Moody Blues News Archives - 2009



November letter on Justin's site
Justin has posted a new letter on his website. This time around, he talks about tour logistics and reminisces about recording during his first year with the band.

Moodies featured on BBC radio program
November 2009: Gary Crowley's program on November 14 traced the history of the band.

Justin on Riviera Radio
November 2009: Justin recently appeared on Riviera Radio's "Sportstrack" program as Rob Harrison's special guest. There was lots of lively chatter, quite a few sports scores and songs chosen by Justin himself.

Mike Pinder Mellotron DVD due out
September 2009: Mike was recently interviewed for a new DVD about the Mellotron. The working title is Mike Pinder - Reflections on Music, the Mellotron and the Moody Blues. You can see a snippet of this interview on YouTube. Visit Mike Pinder's site for more information.

September letter on Justin's site
Click here to read Justin's latest letter, posted from the road.

Ray and Lee's wedding reception
August 2009: Ray and Lee Thomas held a reception on August 26th to celebrate their July wedding. In attendance were Mike Pinder and his wife, Tony Clarke and his wife, former backup keyboardist Bias Boshell, and Lee's good friend Sue Cutlip. Sue has posted some photos at TER.

Mike and Ray reunion
August 2009: Once again, Sue Cutlip has shared some news from Ray Thomas. Just recently, Mike Pinder and his wife joined Ray and Lee for a long-overdue visit. You can see some photos at TER.

Halloween sequel to include NIWS
August 2009: Director Rob Zombie's latest film, H2: Halloween II, will include "Nights In White Satin" on the soundtrack. According to the trailer, some vintage video of the band will also be seen in the film. The soundtrack album will be released August 25 and the movie will come out August 28. Visit Ace Showbiz for more information.

Upcoming Justin interview
August 2009: Gene Godfrey of Z88.9 will be broadcasting a recent interview with Justin as part of his Classic FM radio show. The program will air on August 30 between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. EST, and can be heard by listening live at the Z88.9 website.

Isle of Wight at the Rock Hall
August 2009: On August 10th, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame hosted a screening of the Moodies' new Isle of Wight DVD. This was followed by an interview session with Justin, John and Murray Lerner. You can see some photos at Flickr.

A Moody marriage
July 2009: According to longtime fan Sue Cutlip, Ray Thomas and Lee Lightle were married on July 9, 2009. The small ceremony took place at the Church of the Holy Cross in Mwnt, Wales. Some photos have been posted at TER. Congratulations!

Listen to War of the Worlds live from Amsterdam
July 2009: On July 2, the Dutch radio program Theater van het Sentiment aired a live broadcast of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds from the Heineken Music Hall. The show was followed by cast interviews. click here for more information.




Isle of Wight DVD is here!
May 2009: The band's performance at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival is now available on DVD. Most of the acts appearing at the festival were filmed by Murray Lerner, the producer of the official Isle of Wight documentary. Due to budget constraints, portions of the Moodies' performance were not filmed, but an audio recording was made of the entire show. This DVD contains the existing video footage and several of the missing songs, which were assembled through the use of clever editing combined with the original audio. Justin mixed the audio at his studio in Italy, and the sound is very good. The DVD also includes current interviews with Justin, John, Graeme and Mike, as well as a very brief Moody history and a Mellotron demonstration. It's a portrait of a bygone era, when the band was at its peak.

Purchase from Play.com
Purchase from Amazon.com


BBC Radio 2 to broadcast War of the Worlds
July 2009: A live recording of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds will be broadcast on July 21 as part of a week-long celebration of the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing. The archived audio will be available for one week, click here to listen.

War of the Worlds articles, reviews & videos
Summer 2009: The War of the Worlds tour kicked off on June 7th in Dublin and concluded July 3rd in Oberhausen, Germany. Below is a list of articles, reviews and YouTube videos.

Oberhausen clips......[1] [2]
"Forever Autumn" at Amsterdam......[1] [2]
London performance......[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
London clips......[1] [2] [3]
"Forever Autumn" at London......[1] [2]
Nottingham clip
Birmingham clips......[1] [2]
"Forever Autumn" at Manchester......[1] [2]
"Forever Autumn" at Glasgow
Glasgow clips......[1] [2] [3]
Dublin clip

Amsterdam Photos
Bournemouth Photo Album
Manchester Photo Album
Daily Music Guide
Wharf
Bournemouth Echo
Davblog
Ross Hetherington's Blog
Sunday Mercury
This is Nottingham
Liverpool Echo
Wigan Today
Lancashire Evening Post
Photo Slideshow: Newcastle performance
Glasgow Review
Den of Geek: Interview with Jeff Wayne
Dublin review
Interview with Gaetan Schurrer
Video: Jeff Wayne interview......[1] [2] [3]
Jeff Wayne interview - May 2009
Indie London
Press & Journal


2009 War of the Worlds tour
Once again, Justin will be participating in Jeff Wayne's live version of The War of the Worlds. You can purchase tickets for the UK shows here, for the Dublin show here, for the Amsterdam shows here, and for the Germany show here.

June 7 - Dublin (02 Arena at Dublin)
June 10 - Aberdeen (AECC)
June 11 - Glasgow (SECC)
June 12 - Newcastle (Metro Radio Arena)
June 13 - Manchester (MEN Arena)
June 14 - Liverpool (Echo Arena)
June 16 - Sheffield (Sheffield Hallam FM Arena)
June 17 - Nottingham (Nottingham Arena)
June 19 - Birmingham (NIA)
June 20 - London (02 Arena)
June 21 - London (02 Arena)
June 22 - Bournemouth (BIC)
June 23 - Bournemouth (BIC)
June 24 - Cardiff (CIA)
June 25 - Cardiff (CIA)
June 27 - Brighton (Brighton Centre)
June 28 - Brighton (Brighton Centre)
June 30 - Amsterdam, NL (Heineken Music Hall)
July 1 - Amsterdam, NL (Heineken Music Hall)
July 2 - Amsterdam, NL (Heineken Music Hall)
July 3 - Oberhausen, DE (Koenig-Pilsener Arena)

John Lodge interview to be rebroadcast
June 2009: John's radio interview with Mike Smith at Brooklands FM will be rebroadcast on Friday June 26 (8:00 p.m.), Saturday June 27 (4:00 a.m. & 8:00 p.m.) and Sunday June 28 (4:00 a.m.). You can listen live on the site, and all times are U.K. times.

May newsletter on Justin's site
Justin has posted a new letter on his website. Click here to read it.

Hard Rock Park redesigns NIWS ride
May 2009: The dark ride that was based on Nights In White Satin is being renamed and completely redesigned. The new ride will be called Monstars of Rock and will feature spooky images and ghoulish rock tunes. HRP (now known as Freestyle Music Park) is renaming all rides that featured classic rock songs, since they lost the rights to use the music when they lost the Hard Rock name. You can read more about Monstars of Rock here. Sally Corporation, the company that built the NIWS ride, has hinted that the ride may show up in a new location in the future.

Isle of Wight release date approaching
May 2009: The band's performance at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival was released last summer on CD. The DVD is due out on May 25 in the UK and May 26 in the United States. The entire set was filmed by Murray Lerner, the producer of the official Isle of Wight documentary. You can see a Flash video preview here.

War of the Worlds performances to be recorded
April 2009: A live audio recording will be made of select WOTW performances this summer. The CDs will be available 10 minutes after the show and can be ordered in advance. Each three-CD set will contain artwork and photos from that night's performance. Visit the War of the Worlds site for more information.

Gone, but not forgotten
April 2009: The Nights In White Satin ride at the former Hard Rock Park may be gone, but it will always have a place in our hearts. If you'd like to take the "trip" one more time, the company that built the ride has posted this video on YouTube. NIWS was re-recorded especially for this ride, and the audio is wonderful.

Vintage Moodies footage available on iTunes
April 2009: OVOW Communications is a new company that specializes in finding and releasing "lost" musical performances. They recently added a rare 1967 performance of "Nights In White Satin" to their lineup. The video is available for purchase on iTunes.

Hard Rock Park unveils new name
April 2009: Hard Rock Park announced their new name this past week: Freestyle Music Park. The focus will still be on music, but won't be limited to rock. The new "grand opening" will be Memorial Day weekend.

Moody Blues VISA commercial
March 2009: VISA's new commercial features "Tuesday Afternoon" set to a backdrop of some very psychedelic fish. It's available on YouTube in a 30 second and 60 second version.

Justin interviewed for Beatles film
March 2009: Musician/filmmaker Seth Swirsky spent a year gathering stories and anecdotes about the Beatles, told by the people who were there. Justin Hayward was one of the people he spoke to. His film, A Year In The Life, documents that journey. Although it's still in production, you can click here to see a trailer.

Major changes for Hard Rock Park
March 2009: Big changes are in the air for Hard Rock Park. More kiddie rides have been purchased, the NIWS ride is gone, and both the Led Zeppelin and Eagles roller coasters will be renamed and will no longer be associated with those bands. The park has also lost the rights to use the Hard Rock name. A new name will be announced within a week. Apparently, the park will still have a music theme, but it will be more family-friendly and won't be limited to rock. You can read more about it here.

NIWS ride to be removed from Hard Rock Park?
March 2009: The Charlotte Observer has listed some of the changes we can expect to see when Hard Rock Park opens under new management. Unfortunately, in an effort to make the park more "family friendly," removing the Nights In White Satin dark ride may be one of those changes.

Justin on Irish TV
February 2009: Justin appeared on The Late, Late Show on Ireland's RTE One, where he sang two selections from The War of the Worlds. You can see an archived version by clicking here and scrolling down to Justin's part of the show. His performance is also available on YouTube.

Mellotron documentary to debut
February 2009: Dianna Dilworth's new film, Mellodrama: The Mellotron Documentary, made its debut at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival on February 16th. This film features interviews with many musicians who used the Mellotron, including Mike Pinder. Click here for some Mellotron facts and an interview with the filmmaker.

New date added for WOTW
February 2009: Jeff Wayne's live version of The War of the Worlds will be making a stop in Oberhausen, Germany on July 3, 2009. Click here for ticket information.

Hard Rock Park sale finalized
February 2009: On February 18, FPI MB Entertainment LLC officially purchased the failed Hard Rock Park for $25 million. They plan to have the park ready for visitors by Memorial Day. At this time, it appears that the new owners will keep the HRP name and theme, but it's unclear how the music memorabilia and Hard Rock licensing will fit in.

Justin to appear on PBS show
February 2009: PBS is currently filming their second season of Legends & Lyrics, a Nashville show highlighting musicians who are known for their songwriting. Justin is scheduled to appear at the February 22nd taping, which the public is invited to attend. The show will air in Fall 2009. Visit Legends & Lyrics for more information and to find out how you can attend a taping.

Hard Rock Park finds a buyer
February 2009: Hard Rock Park, which filed for bankruptcy in September 2008, has a potential new owner in the form of FPI MB Entertainment LLC. The company hopes to finalize the purchase by February 20th. Their goal is to open the park in its original format by May 2009. Reports indicate that there have been several other offers to purchase the park, so the story isn't over yet.

January 2009 Justin newsletter
Click here to read Justin's new letter on his website.

New tour date added for WOTW
January 2009: Jeff Wayne has added a third Amsterdam show to the War of the Worlds schedule. Just added is: July 2 at the Heineken Music Hall. For tickets, click here.

Hard Rock Park news
January 2009: December's auction failed to turn up a bidder with sufficient funds to purchase the park. The organization is now seeking to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which eliminates the possibility of emerging from financial disaster and calls for liquidation of all assets. There are some groups that are still interested in the property, but plans are up in the air at this point.