18 Facts About Richard Tandy

Richard Tandy was the full-time keyboardist in the band Electric Light Orchestra.

Richard Tandy's palette of keyboards was an important ingredient in the group's sound, especially on the albums A New World Record, Out of the Blue, Discovery and Time.

Richard Tandy 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.

Richard Tandy was born on 26 March 1948 in Birmingham, Warwickshire and educated at Moseley School, where he first met future bandmate Bev Bevan.

When Burton was able to play again, Richard Tandy left to join The Uglys.

Richard Tandy joined Electric Light Orchestra in 1971, replacing previous bass guitarist Rick Price.

In 1972, Richard 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.

Richard Tandy was featured on every ELO album since then during the band's original existence starting with ELO 2.

Richard 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.

Richard Tandy was Jeff Lynne's right-hand man in the studio and co-arranged the strings with Lynne and Louis Clark from Eldorado onwards.

In 2012, Richard Tandy reunited with Lynne to record another ELO project, a live set of the band's biggest hits recorded at Lynne's Bungalow Palace home recording studio, which was broadcast on television.

In 2013, Richard Tandy joined Lynne in performing two songs for Children In Need Rocks, "Livin' Thing" and "Mr Blue Sky".

Richard Tandy was part of ELO's set on Radio 2's Festival In A Day in September 2014.

Richard Tandy was absent from Jeff Lynne's ELO 2015 album Alone in the Universe, on which all of the instruments aside from some percussion were played by Lynne, but was featured on the next album From Out of Nowhere where he played a piano solo on the song "One More Time".

In 1984, Richard Tandy formed the Tandy Morgan Band featuring Dave Morgan and Martin Smith, both of whom had worked with ELO in live concerts.

Richard Tandy 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.

Richard Tandy used the Yamaha CS80, ARP 2600, ARP Omni, Polymoog, Micromoog, ARP Quadra, and Oberheim synthesizers from the late 1970s to the early 1980s.

Richard Tandy lived variously in Birmingham, France, and Los Angeles, but by the early-to-mid 2010s, he resided in Wales.