Resurging Moody Blues return to city in fall

MUSIC: The prog rock band is releasing a greatest hits collection

Last Updated: June 20, 2011 7:50pm

Justin Hayward and the rest of the Moody Blues will perform in London on Sept. 24. (QMI Agency file photo)
Justin Hayward and the rest of the Moody Blues will perform in London on Sept. 24. (QMI Agency file photo)

Chances are pretty good later this year Nights in White Satin will be heard in downtown London.

British rock band the Moody Blues returns to the RBC Theatre at the John Labatt Centre on Sept. 24 at 8 p.m. in support of its new greatest hits collection, which will be released July 19.

One of those hits, the orchestral epic Nights in White Satin, first arrived in 1967 on the' landmark Days of Future Passed album. Late last year, it landed at No. 2 on Britain's UK Rock Chart, and at No. 27 on the BBC Radio 1 chart. That was the fourth time Nights has charted in its 44 years. The 2010 resurgence was credited to a cover performance by Matt Cardle, winner of Simon Cowell's Brit TV show The X Factor.

Over the decades, Nights has sold about 12 million copies. Not bad for a prog rock lament with a spoken-word interlude, and a seven-minute running time.

Don't ask drummer Graeme Edge - who is at the core of the Moodies with bassist John Lodge and singer-guitarist Justin Hayward - to explain the secret of the song's success.

"I wish I knew because I'd do it again," Edge once told QMI Agency. "We've always said there was a sprinkling of fairy dust on that one."

This summer's release celebrates the Moodies' 14 studio albums, including In Search of the Lost Chord (1968), On the Threshold of a Dream (1969), Octave (1978) and Strange Times (1999). The two-disc version of the release will have a bonus track from the 2003 holiday album.

An early version of the Moody Blues was a British Invasion outfit. For the band and almost all of its fans, its history starts in 1967.

They played the downtown London arena in 2004 and 2007.

with files from the Winnipeg Sun

James Reaney is a London Free Press arts & entertainment columnist and reporter.

E-mail james.reaney@sunmedia.ca, read James's blog read his column or follow JamesatLFPress on Twitter.

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IF YOU GO

What: Concert by British progressive rock band the Moody Blues.

When: Sept. 24, 8 p.m.

Where: RBC Theatre at the John Labatt Centre

Details: $49.50, $69.50, $89.50 plus applicable fees and charges. Public sale begins Friday. Visit www.johnlabattcentre.com or call 1-866-455-2849.


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