{"id":7000,"date":"2015-01-08T05:30:12","date_gmt":"2015-01-08T10:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=7000"},"modified":"2024-01-05T11:41:51","modified_gmt":"2024-01-05T16:41:51","slug":"go-now-and-then-the-ray-thomas-interview-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2015\/01\/08\/go-now-and-then-the-ray-thomas-interview-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"“Go Now” and Then: The Ray Thomas Interview, Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One<\/a>…<\/em><\/p>\n

Back in 1965, the original lineup of The Moody Blues<\/strong> did seem poised for bigger things: that year they played the prestigious and televised NME Poll Winners Concert, along with The Beatles<\/strong>, Rolling Stones<\/strong>, Animals<\/strong>, and Kinks<\/strong>. Those \u2013 and sessions for Thank Your Lucky Stars<\/em> and Ready Steady Go<\/em> aren’t on this set, either, but the second disc does include more than a dozen tracks cut for Saturday Club<\/em> and other BBC radio programs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/center>In the original lineup, Ray Thomas<\/strong> shared lead vocal duties with Denny Laine<\/strong>; he would continue that role \u2013 though sharing with more vocalists \u2013 in the later lineup. While his flute is a feature of some early Moodies tracks (notably \u201cI’ve Got a Dream\u201d), it became a centerpiece of the later lineup’s style. In the original lineup, Thomas’ role could have been described as \u201csinger who also plays flute,\u201d and in the later lineup, \u201cmusician who plays many instruments \u2013 flute, piccolo, oboe, French horn, harmonica, etc. \u2013 and also sings.\u201d Surprisingly, Thomas is a wholly self-taught musician. \u201cI’ve never had a music lesson in me life,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I don’t read music; it’s all done by ear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those flute parts were difficult to hear onstage in those days. \u201cAll the sound was literally coming from the stage,\u201d Thomas recalls. \u201cThat’s what finished The Beatles playing live. Paul<\/strong> [McCartney<\/strong>] said to me, ‘It’s useless. All we hear is \u201cYester-\u201d and then the rest is all screams.’\u201d Thomas relates an anecdote from the tour when the Moody Blues opened for The Beatles, the latter’s final UK tour. \u201c’Watch this,’ John<\/strong> [Lennon<\/strong>] told me. The band was introduced, went onstage and started playing. And John played a completely different song<\/em>! And nobody could hear anything!\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas continues, \u201cI was actually one of the first people to use foldback [also known as monitor speakers] onstage. I couldn’t hear myself play, and with flute you\u2019ve got to be pretty precise with your embouchure. So I asked [live sound engineer] Gene Clair<\/strong> if he could put a speaker in front of me. And he did, and it worked. And then everybody started doing it!\u201d<\/p>\n

The era of composing in the studio largely began with The Beatles. But even for The Moody Blues, a rare spare moment in the studio might be used to compose songs. \u201cI used to write songs in the broom cupboard,\u201d chuckles Thomas. \u201cThere was a glockenspiel in there. I used to take a scotch and Coke in there \u2013 and maybe a little substance, y’know \u2013 and play on this glockenspiel and write my songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/center>Some time 1967, after the string of hit singles faded, the group seemed at a dead end. \u201cClint [Warwick]’s wife didn’t want him going on the road,\u201d Thomas recalls, \u201cso he went back to the family business in Birmingham. And Denny fancied his chances at going solo.\u201d But since they were already moving (albeit subtly) in the musical direction that would flower on Days of Future Passed<\/em>, they recruited new members, and kept the band name.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve known John<\/strong> [Lodge<\/strong>] since I was fourteen,\u201d Thomas says. \u201cI was fifteen. We worked in a band together in Birmingham.\u201d Both had day jobs as apprentice toolmakers. \u201cI wanted to go professional [playing music], and my dad said to me exactly what John’s dad said to him: ‘Finish your apprenticeship, because you might not score in this musical venture. And if you don’t, you’ve always got a trade to fall back on.’ Sound advice.\u201d But since Lodge was younger than Thomas, he still had a year to go. So we got Clint in The Moody Blues instead. But from starting that band, things took off quickly. And a year later, we couldn’t very well say to Clint, ‘See ya, mate.’ Because he had put in a lot of hard work.\u201d But when Warwick left of his own accord, Lodge was in the following day. Thomas’ friend Eric Burdon<\/strong> provided a list of guitarists who had answered a blind ad searching for a guitarist\/vocalist for Burdon’s new Animals, and that led to them finding Justin Hayward<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Thomas retired from The Moody Blues and live performance in 2002. As far as the original band, Thomas says that a reunion is out of the question: \u201cClint<\/strong> [Warwick<\/strong>] died [in 2004] and Denny is over in the States. And Mike Pinder<\/strong> had decided much earlier on [the late 70s] that he didn’t want to go back on the road.\u201d The Moodies’ other founding member Graeme Edge<\/strong> remains in the current touring Moody Blues lineup with Hayward and Lodge.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/center>These days, Thomas lives in England with his wife. In October 2014, he announced via his website raythomas.me<\/a> that he is being treated for prostate cancer, adding, \u201cthe cancer is being held in remission, but I”ll be receiving this treatment for the rest of my life…I urge all males to get tested NOW.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Thomas isn’t finished with music. \u201cI have recently worked with John,\u201d he reveals. Lodge has been working on a solo album, his first since 1977. \u201cHe’d written a song for his grandson, John Henry. He came over to my pad and asked me, would I go in the studio and put flute on it. And I said, \u201cSure!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis story goes on,\u201d Thomas tells me. \u201cMike [Pinder] hadn’t spoken to John in years. But the night John got home from the session with me, his phone rang. It was Mike! ‘I hear you’ve been in the studio,’ Mike said. John said, ‘Right…?’ ‘Can I put the strings on the track?’\u201d Lodge gladly accepted the offer. Pinder went into his home studio with his son (and fellow recording musician) Michael Lee Pinder<\/strong>, and cut his Mellotron parts in a single day. So for the first time since 1978, Lodge, Pinder and Ray Thomas will be together on a newly recorded track.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One… Back in 1965, the original lineup of The Moody Blues did seem poised for bigger things: that year they played the prestigious and televised NME Poll […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,41,62,64],"tags":[1512,1794],"class_list":["post-7000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-compilation","category-interview","category-rawk","category-reissue","tag-moody-blues","tag-ray-thomas","cat-19-id","cat-41-id","cat-62-id","cat-64-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7000"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26760,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7000\/revisions\/26760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}