Mike Edwards (musician)
| Mike Edwards | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Michael Edwards |
| Also known as | Swami Deva Pramada, Pramada |
| Born |
31 May 1948 West London |
| Origin | Ealing, London, England |
| Died | 3 September 2010 (aged 62) Devon, England |
| Genres | Rock, classical |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, music teacher |
| Instruments | Cello, viol |
| Labels | Harvest, Jet |
| Associated acts | Electric Light Orchestra |
| Website | Musical career |
Mike Edwards (31 May 1948 – 3 September 2010), known as Swami Deva Pramada or simply Pramada, was an English cellist and music teacher. He was a member of the Electric Light Orchestra.
Mike Edwards was born on 31 May 1948 in West London to Frank and Lillian Edwards. The family lived in South Ealing and he went to school at Grange Primary School. He passed the 11+ exam and went to Ealing Grammar School for Boys where an inspirational music teacher John Railton encouraged his love of music.
His father was an amateur cellist, but died when Edwards was 14, leaving his mother to bring up Edwards and his older brother on her own. He studied the piano with John Railton, and cello with Maryse Chome-Wilson. He played in the Ealing Youth Orchestra.
After school Edwards got a job in the Midland Bank for a year during which he was able to decide that his career should be in music and he was able to pass the entrance audition to the Royal Academy of Music to study the cello with Douglas Cameron and the viola de gamba with Dennis Nesbitt. He gained a LRAM in cello teaching. As well as developing his musical skills, the academy broadened his musical experience, encouraged by tutors such as John Dankworth, who introduced him to playing jazz and big band music.
Edwards joined the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) in 1972 and played with the band from their first live gig in Croydon until he departed, of his own choosing, in January 1975. Previously he had had little interest in non-classical music, though he had played on recording sessions for Barclay James Harvest.
Although his band-mates remembered him as a small, shy, broadly-smiling classicist in formal attire, his eccentric cello playing (fingering the strings with an orange or grapefruit) and bizarre costumes were a major ingredient of early ELO concerts: his cello solo spots, often The Dying Swan or Bach's Air, ended with his instrument exploding with the aid of pyrotechnics (Edwards actually mimed to a backing track using a specially rigged instrument). He contributed to the studio albums ELO 2, On the Third Day, and Eldorado, and the live album, The Night the Light Went On in Long Beach. He was replaced by Melvyn Gale.
...
Wikipedia