#Mik Kaminski

[thegroovyarchives]

Electric Light Orchestra From the March 5th, 1977 issue of Cashbox Magazine (via: archive.org)

[nedison]

RIP Richard Tandy— pianist, moog master, guitarist, arranger, and backing vocalist on ELO's greatest recordings. 🩶

[magneticelectric]

Electric Light Orchestra

[cursed-elo-images]

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!

To celebrate me being a year on ELOblr, have a cursed voice reveal!

[wilbury-sam]

Mik Kaminski with the Brunel University concert outfit, bc he looks like a hero and it's iconic

@cursed-elo-images here he iss

AND

The hero and the hippie

[quite-actually-a-nacho]

do YOU like the Electric Light Orchestra? are you a mega fan of the string section from their classic years—consisting of Melvyn Gale, Mik Kaminski, and Hugh McDowell? those are really unsubtle questions because that’s what I have to offer!

ELO Resident String Trio design

(background and no background versions available)

if you want them on things, you can get them on things! originally I was making this for myself to add to my collection of ELO strings shirts, my original two shirts are from like five years ago now and that’s not what my style looks like anymore. but I figure other people might want something like this too, so now it’s on my Redbubble 😌

one of the original String Trio shirts from about 2018, not available on my Redbubble because I printed it at my family’s print shop

[stephi1is1awesome]

Wake up babe, midnight special just posted!

Highlights!

• Great performance all around from everyone!

• Kelly opera

• Hugh being an attention whore

• Bev throwing his sticks at people

• Jeff’s nips being uncomfortably visible

Thank you once again The Midnight Special!

[celeste-fitzgerald]

Hi! I’ve been an elo fan for a while but I’m not really familiar with any of the band members except for jeff lynne because i always thought the rest were coming and going. Can you give me a little intro to the band like who are considered the main band members? Thanks!

AHHHHHHH thank you for asking this omgggggg!! (Also, as a side note, I actually sent another blogger an ask just like this a year ago when I was getting more into the band, so this is a very surreal moment to see that now people are asking ME???!!!!!)

I will begin with Roy Wood.

ELO was the brain child of Roy primarily, and he and Jeff were the driving creative force of the band at the start. Just like Jeff, he knows how to play 47309478193 different instruments, and on his solo work he did practically everything himself. He's a cool guy with awesome crazy hair and awesome fashion sense. But he left the band very early on (after about a year I think) to form a different band called Wizzard.

Now, there are tons of different guys who were members of ELO over the years, but to keep this from becoming super long and complicated, I will now stick to the rest of the Magnificent Seven. This is the longest running line-up of ELO, and the seven of them were together for a lot of the band's most successful period. This line-up was:

Jeff Lynne: guitar, vocals, writer, producer, etc., you know his deal already haha Bev Bevan: drums Richard Tandy: keyboards Kelly Groucutt: bass Mik Kaminski: violin Melvyn Gale: cello Hugh McDowell: cello

Now the fun part! (Well, fun for me at least haha.)

Bev Bevan:

Bev is the gorgeous smashy drummer with big biceps and a terrifyingly deep voice. He founded the band with Jeff and Roy and was with ELO till 1986. He's very opposite to Jeff in many ways (and pulled lots of pranks on Jeff haha). While Jeff loves working in the studio, Bev loves playing live and going on tour - so much so that after Jeff called it quits for the band in 1986, Bev started up another band called ELO Part II with a few of the other members so he could keep things going (which unfortunately ruffled feathers with Jeff quite badly and essentially ended their friendship 😢😢).

Richard Tandy:

Richard is the very-talented keyboard player who joined very soon after the band began - and he is still an official member to this day!!! Unfortunately he only has small roles on the Jeff Lynne's ELO albums now and he doesn't play live much because of health issues, but he and Jeff are still very close. He is a very focused, serious man when it comes to music. I believe I read that he would lock himself away for hours to learn some challenging pieces of music, and he was the only member of the band to actually take sound checks seriously at their shows haha. Also he's really into films and sports.

Kelly Groucutt:

KELLY MY BELOVED!! He is my favorite hehe. The awesome sweetheart bass player who, fun fact, was actually named Michael. But during the early years of ELO, they had lots of Michaels, so they asked Kelly to pick a different name so it would be less confusing haha, and he went by Kelly ever since. He also sang lots of backup vocals, plus occasional lead vocals (check out Poker to hear his voice, he sang that whole song double-tracked). He was very outgoing and goofy, made tons of silly jokes, couldn't sit still, and was a huge chatterbox. I could say tons more on him but I will hold back haha. He was also in ELO Part II with Bev, but Kelly unfortunately passed away in 2009.

Mik Kaminski:

Mik is the adorable boy on the iconic blue violin. He's a very shy boy, but he still loves touring and performing for the fans. He also loooooves gambling and drinking haha. Also he is another of the Michaels lmao. After ELO ended in the 80s, Mik and Kelly made their own band called Orkestra, then later both joined ELO Part II. And after Bev left ELO Part II, the band changed their name to The Orchestra, and Mik is still playing with them to this day!

Melvyn Gale:

Melvyn is the angel on cello. It took him a while to join the group (he was asked to join multiple times but kept recommending other cellists instead haha), but they finally got him! He is apparently also very chatty, and quite the charmer with the ladies. And in addition to cello, he's also a phenomenal pianist (the epic piano solo in Wild West Hero is him). After his time in ELO ended he ran (or at least worked at) a record manufacturing company for a while, and he is currently teaching cello and piano lessons!

Hugh McDowell:

And Hugh is the demon on cello ahaha. He is fucking crazy and I love him for it. He joined ELO very early on, then left with Roy Wood to be in Wizzard, then came back to ELO. He stole the show in all the live performances, jumping around, spinning/throwing his cello, hair flying in his face. He rocks hard. He's just wild all-around. He apparently got kicked out of school for telling a teacher to fuck off because the teacher wouldn't let him play the music the way he wanted or something. He also once broke down his hotel room door when he lost the key haha. Though he was also known to always have his face buried in a book - he loved to read. He unfortunately passed away in 2018.

And that concludes my not-so-brief introduction to the band!! Thank you for the ask!!!!!!! <3

[billboard-hotties-tourney]

Chris Norman (1950-) Smokie - lead vocals Songs: "If You Think You Know How to Love Me," "Living Next Door to Alice" Propaganda: none

Mik Kaminski (1951-) ELO - violin Songs: "Livin' Thing," "Orange Blossom Special (Live)" Propaganda: none

[1980ssunflower]

Got my hands on one of ELO's special edition boxsets 👍🛸💡

[elictriclightorchestra]

elo bootleg record

anaheim, 1978

[nick1237]

from February 11, 1982. Found on Facebook

[the-diary-of-bev-bevan]

Mik Kaminski couldn’t hear people very well, and quite honestly neither can I

[cursed-elo-images]

Mik doodle, what do you think?? :D

HE IS SO PERFECT I LOVE HIM

[wilbury-sam]

I'm making an ELO playlist and I'll only put the songs you guys tell me, reblog or comment songs!

[quite-actually-a-nacho]

BROTHERRRRR… HOW DID I MISS THIS?!

a year out from uploading already, and of course did not exist (at least in what I could find back then) when I was deepest in my ELO phase. I would’ve killed for this!