Mike Pinder obituary

Singer, songwriter and pioneer of the Mellotron keyboard who was a founder member of the original Moody Blues

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.