The Moody Blues formed in May 1964. Their first gigs were sponsored by Birmingham's M&B brewery and, consequently, the band briefly took the name the MB5, changing it soon after to the Moody Blues. The band originally featured Denny Laine as lead singer and Clint Warwick on bass guitar, Ray Thomas on Flute, and Graeme Edge on drums. Mike Pinder was the original keyboardist.Go Now made No. ...show more

The Moody Blues formed in May 1964. Their first gigs were sponsored by Birmingham's M&B brewery and, consequently, the band briefly took the name the MB5, changing it soon after to the Moody Blues. The band originally featured Denny Laine as lead singer and Clint Warwick on bass guitar, Ray Thomas on Flute, and Graeme Edge on drums. Mike Pinder was the original keyboardist.Go Now made No.

1 in January 1965. However, their subsequent release failed to match this success and Laine and Warwick left the band. In late 1966, Laine was replaced on lead guitar and vocals by Swindon-born Justin Hayward and Warwick was replaced on bass guitar and vocals by fellow Brummie, John Lodge. Both assumed the roles of main songwriters for the band and it was then that they were transformed from a mainly covers band to a unique combination of classical, symphonic, progressive and psychedelic rock.

Whilst the debut album by the new line-up, 'Days Of Future Passed', featured a full orchestra conducted by Peter Knight, subsequent recordings were performed entirely by band members on a wide variety of instruments - including the distinctive sounds of Mike Pinder on the mellotron. 'Days of Future Passed' spawned the singles 'Nights In White Satin' and 'Tuesday Afternoon'. Between 1967 and 1972, the band released seven multi-million selling studio albums and performed worldwide sell-out tours. After a hiatus of five years, during which most of the members released solo and duo projects (most notably the album 'Blue Jays' and the single 'Blue Guitar' by Justin Hayward and John Lodge in 1975; the album 'Songwriter' and the single 'One Lonely Room' by Justin Hayward in 1977; the album 'Natural Avenue' by John Lodge in 1977; and Justin Hayward's collaboration with Jeff Wayne on the 1978 concept album 'The War of the Worlds' and the singles taken from it, 'Forever Autumn' and 'The Eve of the War'), the band reformed and released the album 'Octave' and the singles 'Stepping in a Slide Zone' and 'Driftwood'. ...show less