The last surviving original member of the Moody Blues, Mike Pinder, who has died aged 82, became an influential force in progressive rock as both songwriter and as a pioneer of the Mellotron sound-sampling keyboard. It was the instrument that gave the band’s breakthrough album, Days of Future Passed (1967), its mystical and other-worldly quality, exemplified by the group’s most durable hit Nights in White Satin.
“If I heard strings, I could play them with the Mellotron,” Pinder told Rolling Stone. “If I heard cello, brass, trumpets or piano, I could play them … I could create the backdrops and the landscape for the melodies that the guys were writing.” Nights in White Satin reached 19 in the UK, while a 1972 re-release took it to No 2 in the US, though its influence permeated far beyond mere chart positions. Pinder’s voice could also be heard reciting the lyrics of Late Lament, a musical postscript to the song.
This pioneering specimen of the “concept album”, where the songs supposedly depicted the course of a single day, set the Moody Blues up for a long streak of hit albums including the UK chart-toppers On the Threshold of a Dream (1969), A Question of Balance (1970) and Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (1971).
They also reached No 5 with In Search of the Lost Chord (1968), and No 2 with the Moon landing inspired To Our Children’s Children’s Children (1969). They first topped the US album chart with Seventh Sojourn (1972), and did it again with Long Distance Voyager in 1981.
The Mellotron became not just a prog-rock favourite, used by groups such as Yes, Genesis and Barclay James Harvest, but was also exploited by David Bowie, Tangerine Dream, the Rolling Stones and OMD, among many others.
Pinder was especially pleased to have introduced it to the Beatles. “I knew that I would be rewarded, and the first time I heard Strawberry Fields, I was in bliss,” he recalled. “It was the closest thing to recording with them, other than my visits to Abbey Road during their recording sessions.” He would later make a guest appearance – playing tambourine – on John Lennon’s album Imagine (1971).
Pinder was born in the Birmingham suburb of Erdington. Bertram, his father, was a bus driver, and his mother, Gladys (nee Lay), was a barmaid. As a child, he developed a fascination for space exploration and rocket ships, themes that would later feature in his songwriting.
At 18, he teamed up with the future Moody Blues members Ray Thomas and John Lodge in the band El Riot and the Rebels, whose chief claim to fame was supporting the Beatles at a gig in 1963. Then he and Thomas again shared the stage as members of the Krew Kats, who followed the path of the Beatles and other British bands and spent a couple of months playing in clubs in Hamburg.
Back in Birmingham after the disintegration of the Krew Kats, Pinder found a job as an engineer at Streetly Electronics, where the new fangled Mellotron was manufactured. He recalled his first experience with the Mark II version of the device: “This was my ‘first man on the moon’ event. I knew that my life had led up to this moment, this portent to the future, and the instrument felt like an old friend.”
In May 1964 the first version of what would become the Moody Blues was formed, when Pinder and Thomas teamed up with the guitarist Denny Laine, the drummer Graeme Edge and the bass player Clint Warwick, the latter trio having been in the R&B Preachers. They initially dubbed themselves the M & B 5 before adopting their permanent name.
In the summer of 1964 the group moved to London and signed up with the Ridgepride management company, who secured them a recording deal with Decca. Success was almost instantaneous, since their second single, Go Now, shot to the top of the UK chart – their sole UK No 1 – and reached No 10 in the US.
However, they were unable to capitalise on this early success, though they managed another Top 30 hit in Britain with From the Bottom of My Heart (I Love You) in 1965. Their debut album, The Magnificent Moodies, featuring several Laine/Pinder compositions, appeared in July 1965, but was shortly followed by the sudden implosion of Ridgepride, which left the group saddled with a pile of debts. The Beatles manager Brian Epstein took over their management, which led to the Moody Blues supporting the Beatles on their last UK tour, in December 1965.
By October 1966 Laine, Clarke and Warwick had left the band and Epstein had stepped aside as manager, prompting Pinder, Thomas and Edge to recruit Lodge and Justin Hayward, completing the definitive lineup that was about to conquer the world.
The group abandoned the R&B cover versions that had provided the bulk of their stage repertoire, and focused on writing original material. The single Love and Beauty (1967) was written by Pinder and was the band’s first track to feature Pinder’s Mellotron. Their next single was Nights in White Satin.
The Moody Blues took a hiatus in the mid-1970s, during which Pinder, now living in California, recorded his first solo album, The Promise (1976). He rejoined the group to record Octave (1978), but, to the consternation of his bandmates, declined to participate in the ensuing world tour, owing to family commitments. Patrick Moraz took his place.
He released two more solo albums, Among the Stars (1994) and A Planet With One Mind (1995), the latter a series of children’s fables with musical accompaniment. In 2018 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Moody Blues.
He is survived by his wife Tara Lee, their sons, Matthew and Michael (who perform as the Pinder Brothers), and another son, Daniel, from his first marriage, to Donna Roth (nee Arkoff), which ended in divorce.
• Michael Thomas Pinder, singer, musician and songwriter, born 27 December 1941; died 24 April 2024
