HALL OF FAME

Three days ago I bought a cheap used copy of this DVD which turned out to be a fairly good addition to my music DVD collection. (I probably wouldn't have paid a full prize for it, so it was a lucky find in that sense too.) The concert was held in the 1st of May, 2000. The Moody Blues line-up of Justin Hayward, John Lodge, Ray Thomas and Graeme Edge is accompanied by two keyboardists, another drummer/percussionist, two female backing vocalists and The World Festival Orchestra conducted by Larry Baird.

I've always thought that the Royal Albert Hall is a beautiful venue, and visually this concert is indeed pleasant: the lights and the camera work are well done. Unlike another reviewer here, I didn't notice any tiredness of the band, nor was I feeling frustrated for their visible signs of ageing. And when the show started with the orchestral 'Overture' (featuring themes from Days of Future Passed) followed by 'Tuesday Afternoon', I was immediately fascinated by it. With these highly promising starting points, it comes down to the set list itself, how much will I enjoy the DVD as a whole. There are quite a lot of the later stuff (as opposed to the classic era of '67 - '72) that I'm not so fond of. The album Strange Times (1999) had been released a short while ago; threes tracks are featured here. 'English Sunset' is pretty good, while 'Words You Say' is a deeply emotional love ballad from John Lodge, but it functions well enough in this setting. The boring mid-tempo love song 'Haunted' is definitely the weakest link in this set. I also could have been without the 80's hits 'I Know You're Out There Somewhere' and 'Your Wildest Dreams'. But this amount of the soft-pop oriented late era is quite acceptable. Could have been worse.

The rest of the 81-minute set is not very far from being as good as it gets from the Moodies in this Millennium. Well, of course there would be dozens of fantastic classic era songs I'd love to hear on a Moody blues concert, but sadly they're not much heard on any of their DVD's. Fast songs 'Story in Your Eyes', 'I'm Just a Singer (in a Rock and Roll Band)' and the encore number 'Ride My See-Saw' nicely add some energy. And since Ray Thomas (R.I.P.) was still in the band at this point, his classic 'Legend of a Mind' belongs to the set as much as 'Nights in White Satin' (which sounds gorgeous with the orchestral backing). The concert also features a lot of flute playing from Thomas. 'Isn't Life Strange' and 'Question' are other fine pieces from the classic era.

Admittedly the set list has its ups and downs, but I count this DVD among their better ones, thanks for the orchestral arrangements and the visual quality. (I recently purchased also Days of Future Passed Live 2017, which I haven't watched yet.)