Richard Tandy, ELO’s Longtime Keyboardist and the Voice of ‘Mr. Blue Sky,’ Dies at 76
Richard Tandy, the keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist whose tenure with the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) spanned more than 50 years, has died, according to a statement from Jeff Lynne, the group’s frontman and co-founder. No cause of death was given, although sources said he had been ill for several years; he was 76.
“It is with great sadness that I share the news of the passing of my long-time collaborator and dear friend Richard Tandy,” Lynne wrote on social media. “He was a remarkable musician & friend and I’ll cherish the lifetime of memories we had together. Sending all my love to Sheila & the Tandy family.”
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While a low-key visual presence, Tandy — who joined the group in 1973, after the release of its debut album — made a mighty contribution to ELO’s trademark sound, his soaring synthesizers, regal piano and funk-influenced clavinet bringing alternately classical and soulful touches to hits from “Evil Woman” and “Strange Magic” to “Livin’ Thing” and “Telephone Line.” And that’s his vocoder-altered voice saying “Mr. Blue Sky” on the group’s 1977 hit. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the band in 2017.
A veteran of Birmingham’s fertile rock scene of the 1960s, Tandy first came into the orbit of what would become ELO through drummer Bev Bevan, then with one of the city’s top groups, the Move. Tandy played keyboards on the Move’s chart-topping 1968 single “Blackberry Way” and several live dates, and later toured with the group as its bassist, filling in for an injured Trevor Burton. Although he left to join a band called the Uglys after Burton’s return, in 1970 Jeff Lynne joined Bevan and singer-songwriter Roy Wood in the Move, with the intention of creating a group that would merge rock and classical music in the fashion of the Beatles, the Moody Blues and others who dabbled in that concept in the late ‘60s. For several months the Move and ELO were pursued as parallel projects — two different bands with the same lineup — and Tandy was an auxiliary member of both, playing bass before moving over to keyboards after Wood’s departure in 1973.
While post-Wood ELO was very much Lynne’s vehicle — he was its lead singer, lead guitarist, primary songwriter and producer — Tandy was his right-hand man through every iteration of the group, from its more progressive-leaning early albums through its R&B and pop phases. He also played on Lynne solo projects and productions (such as Dave Edmunds and the Everly Brothers) and the “Electric Dreams” soundtrack.
ELO’s peaked commercially in the late ’70s with the “Out of the Blue” and “Discovery” albums, and moved into more electronic areas (like much of the rest of pop music), in the early ‘80s, with Tandy taking on an even greater role as the primary keyboardist. The group fell from commercial favor as the ‘80s progressed and released the final album of its initial run, “Balance of Power,” in 1986. Lynne subsequently relocated to California and worked closely as a producer-musician with George Harrison, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison and the Traveling Wilburys.
When Lynne reformed ELO in 2001 for the “Zoom” album, Tandy played on it and joined for the ensuing tour; when the group was reformed as Jeff Lynne’s ELO in 2015, he did not play on the album but was behind his keyboards center stage on the following tour, with a vocal microphone that he used only to say the vocoder’ed words “Mr. Blue Sky.” He was introduced to the audience affectionately by Lynne as “a guy who’s been playing with me for 44 years.”
Last month, Jeff Lynne’s ELO announced dates for what was described as the group’s “final” tour, “Over and Out,” although the lineup of musicians was not announced.
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