HAYWARD

Justin Hayward is an English musician, best known as songwriter, lead singer and guitarist in the rock band The Moody Blues. He is the songwriter of such hits as NIGHTS IN WHITE SATIN, TUESDAY AFTERNOON and QUESTION.


In 1966 Justin Hayward joined the Moody Blues and quickly began contributing to the group. . The Moody Blues’ new style featured the symphonic sounds of Pinder’s Mellotron. Ray Thomas’s flute became a featured instrument. Their Decca contract was set to expire with several thousand pounds still owed in advances. The label had a new subsidiary imprint Deram and the debt would be forgiven if the group would promote the company’s new Deramic Stereo Sound by recording a rock and roll version of Dvorak’s New World Symphony. The assigned project was abandoned but the group managed to convince Peter Knight, the arranger and conductor of the orchestral interludes, to collaborate on a recording that used the band’s original material instead. The resulting concept album Days of Future Passed, released in November 1967, became one of the most successful pop/rock releases of the period, earning a gold record award and reaching No. 27 on the British LP chart. Five years later it was to reach No. 3 on the U. S. Billboard charts. The recording was a song cycle that took place over the course of a single day. The London Festival Orchestra, a loose affiliation orf Decca’s classical musicians, provided an orchestral linking framework to the Moodies’ songs plus overture and conclusion sections and backed up Graeme Edge’s opening and closing poems. Strings were added to the album version of Hayward’s”Nights in White Satin” which were absent on the single hit version. Hayward also wrote “Tuesday Afternoon”, Thomas provided “Another Morning” and “Twilight Time”, Lodge penned “Peak Hour” and “Time To Get Away”, and Pinder composed both “The Sun Set” and “Dawn Is A Feeling.” The album plus the two singles “Nights in White Satin” and “Tuesday Afternoon” took time to find an audience and it wasn’t until a December 1972 reissue that “Nights” made No. 9 on the UK singles chart. It reached No. 2 in the U. S. where “Tuesday Afternoon” reached No. 24 in the initial 1968 release.

The 1968 follow-up LP In Search of the Lost Chord included “Legend of a Mind” written by Ray Thomas in tribute to LSD guru Timothy Leary. Hayward’s “Voices in the Sky” charted as a single in the UK. The 1969 On the Threshold of a Dream provided Hayward’s “Lovely to see You” and “Never Comes the Day”, the latter charting as a UK single. The band’s music continued to become more complex and symphonic with heavy amounts of reverberation on the vocal tracks, resulting in 1969’s To Our Children’s Children’s Children, a concept album inspired by the first moon landing and the first to released on their own label “Threshold” under license to Decca. Although the Moodies had by now defined a somewhat psychedelic stle and helped to define the progressive rock, then also known as ‘art work’, sound, the group decided to record an album that could be played in concert, losing some of their full-blown sound for A Question of Balance (1970). This album reached No. 3 in America and No.1 in Britain, Hayward’s “Question” was a No. 2 single hit in the UK. For their next two albums Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (1971) from which Hayward’s “The Story in Your Eyes” was taken as a U.S. charting single and Seventh Sojourn (1972) which reached No. 1 in the U.S., the band returned to their signature orchestral sound.

In the spring of 1974 after completing a world tour, the group took an extended break. In 1977 the group made a decision to record together again and by spring 1978 Octave was ready for release. Pinder did not tour, Patrick Moraz formerly of the band Yes was engaged as keyboardist for the tour. The Moodies toured the U. S. and Europe for much of 1979. By 1980 they were ready to record again and Pinder did not return. Long Distance Voyager released in 1981 reached No. 1 on Billboard and was top 5 in the UK. The Present (1983) was less successful but in 1986 they enjoyed renewed success with their album The Other Side of Life.
Their sound took on an ever-increasingly synthetic and technical quality with the use of modern sequencers, samplers and drum machines. Their vocal sound became three-part harmony upon Pinder’s departure and later the still recognizable sound of Hayward and Lodge. In 1991 Moraz was replaced by a new keyboardist Paul Bliss who performed with the band until 2010. Keys of the Kingdom (1992) had modest commercial success but the group remained a steady concert draw and a series of video and audio versions of their 1992 Night at Red Rocks concert enjoyed great success. The group also continued their use of additional musicians on stage and in the studio.
The group spent time perfecting the art of performing live with an orchestra and took a hiatus from recording until 1999 with the release of Strange Times. In 2000 the band released Hall of Fame, a new live concert from the Royal Albert Hall. At the end of 2002 founding member Ray Thomas retired. Flautist and rhythm guitarist Norda Mullen has worked with the band live and in the studio since. Toward the end of 2003 they released an album entitled December. In March 2006 the first five of the band’s ‘Core Seven’ albums (from Days of Future Passed to Seventh Sojourn) were re-released in SACD format with Deluxe Editions featuring bonus songs and rare previously unreleased tracks. In April 2007 the last two were re-released. These deluxe editions are unique in that one of their members, Justin Hayward, was the one taken on to do the work. A compilation of various television appearances and sessions recorded at BBC studios has also been released. As of 2015 The Moody Blues remain active, they continue to tour, have sold more than 70 million albums worldwide and have been awarded 18 platinum and gold discs.