The founder member of ELO killed in a tragic accident when a silage bale crushed his car had just beaten cancer, it was revealed yesterday.

Michael Edwards, the band's original cellist, was living in a former Totnes council house and delivering bottled water for a living before he died last Friday.

The 62-year-old was making a delivery when the bale landed on the cab of his van in a "million-to-one" accident on the A381 between Halwell and Harbertonford.

Mr Edwards played with ELO from 1972 to 1975, earning a reputation for his bizarre stage costumes and playing the cello with a grapefruit.

He had lived in the Totnes area for 20 years and for the past 15 years he had worked delivering bottled water through Moorland Mist Ltd.

He was driving his van when a huge round bale of hay rolled out of a field, over a hedge and dropped 12 feet on to the vehicle's cab. Yesterday the coroner's office at Plymouth said that a post-mortem examination had yet to take place and no date had been set for an inquest to be opened.

Jasper Solomon, the concert manager for Devon Baroque, which Mr Edwards helped found 11 years ago, said the one-time rock-and-roller had performed in some 100 concerts with the group, playing music by composers such as Bach, Vivaldi and Handel.

He paid tribute to Mr Edwards saying: "He was a delightful chap. He was warm and everybody liked him. He made instant friends.

And he added: "He suffered from cancer about three years ago and he was treated for a melanoma on his right temple. He went through a bad period with depression but from what we can judge he had treatment which was successful and he was happy about it."

He said Mr Edwards never talked about his days with ELO: "He never talked a lot about himself at all. He was a very private person."