Posted on 09/05/2010 11:29:07 AM PDT by Stoat
A founding member of ELO has been killed following a freak accident involving a giant bale of hay.
Mike Edwards, 62, who played cello for the band for three years, died when the giant bale weighing 50 stone crashed down on top of his van.
Mr Edwards died instantly in the accident after the bale careered down the hill, and flipped over a hedge.
Eccentric: Mike Edwards's bizarre costumes and ability to play his cello with fruit were a major part of ELO's appeal
Bowing out: Mike Edwards, on the far right, played cello in ELO from 1972 to 1975
Performing: Edwards plays his cello during a gig in 1974. 
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
YouTube - Electric Light Orchestra - Livin' Thing (Remastered Audio)
YouTube - Electric Light Orchestra- Evil Woman
YouTube - Electric Light Orchestra - Roll Over Beethoven
(edit)
Mike was a founding member of Electric Light Orchestra and played cello with the group from their first live gig in 1972 until he left in January 1975.
(edit)
Every time we get behind the wheel could be our last.
Jeesh, you never know what is going to happen when you leave home in the morning. Every day is a valuable gift.
ping
Wow! How freakish.
RIP Mr. Edwards
Rotten writing - hay bale careered down the hill!
Had not considered how dangerous those new fangled bales might be. They are enormous and cylindrical which means they roll rather than stop dead like those old fashioned oblong bales.
Liked their music but seem to recall certain of their records when played in reverse (don’t know how you’d do this to begin with) sang praise for Satan in clear English.
Well at least the hay bale missed the Oh.... Telephone Line...
“Fire on High” had a reversible message but it didn’t praise Satan or anything like that.
Sad.
May he REST IN PEACE.
What? I doubt Jeff Lynne (leader & songwriter for ELO) would do something so stupid. It would have been a career ender.
David Crosby might do that.
It may have been “the music is reversible, but time is not ... turn back, turn back...”?
What a freakish accident. RIP.
Almost impossible to avoid something like that even if you drive carefully and keep situational awareness. Sometimes stuff just happens.
Reminds me of an accident several years ago downtown LA on the 101 freeway just north of downtown, between the 110 and the 5 there’s a section where the freeway sort of turns and jogs for about a mile between freeway interchanges.
A semi lost a wheel in that stretch, and the wheel bounced across the median right through someone’s windshield on the other side of the freeway.
Same result.
I think we need to consider a total ban of hay bales.
Don’t bring me down...
Someone else just died, too. A comedian.
There is a reason hay wagons have round wheels and a reason hay bales should be cuboid.
Correct. Jeff Lynne has had a long and successful career with ELO. He was pretty good in the Traveling Wilburys too. The less said about Crosby the better.
ELO’s version of Roll Over Beethoven is hands down the best.
“What a terrible thing to lose”...
A respectful RIP to Mr Edwards, who gave us some wonderful music, but I just couldn't help but think of "Spinal Tap" upon reading this. Please forgive me.
“Jeff Porcaro died in a gardening accident on August 5, 1992, at the age of 38. He was spraying insecticide in his garden and inhaled too much of the spray, triggering a heart attack. An autopsy revealed a serious heart condition that had been previously undiagnosed.”
As well as producing George Harrison's "Cloud 9" album (one of my faves), and the two 'new' Beatles songs, "Free As A Bird" and "Real Love" ... not a bad overall resume, ehhh ?
The less said about Crosby the better.
Dittos
Rest In Peace. I did and do enjoy ELO’s music.
Never heard of ‘em!
Bummer. RIP Mike
That whole Out of the Blue album is a classic, not a dog on the entire album. And it had a cool cardboard ELO spaceship you could make, oh how I miss the days of double LPs.
You forgot the sarcasm tag.
You must be young. Electric Light Orchestra was a hard one to miss.
Agreed. I miss the great sound of LP's as well as the loss of album cover artwork. Tiny CD covers hardly convey the magnificent artistic expression that the better LP album covers brought into the world.
They had a great sound — and it was happy music.
Nothing on the front, nothing inside, either. The trash they sell as entertainment nowadays, artistic expression has nothing to do with it.
Comedian Robert Schimmel
Bless his heart, I guess he just baled out.
Nothing on the front, nothing inside, either. The trash they sell as entertainment nowadays, artistic expression has nothing to do with it.
Unfortunately that's all too true in far too many cases.
Indeed.
ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA music, discography, MP3, videos and reviews
Electric Light Orchestra biography
An incredible 35 years since their formation, the music of the Electric Light Orchestra is still as popular as ever. All over the world, people are tuning into the sound of ELO via radio, the internet, cinemas and TV. The seemingly ageless songs of ELO leader Jeff Lynne are even being heard again in the singles charts, thanks to the cream of today's young dance acts sampling the band's original music and turning on a whole new generation of fans.
ELO thrived under the guidance of Lynne, recording twelve original studio albums and releasing twenty-eight hit singles in the UK alone. At their peak between 1974 and 1981, ELO amassed a string of nine consecutive gold, platinum and multi-platinum albums. The band were one of the biggest arena and stadium draws during the seventies and early eighties, with spectacular shows including massive flying saucer stage sets and vibrant light and laser displays.
Originally a 1970 experimental offshoot of sixties English hitmakers The Move, ELO's initial concept of a rock band augmented by a string section struggled to find success. Though early singles such as 'Showdown' and 'Ma-Ma-Ma-Belle' were hits, ELO albums failed to make the charts in the UK and the group was virtually ignored as a live act.
It was the USA that first embraced ELO, thanks to lengthy coast-to-coast tours that helped propel singles 'Evil Woman' and 'Strange Magic' and albums 'On The Third Day', 'Eldorado' and 'Face The Music' into the American charts. UK acceptance finally came in 1976 with 'A New World Record' and Top 10 singles 'Livin' Thing', 'Rockaria!' and 'Telephone Line'.
A double album masterpiece, 1977's 'Out Of The Blue' was a worldwide smash on pre-orders alone and featured global hits 'Turn To Stone', 'Wild West Hero', 'Sweet Talkin' Woman' plus the song Lynne considers to be his greatest ELO achievement, 'Mr. Blue Sky'. Recently voted "Anthem Of The Midlands" by the public, the track continues to appear in film soundtracks and ads to this very day. The bands' legendary 1978 tour set audience attendance records wherever it played and established ELO as one of the most popular acts in the world.
'Discovery' in 1979 consolidated that success with the singles 'Shine A Little Love' (sampled back into the charts in 2005 by The LoveFreekz), 'Don't Bring Me Down' 'The Diary Of Horace Wimp' and 'Confusion'. While subsequent albums 'Xanadu', 'Time', 'Secret Messages', and 'Balance Of Power' were huge sellers, together with later hits 'Hold On Tight' and 'Rock 'N' Roll Is King', Lynne decided to disband ELO in 1986 for newer challenges.
During 2000, Lynne decided to reactivate the Electric Light Orchestra with 'Flashback', a retrospective 3-CD boxset, followed a year later by new album 'Zoom' and single 'Alright' plus a DVD of ELO's first live shows for over 15 years, filmed in Los Angeles.
Rob Caiger
Why this artist must be listed in www.progarchives.com :
This band was one of the very first to incorporate symphonic elements like the strings (violins, cellos) into the main workings of their songs.
Discography:
No Answer (Electric Light Orchestra) (1971)
ELO 2 (1973)
On The Third Day (1973)
Eldorado (1974)
The Night the Light Went On (In Long Beach) (1974)
Face The Music (1975)
OLE ELO (1976)
A New World Record (1976)
Out of the Blue (1977)
Discovery (1979)
Xanadu (1980)
Time (1981)
Secret Messages (1983)
Balance of Power (1986)
Zoom (2001)
"A little song, a little dance ..."
Sorry.
Ah man, weird. Well, they had some great music.
Doesn’t get better than Showdown - Raining all over the World
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYhqlOQ1vHY
Since I posted this thread, the Daily Mail has updated their posted article with a map of the accident location, and it appears that you’re exactly correct.
A new photo and an embedded YouTube video of one of their early songs “Ma Ma Ma Belle” has been added as well.
RIP Mike Edwards.
ELO has fantastic music. Great band.
Sad, the Guy was one of my favorite comedians.
Thanks for posting this. I grew up listening to ELO - my dad’s favorite band.
Yes. Very sad, particularly since his daughter was driving when the accident happened.
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