FANS of Justin Hayward gathered at St David’s Hall for a rare musical treat on Sunday evening as the legendary voice of The Moody Blues gave a solo concert with musicians Mike Dawes and Julie Ragins.
With over 5 decades of material to choose from, this was a great opportunity for Hayward to play a selection of solo songs including the theme to a new film The Wind of Heaven, as well as a few lesser known Moody Blues songs.
Relaxed and informative, Hayward played a variety of acoustic guitars used on his recordings and regaled stories about how the songs were created.
Accompanying musician, Mike Dawes also had chance to shine with two mini solo sets. The young finger-style guitar virtuoso has made an art out of multi layered guitar playing, having both the personality and talent to command his own audiences with renditions of Gotye’s Someone I used to Know and his own composition The Impossible.
Hayward then performed an acoustic solo rendition of Eastern Sun before been re-joined on stage by Dawes and Ragins for renditions of Question (which included the audience helping out with the second line of the chorus on Hayward’s request) and meticulous performances of the classics Forever Autumn and Nights in White Satin. Ragins’ synthesiser instrumentation really came to the fore here providing the necessary accompaniment on Nights In White Satin and Forever Autumn.
The concert was a fabulous close to a weekend allowing time to enjoy great music in an intimate venue.
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