CHICAGO CURRENTS THE UF FLffl Ftimiattu CbSkSm Th latitul CdlKliM il Tim Ml siatiiuia MIDWEST MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART 420S.Ma!iv-mart,M. Jill I ruts. RtruSit. 11-8 TtwnETfj.14 Sa 1-d 10 Section 6 CHICAGO TRIBUNE Arts Fun-rSeplember 9, 1979.