Ray Thomas ✝

Raymond Thomas (29 December 1941 – 4 January 2018) was an English musician, flautist, singer, founding member and composer in the English progressive rock band the Moody Blues. His flute solo on the band\'s 1967 hit single "Nights in White Satin" is regarded as one of progressive rock\'s "defining moments." In 2018, Thomas was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Moody Blues.\n', ' Thomas was born at an emergency maternity unit set up during World War II in Lickhill Manor, Stourport-on-Severn, England. His father\'s family was from the southwest corner of Wales. At the age of 9, his father taught him to play harmonica and this sparked his interest in music. He joined the school choir a year later. He quit schooling at the age of 14, and briefly left music to work as a tool maker trainee at Lemarks. By the age of 16, he had embarked on a search for a music band and within two years had left his trade to pursue a career in music.\n', ' In the 1960s, Thomas joined the Birmingham Youth Choir then began singing with various Birmingham blues and soul groups including The Saints and Sinners and The Ramblers. He was inspired to learn the flute from a grandfather who played the instrument. Taking up the harmonica he started a band, El Riot and the Rebels, with bassist John Lodge. After a couple of years their friend Mike Pinder joined as keyboardist. On Easter Monday 1963 the band opened for The Beatles at the Bridge Hotel, Tenbury Wells. Thomas and Pinder were later in a band called Krew Cats, formed in 1963, who played in Hamburg and at other music venues in northern Germany.\n', '