Richard Tandy

Richard Tandy
Richard Tandy in the Studio 1979
Background information
Birth name	Richard Tandy
Born	26 March 1948 (1948-03-26) (age 63)
Origin	Birmingham, England
Genres	Progressive rock, Pop rock, Pop, Art rock, Electronica
Occupations	Musician
Instruments	Synthesizer, Piano, Keyboards, Guitar, Bass, Organ
Labels	United Artists Jet Records Harvest Records Epic EMI SonyBMG
Associated acts	Electric Light Orchestra, Jeff Lynne, Tandy Morgan Band
Website	Musical career

Richard Tandy (born 26 March 1948, in Birmingham, England), is best known as the keyboard player in the rock band, Electric Light Orchestra ("ELO"). His palette of keyboards (including Mini Moog, clavinet, mellotron, and piano) was an important ingredient in the group's sound, notably on the albums A New World Record, Out of the Blue, Discovery, and Time.

History

A former pupil of 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 number one chart-topper "Blackberry Way". Later, in 1972, Tandy was the bass player in the first live line-up of ELO, then switching to keyboards when Jeff Lynne decided that their live sound needed improvement. Tandy was often seen on stage playing the stereotypical 1970s prog-rock stack of keyboards, with bass pedals under his feet. As well as ELO, he has collaborated musically with Jeff Lynne on many projects, among them songs for the Electric Dreams soundtrack, Lynne's solo album Armchair Theatre and Lynne produced Dave Edmunds "Information". Tandy's playing has been loosely compared to that of Tony Banks, by some with the patch engineering quality of Tomita. Before joining ELO Tandy played with the groups The Uglys and Balls.

In 1985 Tandy formed the Tandy Morgan Band featuring Dave Morgan and Martin Smith, both of whom had worked with ELO in live concerts. In 1985, the Tandy Morgan band released the concept album Earthrise. A remastered version was released on CD on the Rock Legacy label in 2011. A follow-up to Earthrise with previously unpublished tracks was released as "The BC Collection", containing one track written by Tandy: "Enola Sad".

Tandy is featured on all ELO albums with the exception of the first. He was also credited as co/arranger on the album Eldorado onwards. He is generally regarded as important as Jeff Lynne and Louis Clark when it came to the final sound of the band on recordings. Some of the ideas for the ELO album titles thought up by Richard Tandy were A New World Record, Out of the Blue, and Discovery.

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