The Electric Light Orchestra by the Electric Light Orchestra released in 1971 on Harvest Records, value £90

IMAGINE participating in a music quiz, you are shown an image or a picture that refers to the name of a band. I think most people would guess this one in a couple of seconds. This is the first studio album recorded by the band, primarily Jeff Lynne, Roy Wood and Bev Bevan. All three members were part of The Move rock band who had a string of hit records through the mid-sixties to early seventies. The idea to form a band of electric guitars and include a small orchestra playing string, woodwind and percussion instruments was originally the brainchild of Roy Wood. The overall reception by music critics who were at a loss to define the musical genre, finally came up with the name Baroque rock 'n' roll. The album was released in the United States on the United Artists label. The story goes that one of label's record executives noticed that the title appeared to be missing and tried but failed to reach ELO contacts. They wrote down the name 'no answer' in the message notes, which was misconstrued to be the name of the album, so in America it was released as No Answer.

At the time it was released in the UK in 1971, The Move were also in the charts with Chinatown. In May the following year The Move had their last hit under that name with California Man. Soon after, in July 1972, ELO's 10538 Overture entered the charts and became a hit record all around the world. This song, written by Lynne was about an escaped prisoner running for his life who met with a fatal accident. Rather than give the man a name, he decided to give him a number which was picked at random off the recording console. Despite the chart success, Roy Wood announced that he was leaving both bands, went off and founded the band Wizzard. This left Jeff Lynne to decide if he wanted to continue with the new band. With more than two dozen chart entries and 100 million record sales, he rose like a colossus throughout the seventies and early eighties. The stage performance was stunning to see, giving the audience the illusion of the band arriving then later departing in a UFO. They never came back to perform an encore, like Elvis, they had simply 'left the building.'