The Moody Blues were formed in Birmingham (UK) in 1966 with Clint Warwick (real name, Albert Eccles), Mike Pinder, Denny Laine, Ray Thomas and Graeme Edge. Their second single (a cover of Bessie Banks’ Go Now) topped the UK chart in 1964, but singer Denny Laine and bassist Clint Warwick quit the group not long after.
Justin Hayward and John Lodge then joined and they embraced grisly prog, orchestral symphonies and cosmic guff such as Nights In White Satin – the low-point of the Beatles-influenced Days Of Future Passed album (1967).
The Moodies were derided by purists for their cosmic Brummie jive, their pop sensitivities and for failing to look the part but In Search Of The Lost Chord (1968) changed the Moodies’ world from black and white to vivid technicolour. Even today the album seems boundlessly ambitious.
Along with its more psychedelically inclined songs, there was the West Coast pop of Lodge’s Ride My See-Saw, the interstellar The Best Way To Travel – which finds its protagonist speeding through the universe on beams of light – and a pair of Hayward songs imbued with bucolic wistfulness: Voices In The Sky and Visions Of Paradise. The latter an extension of the lustrous balladry he had already shown on Nights In White Satin.
They Gregorian chanted as well as The Yardbirds, they structured their song cycles wonderfully, they made better use of the Mellotron than anyone, and nobody sang daft lyrics more beautifully.
Having dominated album charts and established a massive live following over the previous six years, the Moody Blues took the decision in early 1973 to put the band on hold for an indefinite sabbatical.
The Moody Blues reconvened in 1978 and recorded the platinum-selling album Octave (#6), which produced the hit single Steppin’ In A Slide Zone but the band had re-emerged into a climate of disco, punk, and the burgeoning new wave movement.
Their next LP was Long Distance Voyager (1981) which topped the US charts and reached Top 10 territory the world over. The stand-out track on the album was Gemini Dream. The Present (1983) was less successful with the single Blue World only troubling the lower reaches of the charts.
The Moody Blues staged a successful comeback in 1986, hitting platinum with their LP, The Other Side Of Life, the Top 10 single Your Wildest Dreams – with a clever retro film clip featuring young modsters Mood Six playing the younger Moodies – and months of sold-out shows in auditoriums filled with – among others – the children of their original fans.
On 15 May 2004, Clint Warwick died from hepatitis at the age of 63. Ray Thomas died of cancer on 4 January 2018, aged 76.
Denny Laine
Vocals, guitar, harmonica Mike Pinder
Keyboards Ray Thomas
Flute, vocals, harmonica Clint Warwick (Albert Eccles)
Bass Graeme Edge
Drums John Lodge
Guitar, bass, vocals Justin Hayward
Bass, vocals Patrick Moraz
Keyboards
Video
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Having dominated album charts and established a massive live following over the previous six years, the Moody Blues took the decision in early 1973 to put the band on hold for an indefinite sabbatical.
