RIP - Mike Edwards

Michael Edwards

b : 31 May 1948

d. : 03 September 2010

aka : Swami Deva Pramada

. He was the original cellist (1972) for the Electric Light Orchestra, appearing on four of their early albums. He also did some session work with Barclay James Harvest, one of the most underrated bands of all time. . According to Wikipedia, he put on a bizarre act with ELO - fingering the strings of the cello with an orange or a grapefruit, and eventually having his cello explode in a burst of pyrotechnics. After leaving ELO (1975), he changed his name to Swami Deva Pramada. . He was killed last Friday in a unlikely accident. While motoring down the road in England in his van, a 600-kg cylindrical bale of hay (that's more than a half-ton to us Yanks) rolled down a hillside and slammed into his vehicle. You can read CNN's article on it here. . I'm sure theists of various persuasions will come up with some mystical and inane explanations for this. For me, I'll simply mourn the passing of a one-of-a-kind artist. Playing a cello in a rock-&-roll band is strange enough; playing it with fruit is even more unique. Now I gotta go out and find an old DVD of ELO.