NOS News•today, 1:36 PM
Electric Light Orchestra keyboardist Richard Tandy has died at the age of 76. Bandmate Jeff Lynne made the announcement on X. “He was an extraordinary artist and friend. I cherish the memories we had together.”
Tandy joined ELO when the debut album had already been released in 1972. He switched from guitar to keyboards because a spot had become available there. In all the different formations of ELO, Tandy would continue to form the backbone of the Birmingham band with Lynne and drummer Bev Bevan.
At a time when keyboard players were given more options with new electric instruments, Tandy left his mark on the sound of ELO: in addition to piano, he used a Minimoog synthesizer, a Wurlitzer electric piano, the clavinet and a Mellotron. With him the band had hits like Can’t Get It Out of My Head, Don’t Bring Me Down, Evil Woman and Livin’ Thing.
Mr. BlueSky
Tandy himself can be heard distorted on probably the band’s most enduring hit, Mr. BlueSky, which is still consistently among the hundred best records in the Radio 2 Top 2000 every year. By putting his voice through a vocoder, he gives the catchy song mysterious robot sounds.
Hear one of his contributions below:
His often misunderstood sounds at the end of that song are a relic from the LP era: “Please turn me over”a signal for the listener to turn the record over.
In the 1980s the band broke up, but not before recording one more contractually obligated album. After the turn of the century, Lynne revived the formation with Tandy. New successes were not forthcoming, but the classics remained popular: Mr. BlueSky can be heard extensively in the opening scene of, for example Guardians of the Galaxy IIwith a happily dancing Groot.
In https://twitter.com/JeffLynnesELO/status/1785754392437625134 Lynne did not report a cause of death, but Tandy had been ill for a long time. Last month, Lynne announced that she would give one more series of ELO performances, but it is not known what this news means for the Over and Out tour.
