BST Hyde Park cancels final day after Jeff Lynne’s ELO pulls out

Fans of Jeff Lynne’s Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) will have been left disappointed after finding out they won’t get to sing along to Mr Blue Sky below a blue summer sky.

BST Hyde Park has cancelled the final day of its festival after Lynne, 77, withdrew from the band’s headline slot at the last minute due to health concerns.

He had been due to front the rock band on Sunday, but stepped back on the advice of his doctors following a “systemic infection”, according to a statement released by ELO.

The decision comes just days after the band pulled out of a gig at Manchester’s Co-Op Live arena for a similar reason.

Last year, Lynne hinted that the BST Hyde Park appearance could have been ELO’s last ever performance, saying: “It seems like the perfect place to do our final show.”

Lynne was “heartbroken” not to be peforming, the band said, and was “currently in the care of a team of doctors who have advised him that performing is simply not possible at this time, nor will he be able to reschedule”.

“The legacy of the band and his longtime fans are foremost in Jeff’s mind today – and while he is so sorry that he cannot perform, he knows that he must focus on his health and rehabilitation at this time,” it added.

BST said ticketholders will be refunded and contacted directly by their ticketing agent.

The frontman lived up to one of the band’s hit songs – Don’t Bring Me Down – when he soldiered through a performance at Birmingham’s Utilita Arena earlier this month after being injured in a taxi crash.

But the band axed its 10 July show in Manchester just before they were due to go on “due to illness”.

Lynne – a singer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer – formed ELO in Birmingham in 1970 with Roy Wood and Bev Bevan.

The band is known for fusing musical genres – from classical music to modern pop and rock – as well as incorporating a wide range of instruments into its songs.

Its other hits that have stood the test of time include Livin’ Thing, Telephone Line and Evil Woman.

ELO first split in 1986, but Lynne brought it back in 2014. On 14 September that year, he teamed up with the BBC Concert Orchestra to play some of the band’s greatest hits at a comeback concert at BST Hyde Park.

ELO was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017, two years after Lynne received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

He was made an OBE in the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours list for services to music.