Mike Pinder, co-founder of the Moody Blues whose work on the Mellotron became their signature sound – obituary

• Mike Pinder, who has died aged 82, co-founded the Moody Blues and was the last surviving member of the original line-up; though he played an array of keyboards and other instruments, it was his Mellotron, with its plangent, eerie, faux-orchestral sweeps of sound, that gave the band their distinctive flavour and helped them sell more than 70 million records.