LOS ANGELES —
Graeme Edge, a drummer and co-founder of The Moody Blues, has died. He was 80.
The band’s frontman Justin Hayward confirmed Edge’s loss of life Thursday on the group’s web site. The reason for his loss of life has not been revealed.
Hayward referred to as Edge the spine of the British rock band, which was inducted into Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame in 2018. The band’s final album was launched in 2003.
“When Graeme advised me he was retiring I knew that with out him it could not be the Moody Blues anymore,” Hayward mentioned. “And that is what occurred. It is true to say that he stored the group collectively all through all of the years, as a result of he liked it.”
In 1964, Edge co-founded the group in Birmingham, England. His drumming experience was a key ingredient for the band’s large prog-rock hits between the Nineteen Sixties-70s together with “Nights in White Satin,” “Tuesday Afternoon,” and “I am Only a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band).”
“Within the late Nineteen Sixties we grew to become the group that Graeme all the time wished it to be, and he was referred to as upon to be a poet in addition to a drummer,” mentioned Hayward, who joined The Moody Blues in 1966 with bassist John Lodge after Denny Laine’s departure from the band.
“He delivered that fantastically and brilliantly, whereas creating an environment and setting that the music would by no means have achieved with out his phrases,” he continued. “I requested Jeremy Irons to recreate them for our final excursions collectively and it was completely magical.”
Edge was featured in The Moody Blues’ 16 studio albums beginning with “The Magnificent Moodies” in 1965 and ending with their last album, the Christmas-themed “December” in 2003.
Lodge paid homage to Edge on the band’s Fb web page, additionally lauding him for his spoken phrase skills.
“To me he was the White Eagle of the North together with his stunning poetry,” he mentioned. “His friendship, his love of life and his `distinctive’ model of drumming that was the engine room of the Moody Blues. I’ll miss you Graeme.”
