The farewell tour of legendary rock group Electric Light Orchestra has been criticised by fans who note an “ironic” problem with the show’s visuals.
Jeff Lynne will bow out of performing live later this month with a final show at Hyde Park, and despite performing with a broken hand, fans were displeased to see that generative AI had been used. The artificial intelligence imagery was roundly criticised by attendees of the US leg of the Over and Out tour, and has continued following a performance at Birmingham’s Utilita Arena. Despite a thrilling, hits-laden set, the lacklustre imagery which dominated the set has taken a few fans by surprise, who say it detracts from the message of songs like Livin’ Thing. A post to the r/ELO subreddit saw one upset fan share their thoughts on the use of generative slop at ELO gigs, which previously made headlines.
A fan wrote: “AI in the visuals at Birmingham tonight. Just in case people who care about this sort of thing wanted to know, the visuals tonight at the Birmingham show relied heavily on AI-generated imagery. I’d say that, a solid 70% of the time, the centre screen was dedicated to (pretty piss poor) AI art – and that was just the obvious stuff.
“I’m sure people have their opinions about that (my opinion on it is extremely negative), but I’m just here to inform. I’d say the majority of the crowd didn’t even realise it was AI unfortunately, but I did hear one older woman mention the “computer generated bollocks” after the show, so I guess there’s that.
“Must say, it was gut-wrenchingly ironic to hear, ‘It’s a living thing, it’s a terrible thing to lose’ over visuals of AI-generated artwork. Art is a living thing, and you know what? Yeah, it IS a terrible thing to lose.”
Fans were mostly in agreement with the criticism of the artificially generated images used in the show. One attendee shared: “I saw him twice on the last US leg. The first time the AI visuals really took me out of it and I was so disappointed.
“The second time I went trying my best to ignore it and just enjoy the music, and had a much better time. It still really sucks though, especially with all the possibilities of cool visuals they could have.”
Another shared: “It bothers me for an artist of that calibre and with that budget. You could get a visual artist to do work-for-hire visuals for very little money and then just use those for the last several tours. I don’t get why someone would make that choice.”
A third added: “Was hoping they’d stop using it after hearing the criticism for the U.S. tour. It’s a shame because this may be the best stage setup ever, and the non-AI designs look amazing. Maybe Jeff ran out of money before the tour.”
One fan has disagreed, though, claiming the AI images are not a problem. They wrote: “I mean it’s unfortunate, but it’s not that big of a deal. That’s pretty lame for your main takeaway of the ELO send off is ‘Oh no they had ai art.'”
The original poster disagreed, replying: “Pretty lame for their send off to contain AI art. ELO’s live performances to me have always been about the harmony they create between their music and their visuals.
“How can that be done when they use generative AI to make crappy visuals? It completely took me out of it, because I care about what I’m seeing just as much as what I’m hearing. It’s supposed to be an experience to excite both of those senses, and yeah, I’ll be so real? The AI did put a massive damper on my experience.”
