John Lodge is proud to recite his personal mantra of ‘have bass, will travel’ to one and all. The congenial bassist/vocalist/songwriter for the legendary British band The Moody Blues does not ‘need’ to tour or record music. After all, he has been a member of one of the most successful rock bands of all time, one that is still vital and touring the world, one that has songs that are still in regular rotation on terrestrial, satellite and internet radio – a band that has sold more than 70 million albums and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame earlier this year.
John Lodge simply wants to play, and loves to play, and said he will keep playing either alongside his bandmates in the Moody Blues or with his solo band, for as long as he is able. And he is a man of his word, since he is doing both, currently ensconced in a three-week engagement with the Moody Blues at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas, until Oct. 6. After that, Lodge will embark on a 10-show solo tour throughout the U.S., starting Oct. 12 in Nashville and wrapping up Oct. 26 in Cincinnati.
“The way I look at it, when you’re writing a song, you’re sitting on your own with a piece of paper and a pencil and a guitar, or a piano or bass or whatever. And you write the song and think to yourself ‘I wonder if someone is ever going to hear this.’ And then you record it and you’re still wondering if anyone is ever going to hear it. And the only way to ensure people hear it is to get on the road and perform it for an audience,” said Lodge from his home in Cobham, Surrey, just south of London.
“When touring with the Moody Blues, we can’t tour all time and we all have to make a decision when we want to tour and where we want to go. As a solo show, I can say that I would really like to go to the northeast of America and go through a bunch of places like Nashville and then go to New York, Cincinnati, Boston, Cleveland and places like that. For me as a musician I have always believed that adage, have bass will travel. You have to be a bit of a gypsy and enjoy that way of life, and I do and have done for more than 50 years.”
Justin Hayward, who is considered to be the primary lead vocalist, as well as guitarist and songwriter for the Moody Blues also does solo tours, and Lodge said those kinds of tours and shows allow each of them to be in more intimate venues and to be more creative when it comes to compiling a set list.
“On this tour I am going to do Moody songs we’ve never done on stage, like Candle of Life. And I can revisit Justin and my Blue Jays album that we did together in 1975 with a song like Saved by the Music and get some audience participation. Also, for this tour I am going to do a couple of songs as tribute to [former Moody Blues members] Ray Thomas and Mike Pinder, songs that are never going to be played by the Moodies again because they are Ray and Mike songs. But they’re an integral part of my life with those guys, both as friends and as musicians, so I don’t want their music to die and I want them to be heard live again,” he said.
Thomas was a co-founder of the Moody Blues in 1964 and was also the band’s flautist and another vocalist. He had retired in 2002 and died in January of this year. Pinder, who is the other co-founder, left the band in the late 1970s. Lodge had played in an earlier band with Thomas, and he and Hayward were asked to join the Moody Blues by Thomas and Pinder two years later. He released his first solo album, Natural Avenue, in 1977.
A native of the industrial city of Birmingham like many past and current Moody Blues bandmates, Lodge caught the rock and roll bug in the late 1950s when top American stars of the genre, which was actually starting to wane a bit by the end of the decade, in the U.S., came on tour throughout Great Britain.
“I wrote a song on my 10,000 Light Years Ago album [released in 2015] and I reference a place called Eddie’s Café. At lunch time I used to go to Eddie’s and they had a Rock-Ola juke box and he had the latest 45s from America. So, I was like 13 and listening to Little Richard banging out Lucille or Whole Lotta Shakin’ by Jerry Lee Lewis, or Gene Vincent’s Be Bop A Lula. And when these guys came to Birmingham, and would play the Birmingham Town Hall, I saw them all – every one of them,” he said.
“Here I was 13 and growing up and there was so much excitement from this music. One of the reasons I recorded my new live album [Live From Birmingham: The 10,000 Light Years Tour] there was because I was a total Buddy Holly fan. I loved everything about Buddy Holly and I learned every Buddy Holly song. And when Buddy Holly came to town and I saw him at the Birmingham Town Hall, I remember thinking ‘that’s what I want to do.’ My last concert on that last UK tour I wanted to be on that stage where Buddy Holly was.”
And he said it wasn’t just the music, but everything about the attitude and style that imbued rock and roll that turned him and all his pals onto the music. It was new, it was vibrant, colourful, brash, and most importantly, it was theirs.
“America invented rock and roll and sent it to England. And when it came, it wasn’t just the music it was everything about it. It was the clothing, the lifestyle, and the big dances that started happening. There were these enormous dances in Birmingham and to have all these ballrooms where people were jiving was amazing. And I think the whole rock and roll genre captured the imagination and you wither wanted to be a part of it, or you wanted to participate in it as a dancer, going out in the evening and enjoying it. I was one of those who wanted to be a part of it and play music,” said Lodge who talks glowingly of the musical atmosphere that pervaded his home city, which also produced contemporaries such as Steve Winwood and ELO’s Jeff Lynne among many others.
“There was an unbelievable amount of music in Birmingham. When I was growing up and in my teenaged years, there was probably 1,000 bands in the city and we were all vying to get into the same gigs and play the same places. So, you try to be different, you try to be better than someone else. So, bands started to play their own music and they started writing their own music to try and stand out and develop their own sound. That’s kind of what we did in the Moody Blues after Justin [Hayward] and I joined in 1966.”
Returning to the subject of his hero Buddy Holly, Lodge said what struck him the most deeply about the Moody Blues finally being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame earlier this year, after being eligible since 1990, was that he was now a member of the same venerable institution as the Lubbock, Texas native, who tragically died in a plane crash in 1959.
“I didn’t realize, and it was only until we were inducted, how emotional it was to be a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer. It’s like the silent majority kind of took it on. And honestly, it always came across as a big American thing, and I wasn’t too sure when I got back to England whether people back home would understand. But the amount of people that came up and congratulated me and the band for being inducted was just amazing,” he said.
“And the people at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, they were very gracious to us as well. So that was really nice. But of course, for me, standing there now shoulder to shoulder so to speak with Buddy Holly in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, that was it, that was the tops. And from a very personal point of view, I was thinking about it and what it does mean. I’ve got a grandson and I thought, ‘well, when he is grown up he may take his kids there one day and say hey that’s my grandad up there.’ It’s all part of the heritage of rock and roll, and I am just really glad to be a part of it. And I know some people made a big deal of us not getting in for a while and that it took them adding the fan vote, but I have no malice at all. The emotion for me was the fan vote and the effort that the fans went to to get us nominated. I think it was the second-highest fan vote ever. And that really is terrific, I have to tell you.”
For his solo shows, Lodge said he expects a lot of Moody Blues fans, but said he also gets a lot of people who are curious to see the show, or who maybe are regular attendees or subscribers to events at the venue and loves the opportunity to win those people over.
“These people are the audience of the venue, not of any particular band. They may have seen someone else the week or month before, so it’s a really great opportunity for me. That’s why in the early days I used to really love being a support act, because you’re going to play to an audience that isn’t your audience. And it’s great to try and turn them on to your music. And going through all the clubs and venues which I am doing on this tour, hopefully I am going to turn them on to my music,” he said.
Lodge also commented on the interesting and welcome phenomena that sees younger people coming in large numbers to see Moody Blues shows. He is thrilled that they seem to find the same sorts of inspiration in the band’s music – even the songs that are nearly 50 years old – as they did back when they were fresh off the vinyl press.
“Young people love to investigate, and I think they are investigating music on vinyl and discovering older music. I think vinyl records making a comeback is huge, and a lot of young people are interested in vinyl. The great thing about vinyl is you’re listening to music but also sharing it at the same time. You can either listen to the album on your own or play it in your dorm room if you are in college or at your friend’s house or whatever. And you get more than one person listening and it’s a much better experience than listening to music through ear buds. And some of them may just be curious about the generation of music that came out of things like Woodstock and the Isle of Wight Festival. I can say there are an enormous amount of young people turning up and they seem to associate with the lyrics and music,” he said.
“And I think there was something unique about the music that the Moodies made that made it stand out at the time and makes it stand out still today, and that seems to be what is bringing the younger people in as well. Justin and I, when we joined, we thought ‘well, what is the blues about?’ The blues is about where you grew up and what you did and how you did it, your environment, your hopes, your dreams and everything else. We thought, ‘ hang on a bit, why don’t we do that from an English point of view?’ And that’s what we did. I think as soon as we started writing about ourselves and who we were there was a truthfulness that infused the music and that truthfulness is still running today. I think we relate, and those songs still relate because of the truth that we put down at the time.”
And of course, many of those songs have been imbedded in our imagination and into the pantheon of pop culture for decades. Lodge Is credited as the main writer for songs such as I’m Just A Singer (In A Rock and Roll Band), Ride My See-saw, Isn’t Life Strange and more. The band’s other hits include the iconic Nights in White Satin, Gemini Dream, Tuesday Afternoon, The Other Side of Life, Question and I Know You’re Out There Somewhere.
The shows in Las Vegas are the official end of the nearly two-year-long Days of Future Passed 50th Anniversary Tour, which commemorates the half-centennial of the Moody Blues’ second LP, Days of Future Passed, which is considered to be the first-ever progressive rock album and featured the massive single Nights In White Satin.
“That’s been our focus for a while now and we’re just coming to the end of all that. We’re going to play in Las Vegas before my individual tour, and then I think after all that we will sit down as a band and pan what we’re going to do next,” said Lodge.
For more information on Lodge and his 10,000 Light Years Tour, visit www.johnlodge.com.
For more information on the Moody Blues, visit www.moodybluestoday.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
