A FORMER member of popular Irish band The Saw Doctors has passed away in Thailand.
Tony Lambert is believed to have died following a heart condition.
Originally from Wales, Lambert played keyboard and accordion with the Galway band.
In 1993, he won more than €850,000 in the National Lottery, and soon after left the band for a new life in Thailand.
Before his Lotto win, he had lived in a converted bus in an old farmyard in Claregalway.
Lead guitarist for the band, Leo Moran, has been paying tribute to “a truly magnificent man of music”.
Moran described Lambert as a “virtuoso musician on many instruments”.
He continued: “He could play with great feel and hit so many right notes, as few or as many as were appropriate, and he also had the expertise to squeeze every classic electric and mechanical trick out of the Hammond organ and its accompanying twirling Leslie speaker.
“His presence added warm, deep and dynamic textures to the songs of The Saw Doctors.
“In 1993 he won the Irish lotto and not long after moved to Thailand, never again having to wait for a late-arriving minibus to shake him on bad roads to some end of the country or other.”
