Hello Mr Blue Sky!

Between 1971 and 1986, the Brummie band was responsible for a clutch of massive hits which show no sign of growing old.

Livin' Thing, Turn to Stone, Evil Woman, Do Ya, Don't Bring Me Down, and, of course, Mr Blue Sky, were the soundtrack to an era of overblown stage shows, grandiose production and towering ambition. And they have never been away, still cropping up in all sorts of unlikely places — such as films, adverts and TV programmes. Mr Blue Sky has even served as a club anthem for Birmingham City FC.

ELO spent 255 weeks in the singles chart, 393 weeks in the album charts and sold more than 100 million records, with 27 top 20 hits and 11 top 10 albums in the UK alone.

At the heart of the band was Roy Wood (of Wizzard and The Move fame) and Jeff Lynne, who wrote and produced pretty much everything they did.

So when Lynne decided to call it a day, it seemed reasonable to expect the band to come to an end. Except that much of the rest of the collective — and thousands of fans — quite fancied the band to carry on. So they did.

For contractual reasons, however, they couldn't use their original name, so rather cannily settled on the unambiguous ELO Part II. Until, that is, original drummer Bev Bevan (who co-owned the ELO name) hung up his sticks and sold his share of the name to Lynne.

Still keen to continue, the rump ELO (featuring original members Mik Kaminsky, Louis Clark and Kelly Groucutt) stuck at it, but being forbidden from using the name ELO by Lynne, they had to find a new name — settling on The Orchestra.

Despite the thin disguise, anyone who sees them live will be under no illusion about who they are.

"We play ELO's songs better now than we did when we were playing big shows," says Mik — famous as the 'man with the blue violin'.

"The sound is much closer to our original records. Because of the technical challenges of synths and string instruments, the songs used to be hard to reproduce — and it could all sound a bit strange if we weren't careful.

"Nowadays, with computers, we are pretty close. People all say how great the sound is. It's amazing the audience we get at our gigs. They range from young kids to their grandparents. Some of the kids know the words as well as us."

So what's his favourite song? "For reasons of longevity Mr Blue Sky still stands out," he says.

"We've played it so many times, but it goes down a storm every time. I never get bored of it, and will play it for as long as people want to hear it.

"If you go and see a band famous for music from the past, you want to hear the hits. You don't want them to throw in a load of new songs. So we don't either."

Judging by the popularity of their tours, the band must be doing something right. They have played stadiums in more than 50 countries, and recent months have seen them perform everywhere from South America to Siberia.

"We ended up in Vladivostok, which was amazing," Mik explains. "People there have obviously been fans since the years before they had their freedom. They have been listening to it all their lives after picking up records on the black market.

"We travel around the world," he adds. "In Chile our song Last Train to London is a second national anthem — which is unusual as we didn't even play it very much. Though we do now."

So is there any chance of the original ELO reforming? Err, No.

"We didn't part with Jeff on great terms," he sighs. "There are also a few legal issues, which is why we are now called The Orchestra.

"He had hoped it would be the end of it back in 1986, and was reluctant to see us tour. But it's a legal point and not something I can really comment on.

"This is where we've ended up, and we're quite happy to have our own name. I haven't seen Jeff for 22 years and there's less than a slim chance of us getting back together. But we've got the shows and all the old favourites."

And while the songs remain, another thing to change is the elaborate stage sets — which once included a giant fibreglass spaceship, out of which the band members were raised on to the stage via hydraulic lifts, among a sea of fog and lasers. The shows were seen by up to 80,000 fans.

"We still have a good light show but can't stretch to the spaceship," laughs Mik.

"We needed 11 American articulated trucks to take it around the country and it took a day and-a-half to set it up. I can't tell you how much it cost, but there were a lot of noughts!

"It did go wrong sometimes," he laughs. "Once Jeff and cellist Hugh McDowell had to crawl over the edge because the lifts broke. It wasn't the most elegant way to get on stage."

It was all very 'Spinal Tap', as Mik agrees.

"Spinal Tap was so close to the truth," he confesses. "I can still watch it again and again as we always found ourselves in the same situations — like not being able to find the stage in some of the bigger venues.

"Life in those days was fast and furious. The first time I got on a plane was to go to America with the band.

"We were catapulted from small clubs to giant arenas and private planes. It was a real culture shock to start with."

It was a heady existence, though he is reluctant to elaborate — refusing to say how many times he has been married and declining an invitation to share the gory details of the band's legendary parties.

"If you can remember the party, you can't have been there!"

The Orchestra play the New Theatre, Oxford on Thursday. Tickets are £30. For tickets call the box office on 0844 8471585