Blu-ray Concert Review: Jeff Lynne's ELO: Wembley or Bust 2017

[Bob Rapoport]

Click on the cover to watch the trailer​

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Concert:
Video:
Audio:
Final Score: ​

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The Night the ELO Spaceship Landed at Wembley​

I came to Jeff Lynne’s ELO: Wembley or Bust the honest way: as someone who remembered these songs in real time.

Electric Light Orchestra was part of the soundtrack of my life. The melodies, the strings, the stacked vocals, the polished studio sound, the big emotional hooks — Jeff Lynne had a way of making pop music feel cinematic without losing the song underneath it all.

But my connection to Jeff Lynne goes beyond ELO.

He also played a cherished role in George Harrison’s later life, helping George return to making music in a relaxed, joyful way. That led to the Traveling Wilburys, one of the great supergroups of all time: George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne. Lynne was not just along for the ride. He produced, shaped the sound, and brought the calm, steady presence that helped keep those giants working together.

That history matters when watching the 118 minute Wembley or Bust on Blu-ray. Jeff Lynne is not a showboat. He doesn’t need to dominate the stage. He stands there with that familiar curly hair, sunglasses, guitar, and gentle confidence, letting the songs carry the night.

And the songs do carry it.

From Hyde Park to Wembley​

Jeff Lynne’s return to the concert stage didn't begin at Wembley. It began in 2014 at BBC Radio 2’s Festival in a Day at Hyde Park, where Jeff Lynne’s ELO performed in front of 50,000 fans.

That Hyde Park show mattered. For years, Lynne had largely stayed away from major touring, preferring the studio, where he could shape recordings with the care and precision that became his trademark. Hyde Park proved the audience was still there. The response was huge, emotional, and immediate.

That success helped lead to new music, renewed public attention, and ultimately the 2017 Wembley Stadium concert captured here.

Wembley or Bust feels like the natural continuation of that story. Hyde Park rekindled the flame. Wembley gave it scale.

Recorded at London’s Wembley Stadium on June 24, 2017, the concert presents Jeff Lynne’s ELO in full stadium mode, complete with giant video screens, lasers, a massive lighting design, and the famous ELO spaceship hovering above the stage. It’s theatrical, but it never feels empty. The production matches the music because ELO was always built for wide-screen presentation.

This isn't nostalgia dressed up as spectacle. It feels more like a restoration of something that had been waiting for the right moment to return.

The Performance​

The concert opens with “Standin’ in the Rain,” a smart choice because it sets the mood before the familiar hits arrive. It has drama, atmosphere, and that unmistakable ELO sense of scale.

Then Lynne gets right to it: “Evil Woman,” “All Over the World,” “Showdown,” “Livin’ Thing,” and “Do Ya.” That opening run reminds you how deep the catalog is. These aren't songs that need explanation. The audience knows them, sings with them, and seems grateful to have them back in front of them at this level.

Lynne’s stage presence is understated. He doesn't work the crowd like a conventional rock frontman. That's not his style. He's more like the calm center of the storm, surrounded by a superb band built to recreate the detail and weight of his studio arrangements.

That approach works beautifully here. ELO’s music isn't about raw looseness. It’s about structure, melody, harmony, layering, and lift. The live band respects that. The songs feel full without becoming messy.

The emotional turn comes with “When I Was a Boy,” from Lynne’s 2015 album Alone in the Universe. In the middle of a concert filled with classics, it gives the show a personal note. It sounds like a man looking back at the dream that started all of this.

Then comes “Handle with Care,” the Traveling Wilburys song, and it lands as more than a cover. It connects Jeff Lynne’s ELO story to George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, and that remarkable late-career burst of musical friendship. It’s a reminder that Lynne’s gift was not only arranging and producing sound. He knew how to create an atmosphere where great artists could relax and make good new music together.

From there, the show continues to build: “Last Train to London,” “Xanadu,” “Rockaria!,” “Can’t Get It Out of My Head,” “10538 Overture,” “Twilight,” “Shine a Little Love,” “Sweet Talkin’ Woman,” “Telephone Line,” “Turn to Stone,” “Don’t Bring Me Down,” and “Mr. Blue Sky.”

By the time the concert reaches “Roll Over Beethoven,” the point has already been made. These songs didn't merely survive. They still work.

The Audio: Let the LPCM Backbone Play​

Wembley or Bust is presented exclusively in Dolby TrueHD 2.0, just like Live in Hyde Park. That may surprise some home theater fans who expect a stadium concert to be delivered in surround sound.

It's not a problem. In this case, it's a feature.

Dolby TrueHD is a lossless format, which means the stereo master is preserved without throwing musical information away. Once played back, the working signal is LPCM 2.0 — the universal language of digital audio.

The listener doesn't need to change complicated player settings to enjoy it. Select the Dolby TrueHD 2.0 soundtrack and let the system do its job. The important step is what happens next: make sure the AVR or PrePro is set for LPCM, Stereo, Direct, or Pure Direct playback — not the default Dolby TrueHD mode, Dolby Digital+, Neural:X, Hall, Stadium, EQ modes, or other post-processing.

That matters. Post-processing can be useful in some situations, but for this kind of recording it can reshape the soundstage, alter tonal balance, and blur the clarity Jeff Lynne worked so hard to create.

In a Direct Path setup, the LPCM 2.0 signal travels from the player over HDMI to the Essence HDACC II-4K LPCM DAC where it's converted cleanly to analog two-channel audio with no post-processing. The video continues on to the TV or projector, staying in sync with the music.

That's the point of the LPCM Backbone: preserve the master, avoid unnecessary processing, convert it cleanly, and let the performance speak.

And this performance does speak.

Turn the volume up to a realistic level and the soundfield becomes surprisingly immersive. The presentation is wide, clean, and powerful. The voices, guitars, strings, keyboards, drums, and audience energy all work together as one coherent musical event.

Jeff Lynne’s sound has always been layered. That's his artistic fingerprint. The reward here is clarity. You can hear the architecture of the music without the mix being pulled apart or artificially steered around the room.

For serious listening, less processing usually means cleaner playback.

The Video​

Visually, Wembley or Bust is a big, colorful stadium production presented on Blu-ray in 1080p.

The giant ELO spaceship gives the stage its identity. The lasers, video walls, lighting cues, and crowd shots all help communicate the scale of the event. Wembley Stadium looks enormous, and the film does a good job of reminding you that this was not a small reunion show. This was Jeff Lynne’s music presented at full size.

The direction generally serves the performance well. There are plenty of shots of Lynne and the band, balanced with wide views that show the stage design and the crowd. The production never lets you forget where you are: a sold-out stadium filled with people who grew up with this music and were clearly thrilled to hear it brought back with such care.

The 1080p Blu-ray image is clean, colorful, and satisfying. The lighting is sometimes intense, as expected with a stadium show of this scale, but it fits the character of the performance. ELO was never meant to look small.

Complete Set List​

1. Standin’ in the Rain
2. Evil Woman
3. All Over the World
4. Showdown
5. Livin’ Thing
6. Do Ya
7. When I Was a Boy
8. Handle with Care
9. Last Train to London
10. Xanadu
11. Rockaria!
12. Can’t Get It Out of My Head
13. 10538 Overture
14. Twilight
15. Ma-Ma-Ma Belle
16. Shine a Little Love
17. Wild West Hero
18. Sweet Talkin’ Woman
19. Telephone Line
20. Turn to Stone
21. Don’t Bring Me Down
22. Mr. Blue Sky
23. Roll Over Beethoven

The Bottom Line​

Jeff Lynne’s ELO: Wembley or Bust is more than a concert disc. It is the continuation of a story that restarted at Hyde Park in 2014 and reached full scale at Wembley in 2017.

The appeal is not complicated. Great songs. A great band. A huge audience. A beautiful production. And Jeff Lynne standing calmly at the center of it all, trusting the music to do what it has always done.

For those of us who remember these songs from the beginning, there's something touching about seeing them return this way. Not forced. Not over-explained. Not buried under modern tricks. Just played with care, scale, and affection.

The Dolby TrueHD 2.0 soundtrack is also a useful reminder: audio quality is not measured by channel count alone. A well-recorded, lossless stereo master played back properly can be deeply immersive when the music itself has this much space, layering, and emotional lift.

Set your system for LPCM, Stereo, Direct, or Pure Direct playback. Avoid unnecessary processing. Turn it up.

Then let Jeff Lynne’s ELO fill the room.

Technical Specifications:

Video
Codec: MPEG-4 AVC (19.99 Mbps)
Resolution: 1080p
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1

Audio
English: Lossless Dolby TrueHD 2.0, Uncompressed LPCM 2.0

Subtitles
None

Discs
Blu-ray Disc
Three-disc set (1 BD-25, 2 CDs)

Packaging
DigiPack
Booklet
Figure/replica/props/memorabilia included

Playback
2K Blu-ray: Region A

This show is nearly perfect, "Turn To Stone" is just one of the many highlights:

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