THE RICHARD TANDY HISTORY:
Born mar. 26, 1948, Birmingham, England.
He was The Electric Light Orchestra's Keyboard player from 1972 to today.
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.
The earliest I have found is that Richard Tandy was in the band The Dominettes in 1962.
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 number one chart-topper "Blackberry Way". Richard Tandy played for some times the keyboards, but as Trevor Burton hurt his shoulder Richard Tandy took of relieving the bass. Amid the height of their success, and in the grand tour of America took Trevor Burton his clothes and went with the message: I'm not playing this commercial shit anymore .......... I'm off ! ! He then joined with The Uglys in February 69.
Immediately after followed Richard Tandy to The Uglys, that after losing the last of the original members, decided to start up the new name "The Balls" in April 1969.
The Balls 1 line up in February - Dec. 1969: Richard Tandy keyboards, Keith Smart drums (later "Youngblood" "Mongrel" ), Dave Morgan bass (later songwriter ), Steve Gibbons vocals (later Steve Gibbons Band), Trevor Burton guitar (formerly Move Later "Steve Gibbons Band"), Denny Laine guitar / vocal (formerly "Moody Blues" later " Wings ").
In 1971, released the single "Fight for my country"
Then comes Richard Tandy with the newly founded The Electric Light Orchestra in Oct. 1971.
1 line up (Roy Wood, cello, vocal, etc.., Bill Hunt keyboards, french horn, Hugh McDowell cello, Bev Bevan drums / vocals , Jeff Lynne guitar / vocals, Richard Tandy bass / vocals (formerly "The Balls" "The Uglys"), Wilf Gibson violin, cello Andy Craig (leaving later showbiz)).
Later in 1972, Tandy was the bass player in the first live line-up of The Electric Light Orchestra, then switching to keyboards when Jeff Lynne decided that their live sound needed improvement.
August 1972 - Sept. 1973. : 2 line up (Bev Bevan drums / vocals , Jeff Lynne guitar / vocals, Richard Tandy bass / vocals , Michael De Albuquerque bass / vocal, Mike Edwards cello, Wilf Gibson violin, Colin Walker cello).
With "10538 Overture" climbing the charts rocketed The Electric Light Orchestra appeared on Top of the Pops with roadies ( bearing stitches) and the audience loved them and that meant their new debut was a reality at Reading Festival 12th August 1972. The second album sparked a top 10 hit for "Roll of Beethoven" and it laid the economic basis for their first U.S. tour, where they began to lay the foundation for future successes. Wilf Gibson left the band in Sept. 1973 Colin Walker ( whose greatest resentment was that he did not play at Elinor Rigby by The Beatles ) left the band in December 1973 back to teach. Hugh Mc Dowell coming back.
Sept . 1973 - Oct. 1974. : 3 line up (Hugh Mc Dowell cello, Bev Bevan drums / vocals, Jeff Lynne guitar / vocals, Richard Tandy bass / vocals, Mik Kaminski violin, Michael De Albuquerque bass / vocal, Mike Edwards cello).
Because of the minimal conditions for the group's ambitions and the Lysol was not available in England, began The Electric Light Orchestra to concentrate almost exclusively on the U.S. market and toured as much as possible. As a result, sold their fourth album "Eldorado" for gold and the single "Can't get it out of my head" was the first in the Top 10 Also for the first time used Jeff Lynne, a full orchestra and choir to establish the group's sound on "Eldorado" (a little hint of what might come in the future). This line up also recorded the album "The night the light went on in Long Beach" and was only released in Australia, New Zealand and continental Europe. Mike Edwards and the Michael De Albuquerque leaft the group in Oct. 1974.
Oct . 1974 - 4 line up. : (Hugh Mc Dowell cello, Bev Bevan drums / vocals, Jeff Lynne guitar / vocals, Richard Tandy bass / vocals, Mik Kaminski violin, Kelly Groucutt bass / vocal, Melvyn Gale cello).
In came Kelly Groucutt (one week he played in Sight'n'sound to get uninterested and the next he played for adskellige thousands of wild fans in some of America 's ampfiteatre ) and Melvyn Gale previously played with the London & National Youth Orchestras. In the following 5 years, The Electric Light Orchestra one of the largest bands in the world. "Face the Music" was certified gold after just a few weeks after the release, "A new world record" was on the U.S. album charts for over a year and "Out of the blue" were pre-ordered for over 47 million dollars. Their next album "Discovery" was a top 5 record in the world. I wonder if Jeff Lynne in May 1966 had an idea of what he wanted to achieve ?
Tandy was often seen on stage playing the stereotypical 1970s prog-rock stack of keyboards, with bass pedals under his feet. As well as The Electric Light Orchestra, he has collaborated musically with Jeff Lynne on many projects, among them songs for the Electric Dreams soundtrack, Jeff Lynne's solo album Armchair Theatre and Jeff Lynne produced Dave Edmunds' Information. Before joining The Electric Light Orchestra Richard Tandy played with the groups The Ugly's and Balls.
Tandy played on "Funky Moped" by Jasper Carrott in 1975.
Tandy's first marriage was to a woman named Carol, but the marriage ended in divorce, and he is now married to his second wife Sheila. He has lived variously in Birmingham, France, Los Angeles and currently resides in Wales.
In 1985 Tandy formed the Tandy Morgan Band featuring Dave Morgan and Martin Smith, both of whom had worked with The Electric Light Orchestra 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 The Electric Light Orchestra albums with the exception of the first. He was also credited as co-arranger from Eldorado onwards. Some of the ideas for the The Electric Light Orchestra album titles conceived by Richard Tandy were A New World Record, Out of the Blue, and Discovery.
2001 published the new The Electric Light Orchestra album "ZOOM" , after 15 -year break, Jeff Lynne plays the majority of instruments, has written and produced the whole thing, the only thing that I will mention among the musicians is George Harrison, Ringo Star, Richard Tandy and Jeff Lynne's daughter Laura Lynne and Rosie Vela.
In 2012, Tandy teamed up again with Jeff Lynne to record another The Electric Light Orchestra project, a live set of the band's biggest hits recorded at Jeff Lynne's Bungalow Palace home recording studio, which was broadcast on TV.
In 2013, Tandy joined Lynne in performing two songs for Children In Need Rocks, "Livin' Thing" and "Mr Blue Sky".
He was also part of ELO's set on Radio 2's Festival In A Day in September 2014.
2016, Tandy is on the "Alone in the Universe" tour with Jeff Lynne's ELO.
Read the review of the Alone in the Universe 2016 tour, here
Check my video wich is a collection of video clips from the whole Tour:
Alone in the Universe Tour 2016
7. April 2017
ELO's members Jeff Lynne, Roy Wood, Bev Bevan & Richard Tandy was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the induction ceremony at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Dhani Harrison was on hand to induct ELO, a reminder of the lasting connection between his father George Harrison and Lynne. Both 1987’s Cloud Nine and Harrison’s posthumous 2002 album Brainwashed were co-produced by Lynne. They were also members of the Traveling Wilburys, and later collaborated on Beatles reunion songs in the ’90s.
“If my father was still with us, I imagine he’d be standing where I am now, graciously inducting the original members of ELO into the Hall,” Dhani said during his induction speech. “He loved ELO.”
Check my video of this great event: ELO Rock n Roll Hall of Fame 2017
There has not been much information about Richard over the past couple of years
There has not been much information about Richard over the past couple of years and the rumors go on if Richard has been or is ill. Therefore it was nice to see this photo from late November 2018 on Facebook the oyher day. He looks great and I hope to see/hear more about him.
Richard Tandy and Dave Scott Morgan is signing 50 copies of the Tandy & Morgan, Earthrise album to selebrate the 50 years since the first earthrise by Apollo 8 on Christmas Eve 1968.