Mike Pinder

Michael Thomas Pinder (27 December 1941 – 24 April 2024) was an English rock musician. He was a founding member and the original keyboard player of the rock group the Moody Blues. In 1978, he left the group following the recording of Octave, their ninth album. Pinder was renowned for his technological contributions, most notably in the emergence and development of the Mellotron in 1960s rock music. In 2018, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Moody Blues.

Pinder was born in Erdington, Birmingham, on 27 December 1941. His father, Bert, was a coach driver and his mother, Gladys (née Lay), was a barmaid. As a child, he had an affinity for rocket ships and outer space, which earned him the nickname "Mickey the Moon Boy". These interests would be recurring themes throughout his career as a songwriter.

Pinder was a member of several bands in Birmingham in his teenage years, among them the Checkers, who won first prize of £50 in a talent competition. In his first band, rock'n'roll combo El Riot and the Rebels, he played support to the Beatles in 1963 in a show at Tenbury. As a member of the short-lived Krew Kats, Pinder played for two months in Hamburg clubs where the Beatles had played.

Between 1962 and 1963, Pinder worked for 18 months as a development engineer, responsible for testing and quality control, at Streetly Electronics in Streetly, Birmingham, a factory manufacturing the first models of Mellotron in the UK. In May 1964 he left Streetly Electronics to co-found the Moody Blues with Ray Thomas, Denny Laine, Clint Warwick and Graeme Edge.

The band moved to London and signed with Decca Records. Their first single, a cover of Bobby Parker's "Steal Your Heart Away", failed to chart. The breakthrough came with their second single, a cover of Bessie Banks' "Go Now", which became a UK No. 1 and US Top 10 hit in 1965. In the US the band was signed to London Records. The band had further UK hits with a cover of The Drifters' "I Don't Want to Go On Without You" and the Pinder/Laine original "From the Bottom of My Heart". They released their first album, The Magnificent Moodies, in July 1965. Pinder took his first lead vocal on a cover of James Brown's "I Don't Mind". "Bye Bye Bird" from this album was also a hit for the band in France. In the US the album was titled Go Now.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.