Ray Thomas

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Ray Thomas (1970)

Ray Thomas (born December 29, 1941 in Stourport-on-Severn , Worcestershire , † January 4, 2018 in Surrey ) was a British pop musician who was best known as a member of the Moody Blues .

Life

Ray Thomas started as a double bass player with the skiffle band Saints & Sinners in the late 1950s and was the frontman of El Riot and the Rebels as a singer and harmonica player from 1959 , where he met guitarist John Lodge and Mike Pinder , who was temporarily keyboardist for the band. The group was quite successful, had some television appearances and played in 1963 in the opening act of the Beatles . Thomas therefore decided in 1963 to become a fully professional musician and joined the Krew Kats with Pinder, who had meanwhile completed his military service, for a few months , but they separated again after a few months during a tour through Germany.

Back in England, he founded the group Moody Blues with Pinder in 1964 , which Lodge joined again in 1966, and was a member until his long-announced departure in 2002. He worked as a singer and songwriter, his most important instruments were the flute and harmonica . His title Legend of a Mind from 1968, dedicated to Timothy Leary , achieved cult status .

During the “creative break” of the Moody Blues between 1973 and 1978, Ray Thomas released two solo LPs, the first of which was commercially successful, while the second was not listed in the charts. He did not pursue other solo projects after the band's reunion or later after his departure, but in 2010 both albums were re-released as a box set with the additional, newly recorded song The Trouble With Memories .

In 2002 Thomas left the band and retired into private life, partly for health and age reasons, partly also because of a certain alienation from the Moody Blues, in which he had not played a central role for years. While he was excellently replaced as a flautist by the American Norda Mullen , many fans of the group missed him as a songwriter and "Welsh baritone".

On his website, Thomas announced in 2014 that he had had prostate cancer since 2013 . More recently, he has been heard from again as a musician, so in 2016 he contributed flute tones to the song L'urlo nelle ossa on an album by the Italian band Syndone . Ray Thomas died in January 2018 at the age of 76.

Discography (solo albums)

  • From Mighty Oaks (1975)
  • Hopes, Wishes & Dreams (1976)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Frances Kindon: 'We are deeply shocked': Moody Blues star Ray Thomas dies suddenly aged 76 . Daily Mirror , January 7, 2018, accessed January 8, 2018.
  2. ↑ "He (Leary) said to me: I wrote books, organized happenings and gave lectures - but it was you who made me immortal with this stupid line." Ray Thomas in an interview with Good Times No. 6/2010, p. 102
  3. ↑ UK # 23 according to everyhit.com> search for "From Mighty Oaks", accessed January 8, 2018.
  4. ↑ Presentation of Eros & Thanatos , accessed on January 12, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Thomas, Ray
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British pop musician
DATE OF BIRTH December 29, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Stourport-on-Severn
DATE OF DEATH 4th January 2018
Place of death Surrey