[3][4] Edwards joined the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) in 1972 and played with the band from their first live gig in Croydon until he departed, of his own choosing, in January 1975.

[1] Although his bandmates remembered him as a small, shy, broadly-smiling classicist in formal attire,[6] his eccentric cello playing (fingering the strings with an orange or grapefruit) and bizarre costumes were a major ingredient of early ELO concerts: his cello solo spots, often The Dying Swan or Bach's Air, ended with his instrument exploding with the aid of pyrotechnics (Edwards actually mimed to a backing track using a specially rigged instrument).

During the 1980s, he lived in the group's large Medina commune near Herringswell[9] in Suffolk, England as well as spells in Poona in India, Hamburg in Germany, and the US,[2] and later in Vauxhall and Archway, London.

After moving to Dartington in Devon, he produced and composed music for The Prophet by Khalil Gibran with words spoken by actor Tim Brophy.

[10] 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.

[11] 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.

The wild and strange middle bit in "Showdown" is actually Mike Edwards double tracked over and over adding odd notes all the time.