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THE MOODY
BLUES (ARTIST BIOGRAPHY)
The Moody
Blues formed in May 1964. Their first gigs were sponsored by
Birmingham’s M&B brewery and, consequently, the band briefly took
the name the MB5, changing it soon after to the Moody Blues.
The band originally featured Denny Laine as lead singer and Clint
Warwick on bass guitar, Ray Thomas on Flute, and Graeme Edge on
drums. Mike Pinder was the original keyboardist.Go Now made No. 1 in
January 1965. However, their subsequent release failed to match this
success and Laine and Warwick left the band.
In late 1966, Laine was replaced on lead guitar and vocals by
Swindon-born Justin Hayward and Warwick was replaced on bass guitar
and vocals by fellow Brummie, John Lodge. Both assumed the roles of
main songwriters for the band and it was then that they were
transformed from a mainly covers band to a unique combination of
classical, symphonic, progressive and psychedelic rock.
Whilst the debut album by the new line-up, ‘Days of Future Passed’,
featured a full orchestra conducted by Peter Knight, subsequent
recordings were performed entirely by band members on a wide variety
of instruments - including the distinctive sounds of Mike Pinder on
the mellotron.
‘Days of Future Passed’ spawned the singles ‘Nights in White Satin’
and ‘Tuesday Afternoon’.
Between 1967 and 1972, the band released seven multi-million selling
studio albums and performed worldwide sell-out tours. After a hiatus
of five years, during which most of the members released solo and
duo projects (most notably the album ‘Blue Jays’ and the single
‘Blue Guitar’ by Justin Hayward and John Lodge in 1975; the album
‘Songwriter’ and the single ‘One Lonely Room’ by Justin Hayward in
1977; the album ‘Natural Avenue’ by John Lodge in 1977; and Justin
Hayward’s collaboration with Jeff Wayne on the 1978 concept album
‘The War of the Worlds’ and the singles taken from it, ‘Forever
Autumn’ and ‘The Eve of the War’), the band reformed and released
the album ‘Octave’ and the singles ‘Stepping in a Slide Zone’ and ‘Driftwood’.
Keyboard player, Mike Pinder, left the band soon after recording of
‘Octave’ was complete and was replaced by Patrick Moraz, formerly of
Yes. The band embarked on a world “comeback” tour that took the best
part of a year, culminating in a show at Wembley in November 1979.
There have followed a further seven studio albums, the most recent
being ‘December’ in 2003, along with numerous tours, several popular
live albums and DVDs, and contributions to film soundtracks.
Their 1981 album, ‘Long Distance Voyager’ (the first with Patrick
Moraz on keyboards), saw them back at the No. 1 spot. The videos
accompanying their 1986 releases ‘Your Wildest Dreams’ and ‘The
Other Side of Life’ (from the album ‘The Other Side of Life’) and
1988’s ‘I Know You’re Out There Somewhere’ (from the album ‘Sur la
Mer’) introduced the band to a new generation and ensured that their
popularity endured beyond their legions of loyal fans from their
early days.
Following the departure of Moraz in 1990 and vocalist/flutist Ray
Thomas in 2002, the remaining members of the second incarnation -
Justin Hayward, John Lodge and Graeme Edge - have continued to tour
and record with regular named keyboard players, including Bias
Boshell and Paul Bliss, and recent flute accompaniment in the form
of the established Norda Mullen.
In April 2006, Justin Hayward took part in the UK live tour of “Jeff
Wayne’s Musical Version of HG Well’s ‘The War of the Worlds’”,
reprising his role as the sung thoughts of the journalist and
performing his hits, ‘Forever Autumn’ and ‘The Eve of the War’. The
show met with outstanding reviews from audiences and critics alike,
and an international tour of the show is currently underway (July
2007). |
