This has been available on videotape for ages, but in the past three or so years has seen release on CD and DVD as well. Does that really improve it? Well…no. Not really. Despite being a Royal Gala performance (with the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester in the crowd), this is far from the best live show ELO has ever put on. There are far stronger performances on the BBC Sessions disc and Live At Winterland. But this was from “the spaceship tour!” So naturally, this is what everyone remembers. (In case you’re one who doesn’t: the spaceship tour is the year-long globetrotting circuit ELO did using an enormous fiberglass spaceship set as its stage; the “flying saucer,” a weak likeness of the famous ELO spaceship on the Out Of The Blue album cover, would open each night with an elaborate fog and light show to reveal the band within – provided that the hydraulics to open the “lid” and lift the band up into view worked. Jeff Lynne has since likened the 1978 tour to Spinal Tap.)
Things start out somewhat inauspiciously with the “Concerto For A Rainy Day / Standin’ In The Rain” intro…on tape. The rendition of the remainder of the song following the intro isn’t exactly the band’s high point.
The fact of the matter is that the sound on this album is atrocious. If you’re going to spring for the Live At Wembley album, get the DVD instead of the CD. That way, at least the awful sound quality is at least offset by the ability to see something. And sadly, this is probably the only concert footage of ELO we’re going to see until Lynne and his new recruits hit the road to crank out the classics and the new stuff 
from Zoom this summer.
The DVD also features an entire separate section featuring the complete collection of laughably low-budget videos from the album Discovery, a nice bonus to help justify the cost.
- Introduction – Tony Curtis (2:48)
- Standin’ In The Rain (3:37)
- Night In The City (3:52)
- Turn To Stone (3:53)
- Tightrope (4:34)
- Telephone Line (4:19)
- Rockaria! (2:52)
- Wild West Hero (3:09)
- Showdown (3:13)
- 1-Minute Talk (0:54)
- Sweet Talkin’ Woman (3:53)
- Mr. Blue Sky (3:38)
- Do Ya (4:46)
- Livin’ Thing (3:57)
- Roll Over Beethoven (6:45)
Released by: Eagle / Edel
Release date: 1998
Total running time: 56:10
