The crowd goes mild as the Moody Blues roll out the hits in Vancouver

john scully photo

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON FEB. 13, 1987

By Steve Newton

For anyone who was looking for a little excitement last Saturday night (February 7), the Pacific Coliseum was not the place to be. The Moody Blues were in town, and they brought their incredible repertoire of fine tunes with them, but any real fervour must have been left way back in Idaho someplace.

The veteran cosmic rockers took the stage–along with an extra keyboardist and two female backup singers–and led off with “Gemini Dream” and “The Voice”, two songs from their hit album of 1981, Long Distance Voyager. “Rock and Roll Over You” from the soundtrack of Karate Kid II was next, but it proved a rather impotent attempt at rocking out.

Then it was time for a trip back in time with one of lead singer Justin Hayward‘s best-loved ballads, “Tuesday Afternoon”. “1967 was a very good year,” claimed Hayward, “what we can remember of it.”

After a spacey intro on the hand-held synth by former Yes keyboard whiz Patrick Moraz, the Moodies kicked into “Your Wildest Dreams”, the big hit single from their latest album The Other Side of Life. A string of old favourites followed, but things never got particularly intense, and the crowd barely moved–even at the front of the stage.

Part of the problem could have been the minimal stage show, which hardly measured up to the displays of other “progressive” bands like Yes and Genesis. Still, most of the 7,500 fans at the Coliseum–despite their lack of energy–seemed content with what they saw during the 135-minute set.

To hear the full audio of my 1987 interview with the Moody Blues’ Justin Hayward subscribe to my Patreon page, where you can eavesdrop on over 650 of my uncut, one-on-one conversations with musicians since 1982.