One of the most popular and enduring acts in
history, the Moody Blues are Justin Hayward, John Lodge, Graeme Edge and Ray
Thomas.
Over their 40+ year history, their extensive back catalogue of 16 studio albums have sold
over a massive 50 million copies worldwide and boast such classics as Question,
Isn't Life Strange and the immortal Nights in White Satin.
The Moodies are as busy today as ever, touring
extensively, mainly in the US (come back!) and their most recent album, Strange
Times went platinum.
This is a brief and little known history of their early
days .....
They started out as an R+B band whose line up
consisted of Denny Laine (vocals/guitar), Clint Warwick (bass), Mike Pinder
(keyboards), Ray Thomas (hamonica, percussion) and Graeme Edge (drums) scored a
UK No.1 hit with their cover of Bessie Banks' "Go Now".
Ray Thomas (b. 29th December 1941 in Stourport-on-Severn),
alias El Riot and his (embryonic Moodies) band The Rebels were a popular act in
early-sixties Birmingham. Along with Ray, the band consisted of Bryan 'Bunny'
Betteridge, John (Charles) Lodge
(b. 20th July 1945 in B'ham), Ricky
Wade, Bob Sheward, Micky Heard and, sometimes filling on piano, Mike Pinder (b. 27th December
1941 in Birmingham). (Ray had also
previously worked with Mike Brassington in the Saints
& Sinners)
El Riot & Rebels shared the bill with The Beatles at a show at Tenbury Wells show on April 15th 1963 (and were photographed together with Hamburg era leathers), this other photo below appears in the new book "Brum Rocked On".
Ray's flamboyant stage-act was perfectly matched
with their mexican bandit suits and confetti-sprinkled hair!!
Gene Vincent's "Be Bop A Lulu" and "Say Mama" were
regular performances, as were instrumentals such as "Rebel Rouser" and
Joe Meek's (Tornados) "Telstar" and (Moontrekkers) "Night of the
Vampire".
Following an appearance on TV in 1961, the band was
also featured in a newspaper article. Two demo tracks were recorded (minus Mike),
standards
"Down the Line" and "Blue Moon". Ray allowed this crackly 78 to be aired on a radio show a few
years ago from which copies have spread throughout their fan-base.
It's interesting to see how Ray transformed from his front-man position to that
taken up within the Moodies.
Graeme Edge (b. 30th March 1941) spent some time as
a member of Gerry Levene and the Avengers. Gerry
(aka Micky Gibbs) was and continues to be a fantastic singer with a powerful
voice ala "It's Only Make Believe".
Their single for Decca not only boasts Graeme's chart debut (on
"Doctor Feelgood"), but also that of an up-and-coming lad by the name
of Roy Wood (Move, ELO, Wizzard). An
appearance on Thank Your Lucky Stars failed to make the record the hit it
deserved. Other members included
Jim Onslow, Mike 'Sprike' Hopkins and Joe Meek aficionados may also recognise the blind
keyboard player Peter Cook / Peter London.
The single's b-side solo featured many well-respected
session-men including Big Jim Sullivan.
Gerry is now a business-man in Sutton Coldfield and regularly performs in the
Birmingham area.
Clint Warwick (aka Albert Eccles) (b. 25th June 1940
in Birmingham, died 15th May 2004) had played in a number of bands, starting with the Rainbows then
with Danny King and the Dukes. Danny
was hugely popular in the area and is still well-loved today whenever he
performs.
Danny later had a few singles released with his "Mayfair Set" which included the excellent Trevor Burton (The Move). The Dukes went through a number of changes, becoming The Royals and moving over to another popular lead singer, local man Gerry Day.
Denny Laine (aka Brian Hines) (b. 29th October 1944)
had formed a band (Denny Laine and the Diplomats) with Phil Akrill, Dave
Wheeland and Bev Bevan (later ELO). Denny,
of course, spent many years as one of Paul McCartney's enormously successful
Wings.
After returning from Germany, Ray and Mike were
recruiting to form a new band, Ray paid a visit to Bryan, to offer a position in
his new venture, but, being out at the time, his mother reported that he was
already fixed, leaving the way open for Denny to join.
The band attempted to get sponsorship from local brewers Mitchells & Butlers and the band name M&B 5 was chosen. Unfortunately the deal never materialised and the M&B were transformed into the Moody Blues, still keeping the 5 for a short while (see the vintage cuttings from this era)! The band’s first autographs on the poster for the "Moody Blues 5" gig is also interesting, with Mike ‘hands’ Pinder, Clint ‘whiskers’ Warwick and GrEAme Edge and the mega-rare signature of "El Riot"!!!
The band enlisted the management skills of Ridge Pride, being Tony Secunda, John Fenton & Alex Murray who provided the recording deal with Decca where, over the next couple of years 7 great singles, 1 EP and 1 album were issued.
The band recorded a 10" acetate containing four tracks : the unissued cover of Arthur Alexander's "You Better Move On" and very rough versions of "Lose Your Money" (both now released on the Classic Artists DVD), "Can't Nobody Love You" & "Steal Your Heart Away". Decca finally settled on their first studio 45 as Steal Your Away c/w "Lose Your Money". Promotion however concentrated on the B-side as the Ready Steady Go appearance and the poster below testifies. Apart from the band being credited as The Moodyblues, early copies also had the mis-spelling "Loose Your Money"
A hectic touring schedule took up most of their
time, on top of numerous TV appearances. Following
a very successful Top of the Pops appearance, their cover of Bessie Banks'
"Go Now" hit the top of the UK charts in January 1965 (see my
Contracts page). Supporting Chuck
Berry on the night they found out, their fame and fortune quickly spiralled.
Following the major success of "Go Now", the follow up single "I Don't Want To Go On Without You" was hurriedly mixed, omitting Ray's flute track. For the first time, listen to this mega-rare take unearthed in all its glory! LISTEN HERE
An extensive tour with the Beatles also followed in
1965, establishing deep friendships between the two bands, both also being
members of the Epstein camp (no pun intended).
The links with Paul McCartney and Denny Laine are
widely known (ie. Wings & read Pete Shotton’s In My Life) and Mike hit it
off with John, later sessioning on a track on his Imagine album. It has been also claimed
that Lady Madonna pays tribute to the Moodies (Tuesday Afternoon was never
ending….)
Spending some time over in Paris, a number of tracks
were recorded including the underrated “Boulevard de la Madelaine”. A
further track was recorded “People Gotta Go” which was only ever issued on
the EP issued in France, and on the rarer Portuguese issue. Some speculation exists
over why it didn’t get further exposure – I attribute this to an almost
identical cover version by Loose Ends entitled “Send the People Away” also
on Decca. This failed to dent the charts and I expect Decca decided that the
track wasn’t going to be worth backing.
The last single by this line-up “Life’s Not Life” was withdrawn shortly after release, when Clint and then Denny decided to call it a day. The cancellation was probably due to the band’s inability to now properly perform or promote it.
Clint decided that he wanted to spend more time with his family and later returned to his trade of being a carpenter.
Clint's position was briefly filled by Rod Clark who can be seen on some film footage from the period performing Bye Bye Bird and I Really Haven't Got the Time. Rod's musical career is surprisingly extensive with recordings issued with Carter Lewis & The Southerners (along with Jimmy Page), Particular People, The Mickey Finn and Storyteller. His record with West Coast Delegation on Deram preceeded both Denny's & The Moodies releases on that label!. He was also briefly lead singer for the Rocking Berries and has spent the last 20+ years with Norfolk based Rollercoaster. Please revisit shortly for an in-depth interview and some wonderful photographs.
With Denny & Clint gone, John's mom, who
regularly sat knitting with Ray's mother mentioned that John was now available,
having finished his college course. The
pieces were now coming together for the next Moodies incarnation.
I bet you never realised the significance of their mothers in the Moodies
history!
John, following his time with El Riot & The Rebels
spent some time in other local bands, firstly the Carpetbaggers (along with Bob
Sheward) where John’s lead vocals on the unreleased “Blues stay away from
me” is a must for the true collector, and then in The John Bull Breed where
they recorded a mega-rare single for Polydor in 1966 (“Can’t chance a
breakup bw/ I’m a man”) along with a promotional film! (SEE
CLIP 5Mb).
(In 2005, a counterfeit copy of the Promo single appeared, with large jukebox
type centre hole). Lead
singer Brian Yeates recalls how they were due to travel to a show to promote the
single but got caught-up watching the 1966 football world-cup final and missed the gig!
An appearance on TV failed to secure a charting for the disc and the
group disbanded shortly afterwards.
(Incidentally, Brian promoted one of Lonnie
Donnegan’s last UK tours, giving another twist to the Moodies/Donnegan connection.)
Meanwhile a young lad by the name of Justin Hayward (b.
14th October 1946, Swindon, Wilts) had been learning the ropes under the
auspices of the great Marty Wilde and his wife Joyce – performing and
recording under the name of The Wilde Three – with two highly collectible 45s.
Justin subsequently released two self-composed singles
under his own name on Pye and then Parlophone and both stand today as fine
examples of his craft.
Our story ends here where Justin’s application to join a band (unbeknown The Animals) was passed over by Eric Burden to Mike Pinder as they had filled their vacancy. The Moodies shook off their bluesy standards, instead crafting beautiful phonic imagery for album after album, perfectly capturing the spirit and hopes of the times.
and the rest, they say, is history……
