August 2014

An evening at the Islington with Simon Napier-Bell

August 25, 2014 David Hepworth 0

We had fun talking to Simon Napier-Bell at the Islington last week. You can hear the results as a podcast here or via this clip. […]

Word In Your Ear

David Hepworth, Mark Ellen and chums cast an occasionally jaundiced eye over the goings-on in the worlds of music and entertainment.

Nights In White Satin – 260 million streams on Spotify – is still the central plank in the set Justin Hayward’s touring in October. He talks to us here about the first shows he ever saw and played, the ballroom circuit of the mid-’60s remembered in particularly vivid detail and involving the odd burst of song – “My kind of town, Great Yarmouth is …!”. Along with …

… the appeal of “a Moody Blues crowd”.

… “Name Singer seeks guitar player”: the Melody Maker ad that got him into the Marty Wilde band, aged 17.

… playing a summer season on the same bill as a water feature – aka the Waltzing Waters.

… his early band All Things Bright and their Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Coasters setlist.

… the “onerous” publishing deal he signed with Lonnie Donegan that siphoned off the profits of Nights In White Satin.

… seeing Tommy Cooper at the Bournemouth Pavilion and the Barron Knights at the Locarno in Swindon.

… “Terry the Pill” in Eric Burdon’s office.

… toying with the idea of “a rock version of Dvorak”.

… the uncertain fate of Nights In White Satin and the plugger who threatened to resign over it.

… how Days Of Future Passed was the “Deramic Sound” demo record.

… and the highpoint of the Moody Blues story and their Second Coming.

Justin Hayward tickets here: https://justinhayward.com/pages/current-tour-dates