Richard Tandy

Richard Tandy (26 March 1948 – 1 May 2024) was an English musician. He was the full-time keyboardist in the band Electric Light Orchestra ("ELO"). His palette of keyboards (including Minimoog, Clavinet, Mellotron, and piano) was an important ingredient in the group's sound, especially on the albums A New World Record (1976), Out of the Blue (1977), Discovery (1979) and Time (1981). He collaborated musically with ELO frontman Jeff Lynne on many projects, among them songs for the Electric Dreams soundtrack, Lynne's solo album Armchair Theatre and Lynne-produced Dave Edmunds album Information.

Tandy was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 as a member of Electric Light Orchestra.

Tandy was born on 26 March 1948 in Birmingham, Warwickshire and educated at Moseley School, where he first met future bandmate Bev Bevan. Tandy would later be reunited with Bevan in 1968 when he played the harpsichord on The Move's UK number one chart single "Blackberry Way" and briefly joined them live playing keyboards, but switched to bass while regular bassist Trevor Burton was sidelined due to a shoulder injury. When Burton was able to play again, Tandy left to join The Uglys.

Tandy joined Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) in 1971, replacing previous bass guitarist Rick Price. At this time he also played guitar on live performances and TV appearances by The Move. In 1972, Tandy served as the bassist in the first live line-up of ELO, before becoming the band's full-time keyboardist after the departure of Bill Hunt who left with Roy Wood to form Wizzard. Tandy was featured on every ELO album since then during the band's original existence starting with ELO 2.

Tandy's keyboards were an integral part of ELO's sound, and include piano, Minimoog, Clavinet, Oberheim, Wurlitzer electric piano, Mellotron, Yamaha CS-80, ARP 2600, and harmonium. He was also proficient on guitar. On some albums he is also credited with vocals or backing vocals, without any specification of which songs. Tandy was Jeff Lynne's right-hand man in the studio and co-arranged the strings with Lynne and Louis Clark from Eldorado onwards.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.