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Justin Hayward, lead singer of the Moody Blues and legend in his own right, could quite easily have sold out the magnificent New Brighton Floral Pavilion twice over judging by the queue for hand back tickets prior to the show and, on this evidence, it isn’t difficult to understand why.
The intimate location, with the sun setting and a gentle breeze drifting up and along the River Mersey, give an added sense of calm to proceedings as the packed audience settle into their seats, with Hayward wandering on stage to introduce his support act, the guitarist Mike Dawes, calling the man from Bath “an extraordinary talent”. High praise indeed and quite a lot to live up to, given the man from Swindon’s own reputation, knowledge and musical prowess.
Yet if anything, Hayward is understating. Mike Dawes is nothing short of phenomenal, using his battered acoustic not only as a stringed instrument to breathtaking effect, but also as a pseudo-percussion tool to make the depths of his compositions reverberate all the more. The Boogie Shred is all fun, light hearted showmanship whereas The Impossible and Somewhere Home are simply majestic, laced with affection that comes from the heart and a rich Celtic vibe that would have many a better know musician purring.
Dawes is at Jacaranda in Liverpool on August 1st and, seriously, his is a show not to miss out on.
So it then became time for the man himself to take the stage, dressed in white shirt and black trousers and armed with his own acoustic guitar, he is accompanied on keyboards, vocals and percussion by the fabulous Julie Ragis and, once again, Mike Dawes.
What ensues, however, is nothing short of magical, with Hayward delivering with seemingly effortless ease a two hour set, packed with songs old and new, but with each having some of what occasionally resembles a personally invited guest list on their feet throughout.
Kicking off with Blue Guitar and rolling on with Tuesday Afternoon, this becomes less of a gig and more of an experience the longer it goes on, with Hayward providing anecdotes and insights in the most self-deprecating and humble of ways, it is almost as though he is apologising for being as good as he is.
Yet the audience lap up every chord, bar and syllable of his divine lyrics, with The Western Sky being particularly poignant as a recognition of his late brother’s influence and Your Wildest Dreams and What You Resist, Persists being in danger of bringing the house down entirely. Yet, naturally enough, the biggest acclaim is reserved for the true barnstormers of his back catalogue; three of which close the show.
Having told how his encounter with Jeff Wayne hung on the whim of a tea boy who liked the demo of the tune that became synonymous with Hayward’s lilting, chocolaty voice, Forever Autumn still has the power to move and he sings it as though he were doing so for the first time and not nearly 40 years on. With its higher notes being nailed completely and with Rigans adding her delicate harmonies, the whole hymn to lost love drifts along like – well – a warm but not so gentle breeze stealing its way through autumn’s golden gown of fallen leaves.
To say that a tingle tickles the spine would be undervaluing the moment, and to doff ones cap in the direction of musical supremacy is almost mandatory except that, next up, comes Nights in White Satin, the signature tune of its time that fails to age and will be played in two or three hundred years and still resound as hauntingly then as it does now.
With a thumping, whooping Question being hammered out to close the show proper, Justin Hayward and his two uber-talented colleagues leave the stage to deafening applause, reappearing briefly to lay down a sublime I Know You’re Out There Somewhere, before finally disappearing into the fittingly almost autumnal Wirral night.
What a gig, what performances and what a true privilege it is to have witnessed Justin Hayward at his most musically intimate and, also, at his very, very best.
Justin Hayward with Mike Dawes & Julie Ragins
The New Brighton Floral Pavilion
July 8, 2015
PR Rating: ***** Sensational