{"id":7470,"date":"2026-01-30T17:36:04","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T17:36:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/?p=7470"},"modified":"2026-01-30T20:05:42","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T20:05:42","slug":"issue-172-moody-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/?p=7470","title":{"rendered":"Issue #172 – The Moody Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"

A day under three years separated THE MOODY BLUES\u2019 \u2018Go Now!\u2019 topping the UK charts and Days Of Future Passed <\/em>entering them. During that time, they underwent the most prolonged, tortured evolution of all the British groups that traded beat and blues for psychedelia. It took so long that that the peak of their Denny Laine-led fame and the dawn of their psych-prog pomp neatly bookend the 1965-67 golden era of British music \u2013 an era they spent exiled in pop\u2019s hinterlands. <\/strong><\/p>\n

SHAUN HAND<\/strong> untangles the true story of the Moodies\u2019 \u201960s metamorphosis<\/strong><\/p>\n

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As 1967 dawned, hopes of a fresh start were dashed when Decca, looking to recoup losses, issued two Laine-era recordings, \u2018Life\u2019s Not Life\u2019 and \u2018He Can Win\u2019, on 45. It wasn\u2019t a bad single on its own terms, but against the tougher contemporary likes of, say, The Move\u2019s \u2018Night Of Fear\u2019 and The Spencer Davis Group\u2019s \u2018I\u2019m A Man\u2019, it sounded quaint (or, if you believe The <\/em>Evening Standard<\/em>\u2019s review, \u201clike an Oriental Beach Boys\u201d).<\/p>\n

One of many myths to grow up in Moody Blues lore states that, by March 1967, the group had been reduced to performing cabaret for a 10th of the fee they\u2019d commanded just 18 months earlier. They hit rock bottom when they were confronted by an angry punter backstage in Stockton-on-Tees (there\u2019s that town again) who told them they were the worst band he\u2019d ever seen, reducing Hayward and Thomas to tears. On the drive home, they resolved to quit cabaret, ditch the suits and cover versions and follow their hearts; lo, the stars aligned and Days Of Future Passed <\/em>soon emerged.<\/p>\n