THE MIKE EDWARDS HISTORY:

Born maj. 31, 1948, West London, England, known as Swami Deva Pramada or simply Pramada, sadly passed away 3 September 2010.

He was The Electric Light Orchestra's Cellist from 1972 to Jan. 1975.

Mike Edwards parents was 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 years old, 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 Orchestrain 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 The Electric Light Orchestra concerts: his 'cello solo spots, often The Dying Swan or Bach's Air, ended with his instrument exploding in pyrotechnics (actually Edwards mimed on a 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.

He changed his name to Pramada on becoming a sannyasin of Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh): the name means "divine contentment". During the 80s he lived in the group's large Medina communes in Poona in India, Hamburg in Germany, Suffolk in UK and the US, and later in Vauxhall and Archway, north London. Subsequently he appeared for three years as a duo with dancer Avis von Herder. Their work and performances were based on improvisation and included the production of his composition Vampire Madonna at the Edinburgh Festival. In later years, his work involved stage plays, arrangements and cross-genre recordings such as the album "No goal but the path" by Terra Incognita.

He was always considered as a "musician's musician", and after moving to Devon, he produced and composed music for "The Prophet" by Kahlil Gibrain with words spoken by actor Tim Brophy. He also composed and recorded music for poems by William Blake. Edwards played cello and bass viol in groups of all musical genres and established a private cello and viol teaching practice. It was probably the freedom and joy that he experienced playing Baroque music that led to a workshop in Devon of the European String Teachers Association (of which he was SW region chairman) in 1999, which the violinist Margaret Faultless was invited to direct. As a result of this, the Devon Baroque orchestra was formed and Mike played in virtually every one of its 100 or so concerts in the ten years before his death.

In addition to his playing with Devon Baroque he was in demand from many folk and jazz as well as classical groups in the area, some of which he helped to form including Sicilienne, L'Ardito, Ashburton Cello ensemble, Devon Early Music Group, Compagnie Giulia, Daughters of Elvin, Ta Filia and Presence.

Edwards was killed on the A381 road between Harbertonford and Halwell near where he lived in Totnes in Devon, on 3 September 2010, when a cylindrical hay bale weighing 600 kilograms (1,300 lb) rolled down a hillside and collided with the van he was driving. A court case concluding on 19 November 2012 resulted in two defendants being found not guilty of health and safety charges relating to the accident.

R.I.P. Mike Edwards...