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Mike Pinder

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Mike Pinder was a keyboard player and co-founder of The Moody Blues. He was born in 1941 in Erdington, a district of Birmingham. Before becoming a musician he worked for about eighteen months as a development technician at Streetly Electronics, the factory in Birmingham that built the first British Mellotrons. In May 1964 he left to start The Moody Blues with Ray Thomas, Denny Laine, Clint Warwick and Graeme Edge. Their version of Go Now reached number 1 in England in 1965.

Music and breakthrough

Pinder is best known for his work with the Mellotron, a keyboard instrument that plays a short piece of recorded tape for each key, of strings or a choir, for example. Because he knew the machine technically, he was able to give it a permanent place in the rock of the 1960s. On albums such as Days of Future Passed (1967) and In Search of the Lost Chord (1968) the Mellotron became the heart of the group's sound. Pinder was the band's chief arranger until 1978 and also wrote and sang songs himself, such as The Sunset and Om. His Melancholy Man became a number 1 hit in France.

Influence

In 1978 he left the group, after the album Octave. He made solo albums, such as The Promise (1976), and in the 1980s and 1990s worked as an adviser for the computer company Atari. In 2018 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with The Moody Blues. Pinder died in California in 2024, aged 82.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen in Nights in White Satin to the floating string sound behind the vocals: that is Mike Pinder's Mellotron. Notice how that sound swells in the chorus and makes the song bigger than an ordinary rock band.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

Categories: Artists