Music plays an important part in my life. Not that I can play an instrument (well, I can play the scales on the piano, with correct fingering) – but I always have music playing during the day whether it be the local radio station, a CD or my iPod.
I like many kinds of music – classical, pop, rock, any kind of strong drum beat – when TaikOz (www.taikoz.com) recently visited Cairns I went along to see and came home with their DVD and the sound of their drums still racing through me - an incredible sight/sound to experience. One of my current favourite CDs is the self-titled album ‘Oceania’ sung entirely in Maori, with a haka or two to get the pulse racing!
However there is one band whose music I will play any time of day or night. In fact, during the drive from Canberra to Cairns theirs was the only music I played for the entire trip. Good thing hubby was driving his own car and listening to his favourite music or there might have been another divorce in the family!
I’m speaking of The Moody Blues, arguably the best progressive rock & roll band to come out of the British Music Invasion of the 1960s.
I first discovered them in 1967 when my sister bought Days of Future Passed, which I borrowed many times. So many times in fact that when she left for Australia she gave me the album!
Between then and 1973 when I took my own journey to Australia and the band decided to take a break for a few years, I had bought and played almost to extinction their next five albums. In fact I had to buy a second copy of ‘To our Children’s Children’s Children’ because I’d played it so much the vinyl was wearing thin.
Then a whole new life opened up in front of me. A new country, no parents to nag me to keep my room tidy (although for the short time I stayed with my sister she did nag a bit) and the discovery that my birthday was no longer smack in the middle of summer but dead centre in winter and that Christmas Day was spent by a pool! Talk about culture shock!
Until 2001 I didn’t forget the Moody Blues – I bought a couple of cassettes to play in my car and later a couple of compilation CDs – but they weren’t the background music to my life during those years. Years of finding my feet in Australia, getting married, divorced (and in the process losing all my records that I’d so carefully brought over with me), married again, and moving around Sydney, then to Kangaroo Valley (beautiful place), Nowra, Canberra, Cairns and now Caboolture.
It was a week after I’d started writing Dragon Master (see the Writing page) that I rediscovered my passion for the band – my husband bought me the Hall of Fame concert DVD because he knew I was fond of the band. I took a look at the date the concert was filmed – May 2000. I thought about bands from the same era and how they’d aged – gracefully or not. I put the DVD in the player, hit the play button and watched. And heard songs I'd not heard before. And discovered the theme for the romance part of the novel.
And spent the next six months making my credit card cry by buying EVERY album they’d ever put out, plus all of Justin Hayward’s solo albums and his co-album Blue Jays with John Lodge.
So, of course, when I heard they were coming to the southern hemisphere in 2005 I just HAD to go see them, no matter where or at what cost. At first they were only going to New Zealand. Plans were made with fellow Moodies fan and Kiwi author Russell Kirkpatrick. Then I heard of the Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane concerts. More plans were made. A wedding invitation appeared from friends in southern NSW for the weekend before. The timing was perfect. Nothing in this known universe was going to stop me getting there to see the band for the first and probably only time in my life.
When Ticketek announced the date of ticket sales I did a happy dance. NSW was still on daylight saving so I could quite happily sit waiting at my computer for the time to roll around and hit the BUY button and not be late for work. Gawd I’m such a responsible person!
April arrived. I was in Sydney. With my front row ticket in hand I made it to the State Theatre with camera set to no flash, and a copy of The Mandragon Chronicles (Dragon Master's original title) clasped firmly in my hand – a gift for Justin who was the inspiration for the hero. So what if the date was the 13th? 13 has always been a lucky number for me so I knew the evening was going to be perfect. And it was. Although I had to remind myself that I wasn’t watching a concert on TV, that these guys were really standing a few feet away from me and I wasn’t listening to a CD – they were really "there".
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
At the end of the show I stood by the stage; book in hand, grinning like a loon. The whole evening had gone so well, the next few moments were going to be the clincher. Very few gifts and flowers were handed up – Aussie audiences must be considerably more restrained than American audiences – and Justin was about to walk off the stage. Panic set in. I shouted his name; he looked over, asked if the book I was waving was for him. I nodded, he came over and the book was in his hand. In spite of the noise I heard his thank you clearly.
And the deed was done. The book I had written as a kind of thank you to the band for all the beautiful music they’ve brought to the world is in Justin’s keeping.
I'll probably never know if he reads it or not. It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that I had the opportunity to see them play live before more of them retire (still miss you, Ray) and fulfilled two dreams on one night.
In the month of September 2007 Jeff Wayne brought the stage show of his musical version of War of the Worlds to Australia and New Zealand. On September 13 I was in the audience (unfortunately not in a really good position for photos) being blown away by the special effects and sounds and images. I did manage to get some good photos, and almost got to meet Justin Hayward backstage. However I did meet Jeff Wayne and thanked him for saving me the airfare to go and see the show in the UK!
As for finding out if Justin read the book at all - I still have no idea. Pete Rudder from 4BH did an interview with him earlier that same day. I had primed him with a bunch of questions from several fans, and had also mentioned not knowing if Justin had read the book, but after listening to the interview it seems the important question wasn't asked. Ah well, such is life.
Below are some of the photos I took - the non-blurry ones that is. Click on the thumbnail to bring up a full size image.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
As part of my trip to the UK in 2009 I bought tickets to see War of the Worlds at the Brighton Centre. It just so happened that they were holding two shows there at the end of June... one of them on my birthday! How could I resist? It took a couple of weeks to get tickets but eventually I succeeded and my trip was planned. The second ticket was for my sister, whose birthday is a month before mine and she hadn't been to a stage show in far too long. Unfortunately even though our seats were in a good place to see the stage, I couldn't get any decent photos except of what was being projected on the screen behind the artists. We also bought the CD set that was recorded live that evening - the queue to buy them was massive but very well organised. That's one thing I can say about the UK - people know how to queue!
In early August 2011 I received an email from my sister in the UK about the Moody Blues upcoming DownUnder tour. OMG! I had completely missed the announcement but luckily the presale started that day. I immediately bought a ticket, sadly nowhere near as good as in 2005 (13 rows back and to the side) but still within cooee of the stage.
What a show! From the moment the band stepped on stage it was a wild roller-coaster ride, only slowing down to catch a breath at the intermission and after Graham had performed Higher and Higher.
While the 2005 show will always hold a special place in my heart because it was my first, it pales in comparison with my second! This was much more like my friends in the US had told me a Moody Blues concert was like. And, of course, the major benefit was financial - no airfares to pay!
