IT IS A GREAT SADNESS to have to report that Andy Townend died in the Kent and Sussex Hospital, Tunbridge Wells, on 21st July 1998, after a short illness. He was aged 46.

Andy was one of the best-known members of the British bluegrass community. Amazingly, he was playing mandolin by the age of 11, and for over thirty years he delighted audiences with the brilliance of his music. He was described by Bill Clifton as the best mandolin player in Europe and his playing was recognised and respected by no less a figure than Bill Monroe, with whom Andy first played on stage in the States in 1967. Other notable musicians with whom he performed included Ralph Stanley, John Duffey and the Country Gentlemen, Red Rector, and Bill Clifton, the well-known mentor of the Echo Mountain Band. In addition Andy was a superb tenor singer, and used his twin abilities to wonderful effect in such UK line-ups as the Echo Mountain Band, Orange Blossom Sound, Townends Special Bluegrass Service and his old-time duo work with Dave Plane. He was also an accomplished jazz guitar player.

As well as being a musician of the first rank, Andy played a big part in promoting the mandolin in Britain. He was always generous with help to aspiring players, both informally and through his workshops at festivals and the Bluegrass Days at Wadhurst. He wore his talent lightly and had a self-depreciatory sense of humour which tempered everything he said and did. At the simple and moving funeral ceremony, Dave Plane remembered Andy's relaxed unflappability, illustrated by the occasion when the two of them were playing on a stage which suddenly subsided several feet - Andy continued the number they were playing without missing a note!

Andy's musical ability, and that of his brother Rick, was fostered at Sevenoaks School by their father, who was the music master there. Although himself classically trained, with the piano as his main instrument, he encouraged the boys to listen to a wide range of music, including the Alan Lomax LPs of American folk music, which effectively lit the fuse. When his brother Rick started a bluegrass band at the school, Andy wanted to be involved, and, like Bill Monroe in his family, he got the mandolin because the other instruments were already allocated! And, like Bill Monroe, he made the mandolin the star of the show, with a style which was all his own.

The Echo Mountain Boys 1964: Rick Townend, Andy (fiddle)
Peter Green (autoharp) Mick Audsley, Bill Clifton, Derek Bleyberg

Andy's bluegrass playing was only one aspect of his music. He had a wonderful talent which found pleasure in everything from the harmonies of early choral music to Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and the jazz guitar of Django Reinhardt. At the funeral we heard, not bluegrass music, but a tape of Andy's beautifully reflective jazz mandolin playing, his arrangement of You Don't Know What Love Is. It was a poignant reminder of the talent we had lost and of the tragedy of the death of a unique musician barely into middle age.

We extend our deepest sympathies to Andy's family: his wife, Patsy, his parents, his brother Rick and Rosie, and his sister Susanna, and we hope that it will be some small consolation to them in their personal loss that Andy was such a well-loved and respected figure in our musical community. He is sorely missed.

John Baldry, Crawley, Sussex, UK

Updated 23rd Jan 1999