HALL OF FAME - LIVE AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL 2000

Excellent! Justin Hayward does this really cool guitar riff in "Singer in A Rock and Roll Band" that I haven't heard before. The sound quality is excellent and the version of "English Sunset" is flawless.

Probably the best MOODY BLUES Blues output since 1972. There are no new songs but the result is miles above the average and give a glimpse of the gigs provided by the band. The score is a compilation of hits from the 60s till the 90s mixed in a way to form an homogeneous work.

THE MOODY BLUES, with hundreds of miles on the road, know wisely how to captivate the audience even when it is compounded mostly by old fans (which is the case here); the same happens for someone who is watching the DVD. The beginning is partially cold but the temperature is getting higher and higher (in fact 'Higher and higher' and 'The voice' are songs missing in the score) until reaching metal melting point at the encore with 'Ride my see-saw'.

The best points at least for a prog-fan are the well-known songs from the real prog (or proto-prog) phase of MB: 'Tuesday afternoon', 'Nights in white satin', 'Legend of a mind' and 'Question', where they got the most beautiful moment of the show, a perfect interaction with the audience. Even songs of their pop-rock phase like 'Your wildest dreams' and 'I know you're out there somewhere' work pleasantly.

An excellent work though not a masterpiece; deservedly a 4-star production.

I first heard this album some years back on a PBS showing of the DVD and thought it was a good concert. Almost a decade later, I just acquired a copy of the CD and was pleasantly surprised to find that my first impression of the 2000 concert at the Royal Albert Hall was correct; this is one of the best live recordings by the Moody Blues. The song selections, from 1967's Days Of Future Passed through to 1999's Strange Times, are well chosen and well sequenced. The performance by the band is very good, and the contribution by the World Festival Orchestra is better recorded and arranged than many orchestral backings of rock bands. This album offers excellent renditions of some of my favourite Moody Blues songs, like Justin Hayward's The Story in Your Eyes and Ray Thomas' classic Legend of a Mind. This was Thomas' last tour with the band before his retirement, and he went out in good form, though he wasn't featured much. No offense to Hayward and John Lodge, but some of us miss the variety and storytelling provided by the other Moodies songwriters. (The record company, always after radio-friendly pop hits, actually pushed Thomas aside in the later 1980s. I saw the Moodies live in the mid 80s and Thomas was really messed up, then again in the early 90s and he was in good form and did a nice duet on flute with the keyboard player.) A Night At Red Rocks is a highly touted live album, but Hall Of Fame is a better performance and recording.

This was a relatively short concert featuring Ray Thomas in one of his last performances and the concert is for the most part pedestrian and predictable. The large World Festival Orchestra does most of the work while the band go through the motions to the adoring middle-aged fans, some who are swinging in the aisles. However, everybody appears to be having a good time responding to the band's numerous hits like Nights In White Satin, Story In Her Eyes and English Sunset. The concert does come alive during the two John Lodge songs, Isn't Life Strange and I'm Just A Singer (in a rock and roll band) when Justin Hayward opens up on his strat electric guitar and you can detect an affinity between he and John as they swerve their guitars to the music. The encore is one of their best songs, Question, which really deserved better treatment than what they gave.