The Moody Blues frontman Justin Hayward, out on his latest U.S. solo tour, will be making a stop at two concert venues in Los Angeles -- The Rose in Pasadena on June 11th, and The Canyon Club on June 12th.
The 69-year-old singer/guitarist/composers' excursion has been dubbed the Stage Door tour, which is named after a tune from his 1975 debut solo effort, Songwriter.
The Stage Door tour title reflects his journey from young boy hanging out by the stage door without a ticket to the artist going through it.
Hayward tells ABC Radio that fans coming out to his new shows will get to hear him perform a brand-new song that he co-wrote with frequent collaborator David Minasian.
“As for what else he plans to play during the tour, Hayward tells ABC Radio, “There’ll be things from most of The Moodies’ albums, and certainly some things that we’ve never done on stage before with The Moodies. And, of course, the songs from [my 2013 solo album] Spirits of the Western Sky.” Hayward says he also may include Stage Door in his set.
“It’s not the greatest song I’ve ever made,” he maintains, “but there was lots of family and friends on the record, and it’s a lovely sort of fun thing.”
Hayward was 20 years old when he wrote “Nights in White Satin,” the momentous hit that took The Moody Blues in a bold new direction. As their name suggests, they were a blues band when they formed in 1964 (“moody” was part of a gimmick where they would look very serene, never smiling in photos).
Hayward joined in 1966, replacing Denny Laine, who later teamed up with Paul McCartney and the Wings. The band had gone as far as they could emulating American blues artists, so they set out to find a more distinctive sound.
“Nights in White Satin,” the centerpiece of their 1967 Days of Future Passed album – the first with Hayward – took them down an untrodden musical path that made The Moody Blues one of the biggest bands of the late ’60s and early ’70s. The hits were written by either Hayward (“The Story In Your Eyes,” “Tuesday Afternoon”) or bass player John Lodge (“Ride My See-Saw,” “I’m Just A Singer (In A Rock And Roll Band)”). In the ’80s, they returned to the charts with two more Hayward compositions, “Your Wildest Dreams” and “I Know You’re Out There Somewhere.”
Hayward claims there is no secret to his songwriting but that the process is a rather simple one; “I play for pleasure every day,” he explained without hesitation. “Inspiration comes to me from working. Whether it’s working with the Moodies or on my own; I need to work, to perform and that’s all that I need. Most of my material is written when I’m just playing around and something usually comes from it; a melody or a line will pop up and then I can work with it.
“I’ll develop a hook, or a pattern and then things just go on from there. Some I work harder at than others and some I don’t over analyze; there’s no need to. My music room in the house is where I do most of my writing; it’s where I’m most relaxed.”
He is an enduring talent that has helped to define the time in which he worked. Over the last 45 years, the band has sold 55 million albums and received numerous awards. The Moody Blues are renowned the world over as innovators and trail-blazers who have influenced other musicians over the years. Hayward is honored with The Moody Blues on the Rock Walk Hall of Fame on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.
He says that after the next several months of solo performances; the Moody Blues may be out and about again. “Yeah, I believe that we’ll be back out on the road in the fall; we’re all apart at the moment with separate gigs but by the fall we should be ready. The thing about performing with the Moodies is that we’ve got such a large catalog of songs, that when we do go on the road; it’s all kind of new again. We have a vast amount of material, some of which we haven’t quite done in a while, so it will be fun.”
For more information about their two SoCal shows, visit http://www.canyonclub.net/.
Reader Comments(0)